Shop Talk for
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Arvy B had PPE long tube headers installed at another shop. From the pictures below you will see that these headers were installed with missing nuts and bolts and the pipes were touching the driver’s side underbody. It was unbearable to drive:
In the engine bay a factory fuel hose that went above passenger side had been replaced with a fuel vapor hose. This is dangerous as only a factory, high pressure fuel hose should be used:
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It is #WaybackWednesday how about a nice little stroll down memory lane with us? In 2004 we were lucky to own a 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec. We sold the R34 in 2006 and never heard about it until 11 years later and a few days ago Sean from Import a Vehicle.com informed us that the very same R34 had resurfaced. And it was for sale. Yes, after all these years it still looks fantastic!
At the time we purchased it in 2004, the R34 was 1 of 11 Motorex Skylines that were fully legal to own/drive in California. The R34 is currently not legal to import into CA until it meets the 25yr rule (like the R32) in 2024, making this specific car rare fruit indeed. Sean even sent us a picture of the original 5/2006 sales receipt from Rob, found inside the car. This started the reminiscing…and the fact that I didn’t give our Skyline a proper send-off blog post!
From 2004 to 2006 we had an absolute blast with this car. You couldn’t go anywhere without drawing a crowd. It made all the right noises with fireballs coming from the APEXi exhaust and distinct BOV. It was Bayside Blue. Here she is, Bayside in front of (conveniently) the Bay Bridge at the Treasure Island Meet in 2005:
We attended many shows, always driving there and never trailered. Hot Import Daze 2006:
In October 2015 we drove down to Los Angeles for the car casting of Fast and the Furious 3. No, the R34 didn’t make it into the movie, but our friend Chad’s LHD G35 did! (Right) The R34 bookends the Z Car Garage display at the 2006 Silicon Valley Auto Show. I always find a way to squeeze my roadster into the shot, I mean c’mon…it’s an R34 Skyline GT-R!!!
Make no mistake the Skyline was not a garage queen either in our hands. At Sacramento Raceway in 2004 it ran an 11.2 second 1/4 mile! This ranks pretty high on my all-time favorite car memories:
Putting Skyline’s vicious ATTESA to the test on the track at Thunderhill Raceway in both wet and dry conditions in 2004/2005:
A short video compilation of the R34 in action. Don’t expect any HD quality, it was 12 years ago!
I asked Rob what his fondest memory of the R34 was:
“Just after buying it I was driving to William’s to get some paint correction done on the R34. On the freeway people were circling around the car and taking pictures. They had no idea what was going on with the driver inside though. Here I was in a car that I grew up pining after and now my feet were connected to its pedals and my hands were on the steering wheel of it. It was surreal”
I remember washing the R34 before it left for transport. I also remember driving it for the last time and ogling all its crazy features. What a masterpiece of Nissan engineering. It may have been supremely heavy and undesirable amongst hardcore Skyline enthusiasts but it was magical for us.
Thank you Sean for thinking of us and for making people’s dreams of owning rare Japanese vehicles come true. Good luck and we hope the new owner enjoys the Skyline as we did!
More pics in the gallery
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The 1972 Nissan Skyline we built for the 2016 SEMA Show is now featured in the latest issue of Superstreet Magazine. We are honored to share the spotlight with Ginash George’s Hakosuka and Chris Forsberg’s S30 all from the SEMA. The magazine is on newsstands now, enjoy!
We love to see our customer’s cars spotlighted in the media. Richard M’s 370z was recently featured in The Function Factory, check out the full article HERE. Also, keep an eye out for the latest The Smoking Tire episode where Matt Farah takes Richard’s 370z for a ride!
Brad M is a new customer with a 2009 G37 Sedan that visited ZCG for suspension work. Front tire wear issues resulted from riding around on Eibach sport springs without adjustable front control arms. In back, running aggressive offset Volk SF Challenge wheels with larger tires he was unable to control camber and have the lower ride height desired. We met a few weeks ago and came up with a plan:
We installed KW V3 coil-overs, SPC front control arms and Hotchkis sway bars. Those sweet Volks were wrapped in new Bridgestone S-04 tires, and he got an oil change/filter.
Stock vs the new front coil-overs and control arms:
Stock vs new rear springs/shocks and we also corrected a bad previous install of rear control arms:
Camber in check, car looks great now with an even ride height:
Installation of the front and rear Hotchkis sway bars with endlink detail:
Stock vs Hotchkis rear sway bar:
We noticed Brad was missing the hubcentric rings for mounting the Volks and installed a new set to ensure vibration-free driving. He was very happy and we know he’ll be back!
