Rb25det highly modified

[Benrobinson]

It’s was up for 40k gbp.  I don’t know what that is in dollars sorry.  I have got him to 32k gbp.  Hoping for 30k. Is this to much for a gtst ? 

[Ben C34]

How much it's worth is up to you. It's not a normal gtst and the UK market is heaps different to aus.

 

So it's more than a 2010 M3....

[GTSBoy]

It's too much for an R33, but then I'm not into cruise ships.

Your 30-32k is over AU$50k. There would be R33s changing hands over here for that much. And as Ben said, it's not a normal R33 - it is quite worked over. And whilst we say that mods add no value, the reality is that they do - just not as much as the seller would like.

Buy it. Don't daily it. You will be fine.

Expect to lose money on it if you do not sell it before the prices crash again. We have maybe 10 years until fossil fuel cars become difficult propositions. Collector only, Sunday only, that sort of thing. With the market eventually stripped of people who want to drive them around a lot, the prices cannot stay high forever.

[PranK]

15 hours ago, Benrobinson said:

@Ben C34 @robbo_rb180 @BK @GTSBoy @PranK @Murray_Calavera  morning all I am in the UK. Thanks for all your replies. 
sorry for posting on your forum but the UK ones are shite.  
The person who built the engine is one of the best in the uk to my knowledge. I am not going to be using the 850hp on methanol. I’ll be using a safe 500/600hp. Won’t be thrashing it. Why because I want to look after it. Why am I buying it? Because who doesn’t want a skyline ?! The whole car is immaculate. Underneath paintwork everything. Can I add pictures here ? 
 

the main reason for the thread was. I wanted to know weather I’m going to spend every weekend in the garage or can I actually enjoy this car? will this car do 100k miles. If not what will need replacing. I not a drifter. Nor am I a crazy Driver. 
 

again thanks guys all responses are helpful negative or positive. Cheers. 

Nono, don't be sorry about posting here. Nobody gives a crap where you're from, we were just trying to figure it out.

For the record, if you're not planning on driving it hard, surely you can get a super nice streeter with a few extra ponies for less than this built one? You'd have less long term issues and probs cheaper to maintain.

[PranK]

I'm wondering how you got the dude to drop 8k (or $14,000 AUD) ! That's alarm bells for me!

It does look nice! Great colour and wheels combo. But as Ben said, its more than an E9x M3!!! 😮

 

[funkymonkey]

This is the car being built...
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CddpIM_pzIB/
here's the social account for Jordan, who owns Motion Autoworks and the car, with a build log:
https://www.tiktok.com/@jm_barnard
he's had the workshop since 2020, so you'd assume the car's only been built in the last 2 years.

couple of pics of it being well looked after:

he's moved on to building an Evo, so he obviously needs the cash for it.

the car itself is well built using commonly used but quality parts. that's good because if there's any failures you can just go get a replacement part. it doesn't look like there's any bespoke custom built parts. the car is built to withstand 900hp hooning around, so if you treat it well and don't thrash it like the previous owner, and also if you run it detuned on petrol instead of metho, you should be fine from a reliability point of view as the stress on the upgraded parts won't be as much. however if you're going to be pushing it to its limits then expect to need to refresh those parts regularly.

the good thing is that you can always take it back to the guy who built it, providing you maintain a good relationship with him. This then comes to the price, if you lowball him on price he'll obviously try to recoup any perceived losses in the maintenance. Pay a fair price and make a friend and you'll enjoy not just a nice car but someone who can help you take care of it.

As for the price itself, the price of skylines is volatile in Aus, so it's pretty hard to comment. we've got no context of the UK, so any commentary would be speculative. have a look around for a standard GTS25t of the same year etc and take that as your base price. Then add all the labour costs. If the mechanic was good with his cashflow or has a good accountant he'd have written all the parts cost off as a business cost. So really his lowest price that he cannot go below is base price of car plus labour cost. Keep in mind the cost of the car would have been low if he purchased it with a blown motor or something that prompted the build in the first place. Plus there's primer on the chassis above the front right wheel, so that hints at a crash at some point. It's concerning that the car has a red chassis and grey panels, so you'd assume it's had a very rough past. However, in the hands of this mechanic it's really been restored to like-new.

[funkymonkey]

other things you can do to help build a relationship and lower the price... this car has obviously been a passion project for Jordan who use premium parts to build what in his mind would have been a demonstration of his abilities as a mechanic... much like a dealer demo car that comes loaded with all the options to make you fall in love with the model. this is his workshop demo car. that means he's not goign to build a hand-grenade that's fragile, he'll build something he can stake his reputation as a new workshop on.

ask him if the car can have his workshop name stuck to it, and ask for a bunch of business cards so you can send business his way. also commit to going along with him in the car that he built to any shows and events to help him promote the business.

then ask for a discount

[Benrobinson]

@funkymonkey  thanks for such a great response. I actually went up to motion auto works and went out in it the other day. He was a top bloke. Garage was clean. Car was brilliant. The car was originally red. He painted it himself which he hasn’t done a bad job at all! He’s more than happy to maintain the car and I did think exactly that if I low ball him he may want to get the money back when maintaining it. But he seems like genuine honest lad. All seems well. I have pictures of the underneath I’d like to post. Looks dam clean to me!  Thanks for you replies just need to decide if I’m going to pull the trigger 

[soviet_merlin]

Sounds like a good arrangement to me. No opinion on the car itself, I don't know enough to judge it.

I would put it like this: If you are concerned about reliability, buying a heavily modified car sounds like a terrible idea. Especially if you don't have the experience to work on it or there are no good workshops around or there are no funds to pay for the work.

But, considering that the car was built by a workshop and they are nearby this sounds pretty sweet. They know the car inside and out, they know where to look for issues, and they will have ideas for future improvements down the line. And you can pay them to work and spend time on it. Reliability-wise I'd still be prepared to drop off the car there regularly and expect to spend on it accordingly. A look through the forums shows the kinds of issues that people get to deal with.

If you end up buying the car, please consider starting a build thread. Would love to hear how you go with it

[Benrobinson]

@soviet_merlin yes am willing to deal with issues I know that’s the love of owning a jdm car. I just don’t want it in the garage every weekend I want to enjoy. I will definitely let you know how I get on cheers for replying. 

[Murray_Calavera]

Just a random thought, is there no e85 in the UK? I was wondering why its on a meth blend rather then a flex setup.

[niZmO_Man]

On 20/01/2023 at 10:13 AM, Murray_Calavera said:

Just a random thought, is there no e85 in the UK? I was wondering why its on a meth blend rather then a flex setup.

Probably hard to grow corn or sugar cane up there.

[GoHashiriya]

My engine is stock and I'm still in the garage every other weekend fixing it.