Project Nissan Skyline GTR
So here’s the run down of my Nissan Skyline GTR project.
I bought the car last year for £8995 from Samurai Performance near York in almost standard condition and with only 110,000 kms on the clock. The car was already fitted with TEIN Super Street coil-over suspension, an Apex’i AVC-R boost controller and HKS Super Power Flow air filters.
I immediately added an HKS Silent Hi-Power cat-back exhaust system along with an Abbey Motorsport big-bore catalyst replacement pipe and Apex’i PowerFC replacement ECU and Commander all of which was fitted and mapped by RC Developments.
I *should* have got a baseline reading on power before and after the exhaust and ECU swap, but I was too eager to get the work done. Let’s just say that a GTR with the standard exhaust and boost feels pretty strangled and not all that impressive (although still quick).
I’d agreed with RC Developments that they would set the boost below 1 bar as the standard GTR turbos are ceramic and have a tendency to shear the exhaust wheel above this boost threshold (I already knew this and RC confirmed it).
On picking the car up, it felt very quick and so it should: the boost had been set to 1.3kg/cm2 (just under 1.3 bar) on the AVC-R, which I reset myself to 0.95. When I got home I realised that although my standard ECU had been put in the glove-box, my standard but perfectly usable exhaust and, more importantly, the catalytic converter wasn’t in the car. A call next day to RC Developments confirmed my worst fears: they’d chucked it in the skip and would have to source me a replacement at their cost. 6 months on, I’m still waiting for the replacement exhaust and the TEIN c-spanners I ordered off them for £18 plus VAT. Clearly as things stand, I can’t recommend RC Developments although to be fair, the mapping appears to be spot on.
In February, I attended a dyno shootout with a load of Subaru Imprezas at Dyno Demon and managed 375.5 bhp at the flywheel. The Scooby drivers complained that they were down on power compared to previous runs, but I was happy with the figure I got.
The only concessions to looks have been a real carbon fibre spoiler blade and end caps (Nismo replicas) from New Era Parts. I was so impressed by the delivery times from Japan as well as the cost and customer service that I bought myself a set of RAYS Engineering Volk Racing TE37 wheels in bronze, the ultimate GTR wheel, in my opinion. When they arrive, I’ll be posting plenty of pics! They do go against my “cheap” philosophy, though. Oops.
