Pure Gold Candy: Aria Mokhberi’s 2008 Top Secret Nissan R35 GT-R
To use Aria Mokhberi’s own terminology, his 2008 R35 series Nissan GT-R is far from ‘gentleman spec’. Finished in Top Secret’s unique SPL Gold Candy and said to deliver 720hp to the wheels, it would be more accurate to describe this sublime car as the full monster.
Any standard-spec Nissan GT-R is a machine to reckon with. The R35 version was the world’s first all-wheel-drive car with rear transaxle. It also lost the heavy four-wheel-steering of its recent predecessors. Chief designer Kazutoshi Mizuno said bluntly at the release: ‘no racing car has 4WS.’ So when the Japanese special tuner Top Secret adds its magic, you get something otherworldly, Godzilla on steroids.
Top Secret’s owner Smoky Nagata is known for his publicity stunts. He got himself filmed driving at almost 200 miles per hour – let’s peg it at 197 (317km/h) – on a public highway in the UK in a Supra powered by a turbocharged V12 Toyota Century engine and got banned from the country for about a decade. Since then, he has as pianist Liberace famously said, been crying all the way to the bank.
Top Secret’s forte is mega-horsepower builds, as showcased in the Century-powered Supra UK blast! That exercise certainly won him exposure, proving the point about all publicity being good provided they spell your name right.
But the visuals expressed in such extroverted fashion by this tuner are equally compelling. Top Secret has made various hues of gold its trademark colour and this latest expression leaps off the page. Smoky Nagata will only spray his highest-specced cars in the shade; customers can’t simply request it and pay (through the nose, say $35K). In Aria’s case, the proprietor speaking through an interpreter was eager to oblige.
As it happens the 2008 donor GT-R was originally painted in the then factory hero colour of Super Silver, a seven-layer livery available as a $5000 option from the factory. (There is even, Aria tells me, a 40-page booklet on how to apply Super Silver in the aftermarket.) The fact that Aria chose to pay so much extra for SPL Gold Candy indicates his respect for the Top Secret brand and to be seen as an adherent of its values.
‘This one is for myself,’ says the proud owner. ‘I’ve been into Japanese cars for as long as I can remember, but ever since I was photographed standing next to one in 2009 when Top Gear came out to Australia, either an R34 or R35 Nissan GT-R has been my dream car.’
Imagine being nine years old and up close to Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. And a Nissan Godzilla!
Aria and a partner now have their own business AM 2 PM Imports.
Aria finally got his R35 in early February this year, but the process leading up to this joyous outcome took more than two years plus four visits to Japan. The car is now ADR-compliant and street-registered. In the four months since taking custody, the owner has covered just 120km. He is so anxious about damage that he doesn’t plan to drive the GT-R until he has had it wrapped in the highest quality paint protection film.
Back in 2022, Aria owned a standard 2008 R35 GT-R identical to the silver one he was filmed beside at the Top Gear gig. He kept it for about a year.
The opportunity to acquire his Member Spotlight car first arose in Japan in October 2022 at a GT-R-only event held annually at Mt Fuji Speedway. Nissan, HKS, Nismo and many other tuner shops including Top Secret have stalls publicising their wares. ‘This was the first time I got to speak with Top Secret. Smoky – speaking through a translator – was very welcoming, super nice.’
At first, Aria thought of adding a body kit to his existing car but with the exchange rate being favourable, he decided to buy a car in Japan and get them to do a complete makeover. He favoured another Nissan hero colour Millenium Jade, but was delighted to revise his preference once Smoky offered to let him choose SPL Gold Candy!
His first opportunity was a 2008 model in gold with red Alcantara interior and 100,000km on the odometer. But Aria didn’t much like either the colour combo or the highish km. He found his 17,000km car in March 2023 and it went into storage for eight months until Top Secret was ready to begin the transformation.
There is a full carbonfibre kit where ‘pretty much everything is changed’ except the doors and quarter-panels. The Italian wheels suit the visuals perfectly. Aria’s GT-R – which he can never see himself parting with but rather passing on to his kids – features a fully adjustable KW HLS hydraulic-lift coil-over suspension.
It also boasts the 2011 gearbox upgrade to the six-speed GR6 dual-clutch arrangement with paddle shifters. The R35 had proven prone to breakages caused mainly by launches; owners generally found themselves paying $20K for a replacement.
Aria Mokhberi loves nothing more than attending special shows with his father, which he says, is kind of full circle from when he was nine years old. He cites Auto Salon, the Melbourne Motor Show and Meguiar’s MOTOREX, a massive $700 million extravaganza at the Melbourne Showgrounds, which held its twenty-third event in May (the first was in 2000). Two weeks after he received the Top Secret GT-R, the gold car was on stage with six other stars of the Elite Build section at the Black Label Invitational in the Melbourne Convention Centre. Aria describes this as a ‘beautiful’ JDM-focused show.
Aria says he has never seen a GT-R to better his own but he does nurture a special affection for the Porsche 911 GT3, which he rates as ‘just insane’.
