On the Horizon: A BNR33 in the USA

A Skyline in the United States that doesn't fall under the 25 year clause? How!?

Well, once upon a time, there was a company called MotoRex. They made business by legally importing R32, R33, and R34 Skylines into the United States. However, it turns out they only legalized the R33, and were importing R32s and R34s as different trims of the R33 to avoid having to legalize the R32 and R34. Add that with stolen cars, Yakuza involvement, and failure to do the mandatory upgrades that the DOT had requested them to do, and that's how we get the entire Skyline fiasco that's been in America for the past decade and a half.

So, how you ask? Well, this is one of the few hundred R33 Skylines in the United States that's not in danger of being seized and crushed.



This R33 came to the US in the early 2000s as a legal import from MotoRex, and was sold to a doctor in Texas. Said doctor used this car as an autocross/track toy for a bit, and didn't do much aside from a single turbo conversion. Makes sense, right? Such a rare car you don't wanna do much to it.

Except, Harrison of Arizona bought this car, and he's had 4 years of his own time to do whatever to it.



As a point of reference, the car came to Harrison silver, and stock aside from a Series 3 lip and a single turbo conversion.

As always, let's start on the outside.

From an instant looking at the rear, the Nismo bumper immediately pops out, and the front end also carries a Nismo bumper. The car stays relatively modest higher up by keeping it's stock taillights and spoiler, but down and to the right the Top Secret sideskirts are poudly displayed in the Nismo Red color the whole car is covered with. Above the wheel arches are the Abflug fender flares, but they, like this car, have been modified extensively. Harrison told me that he had modified the Abflug flares in order to make them "go on cleaner." I say he did a good job!



From this angle, the massive blue calipers and the even bigger vented rotors of the Endless brake system are visible, the system proudly wearing six pistons on all four corners of the car.



On the front end the car proudly displays it's earlier mentioned Nismo front bumper, and also the JUN hood sporting AeroClatch latches. A peer through the windshield reveals a LHD swap, with a rather curious story.



Around late 2014, the previous owner of Harrison's R33 contacted him, telling him about a R33 parts car that had been imported from Canada, and asked if he wanted it. At first, Harrison declined, but he noticed the LHD swap that had been done to the Canadian Skyline. In my opinion, and in his opinion as well, it's one of the cleanest LHD swaps out there. So, Harrison being Harrison, he bought the car and ripped the RHD dash out of his Skyline, and put the installed the LHD one. All in all, this is already probably the most unique Nissan Skyline in the North American continent, and I haven't even gotten to it's drivetrain.

On the outside, there's only two clues about this car's heart under the hood. One of which is the plate reading "R33 900", and the other being the absolutely massive intercooler displayed through the Nismo bumper. However, this Skyline has had a ludicrous amount of work done to it under the hood.

For starters, the engine inside this Skyline is technically not a Rb26 by name. Instead, it's a RB28 due to it's 2817cc of displacement. Also, the block inside this Skyline is an N1 block. Harrison told me he would have preferred to get a Super GT "RRR" block, but he had no idea where to find one, let alone buy it. From the N1 block is the Nismo 87mm over-bore followed by the Brian Crower "RB29" 79.0mm stroker crank and connecting rods with the CP pistons as icing on the cake.

For the head, Harrison sourced an entire JUN auto head, and inside resides HKS cams that are unknown to him, it's most likely that the camshafts have been discontinued as a product. The magical device that takes the power from the crank to the driveshaft is in fact not magical, but it might as well be. An R34 Getrag gearbox with reinforced gearing and a Do-Luck Tarzan G-Box connect the engine to the rest of the powertain, and in theory the gearing could allow the car to reach speeds around 220 MPH, but Harrison's told me he doesn't plan on finding out, and I don't think he'll be a fan of giving me the keys.

All parts considered, on the highest boost and most aggressive tune this thing makes roughly 900 horsepower... to the wheels.



As of now, we know the power, we know the body surrounding the power, but what puts all of these things to the ground?

It's a doozy, I'll tell you that.

This Skyline with it's brilliant Nismo red color and it's monstrous power figures sits on Yokohama Advan Neova tires, which are wrapped around 19 inch Yokohama Advan AVS T5s. The T5s are attached to the set of Endless brakes I mentioned earlier, and those brakes on the rear are attached to an R34 subframe, with the other suspension parts also having been swapped for more modern components. Finally, the car sits on fully adjustable Tein coilovers, and sits at the 'just right' height to be as intimidating as possible. This is possibly the first car to truly inspire fear in me, and I own a Porsche known as the Widowmaker!

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