*Clears Throat RVV Skyline Slayers Review - By Camry "if I did this well in school, I'd have A's" Fan.
I received an interesting letter the other day from the boys at RVV motorsports and by interesting I of course mean vague. All it contained was a note saying “Godzilla is dead” and a plane ticket. PF said it was worth a look so without second-guessing him I was on the first plane to New York City.
Godzilla, for those of you who don't know, is the Skyline GT-R series. How it got its name I am unsure of but this is what all street kids refer to it as so I'm not going to second-guess them either. Now the last of the “Skyline GT-R's” was the R34. The R34 is one of the most formidable cars ever conceived. I have driven them in all sorts of guises from the Vspecs to the N1s to the base models and they all feel pretty much the same, the devil between them lies in the details. On the road, track or the strip it takes a tough car to stand up against it, they're pretty much untouchable. Notice I said “pretty-much”: no car is ever bulletproof, no car is perfect and perhaps I'm overhyping the R34 based on its reputation alone. There is definitely plenty of scope for mods and plenty of room for improvement.
I arrived in New York and hoped into my little hire car, a Levin BZ-R. I received a call informing me of the location for my little surprise, the man on the phone sounded very excited. In little time I found myself on the site of the New York Enduro circuit and a sight not-unlike something out of Juiced 2 Hot Import Nights. Four cars and three drivers standing next to their respective achievements. It was now clear what I was called out for, I was testing 3 different Skyline Slayers.
Let's take a look at the contenders. We have a Silvia fit for a king, (K's), a handsome, crazy RX-7 FD and the 4-wheel rally monster, Mitsu Lan Evo V. The RX-7 is the cheapest and also has the least amount of power @ 51,590, Next up is the S14 K's @ 57,418 and finally at just a tenner cheaper the the Vspec the Lan Evo. The Skyline has more power than both the RX-7 and the Silvia but loses out to the Evo which has a some 20hp advantage. On paper it looks very tight, I would expect the gains are made on the suspension tuning and weight.
I grabbed the Skyline first, while the crowd stepped back to open up the track. This wasn't just a normal R34 GT-R, it's a Nur designed specifically for the other thing that starts with Nur, The Nurburgring. Out on the track, well ... It has throttle understeer, lift off understeer and for a car with 4 wheel steering it doesn't turn very well at all. I don't like the way is floats around on its suspension; it just feels way too soft (most likely because of the bumps of the Nurburgring). The engine doesn't feel responsive enough, it just lumbers a little like it's turbos are too big. However, the car at speed is always, always planted. It never feels like you have 300+bhp because the AWD system just sticks the car to the road and makes sure that it never powers into wheelspin. At lower speed corners around 100kph it can break lose at the rear but if you let it go it will come back around and if you try and snap it back it can go wrong. It tells you how it wants to be driven, you never ever tell it what to do else it will just give you as much frustration and understeer that it feels necessary to deliver as punishment for not doing what you're told, You can almost here it saying, “See if you had listened to me in the first place you wouldn't be off the racing line now, would you?” I hated driving it to start with but then it grew on me a little bit. But this was only a stocker Skyline. The real point of interest are the tuned ones, the Skyline killers.
I took the Evo first, so I could properly compare the differences between two cars with the same drivetrain. I took the track and to be honest I was a little bit nervous, these guys have worked so hard at RVV, balancing cost, power, weight and suspension in order to beat an R34 at its own game. First impressions: too much understeer. Driving this Evo is a interesting predicament, put the power on too soon and you get a FWD Evo, just powering around at the front wheels and understeering everywhere but then on lap two I came dangerously close to beating the Skyline. One thing it does have over the Skyline, it's fun to drive. While the understeer is incredibly annoying sometimes it’s never a laborious process. I had to force myself to drive the Skyline; I was on lap 7 before I knew it in the Evo. Something the passes the time like that would be excellent on an Enduro race because the race would be over before you knew it. But I have my suggestions on how to drive it and my criticisms. The way to drive it is simple really late brake as far as you dare, lift off with no power on turn it and punch it mid corner, hold the wheel and if you do it right you pull straight an inch from the wall. Do it wrong and you crash. It also a left foot braker and it really quite fun when you do this because it keeps the turbo on boost as well. However anything other than perfect precision driving and you get buckets of power-understeer and buckets of no-power-understeer, it doesn't turn nearly as well as I would like it too either (Tech Note: I have only a DS2, if someone has a G25 they wish too be rid of...). Ending on a positive the engine note it much nicer in the Evo than the Skyline and the Evo doesn't feel like it's flopping around. It doesn't change my opinion on AWD in GT 4 but it is a competent track car.
Moving on to our first RWD contender we have the S14 Silvia K's. The K's stands for kings because it had the most kit on it with power steering, power windows and power mirrors. It also came with the desirable SR20DET motor, which the Q's didn't have. However the notion of a King's Silvia is thrown out of the equation this time. The RVV boys have thrown it all out or scraped it for cash in order to save weight. I'm not worried right now, I'm on a track not driving to work. Let see how she fares against the Skyline. How is it on the track? Let me take you inside the cabin. Holding third, you’re understeering round the big sweeper before the straight. Annoyed, you flat shift into second, the rears light up almost instantly, the sideways g's are loading the right side of the car, the turbo comes into full boost and your skating around, you swing the wheel right to get onto the straight away and you swung just a little too hard. You're now facing the wrong direction”. This is what this car is like, it's what this car is about. It's got drifter DNA running in its veins and it will prove it to you when it wants, whether or not your prepared for it. To call it a drifter though, would be incorrect, for example the sliding of the car isn't nearly consistent enough, you can hold it for awhile but too much angle and it's a snap around, even trying to bring it back from a small slide is hard without a little bit of snap back. Understeer? What understeer? Depending on your corner entry mentality you'll get a little bit of understeer through the bend or else a lot of oversteer, which is more fun. Calling it a car you need to manhandle is completely untrue, you need to exercise a light touch (once again, pretty hard with a DS2). With all the oversteer it can be a little hard to be consistent, most of the time you’re just sticking the tail out for the sheer thrill of it. Not a drift king's Silvia or even a King's Silvia but a tail-happy but race focused street machine.
It was getting dark now, it had been one hell of a day, but I still had one more car to look at. I grabbed the keys off RJ. As I got in the car he said “You've saved the best for last”. This is a proper, full-bore, all out pointy track day car. Every little movement you make translates into a movement of the car. It's a curb drifter like the S14 as well. It is by far the fastest vehicle of the 4, there's no denying it. I smashed the records first lap as well which was amazing. The brakes are very firm, much better then the Silvia's brake, but you need to be in a straight line to use them, any small movements and it gets very shaky under braking. Oversteer is there to prevent understeer, not to be used as a toy like in the Silvia. I had troubles at turns 2 and 3. Halfway around, just as you want to straighten up the power band comes in and spins the rears. This can be avoided by taking the two corners in third instead of second but this goes against instinct. It's a quick car, almost unbelievable in its application. The RX-7 commands a tonne of presence as well, it's a proper head turner.
I came in after the RX-7 laps with a pretty big smile on my face. The results were:
1. Mazda RX-7 1:46.266
2. Nissan Silvia K's 1:48.259
3. Mitsu Lan Evo V 1:49.942
4. Skyline GT-R Vspec Nur 1:50.259
So, all three cars are quicker then the Skyline; without a doubt Godzilla is dead. But now which one do I have to choose? For a lap of the track the RX-7, to impress my mates with the trail out, the Silvia scrapes by over the RX-7, for driving to work the Evo or the Skyline. The RX-7 and the Evo have the most sophisticated suspension setups, the Silvia gets by on a simpler system, but comes with grippy tyres and a well sorted diff. The RX-7 is the cheapest and the fastest. The Evo is the most consistent because of AWD and the most expensive but is the slowest of the three. They all have their good points and with 60K in the bank you'd take any one of them. but my pick is.....
The RX-7. It's the cheapest and the fastest, but the brakes need a little bit of work. There are no better ways to spend 52,000 dollars.
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Its that fun factor that makes it so great to drive, and makes you go "huh?" when you manage to come within 2 seconds of a winged RX-7. 
It's definitely not off topic in my eyes and it would be a bit weird if it was found to be off topic, wouldn't you think? 👍
