Photography by Peter Kelly
This Kiwi Skyline is not too hot and not too cold - it鈥檚 just right
To you, mid-July probably conjures up fond memories of long summer days, cold beers by the lake and barbeques in the back yard, but all the way down here in New Zealand? July is the worst.
July, for us, means mid-winter (being in the Southern Hemisphere and all), and it isn鈥檛 even the fun type of white-out winter like you get; it鈥檚 more of a grey and dull time of year that brings a damp, oppressive cold that you just can鈥檛 seem to shake and seemingly endless bouts of sideways rain punctuated with weekly storms. As you could imagine, it鈥檚 just about the worst time of year to be out photographing cars, but sometimes, when a subject just ticks all the right boxes, it鈥檚 worth packing up the camera gear and leaving the warm embrace of the office.
This is how I found myself standing in the middle of a deserted industrial area in Auckland one Sunday afternoon, soaking wet and freezing cold. My car was beached with a flat tire, there was yet another rain storm fast approaching, and I was rapidly running out of daylight. Everything seemed to be saying 鈥渏ust give up and go home,鈥� but I wasn鈥檛 taking the hint, not with the sound of Dustin Ng鈥檚 1998 ER34 Skyline sedan approaching at what sounded like a great rate of knots. There was no mistaking the distinctive Toyota 2JZ bark, nor the sound of a big 60-mm Tial wastegate dumping exhaust gasses as the three-liter six came into boost somewhere a few streets over.
Dustin鈥檚 ER34 soon rounded the corner and pulled up alongside. Needing to work quickly before the next rain storm settled in, I almost didn鈥檛 have time to take a moment and appreciate the Skyline - almost. A true street car, the aesthetically simple ER34 finds a perfect balance without swinging too far one way or the other - power, handing, usability, looks and cost. It鈥檚 subtle, yet aggressive. It鈥檚 comfortable, yet fast.
鈥淎fter building my Evo-powered Mitsubishi Mirage race car, I wanted something I could get more use out of,鈥� Dustin, who operates a motorsport-focused workshop in Auckland, explains. 鈥淭he Mirage was 500 horsepower and 1,250 kilograms (2,760 pounds), but was terrible to drive on the road and only had two seats. The original idea for this car was to build something interesting on a budget that I could use to tow the Mirage to the track and enjoy with mates.鈥�
An ER34 Skyline sedan fit the bill perfectly, and as an added bonus, they're cheap and plentiful with plenty of aftermarket support here in New Zealand.
鈥淎ny Toyota sedan is either ugly or has a huge price tag in comparison,鈥� says Dustin. 鈥淚 like the R34 front and low roofline, but don't like the flat rear guards. I first bought a cheap crashed car, but it was too far gone, so I found another base model GT that was missing a few parts. I took it to a panel beater to shape the rear guards into the wider GT-R style, but to be honest, the guards came out looking terrible so I started again with new panel beaters, GT Refinishers. I drove in with a pair of R35 wheels sticking two inches out of the guards and drove out with them nicely tucked under fresh all-steel guards.鈥�
In a similar fashion, the front end of the R34 stays away from fiberglass - Dustin wanted it to look right. After plenty of searching, he eventually found an entire genuine R34 GT-R front end, which once matched with a custom set of side skirts and rear lip, was coated in a factory Mazda deep red hue. To finish off the look, Dustin runs a set of massive R35 GT-R wheels.
鈥淚 liked the look of the factory Rays Engineering wheels and wanted something other people wouldn't have,鈥� Dustin says. 鈥淚 found a full set at a race workshop that was building an enduro GT-R, and as they were also upgrading the brakes I picked up the R35 Brembos too - big wheels need big brakes.鈥�
Although it鈥檚 very common to see super aggressively styled cars here in New Zealand, especially of the rear-wheel-drive Nissan variety, that was never the path that Dustin wanted to go down for his ER34. 鈥淚 wanted to build the car like you鈥檇 build a good hot rod. It鈥檚 made better in every aspect, but it鈥檚 sometimes hard to tell how.鈥� Also in keeping with the traditional hot rod ethos, wherever possible Dustin has used parts from other vehicles, only resorting to the aftermarket if there was no better option. Most obviously, that includes the Toyota 2JZ sitting between the front Tein Flex coilovers.
In a land where Nissan鈥檚 RB motor is equal measure plentiful, cheap, and very well developed, why would Dustin cross-breed manufacturers by running a Toyota engine in a Nissan chassis?
鈥淚t鈥檚 the best of both worlds,鈥� says Dustin. 鈥淭o build an RB that makes reliable horsepower requires a lot of love and isn鈥檛 cheap. 2JZs sound amazing, have variable cam timing and can make the power much easier - plus the swap was very easy. I had the motor bolted up in a single night. I was never chasing big power for this build, but in normal 2JZ fashion it made big numbers without much stress.鈥�
Aside from a set of 278 10-degree lift cams, the motor is internally stock, but still easily strong enough to handle the 591 horsepower at the wheels supplied by a Garrett GTX 35/82 - a versatile turbo that is cheap and easy to find in wrecking yards across New Zealand, thanks to Ford Australia using it on its excellent four-liter straight-six Barra motors, as found in the ubiquitous Ford Falcon XR6T.
Backed up by a Getrag V160 six-speed Supra gearbox, the motor pushes its power out to the rear 285-wide Falkens via a GT-R diff and axles, which while strong, does present some challenges due to the ratio.
鈥淭he rear diff has a 4.1 final drive, while the Supra鈥檚 is 3.2, so the lower gears are not great for traction, but at 100-kilometers-an-hour (62 mph) in sixth, you put your foot down and it puts you in the back of your seat instantly,鈥� Dustin grins. 鈥淭he low-down torque with a smooth six cylinder and VVTi making boost at 1,300 rpm also make it nice to cruise, so providing you ease on the throttle around town, it鈥檚 fine. Stomp on it though, and it goes straight to red line.鈥�
Even with a car full of people - sitting comfortably on modified Mitsubishi Evo seats front and rear - the R34 absolutely hauls and handles, and that鈥檚 part of what makes this car so great. Often the more time and money we spend on cars, the less we get to use and enjoy them, but Dustin has his racecar for that; this machine is built to strike the perfect balance of what a good street car should be.
Sure, there鈥檚 a bevy of far more extreme vehicles floating around my fair country that I could have also shown you, but Dustin鈥檚 R34 sedan is, to me at least, the embodiment of a perfectly balanced build. It sits directly in that 鈥済oldilocks zone鈥� of speed, looks, practicality, and drivability, all without being crammed full of a catalogue鈥檚 worth of mega-dollar aftermarket parts.
Sure, my camera gear may have needed a few days next to the heater to dry out afterwards, and I鈥檓 pretty sure I ended up with pneumonia for my troubles, but after watching Dustin鈥檚 ER34 slide down the street in the pouring rain, plumes of water spraying off the rear treads and flames licking the bumper as he made a break for home, I鈥檒l happily say it; I regret nothing.
Related Articles
PAS365 Podcast: SEMA 2024 Live - Part 2
Throwback: 5 MORE Vehicles from 香蕉视频直播 in 2009
Toyo Tires Unveils New Proxes Sport 2
Yokohama Tire GEOLANDAR M/T G003 SxS
KW Suspensions Releases V5 Coilovers for 2012-2017 SRT Viper
DC Sports Muffler Delete for Subaru WRX/STi