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Part II: Tuning and Testing
Ive just returned from a frantic week a mix of hurried work and exciting modification of the GT-R. After the extensive tuning that the Skyline has undergone the car is a peach.
I had an early awakening at the crack of dawn, last Monday. The noise that encouraged me to reluctantly drag myself out of bed was one of an Italian stallion having its engine revved up to her sky-high redline. I knew this sweet sound well, but I expect my neighbours thought differently. I gulped down a scorching-hot coffee and then left the comforts of my house. I popped the garage door button on the key fob and hopped into the Skyline. The garage door opened to reveal a blood red Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale eagerly waiting to leave. It was piloted by a friend Jimmy Brodie, a car fanatic and has a Dad that knows more about modifying cars than just about anyone in the county. His company, BBR, would be my first and last stop of the week. He would be fitting the brakes, trick suspension and the roll cage along with a few other components. He would be also stripping out the Skylines insides and replacing the arm-chairs with a set of race proven, body-hugging buckets.
We thrashed our cars along the less than smooth B-roads that lead to the Oxford based workshop. BBR-GTi have modified fast Fords for race use right up to 850bhp Aston Martin super-luxobarges. We arrived just as the sun rose over the city skyline and were welcomed by the man himself, David Brodie. I manoeuvred the car up a concrete slope and into the large well-lit workshop.
I love the way the workshop feels, not clean and perfectly tidy, but it conveys the passion felt for motor sport held by the men who work at BBR like nothing else. The AP-Racing competition brakes look fantastic finished in a bright red and with a simple white logo on them. I went for 6 pistons up front and 4 at the back, to give awesome stopping power and great brake feel. I also had a set of lightweight black Speedline racing rims to fit those massive callipers behind. Magnesium is used to cast these wheels, just as on the Carrera GT. I also opted for ultra sticky Falken Azenis motor sport tyres to transfer all of the power-to-come of that engine and the brakes to the road. Before any of this was fitted though, they removed the ancient standard suspension and bolted on a set of TEIN racing spec suspension and strut bars. These were approximately tuned for the ring before they moved on to ripping out almost the entire interior. First the seats and door cards flew out of the car, followed by almost all of the rest of the interior. Then the Sparco S Light Buckets were added. The team then got down to fitting the white OMP roll cage which tuned out to be trickier than expected. Once in, a pair of red harnesses were fed through the seats and the old dinner plate sized steering wheel was changed for one more like the size of a Smartie.
The work took about 6 hours to complete, which was much quicker than expected, and now the car sits much lower and is the chassis is far stiffer than before. Although the engine is still stock, it wont be for much longer. Tomorrow the engine will have a torrent of shiny new bits of metal fixed to it to try and reach the total output of well over 500bhp that I want. For the rest of the day that remained I worked my socks off before laying down to rest thinking about the next day that lay ahead.
I arrived at Whifbitz, the closest Japanese tuning specialist to my hotel, tired after the half and hour 150mph motorway journey. The parts I had order had arrived the night before, and one of the workers had a peak the night before. That Skylines gonna fly, He informed me. Ive always wanted one. The parts were added to my long money-munching list include a full racing Blitz Nur Spec exhaust, Blitz K3 Twin-Turbo kit and a Blitz GTR LM intercooler. I also had a GReddy Carbon prop shaft, AP Racing Clutch and a RPS flywheel fitted to ensure that the power wont wreak havoc on the standard components. Of course I also had the ECU re-mapped and the fuel system changed to make sure that the engine is well fed. Finally I had a few of the standard engine parts modified, ported and balanced. These consist of camshafts, pistons, conrods, gaskets and a new crankshaft all supplied by Whifbitz themselves. These also increased the displacement of the engine to 2.8 litres. With a lot of apprehension I drove the car onto the dyno. The exhaust note is hugely sharper and has vastly more character than the standard one even when the engine is idling unevenly. When you depress your right foot you are hit by a torrent of noise echoing off the shiny white walls of the rolling road. As the engine shifted from 1000rpm up to an ear-splitting peak of 7000rpm, the graph displayed an output of over 512whp. This equates to almost 600bhp. I thanked Whifbitz for all their hard work and headed out onto the road.
With the chassis and engine complete I was hoping for a drastic change in character. I was not to be disappointed. The straight six of the skyline is now on a plateau of performance only matched by the best supercars. The steering feels like your hands are somehow connected to the road, giving a vivid image of the lumps and bumps of the road. When you plant your right foot you have to brace yourself for the unstoppable acceleration. Well actually it is stoppable. Just. Using the huge AP Racing anchors you can shed off speed in huge quantities. At one point I hit 190mph on a deserted stretch of motorway. As I saw a bend approaching I had to hit the brakes hard, and I could actually feel the tarmac being torn off the road by the immense forces. Surely if anything can come close to a Carrera GT, this is it. It doesnt have the glamour, but essentially it is a no-frills racing car for the road so that was never part of the plan.
I'm sorry this part is such a mouthfull but i hope you can take the time to read it.
Also, remember that all this is fiction.
