The Greatest Collection Of JDM Tuner Cars Ever？!

There exists, in the centre of England, a small warehouse filled with the kind of cars that make tyre manufacturers really very happy indeed. There's more wings in here than Terminal 5, more horsepower than the Grand National. Welcome to Harlow Japanese Autos. Holy crikey! Being a bit of a GTR fanboy, I do feel like this is the kind of place that would be really dangerous to start looking at price tags. But I want to start with a really special car. Come with me. Now, this is a Nissan GT-R R34 V-Spec II Nour. Now, they made about 750 of these cars, along with a couple of hundred M-Spec Nours, which are slightly softer. This was the really hardcore racing one. And it was developed at the Nürburgring, hence the name. And it used to run a 752 around that track. Now, back in the day, that was extremely quick. You can identify them because they've got a nackerduct on the bonnet and slightly different bumper. But it should have, if I'm not very much mistaken, gold cam covers. And there it is. This is a real car. Now, believe it or not, this car was, you know, it was expensive back in the day. That is probably a quarter of a million pounds worth of GT-R right there. And yet it's not even the best GT-R in this place. This, however, is very much not as it left the factory. It's an R35 Liberty walk-on air ride. I'm not sure how I feel about these, to be honest. I always imagine the GT-R to be more about the go than the show. And this is completely the opposite way. And even though this is on air ride, you know, that is quite low. I get it. I just don't feel these in my soul. Well, hello. It's a Nismo S-Tune or Street Tune. Now, this isn't the fastest GT-R in the world, but it might be one of the most rare. This is Nismo's first attempt at making a really quick road car. There's only about 14 of them out in the wild. And this was basically a blueprinted car. So these cars came with about 276 brake horsepower from the factory. They took this engine out. They hand-built it to about 400 horsepower, which is pretty safe for an RB26 straight-six. And this should have, unless I'm very much mistaken, a little plaque. Look here, number two of the 14. Now, this car has got just over 8,500 miles on it, which means it is worth somewhere in the region of £680,000. But just to have one here is pretty spectacular. But that's not even the most expensive GT-R in the building, because that honour belongs to this. Now, this is a CR-S or Clubman Race Spec car. Now, in the hierarchy of R34 GT-Rs, there's a thing called a Z-Tune, which is absolutely mental price to this guy, and you can't get them anymore. So if you wanted something similar and as good, but not quite as expensive, you would go to Nismo's Omori factory and order one of these from a big laundry list of stuff. They would still be massively expensive, and it would still take three years to get one. The thing that makes this special is that a normal CR-S has a very special engine. This has one of six race spec engines, and this is number six. So they will never make anything like this again. That puts this value at somewhere in the region of £950,000, which absolutely blows my mind. Okay, guys, I think I found the biggest unicorn in the entire place. This is a completely standard R34. Is that a Supra? Ah, now, fourth gen Supra. I remember a bloke down my road had one of these when I was a kid, and it was in black, and that hoop rear wing made it look like something from another planet. This one's actually really, really clean. It's not perfect, but it does look really nice. And inside, it's got one of the best cockpits of any Japanese car. This one's a manual as well. And it's got the confetti Recaros, which are beautiful. The thing is, this thing just looks so of its time. I mean, these came out in 1993. They were around for about a decade. But one of the biggest things about this car is, very famously, a 2JZ, which is a 3-litre straight-six twin turbo. Bobble horsepower, really. I mean, they came out with 276 brake horsepower from Japan. But this is probably one of the most tuned engines in the world, apart from the small block Chevy. That's not a fact. I just made that up. The problem is, because of all this Japanese stuff being such fertile ground for tuning, I have got really confused and I need some help. So this is Arooj, who's actually one of the owners of HJA. Hello, mate. Hi, Tom. How are you doing? This is an amazing place. If you're a geek like me, I've fallen in love with several different cars, but a couple of them have confused me. So can you help me out a little bit? Yeah, go ahead. Like, what is that? So I'm assuming this is a time attack car. Yeah, this is a GT86 built by HBS Technical Factory. Full time attack car. Carbon roof, bonnet, doors. Running a HBS Step 3 2.2 litre engine. So would this be their demo car? Like, they've just chucked everything at it? Basically, the HBS catalogue thrown at the car. So everything turbos. How much horsepower? 630 horsepower. Oh my gosh. And it's lapped Fuji Speedway at 1 minute 45 seconds. I mean, that's really good. Is this all functional, though? I'm assuming it is. Yeah. For downforce, you've got this huge wing at the back. Everything's lightweight. Carbon doors, stripped out. So would this be lighter than a standard 86? Yeah, by quite a way. Despite being a lot fatter and harder. So what's this one then? Because I remember this from back in the day. Is this the real Sunline Racing demo car? Yeah, this is a very... Yeah, exactly. Oh, wow. This is mad. This is running a HBS 2.8 litre broker kit with a T88 turbo. Look at the size of the turbo. Oh my god. A lot of the cars were only for Japanese domestic market. Yeah, yeah. So for example, the R34, there's only about roughly 100 that came to the UK. Officially? Yeah, the official UK 33s were Middlehurst. Oh yeah, Andy Middlehurst. I remember he was like the British GTR guy, wasn't he? Yeah. So he brought in around about 100 R33s. So that's when they first introduced to the UK market. Yeah, yeah. Talking about an R33, what's that? Oh, this is actually built by Auto Select. So Auto Select, what made it? You don't see a lot of track cars. Yeah, they're a well-known tuner out there. They're high-response track-focused cars. I know that R33s aren't like everyone's favourite, but I think that looks really pretty. It looks really mean. Yeah, very aggressive. And actually works. But why don't people like the R33s as much as R32s and R34s? I think the R33, I think initially it was the shape. It was quite a big difference. The jump, the change of shape between the R32 to the R33. And then they made a lot of GTSTs as well, which sort of... Blurred the lines a little bit. Yeah, between the GTR. But they make a comeback now. Because people used to say they were a bit fatter and a bit heavier. And they've got a longer wheelbase, haven't they? So they were not quite as pointy as an R32. Exactly, yeah. But the tuners in Japan love them. What's that? This is a friend's racing. Is it as serious as it looks? Just under 1,400 horsepower. 1,400 horsepower. Ah, twin turbo. And they're not small turbos either. No, twin TD06, 2.6 litre. So that much horsepower out of a 2.6 litre straight-six. It revs to 10,000, 10,500 rpm. It's like a superbike. Still holds the record in Japan. So it's number one. This is road legal, right? Yeah, this is road legal. The market for really very high-tuned R34s is smaller than your collector, low-mileage examples. But there are people out there who want tuner cars, well-built cars. So there are collectors out there who are looking for these as well. I mean, this is streetable, but I can't imagine... Have you driven it on the road? Yeah. How is it? What's your definition of not bad? You could drive it. It's pretty, it's quite civil with the Hollinger sequential. You know, as long as you're poodling around, it's not too bad. This is kind of what I remember from back in the day. And those numbers were always, like, mind-blowing. Because, you know, a performance car from this age was probably, what, 400 was a big number? Yeah. And then to have three times that power is just absolutely insane. Yeah, back then when friends were doing it, Val's side had their 1,300 to 1,400 horsepower in their demo car. The one I want to talk about, though, is this one. Because it doesn't look that mental, but apparently this one's hiding a secret. Yeah, this one's very, very special. The tyres give it away slightly. Yeah, they're not normal tyres. So what, I mean, this is a beautiful car, but it doesn't, it's not that crazy. Originally, it was a white V-spec R34. It was built in Australia by Motive Garage. They completely overhauled the car. It's got an R35 engine in it. And that's not a standard R35 engine, either. That can't be an R34 transmission, though. It must be something else. Yeah, so Motuk's Racing in Australia. That's mad! They basically took the standard VR38 and they fully stroked it out. So it's 4.1 litre. V6, obviously. Yeah, and then they made it to an Albin six-speed transmission. So it's still running four-wheel drive. A lot of people thought they would have took the auto box and made an automatic. But no, they wanted to keep it still as close to an R34 as they can. In terms of four-wheel drive. Why would you do that? I'm in love with the RB engine anyway. Like, why would you put a V6 in it? It's not the thing to do. But I think that what they thought was to show what they were capable of. There were a couple of cars that had the R35 chassis and they've got the R34 GTT body. Yeah, plopped it on. Plopped it on, cut the chassis in half to shrink it and put the body on. But yeah, this was the first one that actually had a genuine BNR34 chassis with the VR38. I'm assuming this is pretty quick as well. Yeah, this is a 35 PSI, running 1,270 brake horsepower. Quarter mile, 8.8 seconds on the old setup. And that was with a slip-n-clutch as well. So like a McLaren F1, to give it some context, from roughly, what, 10, 11 seconds? This is like kicking its bum. What's your favourite kind of Japanese input? Yeah, for me it's the R34. I think it's just the overall package. One of my favourites is the fence. That took us about five, six years to buy. Actually pestering Sugiura-san in Friends Race, because it was his personal demo car. But that has got a sentimental value for us. And obviously, upstairs, the Jun Super Lemon as well. Is there a unicorn that you would really like to get a hold of? Well, we actually did own it. It was Mr Nagata's top secret Drag R, R33. That drove at 200 miles per hour through Tokyo Tunnel. You had it and it's gone? Yeah, we had that car. It's one we regret selling. If I could ever get it back, yeah, that would be the one. Oh, that's really cool. Listen, there's loads more to see, so I'm going to keep going. Yeah. Am I all right to just wander around? Yeah, you go ahead. Oh my god, more. You want to see something cool? Come here. So, just looks like a slightly modified Supra, doesn't it? Until you lift the bonnet. Is that an enormous single turbo on the straight six? Probably about 1,300 horsepower in this trim and it's road legal. But out the back is another reason, another hint as to why this is a very fast car. Can't get to it. Let me just go around the back. Because that's where you attach the parachute for laundry day. And the one-offs and Super Special Editions keep on coming. Casually parked upstairs is this R33 400R Nismo. 400 for the brake horsepower and R for racing. Bigger turbos, different exhaust, board and strokes, a twin-plate clutch, forged everything, different brakes and wheels and modified bodywork. Slightly less subtle than some of the street sleepers in this place, but mega all the same. And basically Nismo going all out on a street car. Zero to 60 in under four seconds and one of only 44 ever produced. It's another one of those skylines that people say is the ultimate, but the definition of ultimate seems a bit vague in this place. Now this will make you feel like you need a hairy chest, possibly with some sort of medallion. It's a Nissan 300ZX from the mid-90s. This one has a three litre biturbo engine like they did, about 276 brake horsepower like most of these performance cars from Japan. It's got a five-speed manual, the really cool Targa tops. This one's a two plus two, so there's a couple of seats behind. And it also has Velour upholstery. It's got satellite switches. It's got some extra boost gauges from Greddy. It even smells right. Ten out of ten, I would daily this. It's got 67,000 kilometres, which is about 43,000 miles. And it's up for about 23 grand. Three words, super, lemon, Clarkson. Now here's an oddity. It's a Tommy Kyra tuned R34. Now the tuning company was actually named after the founders, Tomita and Kyra, hence Tommy Kyra. And they used to tune all sorts of stuff from W124 Mercs to Saabs to the usual Primeras and Skylines and all that sort of stuff. And the weird thing was that Tommy Kyra had this little badge that was a bit like a turtle, and they made their own car called the Tommy Kyra ZZ or ZZ or whatever. And it was built in Norfolk. And yes, I did drive one back in the day. It was a bit like a cross between a Lotus Elise and a Renault Sport Spyder. But unsurprisingly, they did not sell very many. I don't think I will ever get bored of looking around here, but unfortunately, I think I'm about to get kicked out. But there you have it. A quick spin around a little slice of JDM heaven in the middle of the UK. The only question that remains to be asked is, which one would you take home? I think I know what I'd answer. There's a nitrous button.