Welcoming a new car into the Oles Family Garage is always a special occasion. This particular car has been on my mind since my friend Ajay Sharma sent me a picture of it years ago. It was in for some routine service by John Vassos at his shop Asteri Motorsports in Wisconsin. I guess it stuck with me! The title image is of our car, chassis BNR32-007610 as it was first imported by TopRank Importers back in 2016.
What makes this R32 GTR special is that it was tuned at the famous Bee Racing shop in Japan by Kiyonori Imai. The car received his full 324R conversion, which gives the car an R34 front (with OEM headlights) and full widebody aero. The above picture is of the 324R R32 GTR Drift Car that was campaigned in the Japanese D1 Grand Prix drift championship by Bee Racing and driven by Tusyoshi Tezuka. The unique aero look of the car is quite distinctive and gives the car a completely original look.
I was happy to find this image of our car as it crossed the auction block in Japan back in December 2015. The car has some very nice looking 18" Work Emotion XD9 Alloy wheels.
It's interesting to note that the Japanese owner had a license plate with the numbers"324" - obviously a fan of Bee Racing! Also visible is the Bee Racing badge on the back fender and the URL visible on the carbon fiber wing.
The engine was also tuned by Bee Racing, with many unique cosmetic accessories from the tuning shop including the "Bee R Anniversary" coil pack cover, Bee R Catch Can and emblem on the cam gear cover.
As you can see from this photo of the car's interior when it went through auction, it has stock seats, NISMO floor mats, auxiliary gauges and some carbon fiber trim pieces. The car had many piggy back modules added on for tuning. Thankfully, the car's first US owner, Tim, had all that replaced with an AEM standalone ECU, which cleaned up the interior greatly and made the car run a lot better!
Tim took the car to Countersteer Motorsports in Georgia for service, including installation of an AEM standalone ECU as well as a new head gasket, Tomei twin turbos and titanium exhaust, injectors and fueling mods. Countersteer is one of the premier GTR shops in the country, and they were recently featured in a video with WhistlinDiesel, who owns two R32 GTRs. It is reported that the car made 500hp. After Tim, the car was owned by Chad in Florida. Chad reported that the car made quite a splash on the local car scene and won several car shows. He was nice enough to send me this picture.
Chad sold the car to Derek in Wisconsin. Derek continued to show the car and was able to have a friend contact Imai-san at the Bee Racing shop in Japan to confirm the car's history with the tuning shop.
Derek later sold the car to Michael in Wisconsin. Michael had the car serviced by John Vassos, which is how I eventually learned of it. Besides service work, Michael and his father basically kept the car garaged and maintained until they decided it needed a new home. I was happy to oblige! Today, the car is a treasured piece in our family collection. The GTR is a fascinating car and we continue to be impressed by the world-beating engineering that Nissan put into this car that earned it the nickname Godzilla!
