The engine for Mark's Nissan R34 GT-R Skyline is finally ready! Sort of!

Renowned photographer Mark has been working with Top Gear for many, many years. When not taking photos he’s buying inappropriate cars. Here he shares his addiction with the world

Your eyes do not deceive you. I repeat, your eyes are not deceiving you. Pictured here is an actual engine for my R34 GT-R Skyline – one with a crank, working pistons the lot. And I’ve seen and photographed it myself, otherwise you’d be forgiven in thinking this build was AI generated vapourware.

The excitement is also very real. There is some fear obviously – not the fact that I want to try and run it at 1,000bhp – but more the fact the setup here cost more than what I paid for the R34 GT-R back in 2018. And they weren’t exactly dirt cheap then either.

But there’s a very good reason for sinking a good car payment into an engine build. This isn’t the first engine rebuild I’ve funded; it’s number five, and after four failed attempts which I probably should’ve learned from, this particular build will be the last engine my GT-R ever needs. Because if anything happens to it, I will be treating the car to a Viking burial near Rutland Water.

Some of those rebuilds were my fault, but the bulk were down to shoddy workmanship from previous tuners. Enough time has passed for the rage to subside and to cut my losses with the old setup, which is exactly why every single component in this Dahtone Racing wide journal RB28 is brand new. And that includes the engine block and cylinder head, which weren’t the easiest to track down as new-old stock either.

So, what are we looking at? The stock RB26 is now a 2.8-litre but unlike other stroker kits, Dahtone retains the OEM piston size (86mm) which means that no overboring is required with the engine block and that crucially retains much more strength when aiming to run it at a thousand horsepower. Will it be reliable at that power? Who knows, but every engine I had before at lower levels went bang so we might as well find out one way or another.

The Getrag six speed gearbox has also been rebuilt and the twin plate carbon clutch refreshed, meaning that any day now Steve and his team at SR Autobodies will be plonking it back into the car. The first time it’ll have had an engine in it since October 2021.

Excited? You bet, even if there is still a whole load of expense left to hose at it. I need to sort the injectors, wiring, intercooler and turbo side as a priority. But once the block is popped back in, the GT-R can begin to resemble a real car once again and even stand on its own four wheels again. Which is more than can be said for my E24 M6 rebuild currently, which might need rescuing in the next month, so it doesn’t disappear altogether. Crap.