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As was the case last year, the main flavor of the day wasn’t the BNR34 GT-R, but its rear-wheel drive ER34 and HR34 cousin. All throughout the parking lot a common modifying theme showed itself: transforming non-GT-R R34 Skylines – both two-door and four-door variants – to look like BNR34 GT-Rs, with the badges and all. While I don’t see myself going down the stance route, this two-door was another solid argument for the GT-R look. Late last year at the StanceNation event in Odaiba, Dino spotlighted this bagged BNR34 GT-R. If you recall, one of the main eye catching features (besides the fact that it’s a bagged GT-R) was the way the Z-tune Nismo fenders incorporated R35 fender vents.

Since day one, there was a plan with the car which we’ve stuck to fanatically: to maximise performance with as little drawback to the car’s abilities as a daily driver. The advantage here is pretty simple; there’s only one sailing and it’s overnight, so when we arrive in France on Sunday morning, we’ll be well rested for a full day’s drive of  837kms (520 miles) to the Eifel region. I know you only really see the car static in these updates for the most part, but it’s a car that I really enjoy driving. This shouldn’t be interpreted for negligence or anything, but at the end of the day, this car was built for driving and there’s a lot of driving to be done this summer.

Speak to classic car owners and you’ll hear words like ‘character,’ ‘endearing,’ and ‘charm.’ Delve a bit deeper and you’ll also hear phrases such as ‘running issues,’ ‘off the road,’ and ‘ We’ve got a couple more in-depth stories about the company to follow, but for now I wanted to quickly show you around their (starting from £99,995) Sport-Design demo car, just to give you an insight as to the sort of quality that you should expect to see. Big disc brakes, uprated adjustable suspension, motorsport LSD rear differential and heavy duty axle conversion all make the cars drive like new, but it’s the quality of life options like push start, LED lights, DAB, Bluetooth, and A/C that make these cars feel new. MZR Roadsports are building cars that feel very sympathetic to the Z’s identity, and making them classics that can not only be used every day, in any conditions, but higher specification cars that drive and feel like they’ve just rolled off the factory floor, only better.

From the minutes-long ordeals you see on vintage highlight reels to the gas-splashing and frenzied buzz-buzz-buzz of five-lug wheel changes in NASCAR to the seconds-quick endeavors in Formula One, pits stops are an inevitable change of pace in nearly all top-level racing series. There’s a lot more to a pit stop than what you see on TV, and there’s a lot more happening in the pits at endurance race like this versus a series where you just see quick wheel changes. Over an eight-hour race it doesn’t make sense to try to save a second or two on an operation as dangerous as refueling, so the regulators of the series require 101 seconds for GT3 and GTC cars and 145 seconds for GT4/GTS and TCR cars if you fill up. It’s also worth pointing out that the GT4 class doesn’t use center-lock wheels, meaning that the pit crew has to hit each wheels five times the old school way, hence the extra time required for GT4 cars in the pits.