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Abu Dhabi Police Upgrade to GT-R Patrol Car
Wanted to share these photos sent in by reader Ahmed. Looks like Abu Dhabi police have taken delivery of a new squad car. Not many other details to go along with it, sorry for the cell phone pics.
The GT-R has a fairly rich history of being tasked with police duties in the past. R32 and R34 GT-Rs have both served as highway patrol cars in Japan in the past.
If anyone knows more about the Abu Dhabi car, please let me know!
GTRBlog: Road Trip and Update
Sorry for the lack of updates over the past 3 or 4 days, I’ve actually been on vacation in the USA leading up to SEMA which kicks off in just a few days. I took some time in San Francisco to check out the sites and had no internet access for a while as I visited Yosemite National Park.
I then met up with Chuck from NAGTROC and headed down California Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) for a scenic drive to LA.
Since then I’ve been visiting some workshops and GT-R owners in the Los Angeles area to check out their SEMA entries and am happy to say you guys are going to love whats coming.
So I finally have internet access as I’ve just done the last leg of the road trip from LA to Vegas and checked in so expect another update later tonight when I get the chance to properly nerd out.
Thanks to all who emailed me over the past week and I expect to return emails soon.
Top Racing HK: Track Day Performance at ZIC in China
A little over a month back now, Hong Kong based tuner Top Racing was out at Zhuihai International Circuit in China to collect data on the Willall Racing cooling solutions and the HKS suspension systems for the Nissan GT-R. This particular R35 Demo car was built aiming to set as a reference for other R35 owners.
The Top Racing GT-R Demo car is fitted with what some would term as only mild, bolt on modifications. We see the HKS GT600 Kit with the HKS Superior Spec R Titan Muffler, the latest HKS Hypermax 3 Super Sport Suspension, COBB Tuning Anti-roll Bar, COBB Tuning AccessPORT, Willall Transmission Cooler and Dixcel RE Brake Pads with rotors.
Over the course of the two day track event, the air temperature was close to 40 degrees celsius. Top Racing conducted the tests with the GT-R tuned to run 1.1 bar of boost with Willall Racing oils protecting the engine, transmission and the differentials. Saturday’s main focus was on the suspension setting and after all was said and done the guys managed a best time of 1:47.6.
On Sunday, there was a chance for the Top Racing team to stress test the oil and the cooling system. During testing their results were pointing in the right direction but, due to interruptions, only 8 hot laps were able to be completed during the one session. Based on the data gathered however, there is no doubt that the oil will maintain good temperatures even over a 10 lap session in the scorching heat.
Overall, it was a successful event, and the data gathered by the Top Racing Demo car will be extremely useful to use as a baseline for further GT-R builds to come. Taking certain steps with the setup of the car can go a long way to eliminating any over heating issues.
Furthermore, another point worth making was in regards to the Dixcel RE brake pads. Their performance overall was extremely good with no sight of fading even after 8 laps back to back in the heat. Moreover, the wear on the brake discs and the pads over the two days was far less than expected. These brake pads were developed for endurance races, and are highly recommended for GT-R users planning to do some track work.
Next steps for Top Racing are to look forward to building a more aggressive track orientated R35 GT-R with a horsepower target of between 700 ~ 800 hp. The guys are looking forward to an even better laptime next visit to Zhuihai.
Link: Top Racing HK Website
Dunlop Targa NZ: Nissan GT-R Leading After First Day of Racing
After finishing fifth outright in the Dunlop Targa New Zealand in 2008, Tony Quinn has campaigned the VIP Petfoods Nissan GT-R across the pond in Australia to much success.
Second place in the Targa Wrest Point and first place in Rally Tasmania in February 09. First in Targa Tasmania 2009 in April and second in the Quit Targa West in August. It’s easy to see that Tony is going places in the GT-R.
The Dunlop Targa NZ kicked off today and at the end of the first day Tony is leading the pack in the GT-R making a determined effort to improve over last year.
The Targa NZ runs for 6 days, finally wrapping up on the 31st of this month. Good luck to Tony and the VIP Petfoods GT-R team.
Link: Targa NZ Website
FIA GT 2009: Nissan GT-R Shows Some Great Pace in Final Round
After qualifying for 8th place on the grid for today’s final FIA GT round for 2009, the GT-R was making some great pace in the race. This round would be used to test the development of the car so far, in particular, the latest aero upgrades and new rear wing.
By the 33rd lap Michael Krumm was in 4th position overall and pitted for a driver change. Shortly after Darren Turner took the wheel however he began to notice odd readings in the tire pressure sensors. A rear brake caliper had stuck and was generating a lot of heat causing the tire pressure to rise.
The team changed out the caliper to correct the problem but the time taken to do so had put them out of competition for a great finish.
“The car felt even better today and was going so well. It is such a disappointment that we had this brake problem. It is easily fixed, and will not be a problem in future, but for this race it is such a shame. We could have finished… well, I don’t know where, but it could have been a really good result for us.”
– Michael Krumm, Nismo Driver
The team will continue development of the Nissan GT-R 2010 GT1 spec car to begin competitive championship racing in FIA GT season 2010. We’ll keep you posted when we find out which teams will be fielding them next year.
Click the Read More link below to read the full race report from Nismo…
Photos: (C) DPPI via FIA GT
Trust / GReddy Release Intake Pipe Kits for Nissan R35 GT-R
Trust have extended their range of GT-R parts recently with the release of a variety of intake piping kits. First up and pictured above is the Trust Aluminium Intake Piping Kit. The kit is a direct replacement for the OE piping designed for bolting straight up with the factory air boxes installed. Six replacement 70mm aluminium pipes and silicon hose joiners with clamps ship with the kit. This kit is compatible with the GReddy Intercooler kit but not the GReddy TD06 turbine kit, GReddy will release a kit compatible with the TD06 kit soon.
This kit goes for around the 159,600 yen in Japan.
Next up is a pair of airbox replacement GReddy Suction Kits. There’s the Type-1 kit which includes two aluminium turbine compressor replacement pipes and a pair of foam mushroom filters. This kit includes silicon hose joiners also and sells for 100,800 yen in Japan.
Lastly is the GReddy Suction Kit Type-2, the unique thing in this kit is that the air boxes are replaced with a pair of mushroom filters that are positioned in front of the radiator support where they have more ready access to cold air. It includes polished aluminium compressor replacement piping, silicon hose joiners and airfilters and sells for 120,750 yen in Japan.
Link: Trust Official Website
Whiteline Adjustable Stabilizer Bars for Nissan R35 GT-R
Widely respected, Australian based aftermarket suspension component manufacturer Whiteline has released a range of adjustable sway bars suitable for the Nissan R35 GT-R. Three sway bars are available, one front item and a choice between two different rear options.
The front stabilizer bar is a 33mm solid 3 point adjustable item while in the rear the standard 14mm sway bars can be upgraded to a Whiteline 18mm or a larger 20mm item which also offer the 3 points of stiffness adjustability. All sway bars also ship with polyurethane bushes.
If you’ve wondered exactly why you’d need to upgrade your sway bars, Whiteline put it fairly succinctly in their literature:
A sway bars objective is to reduce sway, or body roll, and stabilise a vehicle under lateral (cornering) forces. Having adjustability permits the roll stiffness to be tuned for different situations without replacing the entire bar. The stiffer the bar, the more force required to move the left and right wheels relative to each other. This increases the amount of force required to make the body roll.
Cornering loads are spread more evenly across the tyres delivering more grip and frankly, that’s what it’s all about. You also get improved tyre wear as your tyres stay flatter and more upright. Comfort improves because your car sits flatter through bends meaning less movement inside the vehicle.
If you’re attending SEMA 2009, which is coming up very quickly now, check out Whiteline at booth #20457 where the R35 GT-R parts should be on display.
Link: Whiteline Website
Japanese 2010 GT-R Changes Not in the Press Release?
Some interesting changes we expected to see in the official press release didn’t seem to make it all the way to the English version. At this time we’re not sure as to why they weren’t translated outside of Japan and we hope to know more soon.
So far we’ve also collected the following details on items that could be in, or optional on, the 2010 GT-R but are not in the English press statement.
Upgraded Water Lines to Enhance Transmission Cooling
The engine coolant in the GT-R is used to enhance the rear mounted GR6 cooling. In 2010 JDM model, the water lines are upgraded to carry more coolant to the rear to lower the transmission temps overall.
Optional Nismo Multifunction Display Data Logging Kit
The GT-R’s Multi Function Display (MFD) is a big highlight of the GT-R’s interior giving drivers access to nearly every piece of data made available via the network of sensors throughout the car. The Nismo data log kit upgrade will give the users the ability to record this data to a USB pendrive for analysis later. Image above is a photoshop btw…
Optional Nismo Rear Diff Cooler
The Nismo Rear Diff Cooler is also rumoured be available as an option starting next year. This was first seen on the Tokachi 24hrs Nissan R35 GT-R developed by Nismo as a test platform for many of the Nissan GT-R SpecV parts.
What else did we miss out on? Well it appears the update front bumper we saw in spy shots is a no go, at least for the base model GT-R. The rear skirt ducts also seemed to go missing although we speculate that these will only be fitted to cars featuring the Nismo differential cooler?
More as it is dug up, confirmed or ruled out by Nissan…
Nissan Officially Announce 2010 Japanese Specification R35 GT-R
Officially announced today is the 2010 specification Nissan GT-R for the Japanese market. We’d heard the rumours of some of the updates to feature in this iteration of Godzilla but today all is confirmed and more. Keep in mind that these changes may well trickle down to MY2011 specification Nissan GT-Rs in other regions but none of that is confirmed yet.
Suspension is retuned to enhance ride comfort while still providing direct feedback from the road surface. The front shock absorbers are improved as well as an increase in the stiffness of the front springs. Rear radius rod bushings have also been strengthened.
The SpecV‘s rear diffuser is indeed available now on all models standard which improves cooling in the rear floor area. Something many GT-R owners noticed in previous model years.
New style, higher flowing, catalytic converters are adopted to improve low and mid range engine response.
On the inside, the Japanese CARWINGS system is enhanced and the audio system now features a USB port with iPod connectivity capability.
The MY2010 SpecV also receives some updates, the rear shock settings are tweaked which should improve ride and handling. SpecV’s are also now delivered with Dunlop tires standard instead of the Bridgestones. Bridgestones are now optional.
Full press release after the jump…
Source: Nissan Motors
Top Racing HK: Willall Turbos Good for 700ps in Top Racing R35 GT-R
The Willall Racing WR35TT twin turbo upgrade package was announced earlier in the year and has been finding it’s way into a few GT-R builds. The premise is simple, take the superb standard combined turbocharger exhaust manifold setup and improve on it.
The improvements specifically consist of a 6mm larger compressor wheels, and 9mm larger turbine. The standard plain bearing core has also been replaced by a complete ball bearing core to prevent any lost in low end response.
One of the biggest concerns for anyone installing bigger turbos is the affect it has on the low end response, by inducing turbo lag. After installing and testing the Willall items however, there appears to be no appreciable effect on the GTR’s low end output at all, seemingly matching the OEM turbo response.
Being the sole distributor for all Willall Racing products in Hong Kong, Top Racing was delighted to be the first to install and test out these set of turbos. The Top Racing GTR demo car was able to produce over 700hps @ 1.4bar boost with supporting modifications including the COBB AccessPort and 800cc Deatschwerks injectors.
The Willall Turbos make strong power with a significant gains throughout the rev range. The fact that this upgrade maintains standard low end response mean they’re great for daily driving while delivering real punch when you want do some hard driving.
Check out Top Racing’s website for some more details linked below…
Link: Top Racing HK Website
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