By David S. Wallens
Mar 2, 2022
Nismo, Nissan’s performance arm, started restoring the brand’s famed Skyline GT-R models a few years ago. Nissan recently put Michael Krumm, one of its retired drivers, behind the wheel of a restored R32-chassis Skyline GT-R and then shared his feedback on YouTube.
[Nismo Will Restore Your Nissan Skyline GT-R To Like-New Condition, for a Price]
As he was just 19 when the model was released in 1989, he explains, he never got to experience a fresh, tight example–until now. “The impression was a little bit like time travel for me,” he says after driving the restored car. “It was like I was back to 19 and I had this toy in my hands.”
3/3/22 11:28 a.m.
Many, many years ago, someone brought an R32 Skyline GT-R to our office. This was long before they were legal. It was before all of the conversions. Like, this was a long time ago.
Anyway, once inside, something hit me: The interior feels a lot like my '92 Sentra SE-R.
Looking back, I guess that shouldn't be surprising, but at the time, I guess it surprised me.
3/3/22 2:53 p.m.
BTW, they are 3D printing many of the plastic replacement parts for these cars.
https://www.tctmagazine.com/additive-manufacturing-3d-printing-news/additive-manufacturing-sustainability-news/hp-solize-corp-provide-3d-printed-replacement-parts-to-legac/
3/3/22 6:43 p.m.
I guess Krumm is still employed by Nissan as a test driver? He fell off the radar after he retired from Super GT and the GT-R LM disaster.
He also wrote a book right before retiring, Driving on the Edge. It's one of my favorite driving books.
In reply to Larry :
That makes sense, it's probably more cost effective than tooling up for injection molding.
3/3/22 10:09 p.m.
In reply to j_tso :
The low volume makes sense here. HP Multijet Fusion and SLS from companies like EOS are rapidly driving down cost. And PA11 is likely an improvement over the plastics used originally, with a nylon that tends to be pretty robust. Not that it makes a difference from a performance perspective, but being bio-based is also interesting.
3/4/22 10:13 a.m.
PA11 comes from castor oil/castor beans which is the sustainability part but the types of parts they are printing from the list isn't big, its good marketing but the things they are printing is what everyone else is doing too, brackets and B side features.
3/4/22 2:46 p.m.
Overall, I'm just happy that OEMs are noticing just how popular some of its earlier cars are and have responded by reproducing parts and even offering in-house restorations.
I'd probably never be able to afford the program Nissan offers, but as long as it keeps cool old cars on the road, it's a plus in my book.
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