Sitting here now it's hard to believe
that I've owned my fully legal R34 GT-R here in the States for four
years already and that next year she'll turn 25. When that happens
she'll no longer be a Show or Display car with the associated
hangups like being able to drive it only 2500 miles a year, having fewer
insurance options, and needing to explain to people all the time that no, I did not
FedEx a box full of cash to the DOT as a bribe to get mine legally
into the country. If I did, I would have used DHL.
For various reasons I haven't been
able to enjoy driving my Midnight Purple tarmac eater as much as I'd
have liked during my ownership but that doesn't mean it's just been
sitting idle. The previous owners of my car had already thrown on a
lot of tasty upgrades like the Nismo hood and body kit, ginormous
Brembo brakes, HKS turbos and so on, but no import enthusiast worth
his salt is going to leave well enough alone. To that end I added a
few more things to personalize her more to my taste. After making
some progress on that front it was time to do another photoshoot and
of course, a post here on the blog to sum up what's happened.
The biggest expense in time and money
went to having the whole car covered in paint protection film a.k.a. PPF
a.k.a. “clear bra”. Unfortunately doing it used up a decent chunk of
my savings and took the better part of a year time-wise but at least
now I can drive her without constantly having nightmares about
burning dollar bills every time a rock chips away at that expensive
Midnight Purple 2 paint.
After my wallet recovered a bit from
the cost of the PPF job it was time for some proper personalization, the
main focus of which would be swapping out the old TE37s for some new
rims. It wasn't because I dislike the TE37. You might know if you've read my old posts that my Nismo
R32 sits on a set of 18-inch TE37SLs but that's actually one of the reasons I
wanted to swap these ones out. I didn't want the same design of wheel on
the two cars - plus there was the issue of color. I'm not a big fan of
dark wheels on dark cars since to me it makes the car look like just
one big black shape and some contrast makes a vehicle visually more
exciting – you know, like an Asian girl who's dyed her hair blond.
Gets your attention, right?
One thing I wanted the new rims to
share with the TE37s was their timeless good looks and one design
ended up being my final choice – another classic from Volk Racing,
the multi-spoke CE28.
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| Image credit: Rays Wheels |
When I placed my order COVID was still
messing up supply chains everywhere so it took nine whole months
before my set finally arrived. I was super stoked to see my R34 with
some new shoes but then I got the call from the shop with some bad
news: they didn't clear the front brake calipers.
Remember those ginormous Brembos I
mentioned? They look great but they also eat up a lot of space and as
it turns out the front calipers needed just a few millimeters more
clearance so they didn't hit the barrel of the wheels. At first I was
in shock, then I was puzzled, because I didn't get why the old
18-inch TE37s fit fine while the new 18-inch CE28s didn't. As it
turns out the TE37 has a barrel that tapers out and widens from the
inner face of the wheel while the CE28, even in superlight SL form,
doesn't. An interesting thing to learn but a huge bummer for me. In the pic below you can see the difference in the barrel shape of the CE28 on the left and the TE37 on the right.
That meant a hunt for a new set of
wheels. Unfortunately the CE28 doesn't come any bigger than an
eighteen but luckily I did find just the right substitute in the
Yokohama Advan RS-DF Progressive. Not only did it come in a
nineteen-inch diameter but it shared a similar multi-spoke look to
the CE28. Also luckily they weren't as back-ordered as the Volks so
after a couple more months I had another set of wheels ready to go on
and this time, I'd confirmed fitment with the helpful folks at Mackin
Industries, the distributor for both Volk and Yokohama wheels in the
States. Best of all, the RS-DFs actually look BETTER in my humble
opinion than the CE28s not just because of the bigger size but
because they have a fancier spoke design that includes fluting to
reduce weight and a more aggressive curvature that gives more of that
delicious deep-set look you want on a performance car.
I hope you'll agree from the photoshoot
pics that they were a great choice.
By the way, if you ever run into the
same issue with wheel fitment around large aftermarket brakes I'll be
adding another post later on that talks about how the great guys at
Mackin were able to help me out.
Another major add-on for the car was
the Nismo dry carbon wing element. The old aluminum wing blade had
some paint chips that really stuck out against the rest of the car's
clean paintjob. Luckily for me I managed to snag this used wing
element in like-new condition since as any Nissan fan probably knows
Nismo charges an arm and a leg and usually both kidneys too for
anything they make that's dry carbon. It's a wonder most GT-R owners
aren't on dialysis. The carbon pieces they make are truly high
quality though and fit like OEM, and this wing element was no
different. The process of installing it was bit fiddly since a couple
of the old screws had seized to the old aluminum unit but
otherwise it was fairly straightforward. The piece didn't come with
instructions so maybe if I have time I'll do a DIY post.
More Nismo dry carbon went on after my
trip to Japan in January. Since we visited Omori Factory I figured I
might as well pick up a few things while the favorable dollar to yen
exchange rate meant us lucky American gaijin
get an automatic thirty percent discount on everything in Japan.
One of the bits I grabbed was this exhaust trim piece. Yes, it's just
for looks and it's just a small detail but it's a very cool-looking
detail. It didn't come with instructions (again) but obviously Nismo
mean for you to go full race-car and rivet this sucker in place since
it comes with a set of black rivets. I didn't feel like punching
holes in my beautiful Midnight Purple bumper so some 3M high-strength
trim tape subbed for the rivets.
Also coming back with me on my Japan
trip and also with a carbon fiber finish was a Top Secret hood damper
kit. Unfortunately for some odd reason the pistons they supplied were
too short for the mounting holes on my car.
Comparing pics online it
seems the fender screw holes on my R34 are further forward than on
other cars that have used the same kit. From what we can tell the
screw holes on my R34 are OEM and match the holes placed on the Nismo
Z-tune fenders perfectly so I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe it's
an early R34 thing?
In any case we found a fix by ordering a longer
set of dampers from Amazon and they work great but lack the snazzy
carbon finish of the Top Secret ones. Oh well, who cares if the
pistons are plain black when they're holding up that lovely Nismo dry
carbon hood amirite?
Not all bling on a car should be carbon
fiber though. Sometimes you gotta go with that most wondrous of
metals: titanium. Although it was nice of Nissan to include a front
strut tower bar on the R34 from the factory, unlike the R32 that made
do with bupkus, the R34's OEM one is a steel unit that's not only
pretty basic-looking, it also weighs a ton compared to aftermarket
stuff. Nismo of course makes a sweet titanium strut bar but I wanted
something different and since the car already has several Midori
Seibi bits on it, including a full titanium exhaust, I opted for
their beefy creation instead. It may look ginormous compared to other
companies' versions but it's still extremely light due to the
titanium construction and I think the boxy shape of it matches the
aggressive, muscular styling of the R34 well. As an added bonus it
comes with an attached brake master cylinder brace just to make sure
my gigantic Brembos bruise my spleen even more whenever I come up to
a red light.
At this point you're probably wondering
where the big mods are like a new turbo kit or a rebuilt, stroked
motor. Well, don't worry, I saved the best for last. My latest
addition to the car and also acquired from Japan are these amazing
color shifting valve caps that go great with the car's Midnight
Purple paint! They're straight fire, right? I mean, the package even says they're MAGICAL!
Alright, alright, they're nothing to
get excited over but sadly I'm no rich TikTok star and my Powerball
numbers all keep coming up as zero so an engine upgrade will have to
be saved up for. But that gives you a reason to check back later here
on the blog, right? I hope you do so until next time, drive safe!
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