Fast Five: Big News On 23GT.net's Fifth Anniversary!

Five year anniversaries are generally a milestone to celebrate and I truly wish this blog's quintennial were under more joyful, or even just more normal, circumstances for all of us but times are what they are - and I hope you all are managing to stay healthy, safe, and are able to hang in there in these difficult times.

Recently I managed to get something wonderful to help offset all the bad tidings nowadays - and it was all thanks to one little piece of paper:

That, dear readers, is an approval letter from the NHTSA basically giving the green light to Project Astrid, the next car I was planning on importing. Yes, the next addition to the 23GT.net family will be an honest-to-goodness R34 GT-R! And it'll be imported under fully legal channels with none of the black market flim-flammery that'd put such a rare and awesome car at risk of being featured in the wrong kind of YouTube video as the federales decide to make an example of it in the Giant Crushy Thing Of Death (TM).

Unfortunately the actual arrival date of my new Japanese girlfriend (that you can see in the lead image) is currently in limbo thanks to the Canadian border being shut but rest assured, as the great philosopher Wayne Campbell would say, "She will be mine. Oh yes, she will be mine". If the border stays shut I've even formulated a plan to mortgage my building supply business and trick a group of mercenaries as well as a pair of broke paleontologists into going in to rescue my baby - oh wait, I think that was just a bad dream I had last night after a lonely binge on Meat Lovers pizza and Asahi.

Once Astrid is safely in my clutches you can look forward to a bevy of new articles on this blog, just like when my Nismo R32 first came. I'll be detailing how the Show or Display import process works in case you want to try your luck with it or are just plain curious. Of course I'll be regularly posting updates on modifications, maintenance, and just the general ownership experience. I'll also try to fill you in on the various rare breeds of R34, just like I did with the R32 when this blog had yet to reach it's first year in business. 

No love for the R33 you say? Well, it's not my favorite GT-R generation but that doesn't mean I hate it. For potential R33 buyers I plan on doing a rare R33 guide as well but ownership experience posts will be highly unlikely - there's no room in the garage sadly.

You can look forward to all of that in the future...hopefully the near future if Prime Minister Trudeau sees fit to allow us filthy Americans back into his country instead of saying he's sick of people calling Canada "America's hat" and deciding to declare war on us.

In the meantime I'll keep all my fingers and assorted other bodily attachments crossed that it'll all work out and we all get through this difficult time soon. Here's hoping 23GT.net's sixth year anniversary will be in a much more joyful global climate!

Drive and stay safe everybody!

P.S. It's only appropriate I thank several people that helped to get me to this point in my R34 ownership odyssey: Victor, the previous owner of the car who's been a stand-up guy throughout the deal; Chris, the friend who introduced me to Victor and helped make the deal possible; Sean Morris of Toprank Importers, the guru of Skyline imports who gave valuable advice on the Show or Display process; Ms. Reena Lee and Ms. Kimberly Childers of the NHTSA who handled my approval application, kept me updated, and were very nice in my various communications with them; Debby from Full Octane Insurance, who helped me fulfill a critical requirement; fellow MP2 R34 owner Mike, who introduced me to Debby; my local gearhead buddies who've been so supportive during the long process so far; and of course my ever supportive and loving family, and the Big Man up there for blessing me with the means to realize my dream.