It could be a criminal offense to shut out ‘Japan Month’ on Speedhunters without discussing certainly one of the country’s most legendary cars: the HKS Zero-R.
It’s a automobile steeped in mystery, with quite a few blogs and forums dedicated to piecing together its true history and tracing its journey through the years. Price figures fluctuate wildly, as do estimates of the variety of Zero-Rs produced and the precise timeline of their creation.
The late Nineteen Eighties were a time of technological innovation and excess, and in 1989, HKS wanted in on the motion, using the brand-new BNR32 Nissan Skyline GT-R as a base. But here’s the crucial detail: this will not be a Nissan Skyline GT-R.
The Zero-R was HKS’s attempt at creating their very own supercar based on an already competent production chassis, very similar to Alpina, RUF, and Brabus were doing on the time with their creations. This wasn’t only a tuning package for the BNR32 – HKS made enough changes to the Skyline GT-R to warrant homologation for road legality. The problem, nonetheless, was the astronomical costs involved.
Homologation in Japan in the course of the Nineties was horrendously difficult and expensive, and despite the technical expertise and fervour behind the Zero-R project, the financial realities couldn’t be ignored. HKS simply didn’t have the resources to crash-test multiple Zero-Rs, and their dream of constructing Japan’s answer to Europe’s boutique supercars was abruptly crushed.
That’s to not say the Japanese tuner abandoned the project completely – several Zero-Rs were fully developed within the early ’90s, albeit without homologation. A few of these cars remained at HKS’s Shizuoka factory, while one made its way into the Sultan of Brunei’s outrageous automobile collection.
While most sources agree that only 4 ‘original’ Zero-Rs were made within the Nineties, some suggest as many as 11 were produced. I used to be initially inclined to side with the smaller figure – given the dearth of solid info and documentation on the Zero-R – until a deeper dive uncovered the next:
No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. These are film scans from 1993, showing eight real Zero-Rs, still on GT-R wheels, in storage at HKS. The pictures were taken by former HKS USA worker Scott Webb and posted on an American GT-R forum in 2013.
This figure is backed up by an article from an early-2000s Australian magazine, High Performance Imports, which featured eight Zero-Rs lined up outside – each wearing its bespoke magnesium TecnoMagnesio wheels.
All the initial Zero-Rs were finished in silver – or not less than, eight of them were. The Sultan’s Zero-R, nonetheless, was white, and being a part of the initial run, meaning HKS produced not less than nine cars before the turn of the century.
Across the mid-2000s, changes in Japan’s roadworthiness laws gave HKS a likelihood to make the Zero-R road legal. That did nothing to ease the confusion across the cars already produced, nonetheless, and nobody was sure what number of more can be built.
HKS announced the ‘Zero-R Version II’, taking the unique concept and updating it with modern turbos, brakes, and suspension. Our very own Dino Dalle Carbonare even got behind the wheel of certainly one of these later models in 2010, just before more information in regards to the original cars began to surface.
But even then, questions remain. Dino’s article featured two cars – one white, one silver – but there’s still no certainty on whether the white automobile was a very latest construct or certainly one of the unique Zero-R chassis updated with latest parts.
Then there’s the ‘Zero-R Version III’ from 2007/2008. The one concrete photos show a black example, but then a red one appeared – which can have turned purple – and more modified silver cars began popping up.
And let’s not forget the well-documented grey Zero-R on RAYS Volk Racing RE30 wheels that made its option to Australia, in addition to the white automobile that Mark had the possibility to drive, pictured around these words.
Based on photographic evidence alone, there look like nine Zero-Rs from the unique run – the eight silver ones, plus the Sultan’s white automobile. With the addition of the Version II and Version VIII models pictured, we might be taking a look at 14 or 15 cars, though some imagine as many as 17 Zero-Rs might have been made.
But the reality is, without concrete information from HKS or a production log, there’s no option to confirm the numbers. In a way, though, that adds to the mystery of this two-seat world-beater that the visionaries at HKS dreamt up nearly 4 many years ago.
While all eyes have been on HKS’s ‘reborn’ R34 GT-R, seemingly taking on from the absurdly priced Nismo Z-Tune R34s and 400R R33s, you would possibly think the Zero-R has all but been forgotten. Truth be told though, the story’s not quite over yet.
A plan to revive the automobile appears to be in motion, with HKS constructing a Zero-R from the bottom up again this yr, finally taking the BNR32 chassis to the lofty heights it envisioned all those years ago. Watch this space – and don’t look away for a second.
Mario Christou
Instagram: mcwpn
mariochristou.world
Photography by Mark Riccioni
Instagram: mark_scenemedia
Twitter: markriccioni
mark@speedhunters.com
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