This Awesome Nissan GT-R Wagon Build Took 2 Years To Complete

The world's automakers may have given up on the humble station wagon, but here at Jalopnik we never will. Now, after unearthing an awesome Aston Martin shooting brake I'm back with another one-off wagon and this time it's one that's built around the excellent Nissan GT-R.

Well, inspired by the excellent Nissan GT-R may be a better way to describe this latest rare wagon, which was created by automotive YouTuber Tofu Auto Works. I say GT-R-inspired, because the latest build from the channel actually started out as a Nissan Stagea, which was modified to look like the forbidden wagon of your dreams.

The Stagea was sold by Nissan in the late '90s and early 2000s across Japan, and this build is based around a final-year model of the uninspiring family hauler from 2007. Once safely stowed in the Tofu Auto Works garage, work began transforming the Stagea into a slick, sporty wagon over the course of two years.

Tofu Auto Works, which also has a wild Miata build on the go right now, started documenting the GT-R wagon build back in October 2022, or as I call it: a happier time. In its original form, the wagon was a pretty boxy, fairly bland family car that produced 276 horsepower from a V6 engine.

To liven the sensible car up a bit, the channel's first task was to strip down the car and remove almost all the bodywork at the front of the Stagea. The hood hinges were then modified and a new hood latch was fitted before a GT-R hood can be strapped to the front of the car.

Do you see where this is going? Instead of building a trunk on the rear of a GT-R, Tofu Auto Works GT-R-ified an old Stagea wagon. The build came with much more than just a few off-the-shelf upgrades, however.

You might be surprised to learn that there aren't a ton of pre-made parts for building a Nissan GT-R wagon out of a Stagea, so once the hood and new lights were installed it was down to Tofu Auto Works to fabricate pretty much every other part fitted to the car.

To do this, the channel began by molding the body kit that it wanted for the new wheel arches, side skirts and rear end directly onto the car. These rustic molds were then scanned with a laser to create templates used to fashion the actual parts fitted to the finished car. 

Components like the widebody fenders and sideskirts were all crafted by Tofu Auto Works from fiberglass and they look slick. The fenders and updated rear end really work to unite the sporty front of the GT-R with the angular frame of the wagon underneath pretty seamlessly. Nice work!

With new side skirts, fenders and even a re-worked rear bumper all fitted to the Stagea, it was time for Tofu Auto Works to start finessing the wonderful creation. First, the surface of the modified wagon is treated and painted with grey primer.

For the final color, the channel opted for Nissan's Millennium Jade, which is a kind of sage green color that's been available on several GT-Rs over the car's history. As you can see for yourself above, it looks rad and finished off the whole build nicely.

The final task, once the parts are all painted, was for Tofu Auto Works to get the new lights wired up and give everything one last check over before the final reveal. It looks slick, and I highly recommend checking in on the series to see the hours and hours of work that went into the awesome build – you can do that by heading to the channel here.