I have mentioned a few times about my friend and his Nissan R33 Skyline GT-R, so I thought I might share some pictures of it and start a thread to update following events if anyone is interested.
I have known this car and been in it through various stages of modification. I can say that I probably never drive anything so fast in the rest of my years unless I build one myself!
He has owned the car from brand new and it was one of the last cars to be built in the R33 shape - also one of the 100 UK R33's to be sold.
Since then it has seen some serious modification both aesthetically and mechanically! I have helped him with numerous parts of the build too but there is so much that has been done to this car it wouldn't really seem worth mentioning what we did
Ok, it started life with a 2.6 Litre Twin Turbo with a declared 280 bhp. These cars were considered pretty quick when they were new. A few years of ownership and then the modification bug bit him...
An upgrade to the ECU and a couple of bigger Garrett Turbos and a HKS Super Dragger Exhaust saw the power now up to 400+ Bhp (was never Dyno'd at this set-up). This was now a very nippy car and handled like a dream... various modifications were done to the bodywork and wheels to give it a more aggressive look. Another couple of years and he was ready to increase the size of the notorious 'Skyline Smile'...
He bought an engine from Japan, built by the famous 'Top Secret' mechanic - Smokey. The engine (bored to 2.8 Litre) was one of four specially developed engines made for the Pikes Peak Uphill Race. A single turbo was the choice for this now, big power and smoother delivery. The turbo chosen was one of the big daddies on the market - HKS T04Z (Good for 750 bhp). The gearbox was changed to an OS Giken 6 Speed Sequential, capable of changing gear faster than you can blink! A few other bits upgraded (nearly everything), Intercooler, Rads, Brakes, Suspension, Fuel Pumps + Rails, ECU etc etc made it produce 550bhp at 0.8 Bar boost, 630bhp at 1.2 Bar boost, and finally 690 bhp at 1.8 Bar boost!
Unfortunately, resulting from a bit of negligence from the tuner, the engine failed on two things after only a few thousand miles. It span a bearing and also suffered bore wash due to the poor map that the car was given. I'm not going to go into figures for legal reasons but there was a settlement between them to fix his VERY expensive engine build.
On to the next tuner and the legend known as 'Tweenie Rob' who sadly passed away nearly a year ago (R.I.P Rob). He was a genius when it came to building engines and mapping them. Anyway, he gave the inspiration make the car MENTAL
! He sold him his old engine and the building began.... not one part of this car was missed when putting the design together (even nut and bolt colour )The engine - a 2.8 Litre HKS Step 3 engine with all components top spec. A custom Dry Sump modification was developed by rob and used on this engine too. The engine is capable of revving safely to 11,000 rpm
The turbo - a HKS T62R. The big big brother to his old T04Z. This turbo is capable of 1200 bhp!
Drivetrain - Holinger 6 Speed Sequential - Stronger and smoother than the old one. Race spec diffs and shafts.
... as you might expect, absolutely everything else was upgraded again!!
Friday 6th August 2010 - the car had its first mapping session!
The sound of this thing at full chat is unbelievable! On gear change the released pressure through the screamer pipe is just nuts. It completed the base mapping session (taking it very easy) with the limiter set to 8250 rpm and the max boost pressure to just 1.6 Bar. Now time to get it run in... oh forgot to mention it pulled 775 bhp at the wheels which makes it over 850 bhp at the fly!
Running in a car like this isn't exactly easy round town so he entered the Ten Of The Best Competition last weekend to give it a blip down Elvington Runway a few times. Its a famous competition in its 9th year and there is some serious competition that turns up. His intentions were to get a good bit of seat time and get a feel for this base power. Remember - this is easily capable of 1,100 bhp which will absolutely blow away a Bugatti Veyron down the 1/4 mile.
Anyway... on the day he sadly only got down the 1/4 mile in 11.3 seconds with a terminal speed of 162mph. This is blisteringly quick but it would have got into the 10's on base map if the car didn't have issues on the day with 4WD. 11.3 seconds was in Rear Wheel Drive only and left a very long set of stripes down the runway! It pulled like a train once it had grip and raced to the 162 mph!
The car is currently getting a few more miles put on it and then it is going back to the Tuner to turn up the Boost to 2.2 Bar and take the rev limit to a safe 10,250 rpm. It will then be having the Map tweaked and polished using the crank sensor (much more accurate) and then it should be good for over 1,100 bhp and will be looking at touching the low 9 seconds for a 1/4 mile slip.
Now for some pictures
Apologies for the length of this post... I get carried away!
If like me you are wondering how big the Turbo is in a Fat Japanese Kids hands... here you go!!!!
Turks.
