The R32, R33 and R34 Nissan Skyline GT-Rs built between 1989 and 2002 are among the most iconic of modern classics. Banned from motorsport to give the competition a chance, and immortalised in console games like Gran Turismo, they’re highly desirable, and increasingly expensive.
Standard garden-variety GT-Rs that cost less than £10k a dozen years ago are now £30k, and you could be looking at £200,000 for some of the rare Nismo versions.
The problem is that the youngest of these cars is almost 20 years old and the oldest more than 30. Most had a tough life because owners made the most of their car’s performance, and many were modified, meaning finding an immaculate original example isn’t easy.
But now Nissan’s Nismo performance arm has announced a restoration service to turn your used GT-R into the next best thing to a brand new example you could bought from your Nissan dealer in the 1990s. The catch is it’ll cost you around £326,000, money that would buy two Lamborghini Huracans, or four brand new R35 Nissan GT-Rs. Oh, and that £326,000 figure doesn’t include the cost of the donor car. Call it £350k, minimum.
Nismo’s engineers will concentrate on just one are of the car, if you wish, for example a mechanical restoration. Or they can go the whole hog, stripping the car of every single nut and bolt and rebuilding it as new from a bare shell.
Go for the full monty and Nismo’s team will tear the car apart before making any rust repairs and putting the car on a jig to check it’s as stiff and straight as it would have been when new. Then it’s sent to the spray booth to be coated in any colour you like, provided it’s one of the hues available when the car was new.
While that’s happening, another team of techs works on the legendary RB26 DETT twin-turbo straight six and other mechanical components, including the four-wheel drive system, logging the part numbers of any now component fitted.
And then it’s off to the trim department. Changes to standards covering the flame-resistance of materials mean Nissan can’t offer new fabrics of the original type, so the resto team will either clean and repair the existing upholstery, or the interior can be re-upholstered with fabrics from the contemporary Nissan R35 GT-R.
Finally, Nismo gives the car a full road test, fits a metal plaque to prove the car has been through the official restoration process, and hands it back to you, along with a one-year/20,000km (12,400-mile) warranty.
If the idea of taking delivery of a box-fresh classic GT-R sounds as exciting as buying a supercar, then perhaps it’s only fitting that the costs are comparable. But we can’t help wondering how the residuals for those restored cars are going to hold up.
Keyword: Nissan’s restoration team will make your classic Skyline GT-R like new – but it’ll cost you as much as two Lamborghinis