Deemed to be among the most influential cars of the late '90s and early 2000s, the Nissan Skyline R34 has achieved cult status. You'll have to be extremely fortunate to stumble upon an unaltered copy, as most of them have been tuned to the teeth.
It's easy to understand why when remembering that its engine was much more powerful than advertised. The 2.6-liter straight-six unit, assisted by a pair of turbochargers, was good for 276 hp (280 ps/206 kW) back in the day, sending everything to the AWD system through a stick shift.
You may be wondering why they haven't made it punchier, and the reason was to prevent road accidents. However, it put out a heck of a lot more, as certain copies were found to have at least that much power at the wheels – and that's with no outside intervention (aka tuning).
The legendary model was only sold in Japan. Hence, the right-hand drive configuration of all copies save for those that have received left-hand drive conversions. It is estimated that some 11,500 R34s were made from 1999 to 2002, and since quite a few of them were involved in serious accidents, it is unknown how many are still around.
Photo: Liberty Walk
As a result, it almost feels like Christmas morning whenever we stumble upon an example that's looking for a new home and which is worthy of our attention. And by that, we don't mean the numerous copies that were modified to resemble the Skyline driven by Paul Walker in Fast & Furious, as that one is an entirely different gem, one that sold last year for almost $1.4 million.
Pictured here is an early copy of the R34, which features aftermarket coilovers, a custom muffler, new 18-inch alloys wrapped in 225/40 tires, a Liberty Walk steering wheel, a Clarion infotainment system, and a few other goodies. The black-on-black car is in Liberty Walk's possession, which says it has 152,400 km (94,697 miles) on the clock. Thus, it has seen a lot of action over the years, yet it still is very shiny, not to mention exciting.
From what we can tell, all it needs is gas in the tank and a skilled driver behind that new steering wheel. But are you perhaps the person whose name will be written on the dotted line? If you said yes, then you must be loaded because this is not a bargain Skyline R34. In fact, with the help of Google Translate, we found out that it will set you back 38,800,000 yen. That's equivalent to a little over $265,000 at the current exchange rates, which could otherwise get you a whole bunch of other exciting machines. So, is it worth the asking price?
After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s. Full profile
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