The Nissan Skyline GT-R has always been coveted, thanks in part to its forbidden fruit status thanks to the 25-year rule. As the clock ticks, more and more of these cars are becoming available in America, and the coveted R34 generation is already hitting these shores. There’s a pretty attractive example on Cars & Bids right now, but something’s off quite a lot add for this one.
The vehicle in question is a 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec registered in Gulfport, Mississippi by the seller HBWholesales. It’s a desirable trim and we’re told it has a clean Florida title and 56,200 km (~34,900 miles) on the clock. At the time of writing, the high bid is $100,000 with two days remaining. That would be a steal, but you’d expect the price to go up shortly before the auction closes.
However, dive into the numbers and things get a little curious. As the Facebook page notes Team Free Spirit, entering the VIN into Google results in some irregularities.
The car is marked with a new VIN plate with the inscription BNR34-001222. This is shown in several places, chief among them being Classic.com. This site lists the current Cars and Bids auction page, but also records a previous sale attempt by Collecting Cars in September last year. At this point, the vehicle was listed in Malaysia with just 14,724 km (9,149 miles) on the clock, with the note that total mileage was unknown – suggesting the vehicle did not have an original cluster.
Dig deeper and you’ll find a more curious result. A car with the same VIN is shown on the @wheelsporn Instagram account posted on November 1, 2023. At the time, the Indonesian account listed the car with 72,000 km (~44,000 miles) on the clock. Interestingly, in the past 21 hours the post has been edited to list the VIN as “BNR34-00xxx…”. The car also looks quite different in detail. The stereo, exterior lighting and intercooler are different, and under the hood there’s at least a different cam cover, intake and turbo. The mod list is also quite different, with the engine apparently having an N1 block, forged HKS pistons and rings, a Trust intercooler, a GReddy radiator and relying on an HKS FCON ECU.
In contrast, Cars and Bids lists the car with a rather different set of modifications. We’re told it currently has a Tomei exhaust and titanium pipe, an HKS exhaust valve, and a GReddy intercooler. It also has a Haltech 2500 ECU with a flex fuel setup, although we’re not given any dyno charts to show how much extra power these mods can produce. In any case, few or none of the parts match the Instagram post, and there’s no mention of an N1 unit or fake internals at all. Oh, and the car apparently runs on a Volcan battery…most common in the UAE.
Of course, none of this is to say that the car on Cars and Bids isn’t necessarily what it says it is. It is entirely possible that technical errors are to blame, or that the posts from Indonesia and Malaysia themselves are incorrect. The car could also be legally purchased and modified this year; some of the original lights that are included in the Cars and Bids sale support this idea. The seller claims he purchased the car earlier this year.
Regardless, the irregularity raised questions about the vehicle’s legal status in the US. That’s partly because not every R34 GT-R is legal for US import yet. If indeed this vehicle is BNR34-001222, it was manufactured in January 1999 according to GT-R registry. It’s already over 25 years in the past, so could are legally brought into the state. Commenters on the auction page requested documentation to confirm the matter.
On the seller’s side, HBWholesales does its part to answer questions on the auction page. As noted by Team Free Spirit, car photos and bids show a VIN plate that does not appear to be the original article, with typos and a different font than the factory example. This contrasts with an earlier photo shared by the seller of a worn and damaged VIN plate. The current seller also notes that they have contacted the original importer for more details on the car’s status and import approval. The seller posted an import invoice dated 10/25/2023 for the VIN in question from a Method Auto Group in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
“The seller was unusually diligent and responsive in dealing with us and trying to understand what was going on. He’s still looking into it,” site founder Doug DeMuro said in a text. “If we don’t come to a positive conclusion before the end of the auction, obviously we’ll just cancel it in favor of our bidders – but we’ve got a few days and given the seller’s positive attitude and legitimate efforts in trying to learn more, we’re inclined to give it a little more time for due diligence.”
This problem is compounded by the fact that while cars usually need proper import documentation to obtain a title, not all state DMVs will return this documentation with the title. If you’re buying a friend’s PT Cruiser, it probably doesn’t matter, but for cars on the verge of 25 years old, it’s a much bigger deal.
[Mercedes’ Note: Luke from Team Free Spirit does comprehensive dives on an imported vehicle’s history so that buyers don’t get screwed. The poor quality VIN plate, which is in a font not used by Nissan and has a bad typo in the engine/transmission area, makes you question the rest of the vehicle. There was no mention of a restoration on the vehicle until the VIN plate discrepancy came up. The question also remains if this vehicle is a 1999 or later, which would impact its importation status. Thankfully, the seller appears to be working hard to figure all of this out. – MS]
Overall, this is a good looking R34. However, until its status is confirmed in more detail, you may want to proceed with caution. Importing cars like these involves large sums of money and you always want to make sure you get what you paid for.
Image Credits: Cars & Deals
