SKY'S THE LIMIT

THE NISSAN SKYLINE GT-R was never intended to stay stock. While impressive in showroom guise, a standard GT-R is merely a blank canvas for aftermarket artists to create their motoring masterpieces, men like Kazuhiko ‘Smokey’ Nagata of Top Secret, Hironao Yokomaku of Veilside, Goichi Kitagawa and the late Hiroyuki Hasegawa of HKS and Michizo Niikura of Mine’s.

For many years Mine’s was the quiet achiever of the Japanese tuning industry. It didn’t build nine-second drag weapons, wild winged track monsters or neon-coloured Auto Salon stars, instead focusing on sensible, thoroughly-developed and attainable performance bits. In the words of Niikura-san: “We try to be as realistic as possible when we develop cars and parts … we don’t want to offer something the customer won’t understand.”

But what happens when Niikura and his crew let their hair down? The above quote was taken from an episode of the iconic Japanese video series Best Motoring, which featured the Mine’s 'Ultimate Response R34' GT-R. You’ve probably seen the clip: it features a couple of Japanese racing drivers – think of Manabu Orido and Keiichi Tsuchiya as Japan’s John Bowe and Peter Brock – uttering expletives as they desperately try to keep one step ahead of a machine that’s re-arranging their concept of speed, Tsuchiya commenting: “It’s so fast that even a dead man