If you’re gonna steal a car to joyride in, it’s best not to pick one that’s quite as rare or noticeable as the R32 Skyline. Thomas Bristol’s 1993 Nissan Skyline GT-R was stolen from his Denver home last week but was quickly recovered thanks to the power of social media.
Bristol appeared on the Automotive ADHD podcast to recount the story of how his classic JDM sports car was stolen in the middle of the night right out of his home. The thieves were not subtle, smashing through Bristol’s garage door with a second-gen Subaru Impreza that was allegedly also stolen and swiping the Skyline.
Shortly after, a friend of Bristol’s posted the car on Denver-area automotive Facebook groups alerting other enthusiasts to keep an eye out. It didn’t take long for candid crowdsourced pictures of the car to start appearing.
“They had seen a Skyline driving south on I-25, they pulled out their phones to take a picture, people don’t see those very often,” Bristol said. “Then, they maybe got home or got to work and saw the post on the Facebook groups and said, ‘Hey, I just saw that car.’
“Almost immediately, the internet was on top of locating my car.”
Near-realtime updates on the Skyline started pouring in. What started out as simple pictures and videos of an R32 taken by people simply taking pictures and videos of an R32 became a concerted, deliberate recovery effort.
“People [were] actively searching the city, driving around, looking for the car… I didn’t feel like police were able to take action the way I wanted to.”
Car spotters noticed that the stolen Skyline would appear multiple times in several specific locations, and Bristol took it upon himself to visit these locations.
“At one point, I even saw my own car… I tried to make a U-turn, I tried to follow him, but traffic is terrible down there… and I lost it.”
Later, the car was found abandoned outside of the city in the Black Forest area, and Bristol’s theory is that the thief got wind of the fact that he was being borderline tracked by the internet and got spooked.
The whole saga even got the attention of the local news.
Currently, the GT-R is still being held as evidence. “They said it’s not wrecked and it looks OK, and I’m hoping I can drive it out of there and if not, I’ll have it towed. And I just wanna say thank you to everyone online who commented on the post and gave some information and helped out. From beginning to end, it was 44 hours. My car was stolen and they recovered it 44 hours later.”
Bristol decided to import an R32 in 2017 for about $20,000. With 67,000 miles on the odometer when Bristol bought it, the car had its suspension, wheels, and tires replaced and came with a Nismo exhaust. The engine block is apparently out of an R34.
It also appears to have a level of notoriety where anyone who tries to steal one will find it hard to fly under the radar for very long.
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