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Imported R32 GTR, Initial Review and Build

9K views 40 replies 9 participants last post by  Turbology 
#1 ·
Hello Luxury4Play!

Im a long time BMW owner and contributor over at bimmerpost, some of you may recognize my Santorini E92 M3, It got a few likes on instagram over the past couple years.

Anyway, I'm waiting for my '16 F80 M3 to be built and in the mean time I decided to indulge in a long time fantasy of mine which was to own a RHD JDM vehicle, I've always admired the Skyline GTR in all its forms so when I started seeing R32s come available through various importers I knew it was only a matter of time before I snagged one.

After speaking with several importers, I found a that there was a wide variety of interpretations of cars that were in 'Good' condition. I started familiarizing myself with the auction rating system and was looking for my 3.5-4 rated example without too many modifications. Everyone claimed they 'have a guy' in Japan but it seemed that 'guy' was just throwing up the card for them at the auction any time a skyline came on the block. The 'guy' snaps 5 pictures and puts the car in a container and it seemed every single one sold before it hit the port... To me, that business model was just too risky, I needed to have eyes on a car before I purchased it. I then came across Phase9Motorsports, they are Anaheim based but have an office in Japan where they hand select their vehicles from private sellers, not the autction-block like other importers. The result is pristine, well cared for examples, I believe they have a bone stock Gunmetal grey with only 30K miles and a genuine Nismo GTR currently available. I spoke with Franz and he quickly answered my myriad of nit-picky questions and quickly agreed to meet up with my friend to allow the car to be inspected. My friend said it was in excellent shape and had very well thought-out and high-end modifications. I'll be having it shipped to my house in Las Vegas this week. All-in-all my experience has been excellent dealing with Phase9 and I would recommend him to anyone who is considering purchasing a JDM classic!

So on to the car!

- Gunmetal Grey
- 40,322 Miles
- Gram Light Wheels w/new Bridgestone tires
- Tein Coilovers (not installed in pics)
- 60mm Garret Turbos
- Mines Turbo-back exhaust
- HKS Intakes
- Nismo Twin Plate Clutch
- Nismo front/rear Tower bars
- Nismo R_Brake pads
- Nismo Steel brake lines
- Greddy Turbo Gauge.











The plans:
- New head unit w/USB & BT
- Install Tein suspension
- Paint wheels pale gold
- Hide Greddy boost gauge wires
- Replace all window gasketing
- Remove and polish Mines Exhaust
- Boost controller
- Tune
- New steering wheel
- replace shift boots and knob
- Paint correction and polish

Stay tuned for updates!
Cheers,
-Curt
 
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#4 · (Edited)
Nice work! As Aussies we've had access to these forever, but many of us still choose to import as the quality of car is much better. My brother owns a pretty clean black 1994 model R32 GTR, and I just purchased a 2000 model R34 GTR V-Spec (auction grade 4.5/5). Awaiting delivery on that one now...

They are amazing cars. You're going to have a heap of fun :p
 
#9 ·
A lot of us in the U.S. cannot wait to get our hands on the R34! The R32 is just a consolation prize until 2023...
By the way, if you ever want to chat about the car feel free to PM me :)
Will-do thanks!
AWESOME!!! its going to be cool seeing these around !
:clap::clap:
Both are very clean.

Are you keeping the E92 when you pick up your F80?
E92 is already sold, will probably start passively trying to sell the GTR once the F80 arrives.
Awesome car.
Thanks!
 
#10 ·
Haha the crappy thing for America is that only ~12,000 R34's were made as opposed to 40,000+ of the R32. The pool of good examples is shrinking quickly, so I don't envy your task when 2023 comes around :lol: If you want, I'll try to keep my car until 2025 and when you're ready you can take it haha. Does Bayside Blue tickle your fancy? :whistle:

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Bumper Grille


In for more pics of the 32, especially the mods. Keep us posted :bow1:
 
#11 ·
Haha the crappy thing for America is that only ~12,000 R34's were made as opposed to 40,000+ of the R32. The pool of good examples is shrinking quickly, so I don't envy your task when 2023 comes around :lol: If you want, I'll try to keep my car until 2025 and when you're ready you can take it haha. Does Bayside Blue tickle your fancy? :whistle:

View attachment 160170

In for more pics of the 32, especially the mods. Keep us posted :bow1:
Beautiful R34, exactly how I would have mine. Part of me wants to purchase a nice R34 now and place it in storage until I can bring it over...
 
#12 ·
Not a bad idea if you could get free storage in all honesty. Even if you wanted to sell it when the time came you'd make a pretty penny. The market for these cars in Australia is mental at the moment. They bottomed a couple of years ago at around $50k, now you're hard pressed getting a good example for under $65-70k. This is very similar for the R32, clean examples with genuine mileage and no accident history easily fetch $30k

I can recommend a couple of very good importers, even though they're australian based they've worked with customers world wide. These guys actually do have teams in Japan that conduct full, thorough and proper inspections. That's the way it has to be over here because competition is plentiful.
 
#15 ·
Got her detailed today, the exterior is damn near flawless and the interior looks just as nice, very pleased!




List of things to do:
Redline Synthetic Oil Change
Transmission fluid flush and replaced with Redline fluid
NGK Spark Plugs
Oil and fuel filters
Differential and transfer case fluids
New eBrake and shift boots
New external window gaskets
Polish lip and restore paint on wheels
Remove CD changer headunit and replace with Pioneer Bluetooth/USB unit
Tune
 
#16 ·
I would love to drive one of these, just once. Saw one cruising down the main road here in Omaha on Saturday morning almost identical to yours.
 
#18 ·
Damn man, enjoy it in good health! I was talking to an importer about getting the R32, but California f***** us over. We can't have them here for several more years.

I'm seriously thinking about finding a well-sorted Bayside R34 and having it stored, because I'm sure that may people will snatch them up when they become legal in the distant future. I've always lusted after a Skyline.
 
#19 ·
I've always lusted after a Skyline.
Me too. I don't know if it's because it's like that chick you always wanted, but could never have, or if it's just because they're badass cars. Probably a little of both.

So far in Omaha I've seen two R32 GT-R coupes and one R32 sedan, I believe it was a GT-S. I want one so badly.
 
#21 ·
It's the desirability factor combined with the overall rarity. You can buy any normal supercar from the lot and enjoy it if you've got enough money, but the playing field is generally equal for everyone when it comes to cars like the Skyline. It's more of the government restricting it rather than your wallet. Plus everyone wants to be fast and furious, that's always a plus lol

Unless you're like Bill Gates (and you really want a certain Porsche,) you've got to wait it out.
 
#23 ·
Update:
The car is officially registered! Not without some consternation though! Even-though I had the CBP, EPA, NTSB, and MCO which are all the documents required by NV law to title a grey market vehicle, the supervisor at my local DMV shop decided to be a grade-A 'C-U-Next-Tuesday' and told me that she would need to see the entire ownership history of the vehicle in notarized bills of sale in order to allow the vehicle to be registered. Asinine, I know, luckily after countless hours on the phone with the state registration legislators I was able to have them call the branch manager at another DMV and talk them into signing the title paperwork. So long story short, even if you have all the legal documentation, you are still at the mercy of willfully ignorant government employees who will work harder to get out of doing work than putting in the lesser effort to be helpful and reasonable.

Regardless, I have my plates and temp title now, meaning this car will be infinitely easier to sell/register in the future.

I took her into a local drift/JDM shop and had all the work listed in the previous posts performed. Come to find out the car is in near perfect shape and the shop informed me that I did indeed have a HKS GT-SS turbo kit with heat wrapped downpipes. Great little bonus!

I drove her home in the 105 degree Las Vegas heat and to my surprise the A/C was able to keep the interior icy cold (which is much more than I can say about my old 2005 Audi A4). On top of that the coolant and oil temps never seemed to climb above normal operating ranges which surprised the hell out of me. The engineering and quality of design in this car is unprecedented considering its age.

Finally getting to open her up and hear those turbos sing was a blissful experience as well. The partial throttle release compressor surge sounds like that of a big single 2JZ and the low RPM hissing gives way to a turbo whistle that seems unachievable with small twins only pushing 1 bar. Granted it has been a few years since I've driven a turbo car so I'm probably overly giddy.

Here are some shots of the interior and the plates that I worked so hard to get!
:dblthumb:




 
#25 ·
Parts: you have to scour the Australian and U.K. forums and ebay/classifieds. Parts are actually pretty cheap but shipping is astronomical. Otherwise you need to find a 'guy' who is importing parts in bulk from Japan and get in on the shipment. You can get OEM and aftermarket parts for next to nothing from Japan. Guys will go over, buy a whole shipping container worth of parts and ship them together via boat and pick them up at L.A. port a few weeks later. This is the cheapest way but can take months.

Repairs/Install: For the most part any good drift/JDM/Import tuner type shop should have had experience with RB26's before via 240SX swaps. Just be ready for a long down time if something that needs to be imported breaks.
 
#30 ·
From my experience they will charge a bit more for labor and will be looking at the same tech manual as the guys at the tuner shop. With the tuner shop I can meet the shop owner and talk about the car and his experience while at the dealership I don't make it past the service advisor. Plus since the tuner shop is full of cool/fast cars they are less inclined to joy-ride and will have a better working knowledge of aftermarket parts and parameters outside of the factory spec.
 
#33 ·
Nope, no JDM parts offered, at least at my local dealer
Here in Australia the general attitude is that if the car is an import, Nissan doesn't want to deal with you. They're pricks like that.
My local Nissan dealer had no idea what to do when I pulled into the service department and got out of the right hand side of the car. They were even more confused when they could only pull 11 digits for the VIN.
 
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