GSX-R35

Are the ADM cars any different from JDM GT-Rs in terms of specs and equipment? My understanding was they were pretty much identical in that regard but please correct me if I'm wrong. The problem with getting interest for an ADM car outside of Oz is that the rarity is of more local significance to Australia - basically they're rare for Oz because they were white market instead of gray market cars but here in the US and Canada an ADM R32 is just another grey market GT-R with the same specs as any other non-limited edition one. It's a different situation compared to the Nismos and N1s because they were rare globally and were factory specials with a different level of equipment from regular GT-Rs. Being that they're factory limited edition cars Nismos are commanding around twice as much as regular GT-Rs here in the States especially with the motorsport connection thrown in. An ADM car on the other hand would be viewed by a non-Australian as just another GT-R that came from overseas, just not from Japan, and that may actually hurt interest because import fans here in the US are all about the connection to the land of the Rising Sun so honestly the only person I can see that might be willing to pay a premium for an ADM car would be an expat Aussie. I'm not surprised at all that the rarity of the ADM cars is getting lost on us North Americans since to us it's just like deciding between two hot girls who happen to be twins and have PhDs but one wants you to take her out for filet mignon while the other just wants to go grab a burger.

That's one thing I'm thankful about living in Southwest Arizona - it may get hot as f*ck but we don't have to put up with snow or salt so AZ is great for keeping cars good for years. I'm lucky my Nismo has almost no rust and I plan on keeping it that way lol.

US import magazines have had a die-off in the past few years unfortunately. Sport Compact Car was excellent for tech articles and so was Modified Mag. Import Tuner was light on that but had lovely cover models lol. Turbo was kind of in-between. Now all of those are gone and we just have D-Sport and Super Street. D-Sport has picked up the slack though for technical articles and always has great stuff on the basics plus in-depth parts tests. I subscribe to both since I don't want them dying too but the rise of the internet has been hard on print magazines.

I'm sure even over there a Skyline isn't as common as say a Commodore or a Civic but it can't be as bad as over here where you have to first explain to EVERYONE that your right-hand drive Skyline is legal. Heck, I still run into people occasionally who think my R35 is a grey market import even though it's left-hand drive and been sold here for 7 years now lol. At least as Aussie_R32 points out getting parts from Japan is relatively easy - we just have almost no one domestically who stocks parts for them. On a positive note, I'm hoping that with the renewed interest in the R32 because of the US market opening up it might stimulate companies here and in Japan to start developing new parts for them. The US market has been very good at responding to the needs of the import crowd so fingers crossed enough Skylines will find good homes here to get a proper support network set up That's what I've been doing for my OEM stuff. Just placed another order yesterday and should hopefully have all I need now for the car to go in and get a full respray soon

I'm not knocking nostalgia and I don't expect that all R32s are going to be fully restored - that's generalizing my comment to the extreme. What I'm worried about is that a lot of people won't do their homework and buy a "cheap" Skyline only to end up facing the reality of trying to keep a 25 year old car running that was never sold in the US. I know parts are RELATIVELY easy to come by considering it was never sold here but only when you consider it's a 25-year old JDM car. It certainly isn't a matter of just popping to the corner parts store or even your local Nissan dealer to get one. Compared to Australia or even Canada finding R32 parts in the US right now isn't a simple matter since only a handful of big Nissan dealers and a few import car stores that do a lot of online business even deal with these parts. Even those that do deal in Skyline parts are often out of stock or have to order them from Japan. Here's one example - I wanted a new clutch for my R32 and I wanted a Nismo Coppermix Twin Plate. US stores - the three that knew of this part - wanted 2200-2500 USD for it and their sites said it would take 4 weeks to get one. I did my homework and ordered directly from Japan for just under 1600 with shipping. It took about 11 days to get the part - fast, all things considered, but not the "around the corner" situation that the video describes. You guys in Australia are lucky, you've had these cars since they were first produced so you have a solid support structure over there of shops that can work on them and suppliers that can get the parts (heck, I just ordered a couple of parts and new carpet from your fine country for my car). Here in the US though it's going to be a bit of a struggle. Even getting the cars registered has been a nightmare for many owners, myself included. Unfortunately, the importers don't really make much mention of the problems with actually owning a Skyline here in the US (e.g this Motorweek video) so I fear a lot of guys will bite off more than they can chew.

Japanese Classics is probably the best importer when it comes to marketing right now since they have this and they sold an R32 to a writer for Jalopnik. I know they've had plenty of satisfied customers but saying they only bring over the best is marketing BS and anyone who just swallows that drivel here in the US is getting set up for disappointment. The truth is, because of the 25 year rule, we're basically scrounging for the leftovers at this point. There are still some nice R32s out there but most will need restoration to some degree and parts aren't "just around the corner" like this video says. I've been able to get the parts I need but I've done a lot of homework and talked to a lot of people to do so. I'm seeing a lot of guys here in the US buying or wanting to buy these cars and I'm not sure all of them are informed enough about what they're getting into and this video doesn't help. I bought my Nismo knowing I'd have to do some restoration and with the full intent of doing so. I think a lot of buyers may end up just being overcome by nostalgia and then find out later it's not easy owning a JDM car never sold here in the States, especially one that's seen 25 years of use (and abuse in a lot of cases).

Seems pretty well documented - here's just a couple of links but I've seen plenty more: http://www.gtrusablog.com/2008/12/rb26dett-water-pump-n1-vs-stock.html Sean imports R32s here to the US, owns a Nismo, and has crew chiefed on an R34 in Speed World Challenge so he knows his stuff. Also here: http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/153515-n1-water-pump-leak-issue-prefered-remedy.html

I ended up getting the pump from Kudos. Amayama had it listed for cheaper coming from the UAE but it was out of stock there, and their price for one from Japan was oddly more expensive than the price from Kudos even factoring in shipping. Kudos shipped out the replacement vent actuator I ordered from them a couple of weeks ago pretty quick and it was in my hands in about 10 days so I'm hoping it'll be as fast this time and I can get this service out of the way soon.

There certainly are a lot of R32s being brought into the US now so I'm not surprised availability in Japan is getting scarcer. Pent-up demand was high no doubt because of the long wait and the Gran Turismo/Fast and the Furious crowd is hitting a time where they can afford these cars as well. In the four trips I made to my importer they pretty much sold another R32 to someone each time I was there. They had sold about 10 Nismos alone - no idea how many of the more common versions they must have sold. I know a guy who just privately imported a Nismo and a regular GT-R and sold them immediately. One of the writers on Jalopnik just got one himself so from all indications a staggering number of R32s are making their way Stateside.

The HKS that came with my car is already stupidly loud so I'm hoping the Tomei will be no worse or even an improvement sound-wise lol. Looks wise it'll definitely be a step up over the current tarnished end can.

The R34 is the JDM Skyline I've always wanted because of Gran Turismo and F&F but I guess I'll "make do" with my R32 until I can get a 34 in ten years or so lol.

Yeah, those pictures really make me want one as soon as I can but gotta keep my priorities straight lol. First, fix the parts on the car that really need it like the paint, then I can do the parts that are okay for now like the exhaust

Since there are more and more people interested in getting an R32 Skyline now that they're legal but there still aren't a lot of places to get comprehensive info on what the process of importing one entails I decided to put up a series of articles on my new GT-R blog. In case anyone's interested here's a link to part 1: http://23gt.blogspot.com/2015/04/buying-your-own-jdm-car-part-1-one.html I hope people find it helpful.

I wasn't implying the R30 and R31 didn't have motorsport success - just that compared to the R32's domination of Group A and Australian Touring Car they were much less prominent. I know I thought the R30 silhouette racer was awesome in the early Gran Turismo games but the cars that really made me fall in love with GT-Rs were the later JGTC and Super GT race cars.

It's just typical government red tape. Still and all, I can't complain since it's a damn sight better than the third-world country I grew up in lol. Compared to the corrupt and inefficient government back in my original homeland I'll take the US any day. Between importing myself, importing this car, and owning firearms as a hobby I've dealt with federal paperwork a bunch of times and it all works out eventually even without any "under-the-table" shenanigans lol.

I watched this Youtube video of an R32 with one and thought it sounded great https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6ErUsN-EF4 Besides that I think the car would look good with that burnt titanium tip. I'm not normally a fan of the burnt Ti look (my other cars have or had standard metal tips or CF ones) but on the R32 it just seems to fit lol.

The car runs fine and isn't sitting around at all. I just don't want to wait too long to get the timing belt changed since I don't know for sure when it was last swapped but I am willing to wait a little longer if a part is theoretically more suited to my needs. Also, my car has a standard block instead of an N1 block so my understanding is the N1 pump wouldn't be a direct fit and would need some minor modification due to one different mounting hole - that's another reason why I was hoping to get a stock pump instead of the N1. I already have the timing belt and pulleys for the swap. It's only the water pump that's been giving me headaches as far as getting one. I thought I had one arranged after buying it off eBay from a dealer in California that posted they had two in stock - of course, as soon as I paid for it they emailed me that they had "just run out". Jerks.

That's what I recall reading - that the N1 is meant for high-rpm running and since I prefer to take my other (newer) cars to the track my R32 will go to a trackday maybe once in a year if at all. Seems not that sensible to go with the N1 then especially since I live in a part of Arizona where it gets biblically hot in the summer. I just ordered an AC actuator from Kudos last week and they shipped out fast so I might go that route with getting a regular pump if I don't get one from a Japanese supplier. I was planning on ordering some stuff from Amayama soon so I'll probably go that route if no US shop has one still by the weekend. It'll take longer than I wanted but at this point I could be waiting forever for a US shop to get one. Thanks for the replies guys.

Since my R32 came with no service records I've been working on some appropriate maintenance needs. One of the top ones on my list was getting the timing belt swapped. It was recommended to me that I should go ahead and swap the water pump at the same time since the shop will already be in there. At first I thought of doing the N1 upgrade but then I read on one forum (I believe it was here actually) a good point that the N1 is meant for good flow at high RPM and therefore a mostly street driven car would probably be better off with a regular OEM pump. However, I can't seem to get the OEM pump here in the States - everyone's out of stock. The N1 is easy to get but a lot more expensive. Now I'm wondering if I should just go with the N1 so that the timing belt can get swapped before something bad happens (probably not but I don't want to take the risk given my car's lack of records) or keep trying to find a regular water pump (everyone says it's on backorder for possibly a month or more at the US shops I've talked to). Opinions? Thanks in advance for your input.

I thought about that but I've been busy with other stuff and ultimately I want to replace the exhaust with a Tomei Extreme Ti. Right now though I'm focusing on completing the rest of the maintenance needs before I tackle restoring the interior (then the car can go for a nice new paint job and the muffler can be dealt with )

Skylines are so rare here in the US even with the current influx that I doubt they'll be targeted except maybe for the wheels if one has a nice set of aftermarket alloys. Mine stays garaged anyway if I'm not driving it because it attracts all kinds of attention from both the good and the bad elements of society. Just had a friend text me that a random person posted a pic of mine on his FB page after seeing it while I was out driving around lol. The R30 and R31 are relatively unknown in the US because they didn't have GT-R versions or the success the R32 brought in motorsports, and they were never featured heavily in Gran Turismo or other racing games. Most people I know who are familiar with JDM cars know of them from Gran Turismo and the shedload of Skylines that they threw into those games. Not to mention the R30 and 31 have the eighties boxy styling that not a lot of people are fans of.

Thanks! I'm working on cleaning her up some more lol.

I think the R32 is basically going to be the trailblazer for more imports in the future because it's the first widely-desired car that was totally unavailable in the US. Before the R32 there really weren't any JDM cars that were desired by a lot of people and were widely available enough to matter. Hopefully this influx of R32s will pioneer the trend. I can only hope it also brings more attention to how stupid the 25-year rule really is nowadays. I wish we at least had the same 15 year limit as Canada so we could have R34s now too.

I plan on getting the Nismo plenum in the future (in other words after more important stuff is taken care of and only as money allows) because a) the previous owner of my car had refinished the current plenum in blue and that's not the color scheme I plan to have for my engine bay and b) my car is a Nismo R32 so it seems only fitting to have as many Nismo parts as makes sense. In other words, it's totally not a priority but just something I want to do if I can lol. Refreshing the suspension and possibly the engine/trans mounts seem like a higher priority right now.

Nismo intake plenum and upgraded oil pump are on my planned mods as well but I've got a laundry list of other things that are higher priority right now since it runs fine and that would require pulling the engine. I'll probably do all of that once I get the other stuff taken care of and I'm ready to have the engine pulled for a full overhaul.