LEON'S GT-R: CRUSHED BY THE FEDS! FULL STORY & SPECS.

hello fast fam thanks for tuning in I'm Craig Lieberman and I've been taking on cars since in 1980 I've owned more than 40 cars in my life some were heroes some where zeros but never in my wildest dreams would I ever guess that three of my cars would go on to star at a motion picture franchise my Supra my GTR and my maximum all had starring roles and universals Fast and Furious movies over the next three years I'd served Universal as a technical advisor to help choose the cars procure the parts oversee their build and support both production and post-production have some cool stories to tell about what it was like to build these cars and to work with the cast I was there on set and the production meetings working on cars hanging with the actors and consulting on post-production so follow along as I tell the stories let's jump in [Music] [Applause] you what the hell is going on around here streets closed pizza boy find another way home welcome back everybody for another episode special treat in the house today is the man the myth the legend Sean Morris if you don't know this guy's name you're not a tuner fan Sean was the guy who was at moto Rex back in the day and back in 1999 19 2002 was when I was there and Sean was responsible for the Tokyo Drift RB 26 Mustang and he was also the purveyor and caretaker of Leon's r33 skyline so we're gonna talk about that first today and we're gonna jump right in with understanding the history of where this car came from its progression how it got cast on the movie and then what happened to it so let's start off where did the car come from so originally where the car came from it was one of the cars with motor X first imported it was a temporary import before they had gotten their certification so it was imported basically to show off the company and maybe to do crash testing and do the other development work that research and development for to get certification okay and so the car was white at the time right it was white and is actually the first r33 I ever drove Wow okay so I drove it at the in the parking lot at SEMA back in 1998 1999 1997 or 1998 so fast-forward a little while of course you know Paul Walker gets in there into GTRs you had a big role in that you know after driving the r34 on set and 2fast appears but even before that you had had Paul's ear a little bit talking about GTRs yeah I mean so originally when we when you first had the we had the casting and we brought cars there we brought actually we brought the r33 on a trailer remember that f @ urgent and and so and then so they are 30 and we brought it several are thirty twos and so we brought several are 32 s at some point there I'd actually take him Paul for a ride around inside the Universal lot in our 32 probably got a little song probably I probably drove relatively fast through Universal there and like anyway and and then it's kind of funny because years later my friend James Lewis actually he was there with us he brought one of the cars and he had some photos and I actually didn't really have any recollection of it yeah and and and so it was kind of crazy I was like hey there's Paul in an hour thirty two and there's me and Paul talking about you know skylines and stuff then and so that was kind of when when initially when they came up and they started talking about the r33 on the trailer and we started talking about what it was and what it was in and you know I went into what I call pumping my best salesmen pitch ever where I said hey look this is the car it's a top car you know this is the one that people really want and you know they looked at it and I think you know they ended up consulting with you and and they kind of came to the conclusion like hey we should get this car and and I think we came back and said no how many can you get well again this is very early days people don't realize like there's no franchise there's just some I mean it's a universal movie but you know asking some small company real small company then motor X to get you three or four cars when they only had really one here for research and development was really difficult right and and so that's that's the probably the biggest reason why they did it because every even I knew back then that a GTR is higher in the food chain and a super was it was just a matter of convenience and the fact that we could buy them locally and non-turbo cars that we needed to but they also ruled out the r32 s for the same reason but you did have several r32 s available we did and you know the reason i mean like anything the r33 is a little newer car it's a little bit more rounded i think that you know i even though it's a classic style now there's a lot of people that didn't like like the armor that amber amber corner lights is a little more boxy it's not really and our 34 wasn't really even on the table it just wasn't an option there wasn't the number of cars that existed the kind of money we're talking for the first movie first movie women you know people have to understand the first movie when somebody randomly comes to you off the street and says hey can you bring in five more cars and spend 50 70 hundred thousand dollars just even on transport plus then the cost of the cars and thing else it's not it's not to do it so alright fast forward so we can cast a car from Leon's car we immediately paint it yellow we put the decals on it which I'm sure you're loved like the right so it's not just young people or old people taking the decals off but there's there's a bone of contention a lot of people ask the question no let's talk about the equipment list on this car so sure had the RB 26 it was a real RG it was a real GTR right yeah so but that thing had gone through several iterations so talk about that right so um that car originally was a stock car then we were using is a demo car HKS it actually used it as a as a demo cartoon that supplied a lot of parts it had HKS 2530 turbos on it that done the fuel system and some tuning and all the rest of the stuff on the car it made about 500 horsepower so one of our customers Nick Wong ran it in one lap of America some of the time schedule I might have a little off because it kind of you know I don't have it in front of me if I look at it all I could probably tell you but off the top of my head these are things that we did with it and then we after after that what was the first event that it competed in that you remember well we were in Pikes Peak Pikes Peak are okay so far survived that and an ESO Rhys Millen you PRD ran at Pikes Peak under pressure racing development and so Rhys trove the r33 at Pikes Peak in 1999 it said a showroom stock record it's you know that was when it was partially paved partially partially asphalt yeah yeah partially paid partially dirt and so um but it was fast and so we went to Pikes Peak then in 99 it was cool and then with one lap of America was that after high that was before that was before actually that was before when it went to the movie right so hurt the motor so yeah yeah hurt turbos just to turn over turbos on that so it come to think of it when it was on the movie it had a stock engine stock turbos mmm so there you go so it wasn't a 500 horsepower fire breather no I was it was a pretty damn stock car and then when it came back from the movie I ran it with the stock turbos stock setup I ran it it calls bad before my like 12 sixties 12 20s maybe something like that and then after that I put 2530 turbos on it and we tuned it again or we got the nitrous installed the hey hey the directs the nitrous manifold which direct port nitrous you can see right here you have to lengthen the lengthen the lines because otherwise if you don't run this these shorties it hits really weird so after we did so after the movie after we got the car back after change the turbos after putting nitrous on it and stuff off the bottle the car was like 440 at the wheels on the bottle over at excess engineering are tuning it was 650 on the bottle to the tire and so then we ran IDRC with it you know and it was it was fast at IDRC a 10 by 10 tire height ends at our IDRC in Palmdale at altitude right so um I ran it two days up there ran like a couple bunch of different events and stuff with it and the car I went like ten seven eighty ten eighty ten ninety ten seventy ten seventy when I was racing against actually so excess engineering Peter from there was there fabricator had an arts art seven and it was it was a fast car all that stuff and so you know I was in the street art class and against you know guys like are Yellin a couple other guys are seven calm thing and so we put anyone racing it's Peter and literally like the night before or whatever in two nights before I was at excess and they were preparing that car and it's on a kind of a cheater slick you know it's a cheater do T tire stuff and it was a fast car make good power and all that stuff and you know I didn't actually think I'd ever run up against him and then Here I am and I actually had a chance to really race him and so we line up and all that stuff and get up there and and you know we get off the line and and he's a little in front of me you know and so first gear you know wind out first hit second gear and you know I'm still I'm behind him a little bit and so I had HKS CVC easy so I turn the boost up of course there's something to boost up a little bit in third gear so I'm I'm there I'm running I'm in third gear and I start to creep on it I hit fourth gear [ __ ] it all the way die just turn the boost all the way up and so I pegged the boost I saw the the boost gauge it reads HKS which is somewhere above two two zero two point two bar booth somewhere around there and so here I am on these twenty five thirty direct port nitrous and I run them down I and I beat it I I passed him in the traps so I he ran like a 10-8 I ran like a 10-7 he had a slightly better 69 reaction in sixty than me but I still and I mean I I was running like ten mile an hour faster 137 mile an hour which is really fast and I'm puttin in palmdale so so and the turbo let go and so when it happened so the turbo will let go I skip the scale so when you skip the scales you loses oh I skipped the scales so that way they cuz the car was smoking pretty bad so I guess it didn't like thirty however many cannon blossom canopy is like all right so pick it up after IDRC yep so after IDRC after the we heard the turbos the 2530 s I got a set at 25 40s and we had laying around and we put it on the car went back redone with the car same around the same horsepower 650 horsepower like one point I think were 1.5 1.7 barboo something like 25 pounds during that round a boost and so and then we were we're gonna go out to Arizona to go drag race in out in Arizona and so so I went out to Arizona there's some super guys talking some [ __ ] you know some some guys out there daily and yeah yeah yeah and all those guys those guys so they were all fast but you have to understand the scale of fast right because in that time fast fast Supra was like about a 10 60 superbright 70 super and I'd already gone ten seventy in palmdale and so you know so here I am I'm with that car and we're there you know and so I got a little bit of trouble for how much your safety equipment was all in the car because I didn't really have everything that I needed especially not to run 135 mile an hour you know and so so I wasn't you know they told me oh you couldn't go any faster than like 12s or something you know with the equipment that I had on the car because they didn't like the cage because it didn't have like a down bar almost NHRA requirements they when you go out to a track and you run a certain time you have to have certain equipment certain types of belts certain type of helmets certain type of clean nets window nets all the popula and all the drive shaft loop stuff and the problem is like GTR you know like seven drive shaft loops if you actually really want it because you need one on each axle and you need the front prop shaft and there's a two-pound right good point there's seven seven drive shaft loops that you would have to have on there and it's kind of like ah anyway so so I'm out in Arizona I am messing around you know first time I get on the on the car on the bottle and stuff they blows the tires off and hits the rev limiter hits it and you know you ever done that it's pretty it's pretty scary I mean it was like boom boom and boom you know like all at once it was like whole [ __ ] you know anyway everything was okay with the car and all that and so then I get back and then I'm messing around with the car a little bit I'm still not really happy with the way everything is running and I'm stupid and I hurt the engine and so I hurt number six-cylinder again cuz I was stupid I was playing around with fuel pressure playing around with the power see a little bit doing things that somebody shouldn't be doing at that point and I and I hurt the car so when we had another customer out there at the same time with his car and he broke the transmission in his r33 Nathan you remember Nate he always the sound it was the sound for for the for the second movie yep so Nathan snapped the main shaft in his in his car and so I'd trailered Big Bird out there so we trailered his car back he'd never a truck and trailer before and and so I'm driving Big Bird back and it was [ __ ] pouring rain way more than it was here I'm driving this thing back on drag radios I don't think it had the wipers on it cuz you know because in some grand scheme of let's save some weight and or ba-ba-ba-ba-ba three packs and and yeah so you know I'm driving it back in the rain on drag radials and all that stuff and I mean we made it back I survived but you know the engine was hurt the engine was hurt when I was driving it back and so I drove it back all the way knocking the whole time I can look at the power see and and so it gets back you know pull the engine out of it put it in the corner and it was like okay we'll build it one day well you know like anything one day comes and goes fast forward a few years fast forward another you know year or something like that you know I tell here to go [ __ ] himself at motor X and the cars there and sitting there much later you know car still sitting there you know they decide to you know all the crazy [ __ ] happens bah blah blah and then I'm talking to Jack Jack towels RB motoring VR wheels now and you know hero's gonna give him the title to that car or whatever in exchange for money that he owed them on some other cars that get sold because you know he rode owed some money on cars and stuff that he'd sold and covered in my motor expert right but yeah so and so and I said nah man pick up the car bringing get the whole car like [ __ ] that you don't want the you don't want the paper you want the physical item so when they picked it up brought in and then it sad over there for quite a few years and then and then it had a customer who wanted to buy it and building put it back to the stock so you know it wasn't high on priority list and stuff for us to do and so customer customer bought it guess what same deal car sat finally there's another guy one more guy in Wisconsin yet another car and he went and he talked to the guys and Georgia that had it purchased the car from them and then he did actually put it together build it all that stuff and and put it back to like really nice shape went through the car did all that stuff to it and then he ended up you know he end up happy right there Wisconsin and bees and that and you know I'm not him I don't know all of the ins and outs of it but what ended up being happening in the end was that they they seized the car and they carted it the reason that the car was never brought into compliance was again like we were using it engine was blown up sitting in the corner then eventually motor X never you know basic that when they were finished they were done so at a point I had actually started a compliance package on it and I'd started to put in who is you know wait to take photos of the car it's go around take pictures of headlights and taillights and interior and all the mods and all that stuff and well you know the card had a roll cage and it stripped out and different engines and you know like putting together the compliance package for it was gonna start to be slightly complex you know I have to kind of pull some of those things out and so I started and then we never finished and then all the stuff happened to motor X and so then it was a motor X car it was imported correctly but then related to basically VIN tampering or tampering with with what Wisconsin had assigned a VIN as far as I know as far as I understood because that had caused the problem and which sucks because actually they grandfathered in all the motor X cars the NHTSA at the end of motor X after everything was done after all of everything happened at the end they said look the the people who had these cars the guys who imported it so if you as an individual told motor actually wanted them to import this our 32 and they imported it for you and they never complied it at the end the NHTSA said you know what we know that you tried to do it correctly even though motor X didn't do it here's your release okay and they wrote a letter and I have some copies of that letter and it basically says all of these cars we don't care so to be clear 100% clear cuz I'm just gonna watch this video and a statement you just made said it was a motor X car yes and everybody's gonna interpret that to mean that oh yeah [ __ ] yeah that car was fully federally legal why did they crush it that's not the case it's not the case it must it was imported by motor X and you know if but it was never complied but I mean at a point we all had to just distance ourselves from here oh we had to like we had to say you know hey this guy you know he's a smart guy he's got a lot of stuff going on but he's just doing damage he's just not doing what he needs to do he just would you know disappear for good hookers and blow is the sort of talk yeah just disappear for days you know I mean it's hard and you know it's it that was was hard about it so so back to the car back to to the compliance with the compliance paperwork so the car was imported by motor ex that's it so all that funky stuff that went on regardless that the leon's GTR is never resurfaced again after 2012 that we'd never not that I know of so report said it was crushed so that's what we're going off of because neither of us was standing there when it was crushed I was in there and I don't have photos I don't have information I don't have anything else I haven't seen or heard of the car or parts or anything I haven't seen or heard of it and if normally if it existed I would probably see your hair yeah if somebody would say cuz they all know who you are yeah I'd say to say hey have you sees guy has this motor out of this car can you check in Hannelore I have this fender or I have this hood or I have this other part off this car and I haven't seen in it yeah so probably that the stories are true that probably that the car has been crushed and that and that's a shame that's what's going on when you bring in these cars I don't comply with paperwork I've just Shawn just explained the whole situation but we still have that kind of same thing going on with these state titled cars which means absolutely nothing you get it registered in Texas or Montana or whatever it's a state so you know I mean a lot of that is just you know just straight you know I mean basically you know any any kind of corruption I mean you can get I mean you can get a driver's license in California with any name if you pay the right person who works at the same Beach I would tell somebody that that can smuggle in 50 Chinese people in a [ __ ] cargo container tomorrow right and I mean but but and all of that stuff and all when we comes down to the cars and stuff people are like how did how how is it possible or how is it possibly gonna plate and it's like you know you're taking people on face value for what it is or what it isn't and and and there's there's you know 50 different ways you can do it illegally I mean you can take the plate off of a the same your Audi or 240 you put it take a plate off at 240 or a Maxima just a license plate you put it on there which I've seen mm-hmm I've seen guys in Florida with plates from r35 gt-r s on our 34 you know and and so because you can look them up there in Florida you can see you know and here you go so here's an hour 35 plate on a on a modern car 34 and then everybody always says on the famous story out here it's a motor X car no it's not we know what we know yeah we know with a 14 or 15 that exist but currently but yeah it's 99% of time I'll [ __ ] lie yeah I mean and then other people say oh well this or this story I just saw recently actually that guy was saying that the car was a movie producers car ok and uh and then you know because they get some special exemption I guess you know because a lot of people like to think like if you have money there's always a way and and and you know basically they like to think like oh well if you have money you can pay it off people and you can be corrupt and you can do stuff illegally sure just like you can you know you can do it legitimately but what the guy who pulls you over is not on that payroll yeah and but sometimes those guys don't care you know that's the thing like so you know some people assume that every person that's that's you know every police officer even knows even cares about the law you know to any nth degree if you're if you got pulled over in the in the skyline in the super and anything else and you're relatively you have all your stuffs in order you haven't even doing anything stupid they don't have any real reason to proceed any further sort of like they may just be even be a fan they may even just pull it over just to have a look at his oh my god it's not 34 and and you may tell them oh yeah it's a legit car and he's looks at the general paperwork and doesn't have he's not gonna he doesn't care I don't even even people from from Customs and Border Patrol and stuff I mean I had people from DMV I you know I can go over and over if these guys aren't specifically looking for it or specifically if that's not the part of their job today they probably don't care they don't then they're not gonna do anything about it so but you know the my biggest problem with the the illegal cars is that guys pay all the money for it the guy selling it he gets the money he gets rid of the car the guy buying it maybe the first guy maybe nothing you know maybe the first guy buys and sells it the second the third the fourth guy those are usually the guys that get screwed those are the guys who end up with the car you know something doesn't work on it like oh or you know basically I try to bring its California gets popped you know or they try to register in some other state and they can't register it for whatever reason or you know what can happen sometimes too is that the if the importer does get pops and then they go after all the cars yeah that's another thing you know so because cars have records those guys have records they have all these you know invoices or just general like any records they track to sales right you know basically you know if you went in titled something in the DMV well I can you know if somebody in the divi can look and see how many cars you've titled mm-hmm and the all the VIN numbers all the rest the information all your you know and the same law enforcement can look at all that stuff and they can go and find all these people and they can go and trace them all down and you know and that's what happened to Daryl I you know my thing is what this is people are asking these questions they don't have the money to buy the car in the first place ninety nine percent we don't have the money to buy the car in the first place right I have this discussion with young people all time young passionate fans they want to go on by I want an hour 34 and r34 do you have $80,000 cash to buy an illegal one because that's what you're gonna get well no even more guys are asking like 120 for a [ __ ] car yeah well people you know I mean and that's I mean their guys are getting but do you think they can go down to the [ __ ] bank and say hey I want to take on a loan on a car that has no VIN number in the United States right well but sometimes they do and and again sometimes it's it's titled and you know maybe some banks will will allow 20 years old and you're making $5,000 a year and you're still living at home I mean that was in my situation you know back end and you're making $20,000 a year you're not getting a loan for a hundred thousand dollar car it is not going to happen period end of sentence so maybe you're a youtuber and you want to go out and buy it so you can buy something from you know one of these guys who's selling state title cars yeah and you roll the dice yeah and you roll the dice I mean the problem with that I mean I you tuber in Florida just did this and it's a non-legal car and the problem is that your high profile it runs anybody out there that wants that doesn't like you that doesn't like Craig that doesn't like this guy in Florida you know and they know you have an illegal car you know that's you know you're you're asking for problems when you're high-profile like oh you know what this guy brags about is cheating right right exactly he sure wanted you're right right so so I'm little Stefan I'm gonna I'm gonna report them to the DHL Mike my cousin works for for customs yeah there I'm gonna report them to my cousin at customs and and you know that that's that's the thing when you're hyper like the guys who are the guys who there's there's tons of guys out there there's tons of illegal cars and the guys who are quiet and and has a car sitting in their garage may have it for five years 10 years 20 years and they're like nobody ever bothered him yeah because he's you know the guy he's got it in his garage he doesn't really do much with it he's not out there doing stuff the guy on YouTube the guy like we should two-stepping the guy you know hey [ __ ] you I can do whatever I want yeah exactly right those are the guys that somebody says man man [ __ ] that guy he that cart I know that card is illegal so I'm gonna report it I'm gonna go after I mean so and the other thing that I hear all the time is people like hey I'm gonna buy a car and bring it here and store it and then and then I'm gonna register it after 25 years rule that's not the way I work of course it doesn't work that way your went out is very clear about that so yeah so the thing is the importation is the barrier right and so I mean you're allowed I mean we we just started doing it which is you know selling and storing cars over in Japan and and of course every email every post it was somebody on there that says hey I want to bring it here and keep it so the importation is to stop registering the cars is something separate it's really difficult for people to understand like where the levels of different government interference Shaco position so you know so customs is your is your your your gate guard right NHTSA is all your your your safety related items EPA's all your emissions related items right and so that's your very first that's your very first barrier so customs says hey have you done all this stuff and the end if he's NHTSA's good epa is good you pay them the tariff on the car then they let you get it out so now you own you have it you have this vehicle so now you but that doesn't mean you can drive it the state sets your requirements to be able to drive register title the vehicle so then in your state your state may say well you need to you know who knows next next year they could say you know what right hand drive cars aren't allowed you know they could say like California California we have our own emissions we have our own EPA requirements our own ARB which is our own requirements for that and then some people also you know I said they they fail to understand even some of the EPA regulations and how all that works and it's and and and you know ignorant well I always say ignorance is in an excuse and it's and like the problem is that like people need to understand even when they're saying some of these things they've got to be really careful because anything especially you're putting out on social media you're putting out there to people Seema's put out a lot of things recently they're talking about about the EPA and like shops and you know they're going after they're going after like you know reality show guys like the Diesel brothers and that I think they they have a couple million dollar fine 4.5 4.5 million fine ok so and and and that's the thing is it like those high-profile guys are taking and modifying cars while EPA says here this is easy pickins this is easy pickins this is easy pickins so so and then again like the complex part is like even if you live in a place that doesn't do emissions testing so they don't have smog check they don't have whatever it might be that does not exempt you from federal requirements basically you cannot a federal requirement say you cannot remove any emissions related device on a vehicle period and harrion's no matter where you are no matter where you are it doesn't matter if they don't do testing whatever that means so understand that the key is to understand what that says and understand the implications of that when you say Oh just pulled all the cats off of my car yeah oh I just i oh man I bought a new Camaro and I pulled all the cats on all the emissions stuff law so what you shouldn't say is whatever you do is one thing whatever you say is something else incriminating yes yeah so don't incriminate yourself don't go out there don't be on YouTube in but this is the generation man this is the opportunity to be socially connected with people from around the world or the only problem with that is that I think young people and I like to think I would be smarter than that if I was 20 years old today that you were but I was gonna I gotta troll myself right yeah absolutely I would not be I'd be the [ __ ] you know probably doing well not intersection take right right yeah yeah right not that because I don't want my cry crush but right but you're taking the stuff off and do a little tutorial videos and that kind of stuff exactly but these guys are doing that kind of stuff in the burnouts and those street takeovers and everything and film that [ __ ] and they get all the evidence and they've got yet if they've got the they've got the license plate number they may even have the guys tag whose guns he's got his Instagram on there with a link to like his home you know his Facebook his home address you know so the cops show up is your house and like excuse me sir yeah oh that was something is that you that wasn't me brah that wasn't somebody wait so wait you guys so when you're when you're sitting here and you're talking and you know totally broke know exactly yeah so I mean it does it happen it happens enough to be scary it happens enough to be to be concerning it happens enough that that you know if you are doing things like that and and you aren't aware of it you know again there's gonna be a million people out there that get away with it just hopefully you're not that one alright so if you want to follow Shawn he runs top break imports he's a legitimate importer of actual Japanese classics are 32 or 33 which are just becoming legal and a whole host of other cars check out their website now important vehicle duck importer vehicle comm check out the first two is here at the port I'm gonna build it this is gonna be yellow it's kind of painted yellow we're trying to try to do it in Japan and we didn't and I'm gonna put the stickers back and I am going to I gotta find some wheels although I found some wheels in Japan but and there's my nitrous yep for it got your hand we're gonna decide what else to do with it it's gonna be like this car a little bit more not an exact copy but some stuff [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Craig Lieberman

Views: 254,204

Rating: 4.847569 out of 5

Keywords: The Fast and the Furious, fast and furious, Nissan Skyline, Skyline GT-R, GTR, R33 Skyline, R33 GTR, JDM cars, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker

Id: LyU6iE8Gm5c

Length: 33min 4sec (1984 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 18 2020