"Wilsonic" (wilsonic)
04/30/2019 at 20:34 • Filed to: None
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"Wilsonic" (wilsonic)
04/30/2019 at 20:34 • Filed to: None | 3
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Imagine that you grow up admiring something that you are unsure even exists . You eventually learn the object of your desire does exist in real life, but it is very far away in a place you may never be able to go to. Then that impossibly far away thing lands in your backyard.
Its been a long time Oppo, and I come back to you now because I felt compelled to write about the car you see above. As you may know, the R33 GT-R LM is a 1 of 1 silver bullet built for the sole purpose of making much faster versions of itself legal to race at Le Mans in the 90's. My introduction to the car was not from television footage or a magazine though , but from a video game that had a huge impact on my youth.
When you play the first Gran Turismo, this is the first car you see. There is no explanation as to what it is as its released from its trailer in the intro video . From context you can guess its a Skyline, but its not in the Arcade Mode or in the Nissan Dealership in Simulation Mode. This racked my adolescent brain, wondering why the very first car seen in the game is such a damn mystery. You play though the game, knowing it could be one of many bonus cars. Then, finally, after every license test, after every championship, and after one of the last endurance events, the mystery is solved.
The R33 GT-R LM was such a tease and getting to it was an adventure. I learned so much about how cars handle, how to set them up and how too much power can ruin even the best sports car platforms . I learned how to enter corners, how to exit them and how to not hit the wall. And I learned a lot more about cars that I would never see on American television or in American magazines. And it was all in pursuit of this silver homolo gation machine of mystery.
But because I only knew the car from a video game, I wasn’t even sure if the thing was real. For all I knew, this was a fantasy car the developers threw in, a “what if” scenario of an ultimate road going GT-R. The internet would later confirm the car was real... and was kept in the very, very far away from me Nissan DNA Garage in Japan. And I said to myself “one day... I’ll make the trip to go see it.”
So... you can imagine my shock when I learned that the GT-R LM, along with a couple of other Nissan legends, would be at the 2019 New York Auto Show.
I get a hold of a friend of mine who also worships Gran Turismo as well as old Nissans and we make a plan in haste. He got the tickets, I met him at his house and we rode up 95 to go fulfill a dream. We get to the show, we haphazardly run circles around the building, we briskly walk by multi million dollar hypercars that we would normally stop and drool over. And then we come upon the best display of the whole show.
Stunned. Shocked. In awe. There it was, before my own two eyes. And as an amazing bonus, the R32 Calsonic Race Car was right behind it! Now I must admit, I was worried about whether the car would look good in person. I had only seen it on a screen, and I did wonder if the proportions would look odd in the flesh. Well, I can tell you that pictures do not do it justice. It looks amazing in person.
The bulging fenders, the impossibly low side skirts, it all looks perfect. Sure the fit and finish is a bit rough in areas, but the package as a whole is enough to make you wonder how you could operate the lift, lower the car and drive it out of Manhattan.
Then we found out we could go underneath of it.
To be this close to the car did not seem real.
To see little details that would never be rendered in the game made me feel like I had such exclusive access.
To be this close after being so far away from it did not feel real.
For our time underneath of the car, we were given little golden Godzillas in honor of the GT- R’s 50th anniversary. The Ford Lego-man was nervous about his new swagbag mate.
Because the LM was on a lift, you could see it from many other parts of the convention center. We couldn’t get away from it. Every time we glanced at it by accident, we would be lured back like moths to a flame.
As we took one last look at it, my friend contemplated whether he could live underneath of it, set up a fridge, put in a couch and pay rent. I reminded him the display was temporary. It was tough to walk away from the one thing you’ve always wanted, but we knew Nissan was not going to accept the lint from our pockets as a legitimate offer for the car.
However I do have my 1/18 scale version of the car and though I can’t drive it, the model does make a good friend for my new little golden buddy. Still, I may not remain satisfied with just having a 1/18 version of the LM. Seeing the car in person has made me think very hard about how I could build my own LM from an R33 GTS-T. Until I can muster the resources to build my own though, the R33 GT-R LM will once again remain just a dream .
ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
> Wilsonic
04/30/2019 at 21:52 |
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This is good Oppo.
Deltyn drives a meh car
> Wilsonic
04/30/2019 at 22:11 |
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This was a good read with good pictures. Thanks for sharing.
RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Wilsonic
04/30/2019 at 22:52 |
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Great write-up man! That’s sortof how I felt a few years ago! Growing up I was big into ‘50's American classics as a kid, mostly because Canada’s car scene echoes the US pretty closely over history (excepting some weird stuff we got from being in the Commonwealth...Canadian-spec Austins, other British cars...Ladas...a few Skodas, etc).
Around 2004, my first year of university, my automotive tastes REALLY changed to start liking what I do now, i.e. weird, small, basic European and Japanese stuff, especially Italian stuff, and ESPECIALLY especially FIATs.
I grew to have the classic FIAT 500 and it’s FIAT 126 sibling fall into place as two of my favorite cars but they just don’t exist over here as neither was ever really sold here (the original FIAT 500 VERY briefly and in small numbers in the US, but that’s it).
...imagine my surprise when I am driving home from an exhausting and shitty morning shift at my then crappy fast food job on a somewhat gray cloudy day and seeing TWO classic 500s (plus 6 classic Vespa scooters AND a Piaggio Ape, some of my other favorite vehicles!) outside a being-renovated garage less than 10 minutes from my house! I was SHOCKED, in awe and had the most massive smile on my face...couldn’t believe my eyes! I would’ve stayed and drooled for ages, but the owner wasn’t around and though I did ask permission from the workers to come take a look, I didn’t want to test their patience or their suspicions by sticking around too long. To this day I still drive by that garage hoping to catch a glimpse....the owners have a summer place here (they’re from Ontario) so all the cars are locked up all year and I don’t even think the 500s, the Vespa or the Ape are registered or plated, so they never leave that garage...sad, but just catching a glimpse of them brightens up my day and I take the longer way out of town just in case! :)
Nauraushaun
> Wilsonic
05/01/2019 at 06:50 |
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Great write up. Gotta embrace those passions. First time I saw an Autozam AZ-1 I was similarly shocked. Thought it wasn’t quite as built up in my mind.