What is an ER34? A guide to Nissan Chassis Codes.

I know that some of you right now are eager to type into the comments section “A four-door R34”. Some of you probably will.
It’s a common misconception that even the most knowledgeable Scandinavian car-nut gets wrong, and I don’t blame you - it takes a bit of digging and research to understand what it all means.

This is not an ER34

In the photo above, we see two R34s. The one further away is an ER34, but the one closer is not. They are both Skylines, they are the same length, both have four doors, both share the same chassis. The only visual difference is that the closer one has a facelift bumper (that means re-designed).
If it’s not an ER34, then what is it?

It's an HR34

Above we have the spec-sheet for the HR34, and the plate in the engine bay of my ER34.
Remember that the two cars were almost identical. The only difference between them is the motor size.
E is the code for a 2.5L
H is the code for a 2.0L

And remember kids, don’t confuse the chassis code with the model.
The HR34 is an R34 GT, while the ER34 should be an R34 25GT

And yes, there are 2-door ER34s - you just have to look at the 5th image in Google.

GT-R

Some of you may have noticed that GT-Rs are often called BNR or BCNR. What does this mean?
B means it is a 2.6L
C means it has HICAS 4-wheel steering (however it is sometimes omitted)
N means 4WD
R means the Chassis (Silvias are S-chassis (S12, S13, S14, S15), Skylines are R-chassis (R30, R31, R32, R33, R34))

Why the different codes?
Because 4WD and 4WS require a different chassis to implement the additional bushings, racks and axles.

Now the head-scratching stuff

Looking at the spreadsheets above, we can see that the R33 is the easiest to understand. Their badges are easy to understand and so are the chassis codes - a GTS is 2.0L n/a, a GTS25 is a 2.5L n/a, add “t” to the end and it’s a turbo - GTS25t.
However the R32 has made a mess with their chassis codes and the R34 omitted some information.

So we established that the N is four-wheel-drive and the C is four-wheel-steering.
However there are no ECR34, BCNR32 or BCNR34.
As Aki Itoh has informed me, the lack of the C initial is due to the 4WD models also featured 4WS in the R32 and R33 while the R33 allowed either as optional extras.

As for the R32, it even leaves me scratching my head wondering why they us R and KR for the motor.
What I do understand is that GAE is an automatic transmission, GFE is manual, and GYE is a 2.5L automatic.
The F prefix is a 1.8L (that dates back to the R30 chassis).

Other Chassis:
S - Silvia and early Fairlady
C - Laurel and early Skyline
A - Cefiro
WC - Stagea
N - Pulsar
F - Leopard
U or T - Bluebird (earlier just used numbers e.g 510)
Y - Gloria, Cedric and later Leopard
Z - later Fairlady

GT-R

Sorry for the long head-scratching post, here is a BNR32 (no potatoes).

This content was originally posted by a Car Throttle user on our Community platform and was not commissioned or created by the CT editorial team.

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Comments

Anonymous

This was great info!

01/24/2016 - 07:01 |
0 | 0
George Kavtaradze

Yes, thanks for the post.
Picked up my ER34 25GT 2 days ago, man i’m in love.

01/24/2016 - 07:06 |
3 | 0

Any plans to turbo? Or just leave stock.

01/24/2016 - 10:20 |
0 | 0
Tommyzd

Very useful post thanks :)

01/24/2016 - 10:35 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Nice man! Good article

01/24/2016 - 10:42 |
0 | 0
account that is pretty rare in use

car nerding intensifies

01/24/2016 - 19:59 |
0 | 0
ZillaIsLife

That helped alot thanks

02/27/2016 - 21:22 |
0 | 0
Henri | DFGP ✅

Ayyyy, New Zealander woohooo!

06/13/2017 - 07:13 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

thanks this is really helpful!

11/21/2017 - 09:52 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

How many Horsepower

04/27/2018 - 11:13 |
0 | 0
Soarer-Dom

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

HR34 165, ER34 n/a 200, ER34 turbo 280, BNR34 280 limited.

04/30/2018 - 10:56 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Question. I’m looking at a 4door 34 with a 25de and 4speed tiptronic.
So the question is “is it a 25 neo or not?”
Side note. First one I’ve seen. Uncommon configuration yes?

09/26/2019 - 02:31 |
0 | 0
Soarer-Dom

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

There are rumours that early R34’s did not have the NEO head, but I am yet to see one. You can tell the neo RB25DE by its smaller rocker covers and the V-shaped intake plenum (similar to the 2JZ-GE).
My one was #3841 off the factory line, so within the first few month of production and it was definitely a neo.
If I remember correctly, over 60% of all R34s were 4-door versions.

09/26/2019 - 08:01 |
0 | 0