A tale of two Skylines.

[Red Duke]

As some of you know, I bought my original R33 GTR last year around June / July. I was very happy with the car, despite it appearing to have done more miles than stated. Following ~2000 miles of trouble free driving, #6 main bearing let go, taking the crank, piston, etc with it. But! I overcame that with a full rebuild at RK Tuning. Ron did an amazing job for me, and I upgraded all of the internals to 'future proof' the car, had new Garrett turbos and also the clutch replaced as the original was starting to slip. I'd already done a number of things to the car, with plans for many more. Bits like the dash lighting, HID kit, repairing the damaged front splitter, etc.

The original pics and thread are here.

Unfortunately after only doing ~50miles of running my engine in, I had a massive accident on New Years Eve morning. Basically, a nail ripped through my right rear tyre on a corner, making me slide into a tree, folding the car in half and rolling me over onto the roof. Bear in mind this was at 45mph on a 50mph road. It is notorious for accidents in the winter, as there is a pond / stream on one side of the road. When the snow melts, or we get a lot of rain, this floods half the road, and can freeze. My accident was on a lovely bright winters morning!

I was lucky to be alive after the impact, and by some miracle an off duty policeman found me probably seconds after the accident. I was cut out of the car and air lifted to Addenbrookes hospital, where I under went several operations before being sedated until January 4th. No one expected me to survive the accident, the flight or the operations. I was sedated to give my body chance to recover from all the trauma I suffered.

The pic below shows what was left of the driver side of the car.



My fiancee was supposed to be with me in the car, but she wanted to meet me at my parents after a shower and getting changed. I have no doubt this saved both our lives. I was left with massive injuries, internal bleeding, bruising and contousions to my heart and lungs, my hip smashed through my pelvis, and left it 9 pieces. My right femur suffered a double open fracture, and my left shoulder was dislocated, leaving the socket fractured. I was in hospital for nearly 3 months, and was my leg was in traction for 7 weeks. I was unable to put weight on it for a total of 10 weeks, and my muscles were so wasted I needed a wheelchair to go from one room to another. I then progressed to a walking frame, crutches and am now walking relatively normally! Thankfully I suffered no head, neck or back injuries - although we later found my back wasn't quite in line, due to the massive side impact. This was sorted by my physio though, I actually had no idea anything was wrong as it wasn't painful! After the treatment I actually stood an inch taller!


My freshly rebuilt hip & pelvis, and titanium rod in my femur:




As you can see, it was smashed to oblivion, but my surgeons did a miracle job getting me put back together with a procedure called an "acetabular reconstruction". This xray was taken a short while after the operation. I now have a traction wire around my pelvis, which helped the bone grow back to heal everything into the correct place & shape. I don't think my pelvis has rejoined at the bottom yet, but following all this, I started driving again mid-August, went back to work at the end of September, and have just bought another GTR. Life is too short not to enjoy it!


Which leads me on to the new arrival...





I'm the very lucky, and very proud new owner of Cliff's R33 GTR!

A lot of the things I thought about are already done, HID's, coilovers, etc. The car is very similar in many ways to my old GTR, and was one of the reasons I took the plunge to get the finances to buy Cliffs car. I've already got a few bits on the way, and also from my old car to go on. I only picked the car up yesterday!

Radiator cooling panel:



A new gear knob courtesy of JimboJ:



Also trying to source an intake hose, but in red!



I've bought dash bulbs from this thread / UltraLEDs. Fantastic improvement over OEM, going in asap!

I'd like to polish the front lights too, I've read various ways and seen different kits to do it, but which one works best? There's only one way to find out! Fiiiiiight! No, seriously, not sure which to use / what to do so I'll have a read up. I think that is it for now, new steering wheel would be cool though, as the HICAS is locked out, do I still need a HICAS boss? I want to get a car cover too asap (until we get a place with a garage) - other than that, new radiator, replace the standard intercooler, new turbos... The wishlist grows!

Massive thanks to Cliff for such a lovely car, and I want to wish you and your mrs all the best for the future, looking forward to see what you do with another GTR in the future, and hope it won't be too long!

Edit:

Current spec of the car (taken from Cliff's sale thread)


Wheels and tyres:
18 x 10" Rota Grid drift alloys in white, ET15.
285/30/18 Toyo Proxies R888 tyres

Brakes:
K-sport 8 pot front calipers
K-sport 356mm front disks
Ferodo DS2500 pads
Braided hose set
Brake stopper kit

Suspension:
Cusco coilovers
Cusco front and rear anti-roll bars
Whiteline front camber adjusters
Japspeed Hicas lock bar

Interior:
Nismo white dial kit (320km)
Nismo white centre gauge cluster
Greddy water temp gauge
Greddy boost gauge
GreddyA-pillar gauge holder
Recaro seats (type unknown)
Bride seat rails
Alpine CD stereo

Exterior:
Jun style carbon fibre bonnet
Nismo N1 front bumper vents
Nismo Clear side repeaters
Nismo Clear front indicators
Goki carbon end caps
Goki carbon spoiler blade
Carbonmods splitter
OMP splitter stay bars
Aerocatch bonnet pins
Headlight duct (No longer fitted)
HID headlight kit
Carbon GT wing badges

Engine, exhaust and power mods:
Apexi power FC - Running 1 bar boost (1.1 peak)
HKS EVC V boost controller
Kakimoto GT1.OZ cat-back exhaust
Fujitsubo down pipe
Abbey Motorsport decat pipe
Blitz twin induction kit
Mocul oil cooler (mounted behind passenger indicator duct)
ARC rad cap
Red cambelt, coilpack and cam covers
Adjustable exhaust cam pulley
Unknown exhaust cam

Transmission:
Exedy Twin plate Compe-D clutch
Exedy lightweight flywheel
Tomei short shifter

/breathe!

[bluesky]

Blimey! dont really know what to say other than glad to see you have made a good recovery and good look with your new gtr which looks really nice

[bluesky]

lol! I will try again good luck!

[Red Duke]

Thank you Credit goes to Cliff for my new GTR, it is his work! As for me, I've amazed everyone, not just with my recovery, but the fact I want to own / drive another GTR after all my family and I went through over the last year almost.

More pics to come as I get stuff fitted, etc. Just excited to be back behind the wheel again!

[samgtr]

wow glad to see you got the car and in the best colour...

Good luck with it and hope to see it in the meets.

[Rich@AMT]

fair play to you mate, amazing story! keep the updates coming!!

[Madaxgt]

Wow youve done very well to come back to full walking from the injuries and credit to you for going back to a gtr. Be interested to know how you get on with the light polishing as my gf's mr2 has tarnished/yellowing lights that need sorting.

From another suffolk gtr owner good luck with the car, theyre neverending projects!

Same wheels as me too

[asiasi]

Glad you have made a good recovery,all the best with new GT-R

[nismoboy]

thats it buddy can never keep a good man down... Glad your okay and you and your family have recovered from your horrible accident.

Glad you got a new toy now to play with, looks the business.

Might think im mad but you should try "crest Toothpaste" on your lights and abit of elbow grease with a toothbrush and you will be amazed at how well it cleans up the lights and brings them back lol. For what it costs £2 why not give it ago. something to do with the flouride in the toothpaste or something.

[Red Duke]

Lol, I've heard of toothpaste on a scratched CD/DVD - even worked for me in an X360 game! Not tried it on lights though!?

I've just ordered a bottle of the Meguiars Plast RX stuff, £10 delivered which wasn't too bad, also got a red silicone intake hose coming from SFS within the next week or so the guy told me. Not usually in stock, but should be about 5 days, so that's handy! My dad has a low RPM polisher we used on my Mazda 6 the other day, he's had it about 3 years and never used it! Come up brilliantly, so I'll try that and some of the polish, just need some sprayers masking tape to protect the paint, and we'll be all set!

Thanks for all your kind comments, it has been a long road, and I do still have foot drop, but my toes are moving and I can move my foot downwards, the upwards is slowly coming back, but could be 2-3 years for the nerves to recover. Doesn't stop me driving normally though, so that is one less thing to worry about!

[godzilladom]

YOU LUCKY B*****D!
good on ya mate - and best of look with the new motor, looks very nice indeed

[Red Duke]

Aye, you can imagine how I felt when I first saw the pics.

I remember asking my fiancee what time it was, she said "3pm" I asked if I'd been asleep for those few hours after the accident, and she said "no, you've been asleep for quite a while..." when I questioned what she meant, she said "it's now the 4th January babe".

That, was one of the hardest things I had to deal with, also the dreams I had in those few days, and the nightmares, also not knowing reality from hallucinations while I was dosed up on morphine and other pain killing drugs. Not an experience I ever want to go through again, I can tell you.

[godzilladom]

I had an accident about 9 years ago when I was 21.
I'd just dropped the gf off and was on my way to collect my little bro from school. I was doing about 65-70 down a contry road (60mph road) and a Fast-Track tractor pulling a pig shit tanker flew out of a gap in the bushes. I stamped on the brakes but in my crappy astra (pre abs) I basically smashed straight into the tanker on the back... flipped clean over it and landed in the field on the roof. the tanker weighed around 16ton and I put it on its side!
the skid marks were only 12meters long which gives you an idea of the speed I was still doing and how quick it all happened.
I climbed out of the car and passed out in the field. (don't remember)

When I saw the car in the impound a couple of days later, the front of the car was level with the bottom of the windscreen, the roof at the passenger side was lower then the glove box, there was a big 30kg steel hook off the tanker that had broke off and gone through the passenger front seat and the subs/amps etc in the boot and folded the rear seats in two!
The only bit of the car that was untouched was a small cocoon where I was sat. I suffered burns on my face from the airbag explosion and a dislocated hip (obviously from the jolt of impact as I was trying to push the brake pedal to china!

I was lucky as hell, and all I could think about for weeks was the FLASH-BANG of impact... so I feel for ya buddy....

anyway - keep the pics coming

[Red Duke]

I don't get flashbacks any more, but I once had a taste of blood and dirt in my mouth while my fiancee was driving, nothing even there, it was just a memory, that was bloody weird... I do 'jump' in bed sometimes, like my body is reacting to the impact again, if that makes sense.

Sounds like you were just as lucky as me, if not luckier! There was only one place for me to have survived too - do you fancy starting a lottery syndicate? Lol Glad you're here to tell the tale too, makes me wonder why some people make it and some don't. Seeing Marco Simoncelli's crash (or Dan Wheldon) you realise how things can be so so different.

Anyway, we're here, and that's what matters! More pics to come this week as parts turn up, back to work Saturday though, so we'll see what comes & when!

[godzilladom]

ha ha - I know exactly what you mean... I used to get a taste of pig-shit and battery acid, for ages at randon times!

where did you get the TOYO's with the white writing on? are they special order or painted?? always wondered that when I see them, think it looks top draw!