Midori Seibi: GT-R owners demand the highest standards

No-one would argue that the Nissan (Skyline) GT-R is an Icon and that the name is synonymous with Japanese car culture. To find out more about these cars and what makes them so special, the Motul Media crew met up with Midori-San, owner of the world-renowned Midori Seibi Centre just outside Yokohama.

I have a special relationship to the car but even more so with its owners. GT-R owners aren’t regular car owners. If you buy a GT-R, you have a certain passion for your vehicle. My clients demand the highest standard of maintenance. The challenge of meeting those standards is something I love about my work.

There are endless variations and specs of the GT-R - do you have a specific favourite?

(Laughs) That would be impossible. Maybe the second generation, the R32, is the one closest to my heart. But then again, every generation has its own character and traits, while still maintaining that typical GT-R identity.

Yes, absolutely. From a car culture perspective, I can see that electric vehicles are becoming more and more important as our daily commuter vehicle, which is fine. However, a sports car owner is looking for something very different. I believe that the identity of a sports car, and especially the Nissan GT-R, will live on for over 100 years. It was Akio Toyoda who one said: sports cars with an internal combustion engine will never go away, just like horses. Today we still have horse racing and people still ride horses for pleasure. Horses used to be part of our daily life as a means of transport. I believe cars like the Nissan GT-R are just like the horse.

This also relates to what I was talking about earlier. My clients demand the highest standards of work, but also the highest standard of products. The GT-R is a high-performance vehicle and needs the best lubricant. In the past, I’ve tested every manufacturer on the market. As a Japanese person, I’d always prefer to use Japanese products over foreign products but at some point, you just have to accept that Motul is the best performer, which is what I’m looking for. If I open up an engine block now, it’s so clean I would never be able to go back to another product.