This is easily the crowd-pleaser star of this list, many will argue, and a car that already had its own cult following despite being officially unavailable here this whole time. Collectors have already been buying them in Japan and keeping them there while paying the storage fees, waiting for the floodgates to open in 2024. (If this reality doesn’t illustrate the deeply depressing and arbitrary nature of the 25-year rule, then we’re not sure what will).
With a twin-turbo inline-six paired with a six-speed manual and all-wheel drive, the GT-R ticked all the right boxes, complete with a brash exterior that didn’t quite try to be a sleek coupe, preferring an angular shape that is a perfect window into that era. With a nominal 276 hp on tap (the real output is perhaps far north of this number) paired with a relatively light chassis, the Skyline GT-R delivered plenty of thrills in 1999, and still does.
In the span of the last quarter century the GT-R’s specs have certainly aged, to the point where its pure performance specs have become moot and more of a taste issue for automotive connoisseurs, rather than a pure weapon for the track or the street. There are certainly faster cars out there today, even from the same general era, and ones that don’t require filling out customs forms.
The R34 Skyline, on the other hand, is now a time machine in which older millennials will be able to meet their heroes, for better or worse.