Japan frustrates me. It really does. It frustrates, infuriates, and aggravates. It gets under my skin, and all because of one thing: the Skyline. No, this isn't another one of those requisite whiny tirades about how Nissan doesn't have the foresight to ship its peak performer to the States. No, I've done my time on top of that soapbox and have nothing left to add. Well, almost nothing.
OK, just one more word. There's a new development in what I've resolved to be a life-long love-hate relationship with the Skyline GT-R (love the car, hate not owning one). Anyway, there is some sort of luxury tax placed on all cars sometime (I've heard three years, but I understand zilcho Japanese) after the initial point of purchase. And it is of such an extortional level that many GT-R owners are willing to part company with their cars to avoid paying it. So, right now in Japan there is an overwhelming number of R33 GT-Rs flooding the used car market. I guarantee that the one you see on these pages is unlike any one of them.
For starters, the engine has been tuned by the GT-R virtuosos at Osaka-based Auto Select to the powerful grumble of 700hp. Though the car is street-legal in Japan, this R33 GT-R only wakes up for race day. The interior has been stripped. Body panels (such as the hood and doors) have been replaced with lighter and stronger carbon-fiber equipment. And the original seats are gone. Only the driver side gets furnished. The fortified carbon-fiber Recaro SPA racing seat is just one of the signs that this car is pushed to its limit more often than not. And if I neglect to mention any aspect about this car, just assume that it is set up for maximum speed. This is as much a street car as The A-Team was just a show.
Under the hood of Auto Select's GT-R, Nissan's RB26DETT motor hasn't just been massaged for the extra oomph; the block has been re-engineered from its very DNA. An enormous Trust T-78 turbocharger replaces the stock twin turbos, and everything else has been adjusted accordingly. Now, the turbo combination includes a Trust Racing Type blow-off valve, wastegate, intake manifold, and exhaust; an ARC M103 intercooler; and an HKS EVCIII boost controller. Both the block and fuel delivery system were upgraded to accommodate the blown air, and judging by the sheer volume of equipment installed, I know it must take gobs of talent to get everything to work together, much less kick ass.
So, what is, or who are, Auto Select? A good way to describe Auto Select is to say that the tuning shop probably has the highest horsepower-to-square foot ratio in the city of Osaka. The shop occupies no more than the slenderest wedge of a street corner directly off the expressway. "Small" doesn't say enough-I've been to Taco Bells bigger than this joint. Yet, Auto Select manages to chuck three lifts into the facility, all of them occupied with Skylines of varying levels of insane horsepower. Outside the shop, one worker is spraying down an RX-7, and everywhere you look is some sort vehicle with enough power to make you wet your pants in First gear.
The fact that the yellow R33 Skyline GT-R is the pick of the litter says a hell of a lot. It is Auto Select's signature car. It is never driven on the street-in fact, it was all I could do to have them take the car for a spin around the block. In the street, the bright yellow paint and the Auto Select carbon-fiber double wing get noticed. During the shoot, a pack of schoolboys on bikes rode past, each and every one of their heads turned as they coasted by. And the engine wasn't even on.