Welcome to another Nostalgic Wednesday! This feature car is one of my absolute favorites from Japan- the Mine’s R34 GT-R! This Nissan Skyline became famous almost overnight as clips of the car absolutely ripping ass on a Japanese track started to surface on car forum boards all over the world. If you’ve been hiding from the internet, here’s a refresher course:

Geeeeeeez, did you see how fast those RPM’s climbed?! Wow.

I love this car so much for different reasons. First, I love how Niikura san always keeps everything simple. His philosophy on tuning is right on par with a lot of other Japanese tuners- to modify only what’s needed, and to not go overboard. Niikura san started Mine’s (because it’s his) in 1985 with ECU modifications, and continues his roots by tuning ECU’s in today’s top cars including the R35 GTR.

Photo credit: Mike Garrett

The obvious theme of the R34 is not of maximum horsepower, but of ultimate response, usable power, and reliability. This simplicity works. It also stretches to the exterior of the car. The only clues to it being a true godzilla is the subtle Mine’s vinyl, front canards and carbon trunk and wing. Besides that, there’s not much else different from any other GTR in Japan. That does bring me to another reason why I love this car- it’s so ridiculously low, and you can even hear Keiichi scrape the front lip as he dips into the corners.

photo credit: Import Tuner

I also love how Tsuchiya says “I felt more fear than pleasure” when asked how he felt about this track monster. I can only begin to imagine how it feels, and hope one day my car can be half that fast. In the meantime, I can only daydream about this legendary car. Here’s another video (in english this time) that you guys may like.

For more info, visit Mine’s website!
http://www.mines-wave.com/

Till next time!
–David–
David@maydaygarage.com