It is no secret that Hollywood is a fame-machine; raising the international status of anyone — or anything — that features in one of its many productions, to stratospheric levels.
In the same way that Walker, along with actors Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, were catapulted into stardom following the success of the 2001 release of The Fast and the Furious, so too were the cars that featured in the ever-expanding list of movies that make up the franchise.
Nissan GT-Rs, Dodge Chargers, Mitsubishi Evos — all at some point or another have starred along side these actors; and have subsequently captured the imaginations and hearts of tuners, movie-goers, and twelve year olds alike.
Now, at least for some of you more cashed-up readers of FastCar, the opportunity to own a piece of Hollywood — and motoring — history has presented itself.
The R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R that was one of the ‘hero-cars’ featured in the action-packed Fast and Furious IV, is up for sale in Germany. In the hands of Paul Walker’s character, Brian O’Conner, this mighty machine stood up to Dominic Toretto — played by Vin Diesel — in more than one adrenaline-fuelled street race.
Whilst the GT-R has been on sale for a few years now, the untimely death of lead actor, Paul Walker, has more than doubled the asking price to a mental €1,000,000 (£814,700). Not exactly pocket-change, but for that figure you do get a pretty ridiculous piece of kit to show off to your mates.
With a standard R34 GT-R boasting a not-to-be-sniffed-at 2.6 litre, twin-turbocharged straight-six engine, with a 0-60mph time of 5.4 seconds; it is hard to imagine this heavily tuned Fast and Furious GT-R to be anything but electric when it comes to performance.
Boasting features such as upgraded Nismo suspension, a Nismo NE-1 exhaust system, a Rotora Big Brake kit, Momo steering wheel, custom Volk wheels, and of course that iconic Fast and Furious styling, this car is nothing short of a tuners wet-dream. Yours truly is nursing a semi just thinking about it.
Whilst £814,700 does seem to be a ridiculous figure for a GT-R, even one that starred in theFast and Furious franchise, one can find solace in the knowledge that around 50% of the proceeds made from the sale of this car will go towards Walker’s charity — Reach Out WorldWide.
So, if you do choose to fork out big sums of cash in order to buy this car, not only will you come home with the feel-good factor that I can only assume comes with owning a car famous in the petrolhead world; you will also come home with the feel-good factor of providing relief to victims of natural disasters around the world.
Talk about a fulfilling experience!
Simon Davis, June 2014.
sjdavis1993 