The Playstation icon is now picking up a new wave of fans sending values north.
CHASING CARS Quentin Willson’s hot tips
VALUE 2010-2011 £10,250
VALUE NOW 2018-2019 £30K
Who would have thought a PlayStation icon would become a hot classic? The Skyline GT-R R32 of 1989 to 1994 – affectionately known as Godzilla – could crack sixty in five seconds and run to 156mph, thanks to a 276bhp, 2.6-litre twin-turbo six-cylinder. Nissan threw every bit of engineering it could at the third-gen Skyline and designed it as a Porsche 959 chaser. The R32 won every Group A race it entered, and is still among Japan’s most respected performance classics. With one of the best four-wheel drive systems ever designed and rear-wheel steering, the R32’s on-the-limit handling is now legendary.
‘Finding an unmodified Nissan R32 GT-R at sensible money might be a tough call’
Interest round the globe is growing as a new breed of younger enthusiasts remember the R32 as the car they spent hours in their bedrooms power-sliding on games consoles playing Gran Turismo or Need for Speed. Prices in Japan and the US have been climbing steadily and now UK values are hardening fast. The good news is that all R32s were right-hook from the factory but finding a stock, unmodified example at sensible money might be a tough call. The chassis was engineered to take 600bhp-plus so many have been relentlessly modified for more power. Low-mileage original cars are the ones everyone wants and collectors shun anything that’s been heavily tuned.
Performance Cars in County Armagh, Northern Ireland has a ’93 in desirable Gunmetal Grey with 56k miles, totally stock apart from coilover springs and with a ‘huge folder of invoices’, for a very reasonable £23,995. Tiny-mileage R32s are now charging towards £50k with the Supercar Clinic in Lancashire offering a mint ’1991, also in Gunmetal, with just 9000 warranted miles and bone-stock factory spec for £47,995. There’s a worldwide shortage of mint cars because the home garage is a rare thing in Japan, so many have faded and cracked interiors from the sun and rusty bodies and seams from snow and rain. Specialist Skyline dealers are buying up low-mileage survivors and there’s a steady low of imports coming into the UK. Look for an official Japanese auction grade of 4.5 or above and you’ll be buying an exceptional low-mileage car. It really is worth snapping up a proper GT-R R32 now before the retro-gamers put them into a second orbit. One day really perfect cars could hit £100k. And yes, the R32 really is that good.
