With the infamous 25 year rule for Nissan’s venerable R34 GT-R coming to a close, Americans are gearing up to snag the Godzilla of their dreams. And quite a few buyers who are interested in these cars have deep pockets. So with a 2000 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec N1 listed on an online auction, the bids have so far driven the price to $200,000 with eight days still left at the writing of this article, so we anticipate the price will climb much higher.
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Some are shocked by how much enthusiasts and collectors are willing to dish out for this particular R34 but we aren’t. We’ve watched values in Japan climb as some buyers have worked out arrangements in the past few years to store their newly acquired GT-R in Japan, then import it to the US later.
But the V-Spec N1s were a very limited-run series with only 38 examples made, this particular one being number 34. So right off the bat it’s exceptionally rare and forbidden fruit for Americans, a combination which just drives buyers crazy.
According to the seller, a previous owner modified this car for track racing. A subsequent owner in Australia replaced some body panels (we’re guessing they were damaged in races) and rebuilt the RB26DETT inline-six while adding twin Garrett 2530 turbos and a new HKS intercooler. Since these cars famously take quite well to modifications, this is a move which makes it even more attractive to prospective buyers.
Then there’s the six-speed manual transmission, a feature you pretty much can’t get in a new performance car these days. Many enthusiasts place a high value on cars with such a pure setup.
One of the features which makes this R34 a standout among other GT-Rs is the ATTESA E-TS Pro all-wheel-drive system which was incredibly advanced for its time. Nissan had learned form the R32 and R33, with some Nissan diehards claiming the R34 was in fact the pinnacle of handling performance or better than the R35.
There are many more goodies to make this 2000 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec N1 attractive, including its excellent presentation both inside and out. While the approximately 98,000 miles (158,000 km) showing on the odometer isn’t super low, we think most are looking past that since it’s also not ridiculously high. Even if it were, we still think bidding would be fierce.
It will be interesting to see how high the price on this Godzilla soars. Check it out on Bring A Trailer.
Images via Bring A Trailer
Shawn Henry