Built for the Human Race - 4 door R32 Skyline (HCR32)

When I was a kid, sports cars were badass, untamed, and sexy. The car commercials on TV marketed performance. Hell – performance was mainstream! And Nissan was at the TOP of their game. Just look up this Nissan 300zx Superbowl commercial.

Car brands based their overall image around exhilaration… hitting on the spirit & the sport of driving. Popular culture acknowledged the emotional & physical connection between driver & car.

But now…

Sadly the connections we’re most obsessed with are wifi & bluetooth. The masses are enslaved to their own conveniences & devices. Controlled by them. Almost all the car manufacturers have lost almost all their balls, not to mention the unique & magnetic brand-identities they once had. And what few sports cars are left, are just about as plug & play as our phones.

Car manufacturers are marketing their vehicles around convenience…

And features that protect drivers from their own distraction. Blindspot monitors, backup cameras, lane-keep-assist, and brake override systems. Being oblivious to your surroundings is really cool & marketable eh?

Rather than standing for something as a brand, most car manufacturers are just catering to the lowest common denominator of driver…

Which (let’s be honest) is a good part of our nation these days. A nation of drivers who probably should’ve never been issued a driver’s license. And a nation of consumers who are half-aware, fully lazy, indifferent… and who barely know where they are if it wasn’t for GPS. Just out there crashing crossovers & raising your insurance rates.

And they’re coming for you next…

It’s no longer enough for the masses to be distracted, clueless, and unaware. You must be too. Because you’ve become dangerous… out there on the streets zipping through all the sedated SUV blobs on the road. Scaring the smartphones right out of their hands with all your… unexpected engine noises & vibrance. For Christ’s sake they have kids in the car!!

…That they’re driving around while texting.

The tides are turning…

And your enjoyment… is becoming a danger to their distraction.

See how that reverses & plays out when you keep catering to the lowest common denominator? It goes like this:

“It should be illegal to drive those obnoxious, loud, emissions-producing, fast & furious cars. They practically ran me off the road when I pulled out in front of them! Wait a minute. Yeah… it shooooooould be illegal. Let’s get on that.”

Cancel-culture’s real cute… until they come for you next.

And that’s precisely why these JDM cars exploded in value over the last few years…

These 25 year-old+ JDM chassis represent the golden era of tuner performance. When driving still illustrated a sense of freedom, a sense of independence, and a sense of expression. The best it got, before we went too far. Meet Jackson Saxon…

This 4-door R32 Skyline belongs to Jackson Saxon.

It’s one of a handful of cool JDM cars in his collection. Buy ‘em cheap (as possible), bring ‘em back to life, and then break ‘em again. That’s kind of his thing lol. Actually – it’s their thing… as he & his wife are equally obsessed with Japanese cars & culture. But this R32 was an interesting/weird find:

Something about…

The previous-previous owner was on a Formula D team. The car had a Neo RB25 swap & various other cool parts. And for some reason, that guy traded it for a truck. The guy on the other end of the trade was more of a muscle car guy by nature. He was curious about the Skyline, but never really fell in love with owning the car. But for some reason, instead of selling it complete, he kinda just let it sit and randomly sold some parts off it. Somehow… the car ended up at a Buy Here Pay Here type dealership, sunbaked & neglected big time. And for some other unknown reason, the dealership posted it for sale on the Midpond Facebook page. Nowhere else lol. And it was just listed as ‘NISSAN’. Not ‘Skyline’… not ‘R32’… or any other vital keywords one might use to sell an imported right-hand-drive car. Jackson happened to stumble on that page at just the right time, and wasted no time going to grab the car immediately.

Upon purchase, the RB25 was making horrible sounds. Turns out – it was within an inch of its life, because whoever tried to do the timing belt left out a spacer behind the crank pulley that keep the belt on & guided. So the timing belt was rubbing the timing cover, thus making a horrible sound & fraying the belt. The belt was held together by a thread, and had it snapped, would have taken out the engine. But it didn’t… so Jackson Saxon was in bid’ness!

Text by Wooley Photos by Taylor Galster