Unfamiliar Competition: Nakane Racing Design R34 GT-R Takes On The Magarigawa Club

I’ve been lucky enough to experience Japan’s ultra-private, luxury race circuit a few times, and I can confirm that Magarigawa is in fact as crazy as all the YouTube videos and clickbait articles make it out to be.

The towering retaining walls and sheer drop-offs on entry to the grounds alone always warp my understanding of physics. But it’s not until you get to the very peak of the mountain – where the pit doors open up, that you get the real wow factor; because not once has the selection of cars out on display ever been the same. 

This particular trip out to the Tokyo-adjacent circuit was for a slightly different car to the norm, however. While supercars and hypercars usually fill the pit lane, every now and then something a bit spicier makes an appearance. In this instance, it was in the form of a thousand-plus horsepower Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R monster.

Unlike Japan’s household tuning names such as HKS, Mines, or Top Secret, Nakan Racing Design isn’t a legacy brand. It’s a relatively young outfit that has spent the past decade quietly building cars with an almost clinical attention to detail. This R34 demo car is just that – a clean, track-focused, time attack-inspired weapon. 

The exterior is subtle compared to your average time attack car. Up front, a Nismo Series 1 bumper with its license recess shaved, subtle but a must for a non-license plate car. A custom carbon splitter and Nismo Z-Tune FRP fenders feed air in, around and out of the engine bay, while HMI Racing side skirts tie into a custom diffuser. Out back, a Sard GT wing – with towering endplates – sets the time attack mood. 

The car sits on TWS forged wheels wrapped in Advan A060 slick tyres, hiding AP Racing brakes that have been cleverly repositioned to minimise unsprung mass. It’s the sort of obsessive tweak only the most detail-oriented builders would care about, and exactly why this car stands out.

The pièce de résistance – and the reason I spent my Sunday commuting to the track,is  the Auto Gallery Yokohama (AGY)-built RB28 engine. The engine wears RB20 cam covers, an AGY staple. Within the block hides an HKS Step 3 stroker kit, while slung from the side, a single GReddy T88-38GK Turbo feeding through to an in-your-face side-exit exhaust, completing the subtle Group A silhouette.

A polished Nismo GT plenum feeds the engine, hand-finished to remove the casting marks. No strut brace here either; chassis stiffness comes from integrated bracing that ties directly into a full roll cage, proving that it is more than just for looks.

Inside, there’s no hiding the intention of this build. The cabin is bare metal and painted in a colour-matched shade of white; wiring tucked neatly beneath a custom carbon dash panel. A Bride drivers seat and stock R34 GT-R passenger item, AP Racing pedal box and various HKS electronics complete the purposeful layout. It doesn’t end there, as the trunk is home to dual Bosch motorsport fuel pumps and a surge tank, again, purely function over form. 

The beauty of Magarigawa’s layout is the ability to listen to a car scream on the entirety of the track. Echoing off the mountains, the sound is nothing short of violent; RB engine at full tilt, barking through side pipes as the car climbs and falls along the undulating Magarigawa circuit. 

Joining it on track, a Ferrari 296 that might as well have been on mute. There was no competition for the Auto Gallery Yokohama-chanelled symphony.

I can’t imagine that when this car was built it was intended for laps at a venue like Magarigawa, but man does it work well. The juxtaposition between an almost zen-like spa that just happens to have a race track, and a screaming, purpose-built R34 GT-R time attack machine is exactly why I love cars, and it’s oh-so-Japanese.