Nissan Skyline 5th generation GT-R (BNR34)

Kozo Watanabe wanted to make the R34 GT-R a two-pedal car. No automatic transmission compatible with the RB26 would fit in the R34's floor; the only thing that would was a toroidal CVT, and a prototype was even built. But about 90 percent of GT-R owners had done some kind of tuning, so there was no telling what horsepower they were running. He thought that if they fitted a toroidal CVT to such a car and told customers not to modify it, nobody would buy it, and although it was terribly frustrating, he gave up. So what they worked on for the R34 GT-R was the engine and the transmission. A six-speed manual, which the company did not have in-house, was to be bought from Getrag. He was told to recheck it from its basic design, but he argued that since Toyota bought it and used it in the Supra, there was no problem, and got them to buy it.

What Watanabe insisted on for the R34 GT-R was generating underfloor downforce, addressing aerodynamics, which had been called a weakness, and he fitted a carbon rear diffuser. He had been told it could be made cheaply, but it cost about 1 million yen, and Watanabe says Kazutoshi Mizuno neatly tricked him. The head of the product division told him that if he was going to fit such an expensive part, he should make it from plywood, and he shot back that plywood would catch fire. When Kato drove it at the Nürburgring, the R34 was ready to run right away, whereas the R32 and R33 had always meant working through the night.

Another thing Watanabe wanted to do on the R34 GT-R was genuine leather from Britain's Connolly, which was adopted in a small way as an option. Japanese manufacturers had turned him down, saying they could not make such a three-dimensional shape. Connolly happened to be visiting the NTC, so he asked the company's president, was told to send one seat, and when he did, it came back finished in about six months. In Japan it was sold through Nismo, and in Britain through Connolly. Later, around the time of the M-Spec, Japanese manufacturers began saying they could do it too, but Watanabe says the softness of the leather and the way it was tanned were still better from Connolly.