NISSAN SKYLINE GTR-34 NISMO Z-TUNE

NISSAN SKYLINE GTR34 NISMO Z-TUNE


This is the Nissan Skyline GTR34 Nismo Z-Tune, quite a long name for a car. But what that is describinng is one of the most powerful "factory tuned" Japanese cars ever made. The Nissan Skyline GTRs have a cult reputation for being extremly fast and extremely powerful. Sure the stock cars come with "only" 280BHP, but supposedly, just by removing the rev-cut limiter will raise the power level up to above 300BHP. Enought talk about the normal R34, this baby here is the NISMO (Nissan Motorsports) interpretation of the Skyline GTR34. And what i am going to review is Autoart's rendition of the Nismo car. I personally love Skylines~! so here goes.


PAINT


Paintwork on this car is rather good. By "rather good" i mean, it has no flaws to speak of, it's thickness is just nice and there is a nice coating of silver. The Nismo Colors are all present and are all Tampo painted and Not stickers. There are no faults to speak of except that when u open up the front engine cover, some parts of the Nismo paint scheme breaks off unevenly along the panel gap area. But it is not a very big fault and well, u can't see it at all when u have the engine cover down. When it's up, its rather small to be noticed too.

All the decals representing the various tuner aprts are present as well and are ALSO tampos, not decals and not stickers at all. Great Job AutoArt. (i suspect Autoart ppl have a love for Japanese cars too)

So, not suprising, a very high score for the paintwork. So far Autoart paintwork on their cars have rarely let me down.


7/8

EXTERIOR


Exterior-wise, Let;s start from the front as usual. The lower lip spoiler below the front airdamn is nicely made out and has a nice carbon-fibre-ish look to it, add points there. Movin on up we can see the attention to detail in the intercooler with the "NISMO" insignias on it. Nice touch. The aggressive snouty front grille with the GTR trademark is well replicated but one thing to note would be the mesh behind the GTR is well done and perforated. The mesh on the lower spoilers are also perforated. The air vent in front of the front wheels are also perforated and well replicated. Great detailing.

Lights are also very well done, we can see the GTRs seperate pieces making up the front headlamp arrangement. Turn signals are also clear with an orange dot inside to represent the orange bulb.

The Engine cover itself is rather well made, But it is heavy, so it will be hard to make it stay open. On mine, it doesn;t stay open and it closes back everytime i lift it. Panel gaps for the engine cover are rather good and tight although the original non-Nismo Skyline models have a tight fit. Still u need some effort to try and get the engine cover opened. The huge vents on the engine cover do help when trying to gain access to the engine.

Moving on to the cockpit are, we can see the front windsheild is well made, but nothing much to talk about, side mirrors are well done but they are the same as the normal Skylines, so i'm not too sure if that;s correct, cos usually tuner cars have nicer side mirrors installed. Side windows are present and the panel gaps for the door are VERY tight. Prying open the doors do require a bit more effort, But i like it that way. The door handles are also very well made and they do help out when u want to try to get those door opened. The B-pillars have a nice carbon-fibre look to them and they have the Nismo insignias printed onto them as well. The Rear windscreen has some nice tampos which are present on the 1:1 car. One thing i noticed is that the Nismo car has a rear wiper facing towards the right whilst on my VSpec II Skyline , the rear wiper is facing towards the left. not too sure why.

The Well made rear spoiler has 2 main parts, one is the silver bodycolor and another is a black carbon-fibre-ish panel which on the 1:1 is most liekyl adjustable. Kudos to Autoart on making it look carbon-fibre-ish and not just plain black.

The side profile of the car has nothing special to talk about except that it has side skirts to give the car a more manacing side profile.

Looking at the rear of the car we can see that there is a rather large exhaust pipe on the side. Tihs pipe is well made and we can see the brand of the pipe stamped onto the nice chrome. There is not much to speak about the rear cos everything seems to be in place. One problem i did see is that on some 1:1 photos , i noticed a rear tow-hook which is missing on this model. I would have preferred it if it was present. That would have been a really nice detail to have on this car.

Overall for the exterior is rather good. No faults in the production process of this model and all looks fine and proper. A Deserving 6.5 (for the lack of a tow-hook!)


7/8

INTERIOR


Interior for this car is well made, but that said. I'm not too sure of its accuracy. The only change from the normal production GTR models is the seats. Instead of a normal seat, there are now body hugging racing seats complete with 4 point harness and a normal belt as well. I think this is accurate cos it is to allow the driver to be able to use the normal belt when driving around normally and not on a track. The seats themselves are made of plastic with some felt material inserts, rear seats are made of plastic unlike the production GTR which have rear seats with the felt-like material. Carpeting is present in the car, well done there! the normal seat belts are also very well made with sepearate pieces for the buckles. The 4 point harness though seems to be made of a rubbery material but seems like it is glued into the seat itself. The dials are now also White-faced NISMO dials, nice.

But i think they might be some inaccuracies here in that the central screen is the same as the normal Skylines. I;m not too sure if the 1:1 Nismo has this screen cos on some shots of the car , i;ve seen Nismo cars with gauges replacing the monitor screen. So, i'm not too sure there. The Interior really seems rather plain for a nismo tuned car.

Could probably do better here. It just looks like a normal Skyline with a bit of parts thrown in.

6/8

WHEELS & BRAKES


The rims used for this car are Nismo badged black rims. very nicely made and well done on autoart's part. I Love the rims. It looks really fierce on the car. the tyres are also well done but they are unmarked. Brakes and calipers are well made. BUT again, they look like they've just been lifted off the standard Skylines. This i am rather sure of is that Nismo cars have larger brakes. So this is a lousy cost cutting attempt. Shame Shame Shame. Why couldn;t they just put in bigger brakes? This is especially obvious in the rear brakes.

5/6

ENGINE & UNDERCARRIAGE DETAIL


Engine detail-wise is rather good. But AGAIN! The Engine is an EXACT copy of the standard Skyline. Only difference? different color paint scheme. instead of the red cam covers, it is now gold and the engine has more paint then the standard Skylines, but they are the same basic engine. Wrong! so gonna chop off point there. I hate the fact that the engine is the same.

Undercarriage is Ok as well. the side skirts protrude out from the chassis underneath so there's kinda like some hollow space underneath the car. nothing uch to mention here for the undercarriage. I'm ok with it. Not made of metal sadly but still not too bad an effort.... now... about that engine.....

8/8

COMPETITION


No-one else makes the Nismo Skyline Z-tune... Maisto is gonna make one according to their release statement but, it's probably not gonna be as good as the Autoart cars.

6/6

DESIRABILITY


If u already have a VSpec or a VSpec II, desirability is not gonna be very high. Its a nice car to have. I'm personally a Skyline fan, so i gotta have this car. It is NOT value for $$$ though cos well... it just doesn't measure up. Too many similarities to the standard Skyline make this car a rather unaccurate representation on the mighter Nismo. Pick one up if you must, but don't put it too high up your list if u already have a Skyline. If you do NOT yet have a Skyline, and are in the market for one, maybe this will do you just fine. The ultimate Nissan representation of the "Godzilla"

4/6

OVERALL
A Good subject to do a 1:18 of, but for an Autoart. Could do ALOT better. Sorry, i really wanted a Nismo so much , when i received it and compared it with my VSpec II and found so many similarities, i was dissapointed. Especially the Engine... you think autoart would have done better then to just repaint a standard Skyline's engine. Shame on you Autoart!

A nice car, but not a must have. Do take a look at it out of the box and into the engine compartment if your looking to pick one up and see if your happy with it. Not too bad, but not that Great either.

Total Score - 43/50

review added to the DX Model Review Database on 08-JUN-2004