SUPERLATIVE

Words by: Alexi Smith Photos by: Mark Pakula

Combine the king of cars, the craziest paint ever made and the most fashionable wheels you can find. It’s kind of obvious, really.

It’s a reasonably safe bet that the first time most people saw a set of Gram Light 57 Pro wheels with the “heat-affected titanium” finish on the rim lips, at least half of them thought “I wonder how they would look on a car with a chameleon paint job?”
That question has now been well and truly answered, and in a rather spectacular way at that. Allen Cheng’s 1999 Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R V-Spec features two of the most expensive visual ways to attract attention to a late model Japanese car, and manages to pull it all together in an equally outstanding way.

After sampling how it feels to own a series of popular late-model Japanese cars, such as an S15 200SX, 350Z, an RX-8, an ‘01 S2000, an ‘04 WRX STi as well as a rather uncommon and desirable English-market EP3 Civic Type R, Allen came to the conclusion that the next step up would have to be the obvious one. He would need to get his hands on something with a bigger engine, more power and more traction.
“I bought this car because it’s the king of JDM cars, and it was in excellent condition.” said Allen

Even though the new R35 has arguably won the title of rex vehiculum over all other previous generations of the GT-R thanks to its still unbelievable factory performance, the early stage of the new model’s aftermarket development still means that any sort of upgrade until now has been limited mostly to repaints, bolt-on exhausts and other minor tuning enhancements. Besides, standard cars aren’t really what we’re all about here, is it?

As is usual when a car is completely covered in a layer of some sort of mystical material that effortlessly and conspicuously shifts its hue depending on where you stand and how the light is shining on it, the first thing that draws your attention on this Skyline is the custom chameleon paint. While this style doesn’t always suit every car it is applied to, it works surprisingly well on the R34 GT-R, mostly due to the many large, flat panels and muscular bulges in the standard bodywork.

Matching the colour shift on the paint is the set of 19x10-inch Rays Engineering Gram Light 57 Pro Ti wheels. Being the big car that it is, the R34 easily accommodates a 19-inch wheel with wide 265/35 Bridgestone S03 tyres under the guards. Nineteens are almost a prerequisite for any kind of show-style wheel on a Skyline, as even an 18-incher can look a bit diminutive sitting under  wide GT-R haunches.