Nissan has been increasing support for owners of its older performance vehicles since 2017 through its aftermarket performance brand Nismo. All manner of Nissan nerdery is available through the famed semi-aftermarket parts house, but the latest vintage part release is one of the coolest; reproduction Nismo gauge clusters for the R34 Skyline GT-T and GT-R, along with the S15 Silvia. And they’re already sold out.
Nismo is its own entity within the corporate umbrella of Nissan. The word itself is just a truncated version of Nissan Motorsports, and it has handled Nissan’s racing and tuning efforts since 1984. It’s responsible for fearsome race cars, most notably the Group A-era R32 Skyline GT-R that dominated touring car racing from 1990 to 1993. The success of the racing division led to the sales of rare and desirable racing parts to consumers in Japan, as well as some neat accessories.
With part re-releases like this, consider that these parts have been out of production for decades. They’re almost impossible to find and expensive to purchase used. This is why genuine Nismo parts are so costly second-hand and why genuine reproduction parts are so desirable.
The rarity makes the cost of the new parts seem like a bargain at $600-$800 for the clusters. A quick search of eBay shows used clusters going for more than double Nismo’s asking price. The only trouble is that the clusters are limited production and according to Japanese Nostalgic Car, are apparently never being made again. From what we could find, Nismo makes the clusters through the ultra-exclusive Omori Factory restoration and performance shop.
The clusters themselves are the Nismo gauges Japanese car nerds know and love. For the R34 GT-R, a black or white face cluster was available around $720. Skyline connoisseurs know that the GT-T and GT-X trims are just as worthy of attention, powered by an RB25DET inline-six engine with rear-wheel-drive. For those owners, $650 gets a black face cluster. There’s also an S15 Silvia cluster available, the first S15 reproduction part sold by Nismo. It retails for $560. They could have been purchased directly from Nismo or through resellers like Nengun, but again, it looks like they’re already sold out. Weirdly, the Nismo link redirects to the Nissan USA site, so we got screenshots of what’s behind the curtain.
So I’m going to drool over the whole catalog while pondering why I don’t have a Skyline GT-T in my driveway.