This Is Probably the Worst R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R You Can Buy, and It’s Not Cheap
A YouTuber bid about $12,000 on this incredibly rusty R32 GT-R, and still came up well short of reserve.
I think we all know it at this point: Nissan Skyline GT-Rs are some of the most coveted machines on the planet. Plenty of rare and clean examples have fetched deep into six-figure (and even seven figure) territory, and it’s all because of the legend surrounding Nissan’s most iconic performance car. There’s no such thing as a cheap GT-R anymore, and this rust bucket of an R32 that failed to sell in Japan is proof.
As chronicled by Motive Video host Andrew Hawkins on YouTube, this GT-R found its way into the damaged lot of a local Japanese car auction. That said, "damaged" is severely understating the condition of the car. It lacks both a windshield and rear window, and several of its body panels are smashed in. It's also got a terminal case of rust, best exemplified by the rotted-away rocker panels and half-gone rear fenders.
The car isn’t officially listed online, as far as we can tell. The world of Japanese car auctions is like traditional auctioneering, only with a healthy dose of speedrunning. Instead of having an auctioneer and cars running across a stage, you pre-register, get a clicker, and stare at a screen until the car you want appears. Once it’s on screen, you click until the bidding stops or you’re out of money, and within just a few minutes, you own a car.
Hawkins hoped the car would be a cheap $10,000 GT-R project to ship back to his home base in Australia, but the auction blew past his estimates. He bid up to about $12,000, and the highest bid for the GT-R did not meet reserve, which was supposedly placed north of $18,000. Frankly, the coupe blew past any reasonable person’s estimate. There might be some real parts value in the ATTESA all-wheel-drive system and RB26DETT engine, but if the rust on the outside is any indication, the driveline probably won’t be in much better shape.
But if you’re brave, this car is for sale somewhere. Yes, you should definitely buy your dreams. Perhaps you can do better than this one.
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