Iron Chef

Happy to see my predictions were correct

18 V-Spec II N1s confirmed

Yellow and Red are both rare colours and series 1 colours, I reckon yellow looks great when combined with black rims and CF trim pieces.

Has it been complied? I'd love to know who by...

I think most of it has already been mentioned. At the moment the US is relatively undeveloped as a market, so they're buying the kind of cars that we would generally reject - heavy accident, tampered odometers, rusty etc. Plenty of JDM wood-ducks for the exporters to burn before they start to wise up over there. With the exchange rate taking a dive, cars ex-Aus are looking more and more attractive, but the US would rather buy crap and keep prices landed in the US under $20K there than worry about quality. The market will start to develop though, and as time goes on, buyers will be looking for clean cars globally, and paying big dollars for them. It's the same phenomenon that has seen virtually every 240K coupe disappear from Australia, mostly to the UAE. Most collectible sports cars go through a depreciation cycle, then rise again. In Japan, prices of clean 32s started climbing about 7-8 years ago. Clean series 3 R33s have also been rising for a while, and R34s hit the bottom of their cycle about 5 years ago too. Australia's cycle is a little longer, so we're only starting to see the rises occurring now (although demand from the US is speeding that process up). If you're buying locally, look for clean late model R33s and clean, genuine km R34s as they're money in the bank as far as I'm concerned. I'm hoping to send my N1 to the US in 2026, in the hope it will fund my retirement

^^^ that doesn't have the engine number listed on it though, that's what he's hoping for.

http://www.7tune.com/blog/feature-iron-chef-r34-gtr-vspec-ii-n1-one-rarest-and-fairest-them-all Thought you guys might be interested. Got some crazy shots in a burnt out forest.

The short answer is, to the best of my knowledge, you can't - there's nothing on FAST or anywhere else that keeps a record of the engine number matching the VIN. You'll find the engine number listed on the Japanese export certificate, but the manufacturers also sell new, completely unstamped blocks, so there have been occasions where we've received cars with no engine number whatsoever and have had to stamp new numbers on there.

Wow that's very cool! Would certainly be the only one. Post up pics when you get the chance.

He's one of the minions in my vast evil empire muahaha

We can and have exported to the US. Only one R32 so far, but a few other old classic Camaros, Mustangs etc. Email or PM me if you're selling a 1989/90 model, anyone.

I'm Troy's boss, but close enough

Funnily enough, we find we're often fussier than our customers are. There have been times when we've had customers begging us to buy cars that we're standing in front of and know they're shit (and say so to the customers). In that situation, the answer is always no. I'd rather refund the customer their broker fee - because you know damn well that when the car arrives, they will then turn around and complain about the quality. With buying cars at auction, you have to treat the journey as being as important as the destination

Oooohhh nice colour!

I'll give you a hint on where we rank in terms of numbers - we're at number 30. No records are kept separating category of cars.

There's only one registered in Oz currently, it belongs to our customer, so PM me if you want to get in touch.

lol not sure relying on the opinion of an NRMA inspector is the wisest move.

A lot of agents use FC Autosource in Japan to buy their cars, and we're one of them. They buy cars in a whole variety of price ranges, including a grade 5A R32 GT-R V-Spec II 17,000km and another grade 5A Nur with under 10,000km on it, both for our customers. They also sell a lot of rare exotics to Europe. They also buy high km stuff because it's popular with dealers here, but if you go on their site, you'll see the original kms are always advertised in the sold section. Many of their cars are also wholesaled within Japan. Don't be too quick to blame them. http://fcautosource.com

I will have words, Terry

I'm writing an article for MOTOR mag on this one - will post my thoughts soon

I was gonna say, should have 6 digits after ER34.

www.japaneseodometercheck.sto.my or www.japanesehistorycheck.com

They've been saying it for the last 6 months - Joe Hockey lost something like $9bn on THAT gamble...

That sheet looks fairly legit to me - it says Prime Corner at the top, meaning the good stuff. If it's not legit, it's a very impressive fake.

I do laugh a bit when people complain that they but a $20 item off Yahoo and complain that it costs $50 by the time it gets here. Sure shipping costs vary depending on size and value, but you still have to pay for someone's time to pack your item, put it in a container, unpack it and post it off to you, even if it's a 20c washer. I've happily used Import Monster, and will do so again when the need arises.