The legendary Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 that was driven by Paul Walker in the fourth Fast and Furious movie sells for a record-breaking $1.35m.
Arguably the last ‘grounded’ Fast & Furious film, the fourth installment of the Fast Saga often flies under the radar. But, looking back, it did feature some genuinely cool cars – like this Nissan Skyline GT-R R34.
In the movie, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) uses it to take on Dom’s Chevelle SS (as well as a soon-to-be-wrecked S14 Silvia and E39 M5) in a high-stakes street race to win Braga’s attention. Then, shortly after, it makes its way across the Mexican border before finally blowing up in an ambush. Well, that’s what happened in the F&F universe’s interpretation of reality. In our reality, this pristine ‘Hero 1’ car never endured such a harsh fate. Instead, Universal filmed all those action sequences with several N/A Skyline GT-Ts, each wearing East Bear GT-R body kits, while this car simply sat and looked pretty in static or slow rolling shots.
Now, if you know anything about Fast & Furious, you’ll know that Paul Walker was as much of a car enthusiast off the screen as he was on it. In fact, his own personal white R34 GT-R gets a cameo in this film. However, his personal influence doesn’t stop there. Walker drew up much of the specification for this car, overseeing its design and build process alongside Dennis McCarthy’s team of craftsmen. Even some of the smallest details – such as the white rear fog light lenses – came from Walker’s brain.
Fast and Furious Skyline price
Even without the Hollywood prestige, this is the sort of car that can demand a serious premium under the hammer. Recently, an immaculate stock R34 GT-R, also finished in bayside blue, received a price tag of £260,000 at a UK dealership! That’s nearly $320,000 at the current conversion rate. So, when factoring in this specific car’s cultural influence, and of course the Paul Walker tax, it’s no surprise that we saw a record price being paid for an R34 Skyline GT-R. The winning bid closed at $1,357,000 including premium, that’s £1.06m in the UK.
History & Mods
That brings us on to the next point of intrigue which is: how did this R34 GT-R get into the US in the first place? After all, there’s a 25-year import rule to get around, and since the fourth F&F movie came out in 2009, those numbers ain’t adding up. Well, in true Fast & Furious fashion, the people in charge bent the rules slightly. The car was purchased in Japan and brought in to the US – sans engine – by Kaizo Industries. Then, Kaizo sourced a separate RB26 to plant under the hood, allowing them to classify the R34 as a kit car, exempting it from those pesky import laws. Clever use of a loophole, that. Though, we should point out that, if you’re thinking of doing something similar, that loophole has since been legislated against. Boo!
As far as modifications go, Walker’s wish list was fairly extensive. You can find a full run-down of the specs here, but to give you an idea, this thing is running higher boost pressures capable of 500hp, with supporting mods such as an uprated Turbonetics front-mount intercooler and Nismo NE-1 exhaust system.
Now sold, be sure to have a read of the other GT-R content that we’ve got on the site. Click here to check out some of the best modified Skylines we’ve ever featured, or, for another Fast & Furious factoid, have a read of our GT-R trivia page. Oh, and if you’ve not seen the Fast X trailer yet, we’ve got that covered as well.
Photography by Jack Howells.
