So I took the Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R rental out a full day for a spin again a few weeks ago. I wanted to finally do a quick follow-up to my original review… as I had a more spirited drive on mountains this time around — enough to finally give a more informed opinion.

THREAD:

If you haven’t read that initial review yet BTW, you should check it out!
(Fair warning: I talk a lot of dumb tangents and even dumber humor on it lol) https://twitter.com/i/events/1225838337123966976

So, as with every wise person who knows better, I’ve been self-quarantining while working at home (and spending too much time on animal crossing). But a few times every month, I have to travel to & from far-enough places that i’m uncomfortable using public transportation for.

And if you’ve been keeping up w/my car hijinx, I’ve been renting more normal-ish cars for this purpose.

Tokyo’s emergency warnings lifted recently, and although i’m still playing it safe, I figured that I could at least give myself some “self care” by revisiting old godzilla.

So I rented the R34 GT-R again for 24 hours.

Since I was mostly babying it the first time around (with the occasional straight-line gunning from standstill on toll booths until up to 80km/h, lol), I wanted to let loose a little more now that I kinda understood its civil manners.

Also unlike last time, I finally opened up the hood and took a peek at the RB26DETT in all its red-topped glory itself!

I really could not pass this dumb photo op lol. i was playing the animal crossing soundcheck BGM most of the time too. i’m a nerd lol...

Since I’m still kinda new & naive to the greater Tokyo area’s more scenic spots, I went w/my Tokyo Xtreme Racer map instincts & headed to Daikoku PA after I was done with what I had to do.

I came an hour before the usual hijinx though, so this was what I was doing while waiting.

Impatience growing, i wanted to finally see new places. I decided to hit up my fellow gearhead Klange — as he had a better idea of the cool places to drive to.

I finally got to see his FK8 Civic Type-R again, but this time donning some awesome-looking Hatsune Miku graphics!

Unfortunately our chillout was cut short — as the police decided to close down the entire parking area. The more street racer-y folk were pouring in by the time Klange came; I guess the cops didn’t welcome their presence.

We quickly decided to head towards Hakone for the night.

The drive to Hakone itself took a while (not to mention kinda pricey from toll checkpoints — which I had no ETC card with me so I had to do the full stops every time lol). I still had tons of fun on the way tho’; it kinda felt like driving downward California’s 101 past Monterey.

After letting Klange carefully lead me thru the more treacherous one-lane roads approaching Hakone itself (which felt more like CA-1 cliffsides more than US-101 lol), we finally reached our checkpoint.

From there, he insisted I take the lead this time. Destination: Kowakudani.

And from here, I finally got to test the car out for what it’s worth.

To keep it simple: this car is no joke. It really is a fine blade on the corners. I’m sure newer sports cars are a lot more composed with traction control & all, but the raw grip on this car just felt sublime.

That being said, my friend was able to keep up with me the entire time despite my more spirited driving!

I guess part of that is because I didn’t want to REALLY overdo it, but also it made me realize that newer cars like an FK8 Civic Type-R have come a long way since the 90s.

I have to remember that an R34 GT-R (specifically the base model I had) represented the apex of mostly mechanical technology.

But I guess that’s why I’m so fascinated with the R34: it really was one of the best of that era before cars became much more drive-by-wire & automated.

We finally reached Kowakudani, but the toll gates were unmanned — with the actual entrance to the city gated off. So after letting our engines cool off, we decided to turn back towards Hakone’s checkpoint. With me leading again.

This totally felt like an Initial D challenge lol

After hitting civilization again, we decided to travel around the area past midnight... until finally taking a break at a 7-eleven right next to Lake Ashinoko.

From there on, I let Klange help navigate me out of the hakone area again (as mentioned earlier, the road does get treacherous at parts w/one-lane roads and a gutter separating the mountainside… with sparse guardrails on the cliffside). Saw TONS of street racers along the way.

UPDATE: Turns out i made a mistake on my destination/maps. in Klange’s words:

“We went to the Hakone Touge, took shizuoka prefectural route 20 south to the start of the Izu Skyline at Atami Touge, then took that south to Amagi Kougen. Then we went back north.”

I’m an idiot lol

(I can’t delete the previous posts without breaking continuity now though, I’ll correct this later in the “moments” link later, lol...)

Back to the story though: After our adventures in Hakone, we decided to part ways on our way back to Tokyo. Knowing my area in Akihabara fairly well, I parked again at the local carport space.

After sleeping, it was finally time to return the car the next morning.

I had a bit of time to go around before returning the car though, so I decided to circle around C1 AND C2... until heading thru Expressway 6 & back to the rental place.

I can’t help but state again how much i’m in love with Japan’s infrastructure that I got to see along the way.

Especially expressway 6: A majority of the road goes through semi-enclosed tunnels... which are so carefully designed despite being concrete. It’s unexplainable, but the civil engineering of Tokyo’s expressways is something gearheads HAVE to experience. I love it so much.

Next time, I’ll try to do a dashcam recording of the next time i go around the expressways. There’s tons of nighttime videos of C1 on youtube, but I feel that’s only scratching the surface of how awesome the expressways are here.

So now that I’ve pushed the R34 GT-R a bit more this time, would i still wanna own one?

In a heartbeat: YES. With a few caveats.

As mentioned earlier: newer sports cars have come a long way since. But it is no secret that they’re muddied with automation.

The R34 GT-R was in that cusp of starting to embrace new technology (especially with the 4WD system on the Vspec models), but it was still rooted to relying on refined mechanicals itself (e.g. manual transmission, no electronic traction control unlike the R35 etc).

Granted, I’m sure newer sports cars would TROUNCE an R34 GT-R nowadays. But I would still pick this car in a heartbeat. Hopefully still in pristine shape even.

The only modern thing I’d add though? A backup camera. Especially if i’m expected to keep it in the Akihabara area, lol