In some months from now, the early R34 Nissan Skyline GT-Rs will be legal to import in the US. And, as demonstrated by previous Godzillas (R33) and predicted by experts, prices will rise. Not that they’re too low right now when owners were supposed to keep these modern classic halo cars in storage, waiting for that big moment.
Are the dizzying prices a reason to get mad at the (car) world? Probably, but this 231-mile R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R M-Spec, which was recently listed for auction over in Japan, is too charming to be reduced to that.
If you’re a car fan, chances are some form of popular culture got JDM heroes like the R34 Godzilla on your radar. If it wasn’t Gran Turismo or Fast & Furious then maybe it was Top Gear.
Sure, EVOs and STIs (oh, this 22B) of the time came with the same basic recipe—understated AWD giant slayers—but the coupe shape and the more expressive styling of the R34 GT-R allow this to stand out.
Let’s take this Millennium Jade 2002 GT-R M-Spec, for instance. With just 378 km (231 miles) on the clock, this can give one the good-as-new positive vibes. Of course, even presuming that the car has spent the past 21 years in the best storage conditions and that it was regularly started and ran, it’s no secret that it will need some non-negligible serving attention after all that hibernation.
However, once we reach the price below, it’s easy to see why this part of the financial adventure is not that important.
The vehicle was listed for auction last year. Now, with JDM auctions often requiring importers to gain dedicated access to local companies that actually hold the cars (i.e., you can bid directly, at least not from around the world), keeping track of ownership and sales can often be difficult online.
With that in mind, the R34 GT-R, once again showed up online a few days ago, ti the very same mileage. A few fresh pics of the Nissan were listed by Canadian importer Buy Jdm Cars.
In the Facebook post showcasing the vehicle, we get the starting bid CAD620,000 ($451,214) and a comment from the same company listing the CAD838,000 (609,8670) reserve, but no mention of the outcome—the vehicle was said to have crossed the auction block yesterday.
Now, if the vehicle did find an owner, that reserve probably means it set a micro record. For one, despite its larger turbo and production being limited to 366 units, there are even more special R34s out there, with the Nismo Z-Tune arguably taking the cake and possibly crossing into seven-figure territory.
For starters, the price of the thing sounds ridiculous, but now that the EVs are starting to take over—Nissan has confirmed the GT-R has a future, but with no details so far—there will always be somebody willing to pay such money. And just thinking that the brilliant ATTESSA E-RS intelligent AWD system sat around unused for over two decades has the potential to bring one down.
Yes, there are less exorbitant ways of catering to one’s JDM fetish. In fact, at the time of press, this 2002 GT-R M-Spec Nur has less than 24 hours to go on Bring a Trailer. And hey, it’s also finished in Millennium Jade. Compared to the “standard” M-Spec, this one is even spicier and rarer, but the example being discussed here has racked up 120,000 km (75,000 miles).
For the record, the highest bid when this article was published sat at $102,001 (the reserve hasn’t been met), with the car being offered in Melbourne, Australia.
Far from us to signal that the mileage difference doesn’t mean anything, though. These are the rules of collector cars and the value for money offered by each of the two examples is another story for another time, so the best we can do is hope somebody takes it home and keeps that odo rolling.
