REMADE IN JAPAN

ON A MISSION TO HIGHLIGHT THE COUNTRY'S FINEST ARTISANS, BUILT BY LEGENDS PIECES TOGETHER THE GREATEST-AND MOST EXPENSIVE-SKYLINE RESTOMODS EVER BUILT.

- KYLE KINARD

YOU BRING HOME MANY  THINGS from Japan. Memories, ramen splatter on your shirtsleeves, and a hundred stories about the toilets—near-sentient thrones with rows of blinking buttons that practically bow when you approach.

But mostly, I’ll remember the scream.

It’s the banshee song of a straight-six with two turbos hung from the thing like iron cojones. You hear it when the throttle’s pinned and the countryside whips into a 650-horse blur. At 5000 rpm, the turbos’ noise rises to a whistle, like wind ripping through a canyon, and by 7000 rpm, they’re spinning up a wail so loud that you’d swear the car might nose up and lift off.

Rattled eardrums aren’t the worst souvenir.

This monster’s name is Mine’s & Built By Legends R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R. Quite a mouthful. To explain it requires a redeye and a two-hour drive south from central Tokyo. There, we meet the GT-R on a legendary mountain road.

“We felt like we needed to present Japan correctly, with the right context,” Built By Legends (BBL) co-founder Masaharu “Masa” Kuji explains. “So that people really understand the culture.”

More than 20 years ago, Kuji and BBL co-founder Katsu Takahashi worked for a Japanese news and culture startup. The site’s car content, they noticed, drew the lion’s share of traffic. Equipped with a unique insider/outsider perspective—Kuji and Takahashi were born in Japan but lived abroad as boys—the two spotted an opportunity.