Skyline Paparazzi

[GoHashiriya]

Has anyone else been swarmed by morons with cell phones taking pictures of their car? A few of you may know, I recently moved from Japan to Europe and brought my R34 with me. Since arriving I've driven the car a handful of times and without fail have had people filming/taking photos of me with the car to a point where it's becoming annoying and a bit hazardous. Yesterday, whilst driving with my buddy (R32 GTR) on the highway, I spotted three cars pulling alongside with some twat hanging out the window recording with his phone. This one VW Golf came alongside in the passing lane and held position preventing me from being able to pull out and pass slower traffic in my lane so I gestured to him to F*ck off. 

It seems when people have approached me, in the car park, at work (drove there once - mistake), gas station etc. they ask the same questions: "why doesn't it have a wing?" and "how much power does it have?"; the latter has been met with pure disappointment when I told the kid it's stock.

Of course, Japan was a totally different story, the people are a lot more subtle and have never bothered me about my car or have been polite in doing so.

Has it always been like this in Western countries, and what are your experiences? I just don't recall this ever, or maybe I didn't have a nice enough car back when I was growing up in the UK. I've taken the R34 out a total of six times since it landed and besides going to the Nurburgring area it's becoming more of a pain than anything. 

 

[joshuaho96]

In the US people definitely take photos. It's a lot of attention. I personally don't care but I drive pretty cautiously.

[GTSBoy]

It never really happened in Australia until more recently.

They first started coming in in the 90s and most people wondered what these weird looking cars were, and that's about it. There was a little bit of fanboi stupidity after F&F.

But more recently, now that you seldom see a Skyline on the road (because they have either all been drifted into trees or stashed in sheds and never driven), I'm getting regular instances of massive thumbs up and smiles, a few guys wanting to take photos (and asking politely!). It's kind of good. Makes me think I've done the right thing by keeping the car as my daily across the 25 years I've had it.

You still get dropkicks gesturing for you to do a burnout. Idiots.

Edited May 13, 2024 by GTSBoy

[Kinkstaah]

I mean down here I get absolutely nothing, and I'm driving around with a V8 version. I say "absolutely nothing" but the actual instances I can remember on one hand, and funnily enough were all in Sydney, not Melbourne.

Specifically one very insistent guy hanging out of his window, pointing to the engine bay, then giving me an exaggerated thumbs up.

That and one guy a decade ago who was an American who had clearly just seen his first R34 ever in person, and seemed surprised when I was like "Oh dude you'll see them everywhere" but this was 2010.

But 99.99% of the time it gets no looks from absolutely anyone, ever. 

BIG CAVEAT: SEDAN

[GoHashiriya]

17 hours ago, joshuaho96 said:

 It's a lot of attention. 

This is the part I was unprepared for.

I mean, thinking about it now, the first day I collected my car from the importer someone posted a photo of it on the highway to an online JDM page which my friend then sent me. I drove straight to the office to pick up some things and was immediately swarmed by about ten college kids -  "how much power" "why no wing" etc.

The next couple times I went out I didn't really notice anything, there was a "why no wing" at a service area at some point. Then during the fourth time out driving at the Nurburgring I got the "do a drift" - the bastard cut it out in this clip. The title in itself is a red flag.

As you may have guessed, I am not a fan of the attention. This leads me to wondering what to do with the car in the future; I'll see how this year goes and it may be garaged, which it mostly is already, or maybe even sent back to Japan  to also be garaged and driven occasionally on visits.

Fortunately my daily is as interesting as drying paint. 

 

[PLYNX]

Yep and yep ! Every time I now take out the R33 I get a lot of thumbs up as well, and my car was also a daily until last year.

Still get people coming up and asking about it.

A while ago the most memorable being a V8 commodore driver who approached me in the bunnings carpark and asked me why the were so fast and what kind of V8 it had in it.

Couldn't resist and told him they were only a straight six the same capacity as the 161 red motor.

The look on his face was legendry.

However the shine has gone off cause as well as the appreciation there is now a lot of harassment from other drivers in there VW/Nline/Ae86 with body kits or whatever the hell they are, while all I want to do is cruise.( well sort of drive with spirt )

I always try and get the hell away from them by driving slow, putting on my lawn bowling hat and leaning over the steering wheel to look as old fart as possible.