The R32 Skyline GT-R that Nissan built between 1989 and 1994 enjoys its stellar reputation for a reason—actually, there’s a myriad of them, but we’ll get back to that. Unsurprisingly, there are also drivers for whom the whole Godzilla phenomenon simply doesn’t click. They see this as an old Japanese car with old car problems and are dazzled by the prices. Welcome to the most vocal of them, vlogger WhistlinDiesel, who recently stacked two R32s on top of each other and took the result to the streets, labeling his creation the R34.
The final part of the paragraph is guaranteed to get the attention of anybody who’s aware of Nissan nomenclature, as the R34 was obviously the model that came two generations after the R32. This, together with the fact that he spray-painted the “badge” on the door of the top car is all the intro you need to how WhistlinDiesel handles his social media stunts.
Cody Detwiler, to use his real name, loves doing shocking things for the camera. And he prefers his favorite dish with side of people’s negative reactions. So this is only his latest Nissan sportscar stunt, but the vlogger has been delivering content that seems to be aimed at annoying the JDM community since last year.
For the record, if you’re looking for some positive-outcome Nissan GT-R mathematics, YouTuber B Is for Build’s R69 GT-R (R35 with R34 body) should provide a proper calculus example.
It’s been a year-long effort for the vlogger
2021 saw Cody buying a pair of R32s, a stock and a seriously modded one (he claims the latter packs 720 hp). And none of them lasted too long in his hands. He went on to buy a third one, the Midnight Purple-dressed unit being used as a base for this two-car stack—note that the car sitting closer to the sky has lost its engine.
And, after much complaining about spending $730,000 on the three Skyline GT-Rs, and talks of investing heavily in the engine of the said bottom unit, Cody has come up with his take on the R34, which involves the said recipe.
In his latest YouTube video, which you’ll find below, you can see the vlogger driving the… R32+R32 on the road, while also attending a car meet and pulling some sliding stunts in his garage—scrap that, we should’ve said “in and out of his garage” and the end of the clip shows why.
Now, you might be wondering why we used quotes in the title and have steered clear of attaching the “GT-R” particle when talking about Cody’s little collection. That’s because we don’t expect his R32 Nissan Skylines to be actual GT-Rs.
Why Godzilla has fans all over the world
Regardless, allow us to get back to why the R32 GT-R has so many fans across the world. The love for the 1980s child that is this AWD Japanese sportscar is natural. You see, unlike its often overlooked R31 predecessor, whose performance wasn’t quite up to the name of the GT-R series, especailly on the racetrack, Nissan engineered the R32 GT-R as a blast and nailed the execution.
Working to turn its fortune around back in the 1980s, the Japanese automaker included a racing version in its R32 GT-R plans. Gone were the limitations of the R31 (think: 210 hp max output and RWD). Instead, the R32 featured a turbocharged 2.6L straight-six that officially delivered 286 hp but actually made over 300 hp (the motorsport version offered some 600 hp).
More importantly, it put that power to the ground via an intelligent AWD system dubbed ATTESSA E-TS. The system has remained a trademark of the GT-R to present times, but back in the day it stood for a revolutionary solution, proving an ideal partner to the tuning-friendly RB26 motor of the machine.
Inspired by the all-paw hardware of the halo car Porsche introduced for that era, the 959, Nissan engineers created a somewhat similar system, albeit with a heavier RWD bias. And the racing results didn’t fail to show up.
The GT-R wasted no time becoming a dominant force in the Group A it was designed for. It not only topped the Japanese Touring Car Championship, but also took the win at the 1991 Spa 24 Hour race and grabbed no less than three Group A championships over in Australia (1990-1992), along with the top spot in the country’s all-important Bathurst 1000 race (1991 and 1992).
And it was the last feat that determined the country’s journalists to come up with the Godzilla nickname that has survived through the R35 iteration of the GT-R. This also caused the machine to be banned and it took two decades for Nissan to return to Aussie racing with the R35, but this is another story for another time (this Australian racer rolled his R32 eleven times and is so in love with Godzilla that he’s committed to returning as quickly as possible).
Later on, the R32 Nissan GT-R entered popular culture via the Gran Turismo racing game franchise and the Fast and Furious movie series. And the vehicle’s said tech setup was so solid that the R33 and R34 iterations that followed simply needed to upgrade it, with only the R35 that landed back in 2007 ushering in a completely new design.
Is the R32 Nissan GT-R perfect? Of course not
Now, with R32s (this CGI shows a wagon version!) being three decades old and many examples having been tuned and driven hard, one can obviously run into trouble when attempting to meet such a hero nowadays. However, with proper maintenance and well-planned modifications, these modern classic Nissans and their RB26 motor— whose strong points and characteristic faults are well documented—are fully capable of backing up their cult car status.
As for the financial part, a good-condition R32 GT-R will set you back around $60,000 nowadays. Nevertheless, a few rare examples with standout spec and low mileage have crossed the six-figure border in the past few years.
Admitely, prices reaching such levels is unreasonable. But this is a phenomenon that has unfortunately come to describe the entire used vehicle market, especially in the case of performance vehicles—it does seem like the aggressive appreciation trend could come to an end soon, but we digress.
Now, one of the factors that fuels the issue of analog heroes like the R32 GT-R slipping further and further away from the average enthusiast’s reach involves the age-old practice of affluent collectors locking these cars up and waiting for the prices to reach the sky.
Instead, the owners should be enjoying the machines out in the open, since these beasts were made to put a smile on their drivers’ faces. However, we’re sure there are less abusive ways of doing so than the ones seen here.
