We all know how the legacy of the R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R. Here was arguably the most iconic car to ever come from Japan, the apex of a nameplate that had established itself throughout the ‘90s as offering European supercar-haunting performance with the same brand badge as a Primera. A true feat in engineering.
Yet, we can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if Nissan had decided to throw everything it had at a proper supercar. A real Ferrari and Porsche rival, using everything it had learned from the Skyline. Well, what if we told you the Skyline supercar almost happened – but not because of Nissan.
Tommy Kaira is a name that’ll prick the ears of real JDM anoraks. Founded in 1986, the tuner started out working on a few Mercedes’ but quickly became best known for its inexplicable turtle logo adorning several hotted-up Nissans. It covered pretty much everything, ranging from the Micra right up to the GT-R and everything in between.
Tommy Kaira R-Z, rear
It even had a crack at making its own car throughout the ‘90s, the ZZ. Using a naturally-aspirated SR20, sending about 180bhp to the rear wheels, this dinky sports car was like a Japanese Lotus Elise, only six years before Hethel’s icon came into existence. Oh, and funnily enough, it was actually also built in Norfolk…
The ZZ would prove to be the sole production car built under the Tommy Kaira name, and about 220 were said to be produced. It wasn’t supposed to be the only one, though.
With the ZZ ending production in 2000 thanks to a switch in Japanese safety regs, Tommy Kaira looked at building an indirect successor, a proper supercar. The aptly-named ZZII was to be that car.
Using a bespoke aluminium tub and carbon fibre bodywork, it was still intended to be pretty lightweight, with a target figure of 1,000kg. That would’ve been 350kg heavier than the ZZ, but it had the power and prowess to compensate for it.
Tommy Kaira ZZII
You see, under the GTA-does-McLaren-F1 skin, it used a modified version of the RB26 found in the R34 GT-R. As Tommy Kaira didn’t have to conform to the gentlemen’s agreement between major Japanese manufacturers, it was able to extract 542bhp from the twin-turbo straight six. That would be sent to familiar tech, too, with the ZZII using the ATTESA AWD system from the Skyline as well as its six-speed manual gearbox.
With that, it was said to be capable of 0-62mph in around 3 seconds and 210mph, which would’ve made it comfortably the maddest thing coming out of Japan at the time. For a bit more context, that was around a second quicker than a 996 Porsche 911 Turbo and 20mph faster.
Unveiled to the world in its ‘production-ready’ form at the 2002 Tokyo Auto Salon, the firm claimed it would be producing it in volumes with customer deliveries already lined up. Sadly, that would never come to fruition.
Unfortunately, Tommy Kaira ran into some severe financial difficulties during development and only the sole prototype – which turned out to weigh around 1200kg as it used fibreglass instead of carbon fibre – ever existed.
Japanese retailer Autobacs (basically Halfords but cooler) bought the rights to the ZZII, primarily with the intent of racing it, but those plans never got off the ground.
You could drive the ZZII though, provided you owned a copy of Gran Turismo 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 – albeit that was an even earlier concept version that looked not much like the final thing. Ah well.
