Somebody has created a fake Nissan GT-R, not an R34 Skyline with a body kit but a fake R35. And apparently, the JDM car community hates this for whatever reason, even though fakes are pretty common within it. So obviously, we had to dig a little deeper and find out what was going on.
At first, we couldn’t understand why you’d fake this particular GT-R. The R34 is super-desirable in America and can be worth more than a Lamborghini, so we get why you’d make a copy of that. Over the years, we’ve seen all sorts of bad fakes, including ones that are based on Camaros or even Corollas.
However, this is neither an R34 nor a bad fake. It actually looks just like the real thing as long as you’re not close enough to check panel gaps. The R35 generation of Godzilla came out in 2007 and is pretty common. So you can pick one up cheaply or even take a risk on a salvaged Copart auction.
However, we’re looking at this all wrong because this fake GT-R doesn’t speak “burgers”; it likes Thai food because it lives in Bangkok. They’ve got a unique and bewitching car culture over there, as we discussed when we showed you the Ford “Mustang” Ranger pickup with the GT350 front end.
To make it look so realistic, they used a number of actual R35 GT-R body parts. These include the front spoiler, headlights, doors, glass, and taillights. Everything else is a replica, which makes you wonder why they went to all this trouble.
In Thailand, buying a car is quite expensive. CB Media says there’s a 300% import duty tax on all new cars so a brand new GT-R would cost the equivalent of $400,000 today. We were unable to verify his claim. However, it appears the country doesn’t allow imports of used cars either, so the performance car situation is pretty bad.
Why the fake R35 is outrageous
It seems that the internet is angry purely because they saw the RB26 under the hood of what they think is a contemporary GT-R. In their minds, the old inline-6 cannot take the place of the modern twin-turbo V6.
However, that’s not a real GT-R. It seems that a Thai coilover suspension company wanted to make a show car for drifting and such. Modifying the AWD system of the R35 is a difficult and expensive job. So instead, they just made another car look like a GT-R.
The bones belong to something called a Nissan Cefiro. This is an RWD 5-door mid-sized sedan, related to the Skyline and commonly used for custom car projects in Thailand. It appears they used a model from around 1990.
The whole car cost only about $40,000 to make and is a fantastic drift machine with an anti-lag soundtrack we love. You can honestly argue that this fake GT-R wouldn’t exist anywhere else, not in Japan and not in the States.
