The HKS Zero-R – The JDM Unicorn

Let me introduce you to the actual unicorn of JDM car culture, the Zero-R.

Although it looks like an R32 Nissan Skyline, if you look closely, you will see that there are absolutely no Nissan badges. In the 1990s, HKS picked up a handful of R32 vehicles, and by handful I mean 4 total, to be their ultimate version of the skyline racecar that any true JDM race enthusiast dreams about, but once they finished these works of art, they realized that they could not be fit for production under Nissan because that would require crash testing of a car that cost over $10 million yen to create- so HKS elected to keep the small number of production cars in their vault.

Only two of these four vehicles have been sold. The first went to a Sultan, and the second was sold to a performance shop in Australia for a large 6-figure number. The other two? Well, here is one! An actual automotive unicorn.

It is said that when emission and automotive testing requirement laws started to grow more lenient in the 2000s, HKS made more upgrades to the remaining 3 vehicles it still had (prior to selling the one in Australia).

As it now sits, the HKS Zero-R holds an RB26DETT, but modified to a 2.8 liter with a severely upgraded turbo, internals, and bolt on modifications from the very heart of HKS.

To this day, the details on the Zero-R are absolutely perfect. While attending HKS Premier Day at Fuji Speedway in Japan, I came face to face with this beautiful piece of JDM history, and it was breathtaking.

As one of the most well kept cars that I’ve ever seen in my entire life, you wouldn’t believe that it is about 3 decades old! What a reflection of the Japanese ability to preserve such treasured culture, protecting the legendary Japanese car culture of the 90s.