GSX-R35

That's a good way to describe him. Oxygen theft may not be the only thing he's doing that's not legit given how he keeps saying he has "connections" lol. I'm sure all countries have their share of morons but as far as Skylines go the US seems to breed a lot of them because of all the misinformation that's spread since they were deemed illegal. This particular thread is shockingly bad though lol. Fools and pathologic liars can be very amusing lol.

In case anyone here is curious about the crap we have to put up with on the US forums here's a prime example: http://www.gtrlife.com/forums/topic/141298-1991-bnr32-gt-r-v-spec-ii-n1-purchase/ So basically this guy is claiming he's bringing in a "1991 R32 GT-R V-spec II N1" to the US. For one thing the first N1s were sold in June 1991 so they won't even be legal until June 2016. Second there is no such thing as a 1991 V-spec II because the V-spec II wasn't made until 1994! The V-spec was introduced in 1993 because of Nissan's race victories - hence VICTORY spec. When called out he then says he's got a "prototype" car which he believes is #57 out of the 228. Funny how he knows that since the N1s weren't sequentially numbered unlike the Nismos. Then he says he can get R34s legally too because he "knows people". And that he can get a "Nismo R34" but it's NOT a Z-tune because he says he can get an "M-tune and M Nur". Funny how I've never heard or can find any evidence of an "M-tune" just the M-spec and M-spec Nur which wasn't a Nismo model and had changes meant for more luxury versus the V-spec. The troll is strong with this one.

I know I'm going to be keeping an eye on R34s in Australia when the time comes

I hope you find the blog helpful then in your search and subsequent ownership!

If a buyer in the US has any brains rust would be paramount before picking a Skyline to buy, Canada or no. The buyers guides - espeically from Sean Morris who's the biggest proponent of JDM car importation in the US - emphasize checking for rust a lot. I've seen some pretty gnarly Skylines online including one Hakosuka that was all ate up with rust but unfortunately it was masterfully camouflaged by paint. I admire the owner of that Hako for keeping at it and restoring that car. The people I've seen buying R32s have mostly been bringing them in from Japan directly so I can't comment on how bad the Canadian ones might be. I can say anecdotally that at least one R32 managed to survive Canada without incident 'cause my Nismo first went there and was then imported to the US. It seems to not have stayed very long in Canuckistan from what I was told though and the lack of rust on my car supports that. It's already been stripped down and repainted by a body shop that was also surprised by the lack of rust. I have seen some rusty R32s online but the owners or sellers didn't post their origins.

Hi, I own a Nismo so I've extensively researched the differences. I made a guide about the rare R32s on my blog but to answer your questions: 1. The interior on the Nismo is the same as a stock 1990 R32 but with one minor difference - the radio buttons are blanked off on the instrument binnacle. If you go to my blog post on the link below I have a picture of that. I've personally closely inspected three other Nismos besides mine so it wasn't just my car. Sadly the Nismo gauges and steering wheel aren't included from the factory - I had to source the ones I'm putting in mine separately. 2. Brakes and suspension are same except for the lack of ABS. Again my blog shows pictures of the difference from the missing ABS module. It's a good way to tell a Nismo from a clone. 3. You mentioned all the changes except for the interior one I described but just to clarify on the body kit - I'm not sure what you meant by "flared wheel arches" but on the Nismo the side skirts had an extended rear portion but no changes to the wheel arch itself. Oh, and don't forget the Nismos had a little Nismo sticker on the trunk lid but a lot of cars have had that crack and peel by now. Here's the link to my guide: http://23gt.blogspot.com/2015/06/rare-air-guide-to-limited-edition-r32.html

The GT-Rs have been pretty popular in Canada for a while now especially since they're lucky to have only a 15 year restiction. I'm not sure if they feel sorry for us Americans but I do know some of them are seeing an opportunity to make some money by selling the Skylines they have to us including stockpiling R33s and R34s for future sale.

Thanks for the added input guys but unfortunately my car has decided to develop a case of "The Brokens" so the shifter issue is on the back burner until the engine gets sorted lol.

I've been trying to actually but it's not the easiest language to get the hang of lol. So you moved here from Oz? Dang, I bet it's irritating to not be able to have your Skyline. Those R33s you're seeing, if they're not legal Motorex cars, are getting away with it because local LEOs don't really know or care about importation status - as long as it has proper registration that's all that matters to them. Unless the Feds catch on by posting your car online for example you can pretty much drive around a black market Skyline forever as long as you don't do something stupid. Since you're in NYC, you haven't thought about moving to Canada instead since R33s and R34s are legal there already lol?

Lol, at least it gave the world an English service manual for the R32s. That's one thing I'm thankful for about the ADMs. It'd be more of a PITA to try and service this car if all the documentation were in Japanese.

Thanks for the info. I'll pass it along to my friend and see what he finds. The car was running well for the 7 months or so I had it and on the initial test drive but as you mentioned I have no idea how this car was cared for since it came with no records at all. It looked like it's been used as a track car given some of the mods so I wouldn't be surprised if the engine's seen better days. Also not a fan of the HKS filters myself so I had already gotten an ARC airbox to replace them. I'll update this thread once my friend lets me know what he finds.

It's really no surprise we Americans still have a lot to learn about these cars lol. Before now we only had the few Motorex cars plus some black market ones running around so hardly anybody was working on them. Even with the 25 year rule bringing in a flood of R32s, that only started last year so basically we've had about a year and a half to learn about these cars while Oz has had them for over two decades now. And of course you guys also had the advantage of at least some dealers with knowledge of these vehicles thanks to the ADM cars while most Nissan dealers here wouldn't know a Skyline if it ran over them. Thankfully now we have the internet and it's a huge help to have forums like these to get info from and online shops to get the parts as well.

The ones I see most people go to are Skylineowners.com - which is based in the UK, GT-RLife.com - which is R35-centric but recently started highlighting the legacy GT-Rs more, and the NICOclub Skyline/GT-R subforum (NICOClub is a big US Nissan/Infiniti owners forum). I also hang out on Japanese Nostalgic Car where the crowd is more towards old-school cars like Hakosukas, Kenmeris, 240Zs, RX-3s, old Civics, and whatnot but more R32s are popping up now that they're 25 years old and considered a "nostalgic car". There's also Skyline Owners USA but that forum is pretty dead after it went paid member-only after the owner had his car seized by DOT because it was an illegally-imported Kaizo car.

I wish this could have been a joyous update with just photos of my freshly-painted Nismo but sadly it decided to throw a wrench in proceedings and die on me. After getting it back from paint it took this opportunity to start smoking and just park itself by the side of the road, silently laughing at me for thinking this was going to go smoothly. Oh well, at least she didn't decide to barbecue herself with me inside so that's a win overall. And some great people showed up to help me get her off the road. Now I'm waiting for my friend to take it to his shop and give it thorough eval. What happens next is up in the air until then but I'm trying to stay positive and look at this as just a change in plans and an opportunity to fix something that I planned on doing later anyway. Below are some pics and if you'd like to see more photos or read more of the details of what happened, here's a link to my blog write-up where I posted a lot more than I could fit on here: http://23gt.blogspot.com/2015/09/progress-bar-r32-part-5-ecstasy-and.html I hope my next update will be a more positive one EDIT: fixed photos that weren't displaying right

It's hard to say how much interest the N1s are getting because none of them are eligibile to import yet since the earliest ones are from 1991. If anyone's buying them up they'll still be in storage awaiting import so there won't be any news about them popping up in the States until next year at the soonest. I don't hear too much chatter about the N1s on the forums though - I think it's simply because they're so hard to track down. Even the importer I bought my Nismo from who managed to track down about a dozen Nismos including mine has only seen one and it wasn't for sale. Not to mention that every Nissan fan knows about Nismo so the Nismos get instant recognition while relatively few know the deal with what an N1 is about. As for the ADMs, I don't want to hurt any owner's feelings but thinking about it logically I don't think they'll ever get much interest in the US. The average buyer of an R32 right now in the US isn't some well-heeled collector, he's a young guy with a little bit of extra money and a fascination with these cars from playing video games and watching Fast and Furious movies. As such they're perfectly happy to simply have a Skyline and either won't care to pay or can't afford to pay the premium an ADM owner would ask for even if one was offered. Since the ADM would be viewed more as a regional variation rather than a limited factory special it just isn't likely that the average American import enthusiast is gonna care. To put it simply, why would an American fascinated by a car made and designed in Japan want one that was slightly modified to sell outside of Japan? It would be like asking a Volkswagen enthusiast which he'd rather have - a serviceable classic Beetle built in Germany or another one that's in nicer order but built in South America and priced much higher? The cheaper one from the original market would win every time. Given what I know of ADM prices I just don't see them getting much interest in the US. To pay a premium for a car it has to make a connection to you, unless you're a speculator. A Nismo is easy to make a connection with for a Skyline or Nissan fan. Jesus, it was made by the company's motorsport division, 'nuff said. An N1 is a bit more esoteric but still has that cachet. The ADM - not so much. Maybe if you were a well-off Aussie expat living in the US I could see it speaking to you but good quality Skylines aren't that hard to come by that the ADM's price premium will likely find much understanding outside of Oz. Frankly I'd personally prefer the ADMs stay in Australia rather than be sold overseas. In Oz they would be respected as a piece of Australian motoring history - here in the US, you'd have to explain what it is to 99% of people and at the end they'll either say a polite "Oh, interesting" and mosey on to forget about it soon after or they'll just go "Meh. what's the big deal?". A Skyline is already a novelty here in the US where they were never sold - saying that it's an Australian model doesn't up the novelty much especially since people will just wonder why that's important when it's a Japanese car to begin with. And don't forget, most of these cars are destined not to remain stock since the allure of modifications is one of the key ingredients to their appeal in the US - hence most people won't care to pay a lot more for a really well-kept model versus a serviceable one that can be fixed up.

No, Canada has a 15-year import ban so they already have early R34s over there but they're still illegal in the US because the American limitation is 25 years. A Canadian can bring in his own car and drive it around for a year without having to register it locally if he's living in the US it but after that it has to be taken back to Canada if it's not legal to be registered in the US.

Well, I was hoping to post my first update by showing pics of the newly repainted car but unfortunately I got my first bad news with this car today. I picked it up from paint the other day and it was running fine but then started running poorly, smoking from the exhaust, and eventually ground to a halt. I had it towed to my local Nissan dealer and they think it's going to need an engine rebuild And I was so happy to see it all nice and freshly painted too! Ah well, 25-year old motors - what can you do? The final verdict is still up in the air as to the exact issue cause I asked a friend of mine with a race shop to take it over to his place and crack it open so we'll see. I hope it's something more minor but if worse comes to worst I guess the engine will have to be freshened up sooner than I planned. I'll post pics when I get a chance. At least she looks purdy on the outside lol.

Most interested people in the Skylines here in the States are mid-30s or younger - it's the Playstation generation basically that grew up with imports. Older enthusiasts tend to prefer the domestics because muscle cars are what they grew up with although with the size of the US there are still tons of older import fans that are at least aware of the cars especially among Asians like me.

Thanks for the kind words! What color and year is your 34 again? My bro is in your neck of the woods so I'll keep you in mind if you still have it in a year or three lol. If you mean bring it in to the US and store it undriven until it's 25 years, no you can't - at least not legally. If you could I'd have bought an R34 already lol. But yeah, by law you can't even bring the car in until it's 25 so that's why a lot of Japanese exporters are taking payment on cars soon to be eligible for import and offering to store them for free in Japan until the actual import date arrives. Oh, and the import date is to the MONTH of manufacture or first registration - whichever you can prove to customs - so even a 1990 car might not be eligible yet if it was made in December for example. If the car's already here in the US illegally the only way to make it legal is to take it out of the country - say to Canada - and then bring it back and file the appropriate paperwork with Customs, DOT, and EPA. Unfortunately that means risking getting caught and seized if they get wind of the car having been here illegally already. You'd need registration in the other country to start with so you'd have to find someone to register it in Canada for example then bring it back. You guys may be on to something with the R33's appeal considering the increasing problem with fatness here in the States lol.

Let me offer a different perspective to GoneGoose's answers. First, there's definitely been an increase in interest in Skylines since the R32 became legal. If there weren't, major auto blogs in the US wouldn't be writing articles like this: http://www.autoblog.com/2015/08/05/nissan-gtr-skyline-collector-car-values/ http://jalopnik.com/americans-you-are-why-r32-skyline-prices-are-through-t-1721724438 http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/2015/08/18/why-the-r32-nissan-skyline-gt-r-has-doubled-in-price/ And if you go to other Skyline and GT-R forums you'll find a lot of them are not only seeing a large increase in US membership but also changing to accommodate that growth. Skylineowners.com in the UK has had a US section for some time but they recently added a dedicated US "for sale section" because of the increased American membership. On GTRLife,com, I've been a member for over half a decade because of my R35 and it's always been an R35-centered forum but this last month they changed the "Legacy GT-R" subforum into a part of the main forum under "Skyline GT-R" because more R32 owners were showing up. As for seeing them on the streets, I don't know where GoneGoose lives but here on the West Coast, Skylines are still rare but not that unusual anymore. Even in my little city of only 100,000 people or so in Arizona we already have four R32s - my Nismo, another GT-R, a blue GTS-t, and another unknown R32 model. A friend of mine has sold 3 R32 GT-Rs to new owners in other cities in Arizona. When I went to the importer I bought my Nismo from they had 5 Nismos getting ready to ship out - mine, one going to Tennesee, another staying in Cali, and two to unknown states. That's in addition to the 3 "regular" R32s, plus one Motorex R33, in the warehouse waiting to be sold. And two other Arizonans bought non-Nismo GT-Rs from them - I was there when one of them was picked up by the new owner. Of the new R32 owners I've talked to on the forums most are on the West Coast. The US is a huge country so whether you see a Skyline or not greatly varies from one location to another but there's certainly a lot more of them now and no shortage of interest in them. They're certainly not forgotten or too old because mine always gets a lot of chatter. My friend told me the local Facebook car circles blew up yesterday after my car was spotted stopped on the road after I left the paint shop lol.

You're welcome as far as answering your questions. I like sharing info when I can, which is why I started my blog in the first place. Automotive safety standards in the US are dictated by the national government - or federal government as we like to call them here, "the Feds" for short - and not by state governments. States are responsible for specifying what is required of an owner to allow them to register a car in their state so in this case Hawaii just basically wants your car to display federally required certification saying it meets the national safety standards. Most states are much more lenient as far as registration - some are notoriously so. California and Hawaii are about the only states with major roadblocks to JDM Skyline ownership. In California's case it's because of emissions requirements though instead of safety. Because Cali had big problems with air pollution previously, any car sold there has to adhere to stricter emissions standards than the other 49 states so Skylines are a no go without expensive modifications and testing. A lot of people register their cars out of state to get around this but that's illegal and risks fines. My home state of Arizona requires an emissions test in the two biggest cities but it's a simple tailpipe test. Other than that there aren't any big problems to register a JDM car. Arizona is also very dry and warm most of the year so it's very friendly for cars. Together with being close to the West Coast where shipments from Japan can come in most easily Arizona's become probably the biggest adopter of JDM cars from overseas in the US. Go to any board with Skyline owners from the US and most likely half the people you'll see posting are from my state. As for crushed Skylines, that wasn't a state crushing them. That was the Feds. Lots of people have brought over black market cars by driving them in from Canada. Because of the Motorex episode, DOT has actively come looking for black market Skylines and even used SWAT teams to raid importers that aren't on the up-and-up. That's why I made damn sure I bought my Nismo R32 from a legit importer.

I'm no expert since I mainly focus on Japanese imports but everything collectible was hit by the drop in the economy. With everyone losing their shirt as the real estate bubble burst in America there inevitably was less people buying luxuries but it was mainly muscle cars that were hit bad since the surge in prices for those was relatively recent compared to more classic collectible cars like Ferraris and other classic European marques. Things have since mostly recovered and car auctions in the States seem to be doing bigger business than ever. Japanese classics are actually showing signs of being the next big thing with Hakosuka Skylines and Toyota 2000GTs commanding premium prices now. Even though the cars themselves were illegal until now there are lots of shops in the US that know how to tune an RB25 or 26 because they've been popular choices for engine swaps. Bringing in just the engine wasn't illegal so lots of people have thrown RBs over here into everything from 240SXs, classic Zs, to C10 and Kenmeri Skylines. Not a lot of shops have made a name for themselves specifically as RB tuners yet since they're still fairly rare engines over here compared to Honda K-series, Toyota 2JZ, Nissan SR, VQ (or even VR), or Mitsu 4G63s but there are a few that have become known like SP Engineering in California - they have a couple of Skyline shop cars. http://www.sp-power.com/ Well, it's quite a bit bigger so I don't doubt the extra space but the 33 just isn't that popular in the States - it's the least loved Skyline in other countries AFAIK and it's the same here. The R34 is the big one because it was featured in two Fast and The Furious movies as the hero car so it's ridiculously well-loved here. The R32 got shown in the latest F&F movie in the funeral scene while the R33 only has had one little cameo in the very first one that's barely noticeable. I'm sure there'll be plenty of R33 buyers too but I just don't see it getting the fuss the R32 is getting or the massive rush the R34 will surely get. The R32s being bought here are mainly headed for street use by regular joes. It's an old platform that's relatively hard to get parts for in the US so there's not much interest in racing them. That being said, I do know a guy in the club racing association I'm in that has run one for a while but he's up against much newer tin and mainly does it for fun. There are probably going to be quite a few GTS-Ts headed for drifting because they're relatively cheap but GT-Rs are going to stay a rare sight at the track because of the current high prices and lack of parts. Funny you should ask because I've been finishing a blog post about Hawaii that I should put up sometime this week. The answer is no because Hawaii is a special case. In the US, like in Oz also I believe, state regulations can vary so while in most US states 25-year old foreign cars are okay as far as state laws, in Hawaii you can't register one because they have an additional requirement that you have to have an FMVSS or "Fed" label. That's a little sticker that says the car meets US standards. All cars made for sale in the US have that from the factory but being foreign-market cars JDM imports don't have one so they're basically banned from Hawaii.

I'd say there's definitely a lot of eager potential buyers for upcoming years of Skyline especially judging from the insane prices right now. I just finished writing on my blog last week about how now's not the best time to buy an R32 because prices have more than doubled. A year ago you could get a decent R32 GT-R for US$18K or so, nowadays some people are asking that much for GTS-Ts! And it's not uncommon to see a GT-R being advertised for 30 grand and up now. Things should settle down as more years become eligible for import and demand gets met more. Because of Gran Turismo and the Fast and the Furious movies the GT-Rs have always been well-loved and mythical here in the US and the Godzilla moniker was adopted by the media and enthusiasts a long time ago. We just couldn't get them so that's why there was a HUGE fuss over Motorex, another gigantic fuss when the R35 first came out (some were selling for 20-30 grand over retail price), and again now with the R32 being legal to bring in. The next big surge will probably be in 9 years when the R34 becomes legal because that's the one EVERYBODY and his brother wants. Even I'm starting to plan ahead to purchase one of those before prices get too crazy. My brother lives in Australia so I might have him start looking in a couple of years lol. I see the R33 as getting some interest but probably nothing like the R32 or R34. As for the ADMs, most American's don't even know they exist. I know even me, a huige Skyline fan, didn't know about them until I started coming here to SAU. Even at current inflated prices though I've yet to see anyone - importer or private individual - mention anything about sourcing from Oz mainly because it's not that hard still to come by acceptable R32s from Japan. Every week I see another guy posting about getting a car from Japan - often from import/export companies I hadn't heard of yet. There's just so many R32s out there and it's so much easier to import from Japan, Canada, or the UK that I don't see much interest in Australian cars anytime soon. Plus the average US buyer is happy just to have an R32 after they were illegal for so long, not too many have the money or the interest to pony up for a rare model like my Nismo or the ADM cars. Since the ADM cars are a regional variation I have to be honest and say I doubt they'll get much interest in America except for maybe the one in a million rich completist collector. The Nismos are smoking hot right now and I expect the N1s to be the same starting next year so the more well-heeled enthusiasts will be gunning for those most likely.

You're welcome! Thankfully the GT-R is still much loved here in the US as shown by how crazy people are getting over the now-legal R32s and how many R35s have been snapped up and modified here. Most import fans here don't hold any animosity to Motorex and we still get all excited when hearing about one of the few Skylines that got through but a lot of us do lament that Motorex didn't keep its sh*t together because considering the demand right now for R32s they could have sold a ton of Skylines legally - and I might have my R34 already lol.

I'll be sure to post some more once further developments happen then The car should get back from paint this coming week - fingers crossed lol.