# R35 GT-R arrives in Korea



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

well, that didn't take long, first one has been photographed on delivery to Seoul. Details were sketchy, as is my Korean, but apparently it came over by boat from Fukuoka to Busan, and these pics are of it getting trucked up to Seoul. I am 99% sure this was purchased by an grey market importer for resale - and it won't be cheap.

:flame: guess I might get a whack at the R35 a lot sooner than I expected, either a test drive or.....the unspeakable thing which two cars do on the road to determine who is faster :flame: 

Anyways, good to see the car enter the Korean market so quickly :clap:


----------



## Fuggles (Jul 3, 2001)

Excellent  Keep us informed if you get a chance to find out more


----------



## exa41 (Dec 22, 2007)

Hi Everyone, just purchased my c34 stagea and have a couple of questions if anyone can help.
I have been on the web for days looking for an update for the dash graphics,
the car thinks she is still in japan and i cant read a dam thing.Is there a CD available . Thanks Dennis


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

Fuggles said:


> Excellent  Keep us informed if you get a chance to find out more


I definitely plan to, I'll track it down, take some video or pics and whatnot. One upside is that odds are very high it'll come through the shop I hang out at during its compliance period. These would definitely count among the first out-of-Japan private deliveries...there are a few in the States but I don't think they're for sale - just made a showing. I'll check the US Skyline board, I never got around to reading the thread on it.


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

two LHD preproduction R35s in California, apparently very tightly guarded - no one has access to driving them.


----------



## Steve (Sep 21, 2001)

Whata cr*p way to transport the Goddess of all cars !!!


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

you would have shit your pants if you saw the transporter I saw carrying a Bugatti Veyron! Twice the filth and rust than the one above. My own car has spent plenty of time on those flatbeds, thank god I've finally got my car sorted - it's been over 6 months since I've been towed, and considering the history of my car, that may as well be a decade, it sure feels like it!


----------



## Mendoza (Mar 28, 2007)

Steve said:


> Whata cr*p way to transport the Goddess of all cars !!!


I was in Korea once (a fair while back to be fair); on a coach that at the service station had to have rocks jammed against it's wheels to stop it rolling away.

That was back in '91, so hopefully things have improved


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

the frightening and difficult thing about living in Korea is that every five years, the country is completely different, but with the same people living in it. Five years ago, owning a Ferrari meant you had something exotic, rare, and special. Now they are literally all over the place. Ten years ago, you had to pay a 200% tax to import a BMW. Now the streets are clogged with them. Same thing with buildings in Seoul - a ten year old building is considered an eyesore and gets torn down and a new twenty story high-rise gets built in its place within months (like, razing, redoing the foundation, and finishing the building - within a few months). This summer, Bentley priced their Continental sedan just $14,000 more than the top S-class Mercedes...six months later, I see at least two or three a day

If you study the used car market, you can see when cars became available for import into Korea. Late model M3s are dime a dozen, but you'd have to look a LONG time to uncover an E36 M3. With Ferraris, no Testarossas, no 348s, a few F355s, and then...plenty of 360 Modenas and lots of F430s.

In 1991 - Korea has changed 50 years in 15. Hell, five years ago, exotic cars were on a few lots in a certain part of town. Now, if you want to buy a used import, there is a 15 story gargantuan building crammed full of cars. There is very little you can't find in that building (excluding JDM, which remains rare and enthusiast-only). After window shopping in that place, its easy to become jaded - there was even a Lamborghini LM002 that sat around for awhile - the paint was peeling and the shell had so much rust it was hard to believe it was an exotic car, but you can't mistake that styling! I once went through and ticked off every current supercar, there was at least one of all of them - SLR McLarens, two yellow Enzos, three Carrera GTs, an AM Vanquish, a Koenigsegg, several Murcielagos, lots of Gallardos, an R8, a Spyker - I'm hard pressed to think of a car that I could not just go down there and buy, if I had the cash on hand. If you had a million in cash you could go down and within hours take delivery of pretty much anything (European).

I am guessing that this R35 is headed for this car market, although if it's already bought and headed to its owner, I'd presume it's the same guy who owns the one Z-tune here - he collects JDM cars, and has some interesting ones, like the Veilside widebody R33 and an HKS-built Evo (8 or 9, I don't know Mitsubishis that well)

And the roads are excellent, and monitored by cameras only - there is no highway patrol, only accident response teams.

I plan to use my BMW this summer to tour the countryside - the cities have all developed into this First World madness, but out in the countryside, I hope to discover a more tranquil Korea, where I might find a bit of the old country, when Korea was just a poor nation with quaint world views, instead of the nouveau-riche insanity and mentality of the cities (the new president has set a goal to make Korea ranked #7 in the world in terms of wealth and GDP, up from #11, and I'll bet you people will blindly work their asses off to try to make it happen. God knows I never get any time off).


----------



## Thrust (Jun 8, 2004)

We have a few Korean students here in Japan and they were angry that the James Bond film at the end showed farmers working in paddy fields. Korea is a modern first world country and we don't want people thinking of it as feudal, they said.

My older brother came to the Far East to visit Japan and Korea. He said he much preferred Korea, well, the Korea he found in the country villages.


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

yeah, there was that big uproar. Thing is, half of Korea lives in Seoul or Busan, and it's not snobbishness per se, it's just the typical attitude of the nouveau riche.

Drive an hour outside of a city and what do you find? Farmers working in paddy fields. Go figure. Would Koreans rather have had that thing crash into a Seoul skyscraper, bringing it down, killing thousands of Koreans? At least the modern Korea would be on film.

Koreans have this weird thing about how they want to be perceived by the outside world. If I were white, I would be treated exceptionally well. Being Korean-American however, I get to see the real side of Koreans, how they treat each other. Not the rosy image the Korean government likes to project to the western world, I'll tell ya that.

I'm really, really looking forward to touring on my bike. I'm on a mission to find the "real Korea", in the small towns, meet those Koreans. Not the tossers I live around, who complain that their daddy only bought them an M3 instead of a Maserati, or bizarre cheapskates like the guy who had an idle issue with his 575 Maranello, and the coilpacks tested bad, but he insisted that it was just the plugs and refused to pay for new coilpacks (admittedly freaking expensive from Ferrari, $400 each and twelve needed, but people who own Maranellos tend to have money, at least that's what I thought). He towed his car away after throwing a tantrum in the garage. You buy a Ferrari and expect Hyundai service costs??? Good riddance.

My goal is to meet a Korean who has never stepped foot in Seoul  I'm even going to put my muffler back on, so as not to disturb the rustic countryside....


----------



## Addicted2Boost (Nov 15, 2007)

Yep when i was there last oct, brand new model BMW, AUDIs, Mercs are sooo common. It was funny to see the cheap domestic cars with its chrome grill, window surrounds and hood ornamants and if u didnt know about cars at all, they look just as luxurious. haha, they did a good job of imitating (atleast the exterior anyways) the proper upclass cars... 

Was suprised to see a very tough modded Supra in right hand drive! and a G35 skyline coupe also in right hand drive tho... i wonder how common the new GTR will become in korea.... hope not too much as if i go there ill be taking my R34 GTR there!!


----------



## psd1 (May 15, 2004)

Thrust said:


> We have a few Korean students here in Japan and they were angry that the James Bond film at the end showed farmers working in paddy fields. Korea is a modern first world country and we don't want people thinking of it as feudal, they said.


Hmmm, last I checked there was a North and a South Korea...differences are pretty vivid between the two...And just like most places, agriculture is just around the corner!


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

update: 2 silver JDM R35s have cleared customs and are on a grey-importer's showroom floor. Will visit the shop this weekend, have a look-see out of curiousity, and will also report what kind of usurious pricing they're offering


----------



## Razo (Nov 6, 2006)

kismetcapitan said:


> update: 2 silver JDM R35s have cleared customs and are on a grey-importer's showroom floor. Will visit the shop this weekend, have a look-see out of curiousity, and will also report what kind of usurious pricing they're offering


Are all korean car right hand drive by default?


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

nope, Korea is left hand drive. only grey market JDM cars and the occasional used British import are RHD. Makes for some interesting shenanigans at toll booths, etc


----------



## YokoAE86 (May 23, 2007)

kismetcapitan said:


> Koreans have this weird thing about how they want to be perceived by the outside world. If I were white, I would be treated exceptionally well. Being Korean-American however, I get to see the real side of Koreans, how they treat each other. Not the rosy image the Korean government likes to project to the western world, I'll tell ya that.
> 
> 
> That is interesting as i heard that some Chinese people who are British Born, and when they went to teach English in Korea, the students and their parents asked for White speaking teachers, even though they were 100% British and enhlish speaking!


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

that's beginning to end, but yeah, for a long time, they'd choose a white person with barely any education over an Oxford-educated asian face, or god forbid, a black face. Koreans are racist fookers. For awhile, even Korean-Americans who ONLY spoke english would get hired, but at half the pay.

thankfully, that's more or less over, at least at the high end of the english-education market (schools that charge a grand or more per month in tuition). Yes, cram schools in Korea cost more than university tuition.


----------



## RH18 (Feb 23, 2007)

lol, this thread has turned into a thesis on 'the economic and social change of Korean society over the years'. none the less.. interesting. and i guess this sort of ties in with the R35 and any other luxury/supercar.

anymore spottings?


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

$158,000USD taxed and out the door. A small bit of a markup over whatever it cost in Japan (!!!), but available today to cash buyers. The car is ridiculously HUGE. I thought the R32 was big, it looks like a freaking Miata next to the R35. The back feels as bad, maybe worse, than the G35 coupe. No shagging is ever gonna happen in the R35, unless it's by midget contortionists.

I did not get to test drive the car, surprisingly enough  The MFD is very nice, a lot better than the clutter of analog gauges I have to rely on. The car is completely untouched, so I'm presuming the speed limiter is still in place. Not that I had much urge to dump my R32 and buy the thing, but being limited to 112mph is just absurd and I'll never spend a dime on something that keeps me down like that. Shit, I'm at 180kph faster than I can say achoo on my bike.

But for all the talk and the tests...this car is definitely my new yardstick. I'm going to take another look at my suspension, see what I do to improve handling. Better mapping might improve response - I've mapped my car so it doesn't blow up, but that doesn't mean I've optimised the power curve - I'm still a padawan compared to the likes of Tweenierob.

Ironically enough, I did feel a moment where I did some math in my head and considered taking out a secured cash loan against my home - I'd be driving an R35 by Monday as a result....for the sole reason of gaining the bragging rights of being the first GTROC'er to have one. Damned badges and marque status and bragging rights and whatnot. Had to clear the mind, take a deep breath, and refocus on my true love - the R32. My R32.


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

Oh, and the grey importer is called "Reckless Motors". Very luxurious showroom, had a Gallardo Spyder among other exotics. On their paper floormats they put in their cars it had the company name "RECKLESS MOTORS" and below it in smaller print, their motto "please drive safe". I'm not kidding.


edit: you can't say s**** [email protected]? I thought in British English that that meant "very luxurious"


----------



## mrsamo (Jul 4, 2010)

Hi, sorry to bump an old thread but how much is the r35 gtr in Korea (new and used). Do they have something like yahoo auction in korea? Thanks!


----------



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

R35s cost an arm and a leg, and it simply isn't worth it. For the money it takes, you can also get an Audi R8 or a Ferrari 360. The R35 may be quicker, but you've got to be a hardcore dedicated GTR fan to choose an R35 over the other options at the price they go for.

They are sold through dealerships now however, so you do get warranty backing.


----------



## tyndago (Oct 24, 2002)

_Only 35 cars are to be sold at a price of 149,000,000(KRW, included VAT)_

2009 Nissan GT-R


----------

