Growing up playing the Gran Turismo series of video games, Brandon Milevski always selected the R34 GT-R as his ultimate battle weapon. “It was always the yellow one too, I don’t know why, but it was my favourite back then. I never touched the midnight purple version as I thought they were the ugliest,” laughed Brandon. Oh, how times have changed.

After owning a mildly modified R33, a then 19-year old Brandon went on the lookout for a new machine – the fabled R34 GT-R. In his eyes, it was the epitome of the Nissan range. “Originally I was looking to purchase a silver, R34 V-Spec from Melbourne, but then my uncle came across this GT-R advertised locally in Perth on good old Gumtree. The advert was lacking a heap of information, apart from the basic heading – “R34 Skyline”. It was worth a look at least I thought.”

After making contact with the owner, Brandon received the bad news that the car was already sold. “I was devastated but continued the search, until we came across the same advert a fortnight later. The original purchaser couldn’t get the finance on the car. I was blown away when we arrived, as it was the midnight purple colour. I hadn’t really considered it until then. All of a sudden it appealed to me. My uncle looked at me with a smile, and I just knew I had to buy it – you don’t come across a rare colour like this every day. It was a no brainer.” The deal was knocked on the head on Christmas Eve, back in 2013.

The car had a few bolt-ons here and there but, ultimately it was a fresh canvas for Brandon to manipulate to his taste. “The car maintained the factory body kit, so I decided to add some more flavour with a Z-tune front bumper and front fender combo, with the matching carbon fibre, vented-bonnet. I think it toughens up the car a whole heap more.”

The rear of the car is treated to a genuine V-Spec diffuser with extended Nismo ‘Track Ready’ style fins. The Quest Japan LED tail lights glow bright, bright red at night for an ominous look for those left behind on the freeways of Perth city.

Wheeling the car was a tough choice, but wisely, Brandon kept it clean and simple – Nismo LMGT4 18×9.5 +12 wheels got the nod, and are shod with 285/35/18 rubber. Slamming the car closer to terra firma is a Nismo S tune suspension set up. Hidden behind the blacked out rims, are T3 DBA slotted discs with race pads.

Inside the ride, not much has changed since the car left Japan, albeit for an extensive audio system (hidden in factory outlets) and a Blitz EBC. In the future, race seats may find their way in there.

Being more focused on street duties, Brandon has opted to keep the engine mods to a practical level, but the car the still pumps out a respectable 648rwhp @ 24psi on E85. He can thank the team at C-Red for that result. Internally, the RB26 has copped Eagle H-beam rods with CP 86.5mm forged slugs and King race series bearings. Under the candy apple red rocker cover, is a Tomei metal head gasket, ARP head studs and a pair of HKS 272 cams 8.7 lift drop in step 1 cams with HKS adjustable cam gears.

Replacing the standard twin turbos is a single, Garret T04Z with a .84 rear/v band and a custom T51 front housing from OCD works. I just had to have that iconic T51 spool sound,” laughed Brandon. The new snail is fitted to a 6boost high-mount manifold with a Tial 44mm ‘gate regulating business. A full 3.5-inch exhaust is complimented with a Tomei titanium muffler.

2200cc Bosch injectors are matched to a black Raceworks alloy fuel rail, with a Turbosmart fuel pressure regulator controlling the twin Walbro 460 L/h in-tank fuel pumps. A Haltech Platinum Pro plug-in ECU makes the car sing a sweet tune.

With several years of cruising already under his belt, future plans for the car are minimal. “Reaching 800hp with a larger turbo is quite achievable and is something I would like to explore. Selling the car is something I would never really consider, these types of cars will continue to become more and more desirable and it really is my dream ride.

The attention the car gets is phenomenal; you can’t go somewhere without people wanting to take photos or talk about the car. The most discussed topic is the paint colour of course. I wish I could go back and tell my younger self, just how wrong I was about midnight purple.”