Last week, Hong Kong dealer Contempt Concept HK Motors put up an extremely rare Nismo Z-Tune R34 GT-R for sale. The asking price was an eye-watering US$510,000 ($765,000 in our money).
What makes this GT-R special was that it’s one of the very last R34s made. It’s Chassis #009 out of a 19-limited production run. The Z-Tune also celebrated two decades of Nismo. The 2.8-litre twin-turbo six-cylinder engine shares much of its components with the GT500 racer.
That means power is up to 500bhp/367kW and torque 540NM of torque. That’s not bad even by today’s standards and considerably more than the 276bhp/202kW claimed by Nissan for the “standard” GT-Rs at the time.
Showing that even 11 years ago Nismo were thinking ahead of their time, carbon fibre was used to reduce weight. The front panels, bonnet, floor pan, and driveshaft are made of the lightweight material.
Yes, the Z-Tune R34 is a rare, carbon fibre (isn), 500bhp supercar but would you pay $765,000 for one? There might be some die-hard GT-R fans out there that might, but I know some that wouldn’t. So here are five alternatives you could use your imaginary $765,000 on.
1. Four new R35 GT-Rs ($191,000 x 4 = $764,000)
You could literally buy one to daily, one to track, one as a project car, and one as a spare for the same price as the Z-Tune. Sure, it’s not as rare but it beats it on power, torque, acceleration…
2. A Liberty Walk Lamborghini Aventador ($675,000 + $53,700 = $728,000)
Well this would certainly stand out. A standard Aventador alone would be enough to draw a crowd but stick those Liberty Walk overfenders on it and you’ll have a car that’ll pull a crowd faster than Scarlett Johansson bathing. You’d still have some leftover to stick a Star Dropper exhaust on it too.
3. A used Saleen S7 ($737,000)
There’s one listed in a dealer in Chicago so you’d have to import it here but with a relatively reasonable asking price of US$489,800 ($737,000) you could probably use the leftover change to ship it to NZ. Afterwards you’d have yourself possibly NZ’s only 7-litre V8 supercar.
4. A waterfront apartment in Auckland ($749,000)
Okay, so you might be asking “why would I want to live in Auckland?” but everyone always goes on about how expensive house prices are in Auckland these days but it turns out not as high as a Z-Tune R34. This one is a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment on Customs Street. Also has two parking spaces… Which would’ve been useful if you got the Z-Tune…
5. Hire Tina Fey ($749,000)
Apparently Tina Fey was paid US$500,000 ($749,000) per episode when she was on 30 Rock so for less than a Z-Tune you could pay a Hollywood actress. I’ll just leave it at that. It was a lot harder to think of a fifth thing to add to list.
So, what would you do with your $765,000? Would you buy the Z-Tune, which is still for sale by the way, or go for one of these other options? We’d love to hear your thoughts…