When hunting big game it’s best to bring along a big gun. Which is why I felt entirely unmatched when I arrived at Daikoku PA outside Tokyo for the annual R34/35 meet not long ago. I had foolishly only brought two small lenses with me, no tripod, and was clammoring to shoot every GT-R I could get in front of my lens (and get some other curious enthusiast to move out of the way of). Let’s take a look though at some of the more interesting GT-Rs that showed up…

The first ride I happened upon was this stunningly clean white R34 wearing the killer Nismo rims that have been knocked off so many times by aftermarket wheel manufacturers these days.

This was quite literally the first R34 I had been up close and personal with and I found myself shooting every possible angle of it. Despite the harsh and awful parking lot lighting and not having any flash, this car looked incredible from every angle.

I don’t really think there’s a single bone stock R34 left anywhere that hasn’t had at least an exhaust mated to it…

This killer KPGC-10 GTR was done up in race livery with a (not so period specific) graphic on the side. All the same these little cars look amazing in person and they sound awesome too.

What’s better than bolt on fender flares I ask you… not much.

I’m not sure if it was a reproduction, but all of the chrome and even the GT-R badge on this early 70′s car was in perfect nick.

No, it’s not a GT-R, but Daikoku plays host to a wide variety of ‘enthusiast’ vehicles, just thought I’d show you what was parked up in the background behind some of these amazing Skylines…

This Nur SpecII rolled up looking very menacing. I noticed the DANDY sticker on the lower nose hinting that this car has gone under the skillful eyes of Dandy Tanaka. Dandy has long been known for building GT-Rs in Japan that demand respect, but lately he’s been turning his eyes toward other platforms like the FC3S they sent to Bonnevile Speed Week this past year.

While I questioned the LED light install, I couldn’t question thewheel choice on this R34, BBS RGR look stellar in a GTR-specific offset don’t they?

Not far down the row from the NurSpecII was yet another beautiful example of a KPGC-10 GT-R. I tried to inquire from the owner what had been done to it, but my Japanese was about as good as his English and it wasn’t meant to be. All the same he was very happy for me to shoot it and I was thrilled to get up close to one of these classics. As far as I see it these late 60′s early 70′s (the sedan came out in 67) cars really defined the term ‘stance’ when it comes to cars.

The fender flares really only serve to accent the muscular lines in the side panels of the KPGC-10.

I love this shot because while the car was really clean, the road grime just lends the car that bit more credibility. Nobody loves a trailer queen and this car has clearly seen some proper use!

Perhaps my favorite car of the evening was this amazing grey VSpecII example. The owner saw I was shooting some pics while he sat in it talking on the phone. He got out and insisted I get shots of his car without him in it. Japanese enthusiasts are not only lucky but very willing to share their rides!

This is easily the best angle of the R34 front end for me (not that it has a bad angle really), it’s just so slanted and aggressive!

As you can see this car was NotSoStock despite its relatively sedate exterior…

I think this one might make a nice wallpaper! What do you think?

… or maybe this one?

Despite the plethora of R34 GT-Rs, the night I was at Daikoku was actually the R35 specific evening and there was actually about 20 of them that showed up throughout the night. I saw so many R35 GT-Rs in Japan that they’re really starting to lose their uniqueness to me.

This car however, was still quite unique in it’s all matte black finish with extra wide GT1 style fenders front and rear.

There was of couse plenty of stock R35′s parked up all in rows…

but the crowd had formed around the matte black car and wasn’t moving much.

Despite the giant wing and (not for my taste) black with red rims, this car was still very menacing feeling and I really loved the details on the GT1 style front fenders.

This Bayside Blue VSpecII was riding a little high for me. This is fairly stock looking though I suppose.

I assume though this car has attended the GT-R festival at FISCO!

Parked up with the blue VSpecII was this wild R32 with some sort of custom GT style fenders on it and fully wrapped in Motul red vinyl. The colour on this car screamed for attention under the sodium lights in the parking lot.

The car was plated but I couldn’t find out specifically what had been done to it and whether it was mostly show or a lot of go.

That’s a bit intimidating to see come up in the rear-view mirror eh?

Here you can see just how wide the rear fenders are on this car, they really went all out and added some width to this car overall.

I’ll have more photos to come from this meet, but I’ve chosen some of the more interesting cars here to show first because you really couldn’t swing a cat without hitting yet another R35 this night.

Unfortunately I even saw my first riced out R35. Fog lights may not seem like utter blasphemy, but if you look closely you’ll see this red car has that chrome stick-on trim all the way down the door’s edge – the kind of torture you see normally reserved for a minivan or taxi in Bangladesh.

This was really a night for Nissans of all vintages.

I’ll leave it there for now, more images to come from the Japan trip as I filter through, edit and group them.