"This is my fourth Skyline", was how Sercan opened up our conversation to feature his car on the Carbonetics blog, "the only difference is that this one is yellow while the other three were silver".
He's taken his obsession with a single make and model to another level, which isn't entirely uncommon with enthusiasts who had a single vehicular experience shape their passion. For Sercan, his passion for the R-chassis stemmed from family. He told us, "my uncle was one of the first in the family to buy an R33, and then everybody in the family decided to get one, it was easy for me to become interested".
From boy to man, Sercan's passion for vehicles before an addiction to Skylines came from Kinder Surprises of all things, "I only wanted the toy from the Kinder chocolate if it was a car, not sure why". As with the majority of the current community, THAT movie franchise, along with the proliferation of tuner and street racing video games shaped how he viewed the car scene.
"All of my mates were into JDM, so it was going to happen", Sercan remembered, "my dad was also a mechanic back in his home country, and I thought about it but decided to study civil engineering instead".
Despite moving into another industry for his profession, Sercan stayed in touch with his automotive passion with BoostMania, and with that came two R33 ownership experiences, and another R34.
Now comfortable with this "permanent addition" to the garage, the infamous yellow GTR-lookalike is his dream modified, and fulfilled simultaneously.
"R34 GTR prices are a little silly in 2020, so I didn't want to save and spend on a single car, and decided to build something similar through the GTT instead", he explained his choice for the RWD over Godzilla. He's not wrong you know, for so many of us, R34 GTR ownership is a boat that sailed long ago, prices won't be coming down, and as more of them fall into the hands of collectors, or wrecked, the marketplace will become smaller and smaller.
Not that it fazed Sercan, as his first focus was on power, "this was my priority, and we worked on the engine and ended up with 400KW at the wheels". Already significantly more than a stock BNR34, with a lot more drama considering it all only goes through the rear.
He tells us that he's "not exactly happy with the final figure", and the future goal is a sequential box with 1000BHP, and potentially an AWD conversion, but with the power at a very respectable level Sercan turned his attention to the cosmetic side, an area that we're very proud to have contributed to.
To put it simply he said, "the Carbonetics boys helped me create what I was visualising", meaning the sourcing the entire R34 GTR-conversion kit for his vehicle, along with the BNR34 wing with extended stands.
The end result is spectacular, and honestly speaking has led to significant interest in the conversion kit this year, we've been struggling to keep the kits in stock throughout 2020. It's inspired a number of new customers to take that leap of faith this year, Sercan's car has been a big inspiration to shape the reality of the dreams you are chasing, finding happiness with what you have and making the most of the options in front of you.
Although he's not satisfied to call 34LOCO his endgame build yet, Sercan is happy to take it slow, "I want to do it slowly so I don't get over it. Once everything reaches the end or maximum, there won't be the same level of excitement to the next objective". Very wise words that get lost with so many build enthusiasts today. Take the time soak in the immediate, appreciate what you have now, so that the future means even more.
He's done a lot of the work himself, which although rewarding was in his eyes the biggest challenge, "I wanted to do majority of the work my self to learn and know what’s done to the car". This has obviously contributed to the longer build period, but it also reveals why Sercan's captions and demeanour on social media is always happy and upbeat, positive for the now and the future.
He's also quick to thank all his supporters and people invested into his build:
"My appreciation would be all my close mates that were there helping me work on the car day after day having late nights and making it all happen. Everyone that supported me along the way and the boys that helped me get where I am with Boostmania. Along with family, none of this would have happened without them".
The Carbonetics team often refer to Sercan's R34 as THE reference point for how to build a car using our products, and having learnt his story it makes us even prouder to have helped him on his journey and reach his idea of the R34 pinnacle!
