Autoblog Night Watch: Nissan R34 GT-R Z-Tune
In celebration of the Nissan R35 GT-R spy shots that surfaced today, we wanted to take a look back at the king of the Skylines, the Nismo R34 GT-R Z-Tune. For the uninitiated, in 2005 Nissan wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their legendary coupe and decided to make 20 special edition versions of the R34. At that point, the R34 had been out of production since 2003, so Nissan went into the used car market, hand-picked 20 pristine examples of R34-goodness, all with less than 20k on the clock, stripped them down to bare metal and performed every manner of chassis, suspension and engine tweakery known to man.
The video above examines the results, as tested at the Nurburgring by our favorite eccentric Japanese racers at Best Motoring. A full article about the R34 Z-Tune can be found here, with a detailed technical analysis and lots of pretty pictures.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ian 1:14AM (10/10/2006)
He can drive... I can't get through Nurburgring on the lisence test in Gran turismo 4.. :P
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Whydrive 1:53AM (10/10/2006)
Who cares. The Prius gets much better fuel economy and has enough performance to meet everyone's needs.
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doglet 2:09AM (10/10/2006)
lol #2 thats a good one, i am assuming your joking
its pathetic that nissan rebuilt used skylines.
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Bob-o 2:16AM (10/10/2006)
I love the turkey blowoff valve.
And those tires sure do complain a lot.
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cars specifications 2:19AM (10/10/2006)
Whydrive, do you care about fuel economy when you have a car like that ?
http://www.auto-power-girl.com/
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Chris 3:03AM (10/10/2006)
Why is it so pathetic doglet? Because they're Japanese? The 20 cars were probably all from collectors who now have a 1 in 20 very fast GT-R instead of a 1 in 5,000 (just a random estimate number) fast GT-R.
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ryos 3:08AM (10/10/2006)
This video is awesome. It proves a few things too.
1. I've been playing too much GT4.
2. GT4's simulation of Nubergring is right on the money
3. This driver has the course pat down. The ride seems so smooth at a glance, but there are so many scenes in this video where I go "Holy shit, I'd crash the car [in GT4] right there going at that speed."
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Jamie 5:25AM (10/10/2006)
Great Post. The Skyline is an absolutely outstanding car - it still stands up today - be it a rebuild or off the second hand shelf. The driver clearly knows no fear!
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David Thompson 9:07AM (10/10/2006)
Is there anything from Nissan declaring that the 2008 GT-R will have an "R35" platform code instead of "V36" like the other 12th-gen Skylines?
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Steve 9:11AM (10/10/2006)
Man, listen to that blowoff valve!
Awesome video, by the way.
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nagmashot 12:13PM (10/10/2006)
You all realy think that ís a fast street legal car on the Ring?
This Porsche is a fast car on the Ring... it would completly run down that $170,000 Skyline...
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/1270abfc-413b-48ed-8aed-982a002044eb.htm
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MikeW 12:23PM (10/10/2006)
Maybe if the prius had some tires, brakes, or headlights? or rear suspension system that wasn't designed primarily to save space.
The prius is getting chunky, 2900+ lbs. the 'touring' has 195/55 16 tires. I was hoping for 215/50 16s and 195/60 15 on the regular prius(although the base wheels are wide enough to use that size). Dodge neon sized front brake rotors ~10" won't cut it, and rear drums just stink. H4 headlights are nice, on a sub $15,000 car, not on a car costing 50% more. The HIDs are worse, single beam reflectors, no high beams.
The virtual axis wiper is nice, but the old style wiper blades stink, and a full size spare wheel would be good, where do you put the flat one?
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tenaciousJk 4:18PM (10/10/2006)
11. Wow! _that_ was fast.
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Chris 5:35PM (10/10/2006)
It's a fast production car nagmashot, not simply street legal. You know, it passes all emissions laws and stuff.
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Pete 9:54PM (10/10/2006)
It's fast alright but I think a 997 Turbo will spank this Skyline. Also, I think the tires sound different because of the HICAS rear steering system
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nagmashot 1:11AM (10/11/2006)
reply to 14.
Calling the Nismo Skyline R34 Z-Tune a "production" car is the biggest joke ever...
a. only 20 build
b. all 20 are build on USED 2. hand cars
c. means Nismo has taken stock used 2. hand Skyline R34 striped them down rebuild them with modded parts from motorsport and sold them as Z-tune... for me that is a modded tuning car that is close to stock like the GT2 RSR from Edo competiton to a Porsche GT2..
look at the parts that went into the Nismo Skyline..nothing you find in the production model... suspension from Germany (Sachs) brakes from Italy (Brembo) etc etc...
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Chris 3:54AM (10/11/2006)
The Z-tune had to conform to all of Japan's regulations for the sale of a new car. It wasn't sold as an aftermarket thing where you can just do whatever you want to it within the boundaries of still being street legal. Compared to say a Mine's or Bee-R R34 GT-R, real tuner cars, the Z-tune is basically a Corolla.
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