Special thanks to Mark Riccioni for this car.
Thought i'd post up my latest project having previously owned a little Civic and RX7 before!
Problem was, it wasn't fast enough for me (was running standard-ish power). I say fast enough, if I had the skill to drive it properly it was more than capable, but for 'foot down, stomach feels weird' acceleration I needed something else.
Several months later Ross @ Dragon Performance showed me the following car available:
Looked cool, love the R32 shape but wasn't won over until I saw the engine and spec:
Turns out it used to be a drag car, running 700bhp... that'll do haha.
There's a thousand horror stories from Japanese Auctions, spec not being what they are etc. and the spec on this car was ridiculous. I was preparing myself for a few bits not to be on there, but after Ross checked out the car, gave it a service and generally cast his eye over it the car's spec matches the auction sheet. To give a rough idea it's running the following:
rebuilt RB26 with N1 pistons, Tomei rods, headgasket, HKS cams, 720cc injectors, external 'gate, B&M ignition amp etc.
Twin Bosch 044 fuel pumps, braided lines
Garrett T45S turbo running 700bhp @ 1.6 bar
Nismo 2-way rear LSD, Tomei 1.5-way front LSD
OS Gieken 3-plate clutch
OS Gieken gear set
Ohlins coilovers, adjustable camber arms, tie rods etc.
Hi-Cas locked out
A bajillion gauges, water, oil, exhaust temp etc.
etc.
So I picked up the car, intended to use it only for 'weekends' but instead i've managed to rack near 1800 miles daily driving it since December - it's surprisingly tame on the road once you get going, clutch is harsh, same with diffs at low speed but once you're past 10mph it's a doddle. Scary when the boost comes on, too.
Onto the project side of things, basically trying to 'modernise' the bits which have been left behind. Bought some Volk wheels for it that desperately need R888 tyres which are fitted in the pics. I'm not a huge fan of the colour or the bodykit, so it'll be going back to standard GT-R bodywork when I have the cash. Not to mention the brakes... which are 20 years old and way way way not upto the job - not even V Spec brembos, just the standard Nissan items!
Which was hilarious, checked with the council, well within our rights and 2 weeks later the case was dropped - you can be annoyed by a million noises, but that doesn't warrant it being a noise problem.
To celebrate, I DB-checked the car at 'track day spec' 3000rpm - it's quite loud:
And that's basically where I am now. I'll be changing a load of bits in the next few months, desperately need it mapping too. But for anyone interested, here's a few videos and pics of the project.
It's a strange one, the power delivery is just ridiculous - you start making positive boost from around 2-3000rpm but it's not until 4000+ that you're upto 1bar and beginning to pull. Then at around 4900 it's ballistic, fun but you've got to be 'ready' as gay as it sounds as it'll happily kick out even in 4WD.
It's a very old turbo though, i'd like to get a more mordern design plus decent management in the not too distant future, should make a hell of a difference.
Forgot to mention about the rev-limiter/launch control system on it, allows for some fun pics
Quick update anyways, finally got the car on the Dyno just to see what the fuelling was like really, some good and bad news...First thing is figures - managed to pull 536 at the wheels, but only did the pull up to 6000rpm instead of the 7800rpm limit.
Bit of a bugger, but at least I know the car's capable - roll on replacement pump and 7800rpm, no idea what 536whp works out with transmission losses, but good to know there's still another 100+whp in it yet that i'm yet to have!
Anyways, on the thursday I had Knight Racer fit a 'hybrid' carbon bonnet, basically a normal carbon bonnet but instead of being a sheet of carbon over a crap load of fiberglass, it's all made out of carbon fibre. lot lighter and stronger and not a lot more than a usual one, can't recommend one enough.
Then on the Friday morning it was off to Thor Racing to use their Dynapack, just discussing at the minute whether to ditch all the dinosaur management on it and replace it with a Link G4 that'll rid the AFMs for a MAP sensor, work as a boost controller, launch control... basically make it run a crap load better, and be good to get a proper map put on regardless of how the Japanese one is working.
Oh and one last funny pic of the first aborted dyno run, only took the revs up to 6000rpm, but between 4000 and 5500 revs the torque goes from 160lb ft to 456ft lb, bit laggy haha
Christ I just realised i've not updated this in TIME! Soo, big changes since (well, not so much visually, but certainly to my wallet + engine power...)
Then it went for mapping - Thor Racing fitted a new Link G4 ECU with adjustable boost controller and Pete began mapping. Unfortunately, my old turbo did not like mapping, despite making 600 wheel horsepower @ 1 bar, the bearing went and shat itself.
Luckily, Ross @ Dragon Performance had a T88-33D going spare, so I bought that to use instead:
Then it was time to go be an idiot:
Realising I needed to stop being so idiotic, I went to Santa Pod for a bit of draggin...managed to get a few runs in, the two best being:
10.91 @ 130mph (60 foot 1.6 seconds)
11.16 @ 128mph (60 foot 1.6 seconds)
Which I was happy with as it was only at 1.4 bar of boost, unfortunately I managed to completely destroy 5th gear crossing the finish line on the 10.9 run Rubbish! But, at least i've still got 4 working gears!
Not too bad for a full-weight R32, full interior, even stupid Alpine speakers and amps in the back and the standard gearbox
So, if anyone has any R32 boxes for sale or knows someone who can fit 'em without too much of a ballache gimmie a bell haha.
Thanks for viewing!
