[This is a long post, hang in there]

I’ve been harboring a secret from you all for a looong time… I’m a closet GT-R fanatic. Since a child, I’ve always been interested in cars. My pre-teen years were spent pouring over automotive magazines, dreaming of one day owning a Porsche 959 or some other exotic. At some point, I started an interest in Japanese performance cars and still vividly remember a Road and Track article written by Sam Mitani covering some exotic Japanese iron including a green RX-7 (FC3S) with an overheating 20B transplanted under the hood. That article alone solidified my decision to buy a RX-7 Turbo II as soon as I could afford one, which sent me down to the path that led me to where I’m at today. Along the way, I fell in love with the Nissan Skyline GT-R, which I’ve kept as my dirty little secret. Until now.

It first started with a Gunmetal Grey BNR32 in old Option magazines. Shortly after, the BCNR33. Not everyone was a fan of the R33 but I always appreciated its potential. Then while watching some Japanese videos a friend of mine from Hawaii sent, I was introduced to the Hakosuka GT-R in the movie Battle King (a red one was driven by the father of the hero’s female interest/girlfriend). By the time the BNR34 came out (in Bayside Blue!), I was officially obsessed. Now I’m extremely fortunate to own some, including a white Hakosuka and a beloved Gunmetal Grey BNR32 (DOT legal).

As you can imagine, when news of the new GT-R (R35) coming to America broke… I was beyond excited. Finally, we had an opportunity to tune the Japanese supercar and see where we stand against the best of the Japanese tuners. I’ve long been interested in that challenge, and through pure luck, determination, or a mixture of both I think we’re ready.

To get a start as early as possible, I decided to go ahead and order a car direct from Japan. This way I could order the color and trim I wanted, without the risk of getting nailed with markups that now appear to be the norm for US dealerships. This entire process has been nearly a year in the making with a lot of planning, discussion with the US government to make sure we could bring in the car legally for R&D purposes, etc. Just so you know, we’re doing this 100% legit. Our GT-R won’t be used EVER on the street. It is strictly a R&D vehicle that will be driven on the track only. I’m perfectly OK with that as we will be using this to develop new product and test it on the track, which is what we end up doing with most of our demo cars anyway…

Enough babbling, on to the pictures. Here’s our R35 prior to being loaded into the container on route to America. We ordered a White Base model. The fancier seats, wheels and stereo weren’t worth it considering they’ll be replaced anyway.

Up next, loading into the container…