Is now a good time

[Jairn01]

Evening fellow R chassis enthusiests.

I'm currently in a back and forth discussion with myself going further with my 34 gt coupe 

Overall the car is a genuine example of a clean, well maintained r34. Not show car spec by any means but presents and drives great.

question is, given that prices are going throught the Roof (nearly tripled since i bought my first 34 GTT in 2015) and have no signs of stopping anytime soon..(US market bla bla bla)....would it be less frowned apon now to swap the drive train out for gtt spec?  I just don't want to get caught out selling what I have now and not being able to purchase the better model because there is none for sale or because theyve slipped too far out my price range to quickly..

Sorry for the rant...just can't seem to make up my mind for myself

Edited May 4, 2020 by Jairn01

[joshuaho96]

Generally speaking I don't recommend doing a drivetrain swap vs just buying the trim you want. The cost of buying a clean R34 GTT is likely to be less than the cost of doing a proper swap. This is doubly true for anything that involves bodywork.

[GTSBoy]

Why swap to another Neo6 when you could put a V8 in it?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Barra swap it, Americans will masturbate for years over it. Then when you get bored of it, it's going to be worth heaps when sell it to those yanks.

Sounds like a great plan.

[nouveau_poor]

Can confirm Americans will sell their kidney for anything with the numbers 3 and 4 in the model number. Even more if you have a Paul Walker sticker/reference on it 

[Kinkstaah]

The difference between the (very very few) on carsales looks to be about 10K.

Will 10K cover a gearbox/ECU/Engine swap/tune?

I reckon not, not really, and there's other issues (diff, sensors, also the hassle of doing this).

I say buy that cleanish 20K R34 GTT
https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/1999-nissan-skyline-25gt-t-r34-manual/SSE-AD-6532178/?Cr=2

Then sell R34 GT off to a P plater.

Future you would be happier.

[Jairn01]

53 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

The difference between the (very very few) on carsales looks to be about 10K.

Will 10K cover a gearbox/ECU/Engine swap/tune?

I reckon not, not really, and there's other issues (diff, sensors, also the hassle of doing this).

I say buy that cleanish 20K R34 GTT
https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/1999-nissan-skyline-25gt-t-r34-manual/SSE-AD-6532178/?Cr=2

Then sell R34 GT off to a P plater.

Future you would be happier.

I appreciate the feedback, and everything that has been mentioned so far has been going through my head.....aside from swapping in an 8, that's just not gonna happen.

As for the cost, I can get ahold of essientally a complete half cut GTT for roughly 5k minus the tailshaft and rear subframe/diff ect. 

And that's where I'm at an impasse.....I could probably get 12k for the GT as it sits....+5k for the half cut I have ready for the swap, adds up to 17k - Just shy of what's needed to buy a decent GTT and that's if there's any for sale at the time....there's becoming less and less for sale, the want adds are increasingly outweighing the for sale adds.

[GTSBoy]

A GT converted to a turbo is not a GTT.

A GTT front cut is good spares for a GTT.

A gap of a few grand between the cost to build "a half-arsed never gunna be a real GTT" and just buying one, does not seem like a saving worth making. If the GT had a whole pile of parts on it that you couldn't bare to part with, you could still bring many of them over to a freshly bought GTT.

An engine conversion on a GT might as well be "a bloody good one", rather than just slipping in the GTT motor. Why not go for broke if considering a transplant? No-one would consider a GT with a V8 transplanted into to it to be a bad thing. Or a 20B. Well, OK, there's reasons to not like putting a rotary into anything. But it would still be cool. Whereas dropping a 25DET in it is a cop out.

 

[Jairn01]

7 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

A GT converted to a turbo is not a GTT.

A GTT front cut is good spares for a GTT.

A gap of a few grand between the cost to build "a half-arsed never gunna be a real GTT" and just buying one, does not seem like a saving worth making. If the GT had a whole pile of parts on it that you couldn't bare to part with, you could still bring many of them over to a freshly bought GTT.

An engine conversion on a GT might as well be "a bloody good one", rather than just slipping in the GTT motor. Why not go for broke if considering a transplant? No-one would consider a GT with a V8 transplanted into to it to be a bad thing. Or a 20B. Well, OK, there's reasons to not like putting a rotary into anything. But it would still be cool. Whereas dropping a 25DET in it is a cop out.

 

I understand where you're coming from, in the sense that at the end of the day it will still be a GT no matter what I do to it. I'm not trying to pretend it will be somthing it just isn't.

And as for converting it to a ford/Holden/wankel/jz just isn't even a thought in my head, it'll be a neoT/rb26 or i just wont do it.

The whole point of this post is to see if people may consider it to be a financially realistic option given how rapidly these cars are jumping in price, but I've gotten the general vibe and now I'll just look to try put a few extra pennies away as quickly as possible before the inevitable happens, cheers

?

[Kinkstaah]

30 minutes ago, Jairn01 said:

I appreciate the feedback, and everything that has been mentioned so far has been going through my head.....aside from swapping in an 8, that's just not gonna happen.

As for the cost, I can get ahold of essientally a complete half cut GTT for roughly 5k minus the tailshaft and rear subframe/diff ect. 

And that's where I'm at an impasse.....I could probably get 12k for the GT as it sits....+5k for the half cut I have ready for the swap, adds up to 17k - Just shy of what's needed to buy a decent GTT and that's if there's any for sale at the time....there's becoming less and less for sale, the want adds are increasingly outweighing the for sale adds.

If it instantly appeared with no stress, and cost $0, you'd be 3k ahead. But I've been down this path and it doesn't cost $0, and doesn't create 0 stress.

Realistically is a stock R34 GTT worth 20K? No not really, you can buy plenty of better (stock) cars for that money. At some point "sensible" is not applicable to these things and its all $ -> Personal, subjective enjoyment

[GTSBoy]

If you want that car to be a turbo.....just add a turbo. Pretend that the GTT never existed (except for perhaps needing a gearbox, diff and brakes from one!) and just treat it as if it was any other NA RWD car that didn't have a turbo option.

The above suggestion is also slightly sarcastic, because I also generally tend to advise against that choice when you can just go out and buy a turbo version of the same car anyway. But it's a perfectly fine way to turn a GT into a turbo car.

Otherwise, what Greg says above is all true. There is no financial sense in any of these ideas. So just choose how you wish to piss your money up against the wall and get to it.

[Jairn01]

@Kinkstaah as a former workshop mechanic and tyre fitter, can confirm that 20k will in fact get you in the seat of some really fun cars, but for me it's more sentiment than anything, I genuinely enjoy the way these chassis' drive and handle

Edited May 5, 2020 by Jairn01

[UWISSH!]

Make up a list of all parts that are different/ better between the na and turbo model, then work out what each one will cost to buy and install if it needs to be upgraded. Then factor in more costs for when things don’t go exactly to plan

then think about the legality/ insurance side of things. Will your insurance cover a turbo converted car in the case of an accident? 
i personally  would not do it unless you have some strange emotional attachment to the car.

 

[Murray_Calavera]

My 2c

This is only ever worth it if you skip the stock GTT step, e.g. put in a forged RB25, big highmount turbo, big aftermarket brakes, etc etc

Install parts that if you had a stock GTT, you'd end up replacing anyway. 

Go big or buy a real GTT and leave it stock. 

[trel]

5 hours ago, Murray_Calavera said:

My 2c

This is only ever worth it if you skip the stock GTT step, e.g. put in a forged RB25, big highmount turbo, big aftermarket brakes, etc etc

Install parts that if you had a stock GTT, you'd end up replacing anyway. 

Go big or buy a real GTT and leave it stock. 

Best advice given here so far. The expense of converting to stock parts then later wanting more power and paying twice is silly.

[Jairn01]

16 hours ago, Murray_Calavera said:

My 2c

This is only ever worth it if you skip the stock GTT step, e.g. put in a forged RB25, big highmount turbo, big aftermarket brakes, etc etc

Install parts that if you had a stock GTT, you'd end up replacing anyway. 

Go big or buy a real GTT and leave it stock. 

I agree with you 100% but to do this legally in my state (SA) I have to get it as close to GTT trim as possible firstly to pass inspection

[GTSBoy]

31 minutes ago, Jairn01 said:

I agree with you 100% but to do this legally in my state (SA) I have to get it as close to GTT trim as possible firstly to pass inspection

Not strictly true. You could go as far as an engineer will let you go. Vehicle Standards just have a preference for such conversions as this to be "to the same spec as factory" because they'd prefer not to have actual modified cars running around. But they will approve a car that has gone straight from NA GT to GTTish + mods if they have given you approval to go ahead based on your application (and the engineer's OK, of course).