Here's Why You Can't Afford An R34 GTR Skyline

A Nissan Skyline R34 GTR sold 3 months ago at auction for $359,000. In 2013, you could get the same car for $50,000. So how did an already expensive niche Japanese sports car go from below MSRP to 7x MSRP in less than a decade? And all of this being illegal to even own in the United States? Let's talk about that. The history of the GTR begins in the 1960s. A small Japanese car manufacturer called Prince Motor Company made luxury cars for the Japanese market. Its most famous models, a luxury cruiser called Gloria and a high-performance model called Skyline. Prince loved car racing, so the Skyline was designed with competition in mind.

And although it wasn't the fastest car on the track, it was fast enough to make the Porsche drivers a little nervous at the Japanese Grand Prix. In 1966, Nissan, one of the dominant players in the Japanese automobile world, was struggling to keep up with the local automotive giant of the time, Toyota. And so, in an effort to gain strength and manufacturing technologies, they entered into a merger agreement with Prince Motor Company and began selling Prince cars at their own Nissan Prince dealerships. It was a difficult transition at first, but over time things began to smooth out. Market share began to grow, and to maintain a singular brand identity, Nissan began slowly phasing out the Prince name in favor of Nissan alone.

In 1969, Nissan decided to take the Prince Skyline and make an improved version that would offer consumers a taste of the Skylines' racing history. What they created was the PGC10 Nissan Skyline Gran Turismo Racing, or GTR. This was a 4-door Skyline with a 2.0-liter double overhead cam 6-cylinder engine that produced 160 hp. 

 Advertised alongside the Nissan R380 race car, this Skyline meant business, and the Japanese public was impressed by the motorsport-derived drivetrain and chassis. But a 4-door sedan? Uh-uh, this kind of performance had to be on something with 2 doors. Then, in 1971, Nissan introduced the world to the KPGC10 Skyline GTR Coupe.

A meaner, smaller version of the same bold, angular GTR that preceded it. This generation of the Skyline became known for its uniquely boxy styling and, as a result, received the nickname Hakosuka. Hako in Japanese means Box and Suka is an abbreviation of Sukairain, the Japanese pronunciation of Skyline. With the success of the Hakosuka, Nissan was ready to bring the GTR into the '70s, so in 1973 they launched the KPGC110 Skyline GTR. This Skyline was an evolution of the previous GTR, with more modern styling and larger disc brakes, but otherwise powered by the same transmission. It became known as Kenmeri thanks to a Japanese advertising campaign that showed a cute Western couple named Ken and Mary traveling through the Hokkaido countryside in their baby blue Skyline.

The Skyline was slowly becoming a real part of pop culture, and the growing GTR name was a clear indicator to the world that Nissan's motorsports division was prosperous and hungry. And then, after less than a year on the market, Nissan killed it. Well, I say Nissan, but it wasn't them, it was the oil crisis. The oil crisis of the 1970s was a severe blow to high-performance automobiles around the planet, and Nissan was not spared. After making only 197 KPGC110 Skyline GTRs, Nissan ended production and retired the GTR name. Nissan continued to make the Skyline as a more

afford

able mid-size sedan and coupe with the C210 Skyline.

And after that, during the 1980s, Nissan made the R30 Skyline and then the R31 Skyline, which got some upgraded versions with the RS and GTS-R versions respectively. These cars also did well on the track, and touring car racing quickly became Nissan's preferred motorsport in the '80s. But the magic just wasn't t

here

, and Nissan always felt like they were lacking. that special motorsports heritage in their lineup that was so quickly taken from them in 1973. So in 1989, Nissan brought back the GTR. The Skyline GTR EBNR32, or R32 for short, debuted in 1989 and was designed by chief engineer Naganori Ito specifically to dominate Group A racing.

Its goal? The Porsche 959. To achieve this feat they needed some serious racing-derived engineering, so this Skyline came equipped with the now famous RB26-DETT. A 2.6L Twin Turbo Inline 6 engine generating “276 hp” that sent power not only to the rear wheels, but also to the front, through a high-tech all-wheel drive system called ATTESA E-TS. It also had 4-wheel steering via Nissan's Super HICAS system, which worked in conjunction with ATTESA to give the GTR grip in almost any situation. Nissan also homologated specific Group A settings on a special road-going R32 GTR called the Nismo. Nismo was an abbreviation for Nissan Motorsports, and this 500-unit special edition of the Skyline was definitely all about motorsports.

It was about 70 pounds lighter thanks to an ABS deletion and had improved turbos, aerodynamics, and tires. All to make it more competitive in Group A. Every piece of technology in this car was developed on the circuit and demonstrated. The R32 dominated Japanese touring car racing like no other car before, winning each of the 29 debut races it entered and winning the Japan Touring Car Championship in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993. It was a monster in the race track that earned him the title of another famous fire-breathing monster of Japan. Godzilla. However, I should mention that despite the international recognition the GTR was getting, Godzilla was exclusive to Japan.

Nissan felt it didn't need to expand niche Skyline models into its global lineup, so people in the West couldn't do anything but read about the GTR in magazines and watch it dominate touring car racing. In 1991 Nissan launched the Skyline GTR N1, which was another homologation special, this time for Group N racing in Japan. The N1 had an improved engine, radio and air conditioning, and even had thinner paint to keep weight as low as possible. You may be noticing a trend

here

. Nissan had no qualms about making special, limited editions of the GTR, with the N1 models accounting for only a few hundred of the total production.

And this limited edition trend is important in explaining why current prices are so incredibly high. But we'll talk about that later. In 1993, Nissan brought us a special GTR again. This was called Victory Spec, or V-Spec for short, and was created to celebrate Nissan's absolute dominance in both Group A and Group N racing. The V-Spec retuned the ATTESA all-wheel drive system and added Brembo brakes bigger. Nissan made 1,400 of them. And then in 1994, yes, you guessed it, Nissan brought us another one, the V-Spec II. This one actually just had wider tires compared to the V-Spec, oh and of course a new V-Spec II badge.

And they made only 1,300 of these. So, in the span of five years, Nissan built a base GTR, a Nismo, an N1, a V-Spec, and a V-Spec II. 5 different versions of the GTR, which was already a submodel of the Skyline. Interestingly, Nissan was already selling the next-generation Skyline base model, the R33, when the V-Spec II R32 was launched. But the GTR was so sought after that they continued to sell the R32 version until 1994. However, in 1995, Nissan brought the GTR fully into the '90s, with the E-BCNR33 Skyline GTR. This had basically the same drivetrain as the previous R32, but the body had grown in every way, including a 200-pound increase in curb weight.

Instead of a standard GTR and Nismo GTR, like the R32, at launch the R33 could be purchased as a standard GTR or as a V-Spec. The V-spec had a different suspension and an upgraded ATESSA ETS Pro AWD system, which featured an active LSD, something very rare at the time. It was a little heavier than the standard model, but certainly didn't show it, being 2 seconds faster around the Nurburgring than the standard R33 GTR. And 23 seconds faster than the R32 GTR. Nissan also joined the GT1 class racing, so with a new racing series came a new homologation requirement.

So for that year, Nissan made one, just an R33 GTR LM tram. This car is on display at Nissan headquarters, so it can hardly be considered a road car, but the following year, in 1996, Nissan decided to build the GTR LM Limited, an edition of 188 cars that celebrated Nissan's entry into the 24 hours. from Le Mans. Another special edition, but this one was primarily an aesthetic upgrade to the standard R33. It's not a legitimate motorsports monster like the N1s and V-Specs of yesteryear. Then, the following year, Nissan created the NISMO 400R. It had a bored and stroked 2.8L RB26, called the RBX-GT2, with fully built internals and larger turbos making 400 horsepower.

This was, by definition, a motorsport monster. It had a widebody kit, carbon hood and wing, and forged Nismo wheels. It was Nissan's most extreme production R33, and although they intended to build 100 of them, by the end of R33 production in 1998, they had only created 44 examples. So another generation of Skyline culminated in a limited series of crazy low-volume special editions. You can see why all these years later, there are R33 Skylines commanding eye-watering prices, thanks to their sporting DNA and extreme rarity. But, as the title suggests, the Skyline GTR, which would later become absolutely unattainable, hadn't even been manufactured yet.

In 1998, while Nissan was bringing us the crazy R33 NISMO 400R, they had already started selling the next-generation base model, the R34 Skyline. It debuted with the RB20 and RB25 NEO, a revised version of the RB that was designed to save fuel and be better for the planet. But let's be honest, no one cared about the version that had better MPG. And so, in 1999, Nissan launched the fire-breathing 327hp R34 GTR. Of course, it still had the ATESSA ETS all-wheel drive system, but this time with a 6-speed manual transmission from Getrag. The chassis was also significantly improved, and the size of the R34 was reduced from the R33, despite weighing slightly more.

And at launch, like the previous R33, you could opt for the V-Spec model. Which came with the previous ATTESA ETS Pro and the active LSD, along with a new aerodynamic package that includes a carbon fiber rear diffuser. There was also a V-Spec N1, which was another homologation special with radio and air conditioning deletes, of which Nissan made only 38. All of these improvements to the R34 GTR could be seen in operation at the JGTC, the Japanese Grand Touring Car Championship , where the famous Pennzoil Yellow R34 GTR won the 1999 championship and subsequently became an icon of Gran Turismo video games.

In 2000, Nissan replaced the V-Spec with the V-Spec II and gained a stiffer suspension, larger rear brakes, and a carbon fiber hood. And in 2001, Nissan launched an all-new special edition. The M-Spec. The M-Spec, or Mizuno Spec, named after Kazutoshi Mizuno, the chief engineer, was a slightly milder version of the V-Spec GTR. It had electronic shock absorbers, an all-leather interior, and even heated seats. In 2002, the final year of the R34, Nissan created the pinnacle of the GTR name. The V-Spec-II Nur and the M-Spec Nur. These Nur versions, named after the famous Nurburgring Nordschleife, had an upgraded engine and larger turbos, along with various gold accents around the car.

They were created to celebrate the Skyline's Nurburgring records, with the R34 being the fastest Skyline ever around the Green Hell and the fastest production car at the time. Only 1,003 Nurs were manufactured. And so it was, 3 years and numerous special editions later, the R34 GTR was at the end of the line. Despite the apparent success of the GTR name, Nissan's restructuring following the merger with Renault meant that cars like the Skyline needed to be re-evaluated. Newly appointed CEO Carlos Ghosn was tasked with making Nissan profitable, and one of the most important steps in that plan was making Nissan more global.

The R34 Skyline was then replaced by the V35 Skyline, a facelifted version of Nissan's FM 350Z platform, and exported to global markets as the Infiniti G35. The GTR brand created for motorsports was retired and the famous Godzilla was now officially dead. But the NISMO team still had some strength left. And with the last gasp of the R34, they produced the ultimate road-going R34 GTR. The Z-Tune. The Z-Tune concept was initially shown in 2002, but it wasn't until 2003, a year after the R34 was discontinued, that NISMO received approval to manufacture the Z-Tune. But there was a problem, Nissan was no longer making an R34 GTR, so how was NISMO supposed to make a special edition version of it?

Well, they decided to do what any of us would do if we needed a GTR: buy one used. NISMO bought 18 used GTR V-Specs, all with less than 29,000 km, and then completely dismantled them to rebuild themright from the start. They gave it a special 2.8 liter RB called the RB26 Z2, based on the RB26 Z1 Le Mans race car, which produced 500 hp. The chassis was welded and reinforced with carbon fiber. It was then sprayed with a special Z-Tune Silver and assembled by hand. However, one customer managed to convince NISMO to leave his car in the original Midnight Purple III, one of the GTR's iconic special colors, making it a 1 of 1 over the original version.

Needless to say, these cars were truly special, even among a whole line of Skylines that already were. A fitting farewell to the GTR name that has spent the last 24 years striking fear into the hearts of racing teams both east and west. By that time, in the mid-2000s, the Skyline GTR had already become a legend across the planet. It was the Japanese supercar that the world couldn't have. Very rarely was a GTR exported to the west, the most notable being a small run of 80 units of the R34 V-Spec to the UK, along with a handful to a few other countries.

We Americans, especially, would look in awe at the Japanese tuning shops and racing teams that were creating these world-dominating Skyline builds. And then in 2003, Universal Studios decided to put an R34 GTR in the hands of Paul Walker, in 2 Fast 2 Furious, and give the Skyline even more reverence in the Western tuning scene. The most frustrating part? There was just no way we could get our hands on them. The United States has a strict ban on importing cars for 25 years, with very few loopholes. And the few loopholes that existed were rendered useless, thanks to things like the MotorEx scandal, which put the Skyline squarely in the DOT's crosshairs, thanks to Hiro Nanahoshi and his merry band of miscreants.

The only real legal way to get a Skyline in the United States was to wait until it was 25 years old and import one from abroad. Fast forward to 2007, and Nissan showed the world the Nissan GTR concept. Now separated from the Skyline name, the GTR was a revival of the iconic Skyline GTR, but technically not a Skyline at all. The Skyline name still belonged to the V35 and the FM platform, so the new GTR was just a GTR. And while the GTR's new PM platform is technically based on the V35's FM platform, it's still not a Skyline according to Nissan.

All of this meant that the Nissan Skyline R34 GTR was truly the last of its kind. And that was especially true when considering their prices. The R34 GTR was not a cheap car when new, costing around $70k today for a base model and over $80k for an M-Spec Nur. R34 depreciation was pretty standard, so in 2009, when the current generation GTR came out, the average R34 GTR base models were selling for around 3 to 5 million yen at auction, or around 40 to 50 thousand dollars at that time. The most expensive sales were between 6 and 8 million yen, or between 80 and 100,000 US dollars, for the V-Spec II Nurs and M-Spec Nurs.

And for the next 5 or 6 years, that's where they stayed. But at the end of 2015, things started to get a little out of control. First, a V-Spec II Nur sold for 9 million yen, then an M-Spec Nur for 11 million. Now, with the fluctuating exchange rate of the yen to the US dollar, that was still only around 100,000 US dollars, so it's not too far-fetched. Especially for only 2 cars. But in 2016, it wasn't just 2 cars, Nur's were easily selling for over 8 million yen. And in the summer of 2016, a V-Spec II Nur kept bidding, bidding, bidding, until it reached the eye-popping price of 16 million yen.

That was 160,000 US dollars. At this point, the Skyline market was officially underway, with each version of the R34 GTR seeing a price increase of at least 30% to 50% over the course of a year, with the limited edition Skylines on the way. head. And considering how many special Skylines there were, in such limited quantities, one might wonder if it was Nissan's intention all along to create buzz through the GTR's rarity. In 2017, another V-Spec II Nur broke the record again with 22 million yen, or just under 200,000 US dollars. And the average price on the horizon rose to around 6-7 million yen, almost double that of 2010.

In 2018, most limited edition models sold above 10 million yen, with one exception remarkable. A white V-Spec II Nur with 10 miles, yes TEN miles, sold at auction for 35.2 million yen. That was around 317 thousand US dollars. And as much as people said it was a strange incident, a one-off auction, it certainly added fuel to the fire. - And at the end of 2019, most Nur-spec GTRs were overall selling close to 20 million. At this point, the speculation about the price increase was twofold. First, the 1990s Japanese sports car market as a whole was on the rise. As you may have seen in my Toyota Supra price analysis video, the late 2010s saw a massive wave in which the collectability of 90s Japanese nostalgia increased at an exponential rate.

Two, however, were exclusive to the Skyline. Due to their illegality in the US, American car collectors sought GTRs but had no way to actually own them. But with the 25-year mark approaching, many importers began purchasing and stockpiling GTR from the Japanese market in preparation for the lifting of import restrictions in 2024. And because of that, the price of the average GTR rose month-on-month to as more and more cars hidden in Japan began to appear for sale and to be bought and stored by importers and collectors. By the time 2020 rolled around, most GTRs were selling on average for $70k.

And if you thought it was expensive, well, 2020 was possibly the GTR's best year yet, with prices rising another 50%! More than 11 million yen is what the average GTR costs, that is, 106 thousand dollars. In 2015, that was M-Spec Nur money, but now if you wanted one of those, it was going to cost you a lot more. In September 2020, an M-Spec Nur with 23,000 miles sold for just over 30 million yen, or $275,000. In October, another M-Spec Nur, this time with 6,800 miles, sold for 33.2 million yen, or just over $300,000. Almost matching that crazy 10-mile V-Spec II Nur from 2018. And then just two months later in December, an M-Spec Nür with 627 miles broke all existing records for the R34 Skyline, when it sold for 37,000. 000 yen.

That's $359,000 dollars. Thus, in just 10 years, the price of the M-Spec Nur went from 5 million yen to 37 million yen. Representing an increase of 740%. And you know what the craziest part is? It's not even the rarest R34. The Z-Tune GTRs, the 18 hand-built examples of Nissan's latest swan song for the Skyline, are still out there, waiting for the day when they can undoubtedly break all the records that preceded them. So now, in 2021, with the 25-year mark approaching in the US, there's no doubt that the Skyline GTR will continue to show its dominance as the king of collectible JDM cars.

And as prices rise, the dream of owning one for a normal car enthusiast like me fades further and further into the distance. Thank you all for watching. Please like if you liked the video and subscribe if you are interested in more videos like these! We have these amazing Supra t-shirts available in our store in the description. I'll see you next time.