Nissan Skyline V35 350GT Coupe

Ivory Pearl. The first thing I noticed about the car was the fantastic colour.

Interior is a really comfy place to be. When the car starts up a little hazzard comes on and a Japanese ladies voice comes on and says something to me. I have no idea what she’s saying but it sure sounds sexy! :lol:

Ah crap one of those dodgey foot handbrakes! I’ve already forgotten to lift it off a few times today. And what’s with the ION thing? I assume it’s the AC filter? And oooh yeah VDC off = ?

Slushy goodness. Works great in auto actually. Heaps of power everywhere. Bit slow to react on the highway when you mash it and the tiptronic mode feels silly so I’ll just leave it alone. What does the shift lock button do though?

Bose stereo with built in 6 stack CD player + MD player + iPod dock with wheel controls but FM only goes to 90FM (JDM yo!).

Super simple dash, almost too simple. Note low KM’s.

After the RTA raped me on tax I took some crap RTA carpark shots.

19’s look so small on it huh? At least they’re forged Rays rims.

Super fat bolt-on spacers would make a change.

Strange front.

Chunky rear. LED lights are awesome.

After selling the Jazz I contemplated driving the ED Civic for as long as I could. It’s a super fun car to drive, has AC and I’ve set it up to carry my bikes too.

All along I’ve been secretly haunting carsales though. I was looking for something that could carry the bikes (but since the ED Civic can do that I wasn’t so strict on this). I wanted an automatic transmission (lazy goodness). I wanted it to be powerful that could do 0-100 in 7 seconds (I’ve been haunting that 0-100 column in Motor/Wheels magazine indexes!). I wanted something I wouldn’t care too much about (shopping mall parking dings etc). I wanted some modern comforts (HID’s, AC, nice interior).

I’ve considered so many cars:

– R34 GT-R as a daily? So long as I didn’t mod it (yeah right) I thought it might have worked… but what about parking it in shopping centres? What about the paranoia issues? In the end logic prevailed.

– IS200 was on the list for a while, looking a bit old now but nice looking car, Lexus quality but not enough power.

– IS250, same as above.

– MX-5 NA or NC. The NC came close. I always did love Christina’s NC (I did love my NA more) and I often wished her NC was a manual. Punchy engine, great handling, roadster life! In the end I just didn’t think I was ready to return to MX-5’s again.

– Subaru Forester XT. Perfect for what I want really, but damn it’s so so so ugly.

– Subaru Liberty tuned by STi. I got so serious with this one that I went out and saw one. I saw this at the Sydney Motor Show in 2005 and it was a bit of love at first sight. I saw it in the carpark, perfectly clean inside, outside had some slight panel issue at the rear (nothing major though I don’t think) but the magic just wasn’t there.

– 350Z/RX8/M3/330ci they all did my head in.

I then stumbled on the V35 whilst watching a BMI DVD (hey it does well on Tskukuba!). I’ve always liked them from the rear, but not so much from the front. I’ve read 0-100km is 6.2 seconds and after spending hours on this 51 page thread on “what you hate about your G35?” I decided that interior rattles, bad blind spot and electric seats don’t have memory were things that I could live with (what a bunch of whingers!).

I hot carsales, saw that there were so many V35’s out there. Some were so cheap too and some looked a lot like dealer adverts in the private sales section. I considered an older silver one – cheap + sussy + wheels + tyres = done. After more research I liked the last facelifted models the most: Nicer interiors, nicers exteriors (no Brembos though so sad), newer car, projector HID. I considered the 370GT for a few minutes, even emailed an importer to ask if there was any way I could get one in way below the $50k asking price (time waster!) but $50k was out of my budget (this replaces the Jazz with the Jazz money).

So I spotted 2 2005/06 facelifted models which feature (over older models):

– Automatic but the 2005 auto models have the same 280HP as the manuals
– Revised front bar
– Revised rear bar
– Leather seats standard
– Aluminium (not plastic!) center console
– Bi-xenon headlights
– Revised LED tail lights
– OEM Rays forged wheels (19×8 fronts, 19×8.5 rears)
– Bridgestone Potenza RE 050A tyres
– Sport-Tuned suspension package
– Viscous LSD
– Drilled aluminium pedals
– Bigger brakes

One was a dealer but the other was a private sale. I emailed both and got a quick reply from the private sale. A few emails and phone calls later I had it all sorted and today I was out there closing the deal.

Previous owner was an honest guy, he recently had the car serviced and also fitted factory front and rear splash guards that he ordered from the US.

The car has not been modified in any way apart from an iPod control module that allows you to use the factory CD controls (on the wheel) to control your iPod. It also charges your iPods battery. He also had the windows tinted.

There are 3 key marks on the car (shame really, one of them on the drivers side is pretty long too) and wheels have kerb scratches but apart from that she’s super clean.

I’m super happy with the car, feels so great driving it around. She’s punchy and she’ll happily chirp the wheels before the traction control feels the need to kick in.

I’ve just insured it full comp with Just Cars and it cost me as much as the Jazz did (Jazz was modified though I suppose). I feel broke, but happy. New plates next then maybe coilovers, 20inch wheels + tyres.