Ricci's Garage: here's the one massive issue with Nissan GT-R ownership in 2024

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

Peering into someone’s eBay watchlist can tell you a lot about their mental health. My fiancée’s account is filled with things we actually need. Mine on the other hand is almost exclusively full of cars – obscure, overpriced or non-running cars.

But there’s one item which has sat on this list for several years, and serves as a constant reminder of how ridiculous car ownership can be. It’s a used ashtray for an R34 GT-R Skyline. When I first added it I scoffed, as the idea of spending £65 on a bit of plastic seemed ridiculous. It’s now more than three times that.

For the past seven years I’ve owned an R34 GT-R and for at least five of those it’s been unusable. This was mainly down to its engine – one which suffered from the awful concoction of trying to make more power than ever intended, combined with relying on ‘experts’ to achieve this who may not have been experts after all. This was confirmed by engine rebuild number three.

The shining light in all of this is the fact it’s now with Steve Richardson at SR Autobodies who – despite having to completely strip and rebuild the R34 – has made the process of owning a Skyline enjoyable again. We’d originally planned for only the underside to be completed by Steve, but after dropping the engine and subframes we decided there may be more work required.

It wasn’t a bad car at all. There was no rust, no past accident damage and every component from the brakes and ECU to the suspension and fuelling had been upgraded. But any 25-year-old car that’s been passed around from tuner to tuner is going to have some skeletons in its closet, and with values now stratospheric for a crusty old Nissan it didn’t make sense to simply do the underside and leave everything else a bit tired looking.

Here lies the issue with GT-R ownership in 2024. Just like that ashtray still sitting in my watchlist, everything to do with Skylines has doubled or tripled in price. Interior trim, engine plastics, arch liners. A pair of R34 GT-R seats will now cost you £10k. That’s 10 grand for 25-year-old seats with 25 years of dust and farts embedded in them. Prices weren’t that bonkers when we first started this restoration, but neither were the car values.

I don’t have limitless cash even if my eBay watchlist might assume otherwise. But Steve and his team have been incredibly patient with the rebuild, fitting it in between other cars and giving plenty of time to source all of the fiddly little parts required to make the car even better than new. Had Steve had every part ready and paid for, I know for a fact he could have had the GT-R back together in just a couple of weeks. But two years on, there’s some light at the end of the tunnel as next month the engine arrives and the big reassembly really begins.

Will it all be worth it? I hope so, but if I’m being completely honest, I’ll be happy if the damn thing never needs another engine rebuild. Because GT-R ownership erodes your expectations so much that even fundamental basics of car ownership – like being able to start the engine – now feels like some kind of miracle. And that’s also why my eBay watchlist looks the way it does.