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Garage Saurus Tune the Nissan GT-R SpecV
Given the opportunity, you would tune this too. Not content to have the quickest production GT-R available, this SpecV owner has booked it in for a few basic performance upgrades. Garage Saurus have complied and installed a few choice upgrades from their range such as the Trust / GReddy full titanium exhaust, Garage Saurus Suction Piping Kit, Blitz twin blow off valves, Garage Saurus upgraded wastegate actuators, and to control the boost a HKS EVC.
To complete the picture, ECU tuning will beging this week. With this being the first SpecV worked on, they expect a few speed bumps but nothing serious. While tuning a set of Garage Saurus Bosch 750cc injectors may make their way on to this car as well to beef up the fuel system. I think this car is in good hands! Should be interesting to see the final power figures.
Link: Garage Saurus R35 GT-R Website
Zele Plus WALD Equals Interesting Combination?
Arios have been tweaking the look on a customer’s R35 GT-R recently. They have had a full carbon fibre Zele Performance aero kit installed which is made up of the front lip, side skirts and rear underspoiler. They liked the look of the WALD rear over-fenders (from the WALD SportsLine aero kit) though and decided to integrate the looks. Overall I feel this is quite a successful combination. Once they add some ultra-wide wheels at the rear to properly fill up the guards it should look even better.
For now it’s a one off custom made set of over-fenders but I dare say it would not be hard for any competent body shop to emulate this if you were into that sort of thing.
Link: Arios Website
GTRBlog Now Available in More Languages in More Places
Isn’t social media great? Well if you enjoy the ‘blog you have to say yes even if you hate social media. There’s a load of people still on the fence as well and to those people I say, give it a try, you might like it. The worst that could happen is you end up with several crazy cyber-stalkers who break into your house to watch you while you sleep.
Anyways, GTRBlog has grown up a bit over the past two years and so has the Nissan GT-R. The GT-R is available in many more countries than any previous Skyline GT-R, which never really officially made it’s way properly out of Japan except in handfulls or grey imports. That means we have a potential audience greater than ever before and to capture this we’ve teamed up with Martin from Taipei, Taiwan to bring you GTRBlog in Traditional Chinese.
Let me introduce Martin to readers, although you may not read the Traditional Chinese version of the ‘blog, the story of how the Nissan GT-R legend has spread to Taiwan is interesting.
Martin is one of just 25 GT-R owners so far in Taiwan owning the white one pictured above. When Yulon Nissan began taking pre-orders in late 2008, Martin put his name down and took delivery in May 2009 from the Taipei Nissan High Performance Center (NHPC). From that day on he has been subject to much attention on the road as the GT-R is as much a rockstar in Taiwan as it is elsewhere. From camera flashes from passers-by to being filmed on his drive home.
As most people outside the US and Japan have come to realise, the GT-R is no cheap toy and Taiwan is no exception to that. Even at around $157,000 USD mark MSRP Martin still thinks it’s great value for money.
From experience with both GT-Rs and my own long road trips across Taiwan’s mountain and coastal roads I whole heartedly agree!
What about the GT-R scene in Taiwan and where is it headed? With Japan being just a quick hop away, easy access to tuning parts is extremely useful. There’s already a Mine’s dealership and a couple of Mine’s tweaked 600hp R35’s in country. He’s also pretty confident we’ll be seeing a couple of big HP Trust-T6 turbo kit fitted GT-Rs on the streets of Taiwan just as soon as they become available.
Can’t wait to see them next time I’m in Taiwan.
In other news, GTRBlog can now be found on Facebook and followed on Twitter. Many of you prefer to get your news in Tweets and spend your afternoons on Facebook and why not eh. I’m also uploading unique content and some old favourite photo albums to Facebook as time goes by so don’t forget to add it as a favourite page and become a fan.
That’s it for this update. Thanks for sticking with us!
Link: GTRBlog Taiwan – GTRBlog in Traditional Chinese
Link: GTRBlog on Facebook – Become a Fan
Link: GTRBlog on Twitter – Follow us for Updates
SuperGT 2009: Hasemi Tomica Ebbro Nissan GT-R Wins Round 4 in Malaysia
The third Nissan GT-R win for SuperGT season 2009 from just four starts today as the #3 Hasemi Racing Tomica Ebbro GT500 Nissan GT-R is victorious at Sepang Circuit, Malaysia. They qualified 2nd on the grid and capitalized on a technical issue suffered by the #1 MOTUL Autech GT-R which forced it to pit.
Back in 5th place was the next best GT-R finisher, the #24 HIS ADVAN Kondo Racing entrant with earning 9 points for this round. The #12 IMPUL Calsonic GT-R came in just two places back in 7th followed by the #1 MOTUL Autech GT-R in 8th.
Congratulations to Hasemi racing, this win bumps them well up the championship rankings into 8th spot. The 9 points scored by Kondo Racing however helps them secure their championship lead with 49 points overall. The next best placed GT-R fielding team this year is Nismo back in 6th spot now with 33 points.
Five more rounds in the season so there’s still time for them to make their comeback for a back to back championship victory, although it does seem like a tough ask.
FIA GT 2009: Round 3 2010 GT1 GT-R Nissan Finishes First FIA GT Race
Well not the best finish but it’s the first race they’ve entered and finished and only the second race total in the brand new 2010 GT1 specification FIA GT Nissan GT-R at the Oschersleben Circuit this weekend. The Nismo team qualified in 10th place on the starting grid and were happy with the car’s performance:
“The Nissan GTR feels good around the tight corners and we were able to improve the car steadily in the run up for qualifying. Finally we ended up in P10, this time only 2.8 seconds away from Pole Position.” said Michael Krumm “That sounds a lot but considering our cars disadvantage by running the 2010 regulation and the additional 40kg or additional weight that we had to take on for Oschersleben, it was quite a good effort.”
The race began with Krumm driving in the dry but by lap 17 the rain began to fall on parts of the circuit. The Nissan pit in at lap 33 to switch to wet tires and Darren Turner took the wheel. During early racing the GT-R had advanced as much as 8th position.
Unfortunately, at turn 3 on lap 57 the GT-R spun and ended up in the gravel. This cost the valuable time and race positions, they pitted to swap drivers again and the car went back out to finish.
The GT-R finished the race in 14th place outright. Not amazing but they finished and that was the goal for today’s race and they have to be pleased with it.
“Our target for [the race] remains unchanged, we will mainly focus on bringing the car home, something that we unfortunately were not able to do in Silverstone at the first race.” said Michael Krumm
Photos: (C) DPPI via FIA GT
SuperGT 2009: MOTUL AUTECH GT-R on Pole for Round 4 at Sepang
Finally another weekend of GT-R motorsports has kicked off, firstly qualifying for SuperGT Series 2009 round 4 at Sepang Circuit in Malaysia. After a too long, 6 week break between round 3 and this weekend, we get to see the GT500 Nissan GT-Rs doing what they do best – that is – grabbing pole position during qualifying.
It’s good news for the #1 MOTUL Autech GT-R as they’ve managed just that with a best lap of 1:58.124 in the heated SuperLap qualifier round. Also, even more good news for Hasemi Racing with their #3 Tomica EBBRO GT-R in 2nd spot on the grid after setting a best lap just hundreths of a second away from first at 1:58.195.
Back in 7th places we see the #24 HIS ADVAN Kondo Racing GT-R with the #12 IMPUL Calsonic GT-R back in 10th place wrapping up the last of the GT-Rs.
With wet weather sitting in later in the day today, who knows what tomorrow will bring and teams will need to be ready for anything.
SouthSide Performance 65mm Billet Throttle Bodies for Nissan GT-R
SouthSide Performance have been tackling the GT-Rs throttle bodies in a quest for a larger opening and a more responsive drive. SouthSide aren’t the first to go down this path as even Nissan has recognized that the base model GT-R could do with some improvement on the throttle body side of things when refining the SpecV’s version. These should be quite a bit larger though.
These billet items should be released soon as they’re currently in the final testing phases.
Link: SouthSide Performance Website
Abflug Complete Aero Kit for Nissan GT-R
While I had my doubts after seeing the Abflug concept at Tokyo AutoSalon 2009 that this would ever come together, the styling masters at Abflug have done it.
They’ve built some unique pieces here. The front lip is my favorite part and the subtle sideskirts work in the car’s favor. The riskiest part – the rear diffuser and underspoiler ALMOST works but seems ultimately spoiled by the mesh sides and corners.
The full aero kit consists of the front lip spoiler, sideskirts, rear diffuser / underspoiler and rear wing. A full front bumper is planned for earl 2010.
Thanks to advan for the tip.
Link: Abflug Website
Haltech Release Platinum Pro ECU for Nissan R35 GT-R
This month marks the end of quite a long development process for the much anticipated Haltech fully programmable ECU for the Nissan R35 GT-R. The guys have released it now for Japanese and Australian delivered GT-R models with US delivered models to follow shortly.
High Performance Fuel and Ignition ECU for Nissan R35 GTR
The next generation in engine management. Purpose built for Nissan’s supercar, the Platinum Pro R35 GTR ECU is a fully programmable ECU interfacing directly with all the standard Nissan sensors and on board computer systems, taking control of all the essential engine management tasks such as fuel delivery, ignition timing, boost levels, camshaft positioning and correction maps.
The Platinum Pro R35 GTR ECU even interfaces with the factory Nissan CAN Bus for on board diagnostic and troubleshooting. The Platinum Pro R35 GTR ECU unlocks the limitless potential of Nissan’s VR Powerhouse.
Features:
- Sequential Fuel Control
- Direct Fire Ignition Control
- Variable Camshaft postion mapping
- Knock Detection
- Engine Rev Limiter
- Closed loop boost control
- Launch control
- Closed loop wideband 02 control
- On board data logging
- Speed density, Alpha-N or MAF tuning
- Additional user definable inputs and outputs
- Windows Software
In terms of those GT-R owners who have managed to extract big power with existing technologies (such as OE ECU re-flashes) you’ll be well aware of the protective nature of the stock ECU. Boost cuts, limp modes and so on all hold you back whether you’re on the drag strip, circuit or even occasionally just hard driving on the street. To utilise the GT-R’s VR38 to it’s full potential, this should be on your wish list.
For those of you chasing hard data and results, I point you in the direction of the recent NAGTROC thread where “One Lap of America” winner Underpressure has been tuning and testing with his Haltech unit already and has published some pretty amazing in-progress dyno charts.
Link: Haltech Website
Link: NAGTROC thread – Results from Haltech Tune In-Progress
STILLEN Release Adjustable Sway Bars for Nissan GT-R
We’re happy to hear that STILLEN has completed development on these beefy looking sway bar upgrades for the GT-R. These feature a 28 – 31% stiffness increase over the stock items but also feature 5-way adjustment. This gives the owner a great opportunity to fine tune the handling of the GT-R.
Adjustments range from slightly stiffer than stock to extremely stiff which according to STILLEN really keeps the car flat through the turns.
A great way to handle some of the GT-R’s tendancy to understeer, they’re available now for $1049. Check out the STILLEN website and product page for more details and ordering info.
Link: STILLEN Release
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