This Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 was taken from this world before its time. Let us honor a moment of silence for this dearly departed car.
Few cars achieve the level of status as the R34 Skyline. The precursor to the modern Nissan GT-R, the Skyline was built from a two-door luxury coupe popular in Japan. In its fifth generation, the Skyline was powered by a 2.6-L twin-turbo 6-cylinder RB26 engine that would go on to achieve its own legendary status for its ability to withstand upgrades that push it well beyond the 320 horsepower that is normally made with just bolt-on components.
For this reason, the R34 became extremely popular in Japan’s underground tuner culture in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. The Skyline’s notoriety became such that even though the car was never sold in America, tales of its performance still managed to cross the ocean and inspire many car builders in the new continent.
A few people were able to import Skylines from Japan for use on American roads. This particular model is mentioned at the beginning of the video to have been converted from all-wheel-drive to rear-wheel-drive. For what purposes we have no idea since AWD usually provides the drivers with a more consistent launch at a drag strip.
Perhaps this Skyline is normally a drift car, which would explain the poor traction and the eventual catastrophic loss of control.
As you can see, the Skyline has a devil of a time putting the power down to the pavement even though it appears like this is a perfectly prepared drag strip. This likely has to do with the fact all that power is now going to just the rear wheels and that the Skyline is making more than the 320 horses than it was born with.
After a few seconds of what must be the most minimal amount of traction possible, the Skyline veers left and slams headfirst into a wall. Sadly, the footage cuts out before we can see the aftermath, but it doesn’t look pretty.
(via Carscoops)