The silver Nissan Skyline GT-R has been Brian O’Conner’s (Paul Walker) calling card ever since 2 Fast 2 Furious. Here are some more fun and behind-the-scenes facts about O’Conner’s hero car with Craig Lieberman, the technical director behind The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious.
It’s illegal to import an R34 Skyline, and will be until 2024. But back in the day, if you wanted a legally federalised R34, you’d hit up Motorex. As Lieberman tells it, the R34 GT-R used as the hero car in 2 Fast was the very first, federally legalised example in the United States. Walker never owned the car. It belonged to Lieberman and he bought it for himself.
Later on, once 2 Fast was announced, Lieberman suggested the GT-R to be one of the hero cars, so that’s how it appeared in the movie. The team needed more cars as stunt cars, so they ordered four more through Motorex. Four real GT-Rs, not converted, regular Skylines. They each cost $US48,000 ($71,024), as we’ve reported before.
In the movie, the silver GT-Rs wear blue stripes, like muscle cars. But it was of Lieberman’s personal opinion that Japanese cars should not wear muscle car stripes. “Who the fuck puts muscle car graphics on a Japanese car?” he wondered. I agree with him wholeheartedly. But this was a fight Lieberman lost, so it was time to move onto other aspects of the car.
To see what other mods went into those GT-Rs (especially the one that did the famous bridge jump), check out the rest of the video.