I first laid eyes on this beauty while at my first car meet at the famous Daikou Futo parking lot near Yokohama. For the readers that do not know what Daikou Futo (大黒ふ頭) is, it is basically a tiny island that has a truckers rest stop right in the middle of its very complicated freeway exchange that is only accessible by car. It is here that random car meets will happen and if you are lucky, you will see some of the most rare, and bazaar vehicles Japan has to offer.
The night I was finally able to catch a ride and go was no exception to this rule. Hakosuka’s, race ready NSX’s, drift ready cars such as S15’s and JZX100’s and kei cars with sound systems that when the baseline dropped, you would swear someone dropped kicked you in the chest are just a few of the cars that showed up to this event. After roaming around the parking lots talking to locals and military personal, I spotted a back of Nissan Skylines ranging from R32’s to the R34 GT-R. Being that it is near impossible to find Skylines state side, I naturally gravitated towards them. It was then I spotted Junya Nakata’s ER34 and was immediately drawn to it. At first, I thought it was a stanced out R34 GT-R and began to scratch my head. When you think of the GT-R, you think of the power hungry, aggressive looking ‘Godzilla’ that stole the hearts of car enthusiasts all over the world. However, this one was slightly different. For one, this GT-R was no GT-R but the ER34 GT-T. Secondly, it has four doors! This Skyline was so unique and yet confusing because it is such the opposite of what you normally see done to a R34 that I knew I was going to have know this Skyline ER34 25GT-T better.
The owner, Nakata-san, absolutely loves Nissan’s. In particular the Nissan Skylines and it shows with his past car ownership list. He has had three R32’s, 1 R34 coupe and his current car, the ER34. So, I jumped to the chase and asked him why he decided to get rid of his coupe R34 and buy this four door R34. His response was nice and simple after he laughed a little bit. “I wanted the four doors for the extra space”. Fair enough. I mean, he has two spare Ray Volk Racing Wheels in the back seat so his logic does make sense.
When you thinking of a ‘stanced’ car, you really don’t think of performance at all. It is more about the outer and interior look and driving around at 5 mph so everyone can see you. That is probably why its so hard for people to understand why someone would stance a Skyline. Especially when they see Nakata-san ER34 having to crawl over rail road tracks, find alternative routes to places even on Japan’s smooth roads, or pot hole dodge like they are land mines. Its just not the Godzilla we know and have come to love. However, Nakata-san has found a way to make people fall in love with his ER.
On the visual side of the coin, Nakata-san has replace the front bumper, the hood and front fenders with genuine BNR 34 GT-R parts. Thus, causing my initial confusion when I thought it was a GT-R. The custom made URAS type R and BNR 34 GT-R side skirts flare perfectly into his URAS TYPE R- Fender kit and URAS Style -L rear half bumper. It WOULD only be fitting that the roof spoiler also be one from URAS. He then had it all sprayed Nissan’s Millenium Jade which only appeared on the BNR34 Nur Spec.
On the performance side of the coin, Nakata-san ER34 is mostly stock under the hood. Altrack Equal length exhaust manifold, and the HKS wastegate are few things that stand out when looking at the engine bay. However, don’t you dare think this car is slow since the engine modifications list is so short. The famous RB25DET does live under the hood, and it desires to be pushed. Once the boost builds to around 9PSI, it will have you pinned snugly in the seats. That paired with the beautiful sound track coming out of the custom made Kakimoto-kai muffler makes this a intoxicating car to be in and puts the biggest smile on your face while blasting through the tunnels.
Nakata-san ER34 is lowered on Trust Greddy coilovers with custom Swift springs along with Ikeya formula front and rear upper arms partnered with 20mm extended Yura mode front lower arms. This provided a surprisingly firm and yet comfortable ride. Beautiful 19″ Yokohama ADVAN GT five spoke wheels wrapped in 235 -35 Nitto NT555 tires help give the car its stance look while showing off the gold BNR34 GT-R brembo brakes.
The same visual versus performance trend can also be seen when looking at the interior. No roll cages and backseat removals for weight shedding will be found here. Bride racing seats for the driver and passenger, Nardi Classic steering wheel and Defi racer gauges can be found inside this ER, but the car is still littered with creature comforts and gadgets. The factory console has been replaced with a Clarion NX308 aftermarket console with built in GPS, DVD and SDD slots. The rear view mirror has a been replaced with a wide angle rear view mirror with a built in screen that relays information to the driver in real time. It will display the speed, tell you when your about to approach speed cameras and even where police have recently been seen. Even the air conditioner blows ice cold as if your climbing Mt. Fuji.
Nakata-San has taken an already stunning and iconic car and has made it something unique. The fact that he purposefully built his vision for the sedan is simply astonishing and it will keep turning heads in person and online for a long time to come. Nakata-san would like to give a special thanks to Klassics for sheet metal work and painting, LM ADVANCE for the exhaust manifold installation and custom pipe making, and STRANGE for the automatic to manual transmission swap. You can continue to follow the progress of Nakta-san’s ER by following Zunsan Nation on Facebook.
