From the game into reality: is it worth buying Nissan Skyline R34

Nissan Skyline – this is probably the case when, despite good reliability, the main driver of success was not even she, but sports status. “Skye”, generation after generation, received coupe versions with a clear bias towards the idea of ​​a “driver’s car”, gained popularity among fans of active driving, participated in races – official and street – and at the same time retained their concept, one of the key elements of which were inline six-cylinder motors.
Despite the fact that at the mention of the name Skyline, most recalls an exceptionally wide coupe with four red circles of the rear lights, which became its original calling card, the car was also produced in the sedan. And in spite of the fact that in this form, it somewhat loses in aggressiveness, as well as in elegance (for example, the doors here are very ordinary, unlike the frameless ones in a coupe), the characteristic features of the exterior, along with the row “six”, cannot be taken away from him. By the way, those who are willing to sacrifice a spectacular appearance for practicality may look at the related models in the face of Laurel and Stagea: these sedans and station wagons are not technically identical to Skyline, but also got six-cylinder engines and even four-wheel drive.
Considering that the release of the Skyline in the body of the R34 began in 1999, the oldest copies are already preparing to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, which means that there is no reason to hope for an ideal body condition when buying. However, given the notorious status of the model as a car for an active and very active drive, the chance to find traces of body repair (quality and not very good) is even higher than finding large and old hot spots of corrosive decomposition. You shouldn’t be afraid of the body repair itself, but at least it’s worthwhile to figure out the vehicle’s biography: cars restored after the “total” or collected from several pieces do not need to be included in the list of potential purchases. The minimum requirements are simple: the layer of putty on painted elements should be small, the geometry of the body should be correct, and the welds on the bearing elements should be absent.
What Mark II deserved such popularity? Everything is quite simple here: really successful construction, high factory reliability with virtually no weak points, as well as a good level of equipment – this is the key to success …
The latter, by the way, also applies to the peculiarities of importing cars from Japan – we already mentioned this in the story about choosing the Toyota Mark II. Particularly economical resellers imported cars in the form of “cuts” or “designers”, and the first option is an extremely risky acquisition, given that we are talking about a car that they are going to drive actively, and sometimes even aggressively. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the body for the presence of welds in the area of ​​the engine shield and rear pillars. In addition, import duties, which became tougher after 2008, made it even more unprofitable to import cars with full customs clearance, so most of the cars that arrived at this time are just “sawn”. This also needs to be considered when choosing, specifying the date of import of the car in Russia.
Motors Skyline – this in itself is something for which you can love. We have already said that the list includes only inline six-cylinder units, and now briefly go through all the available options. All of them belong to the RB family, and specific characteristics can be understood already from the notation. For example, in the base RB20DE two liters of volume (index 20), two camshafts in the cylinder head (D – dual overhead cam) and electronic injection control (E – electronic fuel injection control). It produces 153 hp and 186 Nm of torque, and this is the weakest version found on the model. The following RB25DE, as it is easy to guess, already has 2.5 liters of displacement, as well as 197 hp and 255 Nm of torque, and the RB25DET differs from it by the presence of a turbine (T – turbocharged) and a return of 280 hp and 343 Nm.
All of these motors have a cast-iron block and an aluminum cylinder head, and the timing belt is driven by a belt. Since 1993, the 2.5-liter engines began to equip the system with variable valve timing VTC, but for the RB series they were used only at the inlet. In addition, it is worth noting that only NEO motors were installed on this Skyline generation, which received a number of changes in the cylinder head: from the important ones from the service point of view, it is worth noting a more “hot” thermostat, as well as the rejection of hydraulic compensators – the valves are driven by conventional tappets and it needs periodic adjustment. In general, the engines have proven to be reliable, and they have no “childhood diseases”.