Nissan GTR R34

Car type	Coupe
Curb weight	1560 Kg (3439 lbs)
Introduced	1999
Origin country	Japan

Performance

0 - 100 kmph	5.2 s
Estimate 0 - 60 mph	4.9 s
0 - 100 mph	12.8 s
Estimated 1/8 mile	9.3 s @ 87.6 mph
1/4 mile	12.3 s
Top speed	250 kmph (155 mph)

Powertrain specs

Engine type	Inline 6, Twin Turbo, 24v
Displacement	2.6 l (159 ci)
Power	280 PS (276 bhp / 206 KW)
Torque	400 N-m (295 lb-ft)
Power / liter	108 ps (106 HP)
Power / weight	180 ps (177 bhp)/ t
Torque / weight	256 N-m (189 lb-ft)/ t
Transmission	6 speed
Layout	Front engine, All wheel drive

Why the Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R Is Still the Best?

The Nissan GT-R is one of Nissan's most powerful and iconic car. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence for the excellence of the Nissan Skyline GT-R. Powered by a twin-turbocharged inline-six motor and equipped with a sophisticated all-wheel drive system, this car was a dream come true for many enthusiasts. The first Skylines came about in 1969; however, it wasn't until the introduction of the R32 two decades later that they started to gain real attention. 

Although these cars never officially made their way stateside, Skylines have now begun to pour in from overseas. The NHTSA’s 25-year import ban on non-US-legal cars expired in 2014 for 1989 model year vehicles, and that means the R32 is now fair game to bring to the states. As for how some people manage to bring over the newer R33 or even the highly sought-after R34, there are legal loopholes like registering it as a show or display car (though this severely limits the number of miles one can drive in a given year). Another, riskier way is registering it as a different car altogether—say a Nissan S-car. The latter is not a good idea, as getting caught will likely lead to your precious Skyline getting crushed.

The Nissan GTR R34 comes from a time when LED DRLs weren't a thing; when GPS navigation was just being introduced and was a rather expensive option; when stick was superior to a dual-clutch, computerized gearbox controlled by paddle shifters. The Nissan GTR R34 is on the cusp: it lacks all of those modern-day features, but still has onboard computers to make the most of your driving experience.

Overview

What is it?

The Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R (1999 - 2002). Fifth and last of the Skyline GT-Rs (the R35 dropped the ‘Skyline’ part of the name), poster-child for a generation weaned on the likes of Gran Turismo, Fast & Furious and a host of other digital dreams. An angry-looking four-seat coupe so full of Japanese technical brilliance that back in the day it could carve out a laptime that belied its apparent lack of power.

A lack addressed post-haste by a myriad of tuners who  - primed by the ’32 and ’33 - knew that the basic GT-R package was fertile soil for boost and trickery. And over the years, as with every generation of GT-R, there have been some monster meddled-with specials - 400bhp with a vague re-map, 5-600 with some relatively minor internals, 800 -1000 bhp if you go the whole hog and start forging things and walloping about with monster single blowers.

The basic car is still an impressive bit of kit, mind. The legendary 2.6-litre RB26DETT straight six twin-turbo motor (2.8 in some variants) apparently put out a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ 276 bhp from the factory - though they rarely did in reality. Most were tested in the 330 bhp range, though no one ever admitted anything officially, so maybe the horses were simply breeding on the ship from Japan.

Plenty of interesting acronyms, including Super-HICAS four wheel steer, ATTESA E-TS (Advanced Total Traction Engineering System for All-Terrain) four-wheel drive and a limited-slip diff at either end, the rearmost being active on the V-Spec cars. It’s a six-speed manual, now relatively small compared to modern gear, full of attitude.

It’s also a car that carries with it a weight of expectation, mostly borne of rave reviews from the contemporary motoring press, a technological marvel that could beat up supercars for a third of the price back in the late ‘90s/early 2000s.

It also was one of the first cars to really embrace the ‘special edition’ model of marketing embraced by many supercar manufacturers since, birthing a host of Nismo (Nissan Motorsport) versions, V (Victory) and M-Spec (Mizuno, the chief engineer), Z-Tune, Nür (Nürburgring) and others, including a host of market-specific cars. It’s also got a long and proud history in motorsport from Touring Cars to Pikes Peak, drag to drift. It’s a bit of a hero.

Driving

What is it like on the road?

The car we tested for this revisit is a low-mileage (38k) V-Spec R34 GT-R, and it is completely standard. Which is the equivalent of saying that we’ve saddled an actual unicorn and are using it for commuting.

V-for-Victory means we get the UK specific set-up: three extra oil coolers (for sustained high-speed running), revised map, a swathe of slippery leather, even stiffer suspension than standard, an active rear diff (the front is still dumb), a couple of extra screens for the display that show intake/exhaust temps and a proliferation of diffusers.

There’s an old-school touch-to-disarm immobiliser, and an actual key. No keyless go or starter buttons. And it fires immediately and quietly, settling into a slick, smooth burble - a mile away from the cannon-shot procedurals of most GT-Rs with the almost-inevitable straight pipes.

The gearbox is sweet and short, the clutch easy (if a bit worn), the steering wheel perfectly placed, just the right size and thickness. That might sound silly, but it matters. Within a mile or so, I’m in love again. The funny thing about driving an R34 is just how immediate it feels, how connected, and… grainy.

The controls are well-weighted, the car doesn’t feel very heavy (though it’s not exactly featherweight at 1,560kg), the boost smooth and consistent. In fact, it’s a doddle to drive. I remember thinking back in 2000-ish that the R34 was absolutely spine-cracking, but it seems to have mellowed immeasurably. That’s not down to this particular car either, just in context of what we’ve come to expect from ride quality.

Push a little bit, and the engine responds with more urgency, boosting through standard twin ceramic turbos without a huge step. In fact, it’s got more to do with a naturally-aspirated motor than the turbo tag would have you believe, and it revs cleanly right through to the redline. The gearshifts are snappy and precise, and it tracks straight and true even on bumpy backlanes - no torque steer, no feeling of disconnection.

The only really startling thing? It isn’t actually that fast anymore. It’s rapid, no question, but when hatchbacks run to 350 bhp and AWD, an R34 GT-R almost feels civilised. There’s also a remarkable natural feeling to it - you can feel the HICAS rear-wheel steer at higher speeds, but it’s not crazy - and you never really get the impression of the AWD going bonkers. Until it rains and you realise that there’s a lot of rear-bias, and if you stay on throttle, the GT-R will pull its nose straight.

It’s a car that makes you realise just how much we’ve lost in nearly 20 years - steering feel, notions of what the tyres are actually doing through your bottom, mechanical awareness. This is a proper driver’s car, even if it does have quite a lot going on underneath - nimble, happy, exciting. And yes, you tend to get a lot of positive attention, and not in the same way that a supercar might. It’s ace.

On the inside

Layout, finish and space

Back in the day, the multi-function display in the middle of the R34’s dash - showing all sorts of things like turbo and oil temperatures, G-meter, laptimes and the like - was the stuff of tiny marvels. Nowadays, it looks like a cheap computer game, but it’s no less charming for that.

The rest of the interior tries hard to be leathery, but still feels like there’s hard plastic under that fragrant slick of added skin, and there’s the comedic throwback of a face-off radio with more LEDs than a crap disco. But to be honest, no one ever bought a GT-R for the interior - it’s more functional than pretty, more useful than designer.

Saying that, there’s plenty of space up front, less so in the back, vision is good (even though the rear view is bisected by spoiler) and the boot is pretty big. The seats also look uncomfortable, but genuinely aren’t, and in this standard format it’s a capable and easy cruiser if you want it to be.

Just don’t opt for one of the ‘N1’ variants that came without the rear wiper, air con or radio - they were homologation specials prepped for racing, though a few did leak out into the real world. You may want the interior to feel a bit more special, but the general opinion seems to be that you buy a GT-R for the bits you can’t see, rather than a handcrafted Nappa-leather dash top.

Owning

Running costs and reliability

Prices of R34s are on the rise, much like every generation of GT-R. The legendary status of the brand as a whole is buoyed by the rolling generational acceptance for import to the USA - meaning that as soon as they hit 25-years old, they can be sold to keen US buyers. This is a good thing for GT-R owners, less so for anyone wanting to buy one.

In general terms though, it won’t do very many mpg (we averaged about 23 not pushing all the time), but otherwise it’s a doddle to daily. The real minefield is the obvious issue of badly thought out modifications. There are some stunning examples out there (with a pricetag attached), but simply running lots of boost or dropping a large mm single turbo onto the RB26 isn’t enough. The key is research, research, research. And watch out for rust and crash damage - the GT-R might forgive a lot of bad driving, but it can’t change physics and the popularity of the cars means that some will try to ‘save’ accidents that should have been broken for badges and bits.

Verdict

Final thoughts and pick of the range

They say you should never meet your heroes, or revisit past glories. But in the case of the Nissan GTR R34, there’s no problem with either. Strange how the car feels very different now to how it did 20 years ago - put into stark context by modern fast cars.

It’s visceral, fun, engaging on a level a Golf R can only dream about, even though the VW has more power, more traction, more torque, more of everything you think you want - apart from character. Prices are rising, and justifiably so.

Finding a standard example is hard, and the temptation to modify when they accept fettling with such grace is difficult in the extreme, but as far as a classic of its era, the GT-R stands tall even in 2019. One of the best cars we’ve driven in a long time, even at nearly a couple of decades distance.