Hello everybody! I've been a big fan of all of Nissan's GT-R's for many years now but my personal favourite has always been the R33 model. I don't know why but this type of performance car seems to be the most unloved when it's compared with the older R32's and newer R34's that share a similar RB26DETT engine!
The BNR34 GT-R's are well documented in the Andy Butler/Dennis Gorodji/Alex Gorodji books and especially on this forum too, So I asked in another thread if anyone on here knew if the R33 GT-R's were also manufactured in the same Murayama and Tochigi factories that built all the R34's? Did the same Yokohama and Kohki (N1 only) plants produce RB26DETT engines for the R33's like they did for the R34 GT-R's?? Does anyone know these questions answers?
These then spawned more thoughts so I have loads of other boring questions regarding BCNR33 GT-R's and their motoring history (like why did the UK only get a choice of four body colours when Japan had six and why did we have ours called different names like the classic Midnight Purple - LP2 was advertised as Tyrian Purple in the UK??) but the number one "Nerdy" topic of interest for me at the moment has got to be just how many of the one hundred UK R33 GT-R's sold By Middlehurst still survive?
Fellow forum member R33JONO has already told me that two of the original Sonic Silver/Platinum Silver (KP4) press cars (registrations "R1 GTR & R2 GTR" respectively) have already met their end and a lack of public DVLA records would seem to confirm this fact....:bawling:
Only "R3 GTR" is still on record with them and was registered 01/08/1997. Is this car No3 out of the possible 100? Does anybody on actually here know for sure?? Does anyone have an interest or care?
Currently there are three UK R33's for sale. The two I've managed to get dates for are Midnight Purple/Tyrian Purple (LP2) - "R97 SDB" that was registered on 08/12/1997 and Deep Marine Blue/Sapphire Blue - "R852 TNR" that came to life on 10/02/1998 but I have no idea which numbers these vehicles are but surely someone on here does.
I did see a Black/Kuro Black (KH3) GT-R for sale on eBay not so long ago but failed to record the registration before the item disappeared so I could find out when this vehicle was registered in the UK.
So does anyone else on here fancy helping me start up an online list and joining in so we can try to find out what R33's colours were the most popular, when the most cars were sold/registered and how many are now left on the UK's roads?
I have no idea Jags, I did note that it had a JDM front bumper and not a UK item though. I added Steve to the list above because why would a GT-R enthusiast here on this forum want to mess up the list by lying to us all??
LOL! I don't think he's lying at all, but probably just needs to clarify if his is one of the 100 "official" cars. Perhaps it could be one of the 20 pre-official Middlehurst cars
Nothing particularly special about them, Middlehurst imported 20 cars which sold pretty quickly and cemented the decision to bring in the 100 "official" cars with the specific UK market parts fitted
I don't think they did, certainly not from an outward appearance anyway, however, they did have UK spec clocks. I remember seeing one before and it looked like a normal spec 2
My first R33 was an import which I traded for a new UK car in Feb '99.
I've also owned Rocket Ronnie's old car which was 1 of the 20 Middlehurst imports.
It was registered in the UK 14/07/1997, it was modified from new at Middleshurst by Rod Bell to 500R spec. It was purchased new at Middlehurst so I assume it's a UK Spec Car.
My first R33 was an import which I traded for a new UK car in Feb '99.
I've also owned Rocket Ronnie's old car which was 1 of the 20 Middlehurst imports.
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