Nissan Skyline R34: 453hp, a Curse, and the Most Honest Build Story in Sweden

Original story and photography by Peter Edenberg, first published at  Fascinating Cars Instagram: @thefascinatingcars, reproduced here with reference and acknowledgement to the original source and author. Owner: Jimmy Instagram: @voodoo_r34 | Location: Stockholm, Sweden

The Car That Announces Itself

Jimmy enters the street with a faint rumble from the exhaust. He hits the gas for the fifty metres up to where we're meeting, and the turbo goes — PUUUUSSSSSHHHH.

Standing in a small industrial area in the suburbs of Stockholm as a modified Nissan Skyline R34 wrapped in a striking livery rolls up the street, the Fast and Furious feeling is genuinely palpable. It sounds like it looks. It looks like it means business. And it does.

"Maybe it's the fastest mail van in the world," Jimmy says with a grin as he steps out on the right side — all R34s were built right-hand drive for the Japanese domestic market, which means it's always going to raise an eyebrow in Sweden.

Voodoo — The Name and the Curse

Jimmy doesn't hesitate for a second. He just starts talking.

"It has a curse on it — almost every time I come around, it rains. In addition to that, animals have an incredible ability to always jump out in the middle of the road when I'm coming. So far there have been four animals during the years I've had the car. Which means I have to fix the front all the time."

He points at the cracks already visible in the front body kit as he says it. The rain, the animals, the constant repairs — and on top of all that, nobody could agree on whether the car was male or female.

"So my friends named it by the appropriate name — Voodoo."

The rain association is hard to ignore. It immediately calls to mind Need for Speed — the game's constantly wet urban streets made for exactly the kind of sliding, drifting environment that a car like this was built for. When I mention it to Jimmy, he doesn't just agree.

"Actually I did the whole wrap on the car in Need for Speed Heat. Copied it directly from there and gave it to the wrapping company Autowrap in Tumba. I got some inspiration from Dan Burkett who runs the drifting team Radandrift."

The wrap isn't just aesthetic — it's a direct translation of a digital car into a real one, which somehow makes it even more fitting.

How Jimmy Found It

Jimmy had been dreaming about an R34 since 2005, when he saw an R32 GTR running an R34 front end. Then he saw a real-life orange R34 GT-T, and that was that. The model was decided. All that was left was the saving.

"I had worked hard and saved money for more than a year to be able to buy it, and all of a sudden Voodoo was standing in front of me. It was not a difficult decision. The money was not enough all the way, so I took a small loan to cover the rest so that it would eventually be mine."

He was twenty years old in 2016 when he bought it. The car had been standing on a farm for nearly a year, sitting in five centimetres of mud. The previous owner had bought it thinking he'd turn it into a drift car — then realised an R34 isn't really that car, and pivoted to a Nissan S13 instead. He needed money to fund the V8 build. Jimmy needed a Skyline. The deal made itself.

"It was melancholy to see the car for the first time. It was in 5 cm of mud, the panels were applied totally skewed, and it was completely neglected. The car had basically only ever lived in a forest environment and on gravel roads — which had totally destroyed the paint. It was so sad to see how it looked right then."

But the bones were there. Jimmy knew it. The seller didn't really want to let it go but eventually agreed. And when Jimmy drove off the farm — original turbo knocking out its Puuuush with every gear change — he sat the whole way home with a grin he couldn't shift.

The Scars in the Build

"What I usually say is that my life started like everyone else's, and if you look at the car completely original, we have all been the same. All modifications to the car are my scars, so there are a lot."

Jimmy's upbringing was genuinely hard, and he doesn't hide it. But he doesn't dwell on it either — what he does instead is channel it into Voodoo. The build isn't just mechanical. It's personal.

"Voodoo is my outlet for all the bad things that have happened. A good example is the manifold — it was original from the beginning, but I wanted it to sound cool, so I replaced it with a Cockpit manifold. At the same time, some things happened in my life that I wanted to ward off, so I installed a big turbo to fight that pain."

The original snail — a 43mm unit — was swapped out for a Garrett at 72mm. Both manifold and turbo were fitted in a DIY session at a petrol station, with zero certainty he'd be able to drive it out the other side. He did.

"The turbo can handle up to 700 horses and is both oil and water cooled, with double wheel bearings."

The car now puts out 453 wheel horsepower. The block itself is untouched — Jimmy is clear the original engine can handle close to 600hp without internal modifications, and he hasn't needed to go there yet.

What Was Done to Get It There

The bodywork came first. The car went straight to Norrorts Paint Shop, where Jimmy got stuck in himself with the sanding to strip it back from the ground up.

"I had to remove all the panels from the car because, as I said, they were completely oblique. It was quite tragic to see how they were attached — instead of using the existing holes, they'd made their own. And a lot of rust had built up under those panels. But the feeling when everything was in order was lovely."

The body kit is a mixed setup: the rear and rocker panels come from a Cross Factory side body kit, while the front runs a Euro kit. The car sits 5cm wider than standard, and the cracks in the front bumper are testament to how actively it gets used.

Under the bonnet, the modifications are focused and purposeful. A homemade intercooler, a new oil cooler, a new Blitz cooler, a larger diffuser, and an equal-length low-mount turbo setup. Piping runs at three inches behind the engine before opening up to 4.5 inches. The factory mechanical fan is still in place — a detail Jimmy flags himself.

"The fan is completely original, even though it actually takes 30 horsepower from the engine. Electric fans would be more efficient, but it might be a later project."

Suspension is handled by Driftworks all around, with Control System 2 coilovers at the front — currently set to their hardest setting for Mantorp Park.

Rolling stock is a set of Volk Racing TE37 Ultra S2 rims, laser engraved with the name, wrapped in Yokohama Advan Sport 275/30 rubber. On the inside, a pair of Sparco bucket seats sit either side of a Momo steering wheel — purposeful, clean, nothing wasted.

Jimmy Behind the Wheel

Getting in and pushing metre after metre down the motorway, the way this car pulls is immediately obvious. There's no lag, no surge, no kick-in point — it just builds smoothly all the way through the rev range, gear after gear.

"Having a predictable car on the track is a must. Because as a driver, you have to know exactly how the car reacts in and out of curves, and as you can see, this car is smooth all the way through the register."

Jimmy had a promising career in the KZ2 class in karting — cut short by a disagreement with his father, who coached and sponsored him, about driving style. The kart days are gone but the instinct for the track never left. He gets to Time Attack and Track Days whenever he can, and at Mantorp or the Gotland Ring those 453 horsepower get to work properly.

The number 11 on the roof? That's from the karting career. Still there.

The Tunnel Run

The best story Jimmy tells is one he clearly relives in full every time.

"One of the most amazing driving experiences I've had with this car must be the journey from Barkarby to the famous grill in Vega — from the north side to the south side of Stockholm. It was after the big car meeting in Barkarby, we were hungry, and Vega BBQ is always where you go to eat."

"The road goes through the southbound tunnels, which had just been built and had no speed cameras set up yet. A large number of cars hooked up for the trip. When we got down to the tunnels, it felt just like in the most beautiful Fast and Furious movie. Cars slipped over the lanes — Evos, Supras, RX-7s, Honda S2000s, Mercedes — all kinds of cars sliding and cruising in the summer evening."

His eyes go somewhere else when he tells it. You can feel the tunnel, the engine noise, the lanes opening up.

Then, at the end of our drive, he demonstrates what Voodoo can actually do.

"Then it's good to do this as well." — he floors the pedal, turns the wheel hard left. The two-way diff doesn't even need to think about it. In less than half a second the Advan Sport 275/30s break loose across the asphalt. Three fast circles. Laser-engraved Volk TE37 Ultra S2 rims tasting the road sideways. G-force pressing into my face. Smoke rising from outside the car on the third lap.

Spec Sheet

Engine & Drivetrain

• RB25DET engine block — untouched (capable of approx. 600hp standard)
• Cockpit exhaust manifold
• Garrett 72mm turbocharger — oil and water cooled, double wheel bearings
• Equal-length low-mount turbo system
• 3-inch piping behind engine, opening to 4.5-inch
• Homemade intercooler
• New oil cooler
• Blitz radiator
• Larger diffuser
• Original mechanical fan retained
• 453whp

Suspension

• Driftworks suspension — all corners
• Control System 2 coilovers — front
• Set at maximum stiffness (Mantorp Park setup)

Wheels & Tyres

• Volk Racing TE37 Ultra S2 — laser engraved
• Yokohama Advan Sport 275/30

Exterior

• Need for Speed Heat replica wrap — Autowrap, Tumba
• Cross Factory side body kit — rear and rocker panels
• Euro body kit — front
• 5cm wider than standard
• Carbon bonnet
• Carbon rear wing
• Number 11 roof graphic

Interior

• Sparco bucket seats
• Momo steering wheel

What a Build

Nearly 6,000 miles on the clock since Jimmy got it. Four animals hit. Constant front-end repairs. A wrap ripped straight from a video game. A turbo fitted at a petrol station on a leap of faith. And a car that pulls smoothly, predictably, and hard from the bottom of the rev range all the way to the top.

Voodoo is exactly what Jimmy said he wanted — a car that reflects your personality, tells your story, and expresses something nobody else could have built. Every modification is a scar, and together they make something genuinely, brilliantly individual.

If you want to see what building with your whole self looks like, it looks like this.

If this Nissan Skyline R34 build has you wanting more JDM flavour, have a look at the 1970 Datsun 240Z by California Datsun — a completely different era but the same level of dedication. Or if track-focused builds are your thing, the 2014 VW Golf GTI MK7 with Audi S3 engine swap is well worth your time.

This feature is based on original reporting and photography by Peter Edenberg, first published at Fascinating Cars. Reproduced here with reference and acknowledgement to the original source and author.