The 4-Door R34 "GT-R" We Imported — As Featured by Donut Media

In February 2026, Donut Media's Bumper to Bumper put a Bayside Blue R34 Skyline in front of nearly a million viewers under the title "It looks like a GTR but costs way less." It is not a GT-R — it is a 25GT Turbo sedan wearing a full Okubo Factory GT-R conversion, and it is a car we imported from Japan for its owner. Here is the car, the spec, and the honest answer to the question the episode asks: how close does a GT-T really get to a GT-R?

By Magic Motorsports · Updated 2026-07-26

Spec sheet

The car

The feature car is an ER34 Nissan Skyline 25GT Turbo — the four-door, rear-wheel-drive, single-turbo Skyline that sat directly below the GT-R in Nissan's JDM lineup. What makes this one special is the bodywork: a complete Okubo Factory R34 GT-R conversion, not a bolt-on lookalike kit.

The presenter's summary was that a stock GT-T gets you "about 80% of the swag" of a GT-R, and an Okubo-converted car gets you closer to 95%. Having imported the car, we think that is a fair way to frame the whole GT-T proposition.

What an Okubo Factory conversion actually is

There are plenty of cheap "GT-R style" body kits that bolt over stock panels and look like exactly that from ten feet away. Okubo Factory is a different proposition — a small Japanese shop that works on Skylines and effectively nothing else, converting base R34s to GT-R-specification bodywork.

The work goes well past a kit. The fender sheet metal is altered so the wide arches have structural support rather than sitting on top of the original panel; the rear doors are reskinned so the sedan's proportions match GT-R body lines; and the shop can carry the conversion through to the interior with GT-R seats and trim, so the car reads as one cohesive vehicle instead of a costume. They will also perform RB26 engine swaps for owners who want the drivetrain to match the bodywork.

GT-T vs GT-R: what is actually different

The two cars share a shell, a dashboard, and a silhouette. Underneath they are genuinely different machines, and it is worth knowing exactly where the money went.

The single most important line in that table is body styles. Nissan never built a four-door R34 GT-R. If you want a GT-R-looking Skyline with rear doors and a usable back seat, a converted GT-T is the only way to get one — which is why this car turns heads even among people who know Skylines well.

The second most important line is the engine. The RB26 is a homologation-bred racing engine; the RB25 is a consumer motor designed to get somebody to work and back. In the episode that difference shows up honestly: the GT-T gets up and goes and pulls hard once boost builds, but it does feel down on power against an RB26. The flip side is that the RB25 is famously tolerant of tuning — injectors, a larger turbo, and a proper tune are commonly good for 400–500 hp without exotic internals, and it is a less temperamental engine to live with.

Is it actually good to live with?

The episode is a road test as much as a walkaround, so it is worth repeating the impressions honestly rather than selectively.

The good: it is quiet enough at cruise not to irritate your neighbors, the Kakimoto exhaust does not drone, and the coilover-plus-air-cup setup makes the ride genuinely livable. The trunk is enormous. The rear seats are real seats — the owner uses them for the school run. The presenter called it "one of the coolest dailies I've had the chance to drive," and made the point that you can enjoy a converted GT-T without the anxiety of scratching a $150,000, rare-color GT-R.

The honest drawbacks: it is down on power against an RB26, and you feel it. The extra doors and length add weight, and the car feels heavier through corners than a GT-R coupe. Super HICAS rear-wheel steering is effective, but it produces an unusual sensation — a slight crab-walk feeling at highway speed — and the video is direct that plenty of owners remove it for that reason. This particular car is also an automatic, which is responsive enough, but it is not the Getrag six-speed experience.

None of that is disqualifying. It is the trade you make, and it is a good one if you actually want to drive the car regularly.

What an R34 GT-T costs to import

The video quotes GT-Ts "as low as eight grand" against R34 GT-Rs starting around $150,000. Both numbers are real, and both need context. The $8,000 figure describes a rough, high-mileage, unconverted GT-T at Japanese market prices before any import costs — the floor, not the going rate.

Here is where the market actually sits in our own Japan dealer stock as of July 2026:

• Clean, standard 25GT Turbo sedan (four-door): about $20,000–$30,000
• Clean, standard 25GT Turbo coupe (two-door): about $30,000–$40,000. The coupe is the more sought-after shape and carries a consistent premium over the sedan at the same condition and mileage
• Converted cars, either body style: $40,000 and up, and the spread is wide. What a converted car is worth comes down almost entirely to who did the work and how much of it is modified metal rather than bolt-on FRP — a genuine Okubo Factory conversion and a body kit are not the same asset
• R34 GT-R V-Spec II: we have carried these around ¥33M — roughly $190,000

On top of the car, budget $3,000–$5,000 in import costs — ocean freight (about $1,950 for a sedan or coupe), standard export/import/title fees, and US import duty. Our full cost breakdown has the itemized rates. Unlike exporters who quote only a to-port "shipped" price, we include US customs clearance, duty, and titling in one number.

Put plainly: a very good GT-T lands in your driveway, fully imported and titled, for well under a quarter of what a comparable-condition R34 GT-R costs. That is the entire argument for the car.

Can you import one right now?

Yes — and this is the part most buyers do not realise. The ER34 Skyline ran from 1998 to 2001, which means essentially the entire GT-T production run has now crossed the 25-year threshold and is legal to import today under the 25-year rule.

The GT-R is a different story. BNR34 production ran to 2002, so R34 GT-Rs are still becoming eligible month by month through 2027, based on their exact build date. If you want an R34 in your garage this year rather than next, the GT-T is not just the cheaper answer — for a lot of build dates, it is the only answer.

Buying a GT-T: what we look for

• Transmission. Manual cars command a premium and are worth seeking out. Some auction cars are listed as approved for manual conversion.
• Rust and repair history. Auction sheets grade condition, but an in-person inspection is what catches previous accident repair, arch rust, and sloppy bodywork hidden under a repaint.
• Body kit quality. If a car is advertised as GT-R-converted, establish who did the work — a genuine metal-modified conversion is a different asset from bolt-on FRP.
• Stock versus modified. As the owner argues in the episode, an unmolested car is a blank canvas and often the better long-term buy. You can always build it your way afterwards.
• Tune history. RB25s respond well to modification, but ask what was done and whether it was tuned properly.

Browse what is available right now on our Nissan Skyline pages and Japan dealer stock, or see cars already landed in the USA on our current inventory page. Want a specific R34 spec — manual, converted, a particular color? Tell us what you are after and we will source it from auction.

About the owner

The car belongs to Tam, who had wanted an R34 for years and did his homework on how to get the look right — which is how he found Okubo Factory in the first place.

Our part was the straightforward part: source the car in Japan, inspect it physically, and handle export, ocean freight, US customs, duty, and title — one price, no third-party broker for the customer to hire. The result is the car in the video.

Import your R34

Whether you want a clean standard GT-T, a converted four-door, or you are waiting on a GT-R build date to cross 25 years, we handle the whole thing — sourcing, inspection, shipping, US customs, duty, and title. Call 703-249-9922, contact us, or start with our step-by-step import guide.

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