More footwork

Ride height.

This is something that seem to obsess car guys for some reason.  IMHO all cars that roll out of the factory is too high.  The ride height is set at the factory to accommodate a variety of market demands (road conditions, the need for the car to work well year round and not to allow the tires to rub the bodywork in extreme conditions causing damage to the bodywork).  Very rarely are they set up to allow maximum performance or appearance.  Japanese manufacturers seem the worse, Germans the best and the rest somewhere in between.

The GTR comes from the factory with incredible performance credentials. The CBA lapped the Nurburgring in 7:38 at its debut and has continually dropped lower and lower in subsequent updates to the current insane 7:08 (with the Nismo Edition with the N-attack package).  I can't help but think the times have dropped due to suspension black magic and ride height adjustments.  Ride height drops the centre of gravity, allows the car to hook up better, improves aerodynamic efficiency by controlling undercar turbulence and makes the car look sweet.  

When I bought this car the first major purchase for it was an HKS GT570 kit.  This was from a guy in the maritimes who was a distributor with extra inventory he had picked up when HKS stopped its North American operations.  It was a smoking hot deal, made better by the fact he threw in H&R springs for free.  These springs dropped the car an inch all around for an aggressive slammed look.

Before:

After:

Springs are nice if you just want a drop you can live with and not lose the car's cockpit suspension controls.  I liked the looks but with my aggressive ADV1 wheels which pushed the front tires to the extreme outer edge of the wheel well, I was having a lot of rubbing issues when I went over ANY BUMPS on the road.  It was so bad I started looking into new wheels that had more negative offset to bring the wheels deeper into the well.  I eventually removed a couple of wheel well liner screws in the 10 and 2 o'clock position to stop the rubbing but big dips still sucked.

After 4 months I had enough, bit the bullet an ordered the KW sleeve kit.

It's amazing what the change in spring rate and careful ride height adjustment will do. The car rides comfortably and feel noticeably tighter on turn in than stock and eons better than the H&Rs.  Never looked back and highly recommend this for anyone.  The best part was I am able to get the car corner balanced and dialled in a very useable (and mature) look to the car.

Final results:

Performance done, now to address how she looks!

I love the stock looks of the GTR. it's functional, purposeful, mean.  It's not a pretty car, but weapons are not pretty.

I rarely feel that anything aftermarket could improve upon what designers and engineers have perfected in wind tunnel hours, but when you see what's been done to race cars to improve on the original design, you get ideas.  

After seeing some GT1 and GT3 cars in action, I decided I wanted side skirts with the stepped lip.  I also wanted a conservative front chin spoiler. In comes Stillen.  I'm not a fan of their parts in general but their one big advantage is the fact they do a lot of parts in glorious, flexible, give 'em hell urethane. A couple of calls later and the skirts and lip arrives at my door.

I dropped the parts off at Fiore at S&G Autobody and $300 later they return in perfect oem gray to match the rear valence.

Before:

After:

Interior:  

The worst thing about CBA (early generation cars) is the ugly rubber trim around the switchgear and center hvac controls.  My good friend Daryl at RightDrive parts is also the exclusive Canadian dealer for RSW carbon parts from Japan (www.carbonart.ca).  He set me up with the perfectly form fitting pieces that fit like oem.  I like these over what's offered on EBay due to the fact the cut outs for the buttons on the centre console are so precisely done you have holes for each individual rectangular button.  To me, that's a sign of craftsmanship.

More power: SBD700 kit by Speed By Design (OKC)

I was so impressed with the customer service and pricing by Chris Riggs when I bought my catted midpipe that I went back to the well again in my quest to release as many ponies as I can from the stock turbos.

My priorities for this project is: 

1. Keep everything safe.

2. Keep everything easily reversible.

3. Allow me to optimize what remaining performance has been destined from the factory.

4. Keep the car's personality of the "gentleman' sports car" and not make it overly loud, smelly or spew fireballs on the highway.

For my goals there are many kits out there: HKS GT570, Switzer P600, AMS Alpha 6, etc.  Most if not all of them are basically rehashes of the same idea...opening flow from intakes into engine, more rapid expelling of spent gases and a tune to optimize everything passing through.  All of them involve some intake in some diameter, a midpipe with cats deleted and more noise.

Chris supplied me with the remaining portions of the SBD700 kit which consists of:

-decatted cast downpipes (piping from the exhaust manifold back)

-3" GotBoost intakes

-SIR 1000cc injectors

-Walbro 290 LPH drop in fuel pumps (for E85)

...and for no other reason than for my own personal satisfaction I installed a pair of GFB adjustable BOVs to help me announce my presence on the road ;)

All were installed with the help of Lee and Derek at Autovation in a day, and then the fun began with Ben Linney at GTC in the UK who did the custom tune.

Having never built a car like this before, the tuning process was very interesting and fun (though probably not so much for my neighbours on Second Line Rd).  With the Cobb AP, you are able to do live datalogging which allows you to record engine parameters on the fly, map it to a data grid and email the results to Ben who is one ocean and several time zones away.  

After a few days of this he came up with my final tune: 1-valet/Eco mode, 2-low boost 91 octane, 3-high boost 91 octane and 4-high boost 94 octane.  In the final map, I'm putting down 620 at the crank and if I choose to run E85 will achieve the holy number of 700.  I have no intention of using E85 since it's a pita to get in my city, so I'm very pleased with my results.  Car runs like a dream with a more aggressive growl.

On the rack!

One thing about living with heat cycled Rcomps is that they feel like hockey pucks in the cold. Noisy, skittish, no fun at all. At any time I felt like the car wanted to commit seppuku and toss us both into the ditch.

I did my research and found this to be the proper alignment specs for street use:
FL camber -1.9, toe 0.0
FR camber -1.9, toe 0.0
RL camber -1.75, toe 0.0
RR camber -1.75, toe 0.0

I also bought a set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports in 285 35 R20 fronts and 335 30 R20 rears. The rears look ridiculous. Derek was once again the man and got them installed and alignment dialed in perfectly. What a huge difference!

Springs, midpipe, clear corners, oil change

So off the car goes to my good friends at Autovation for the first round of mild mods.

Before that I installed the Mickey Mouse stuff first: clear front corners (literally 2 mins to pop off oem ones and pop in the JDM clears), and I jack her up and swapped in the ADV1 7.1 wheels (20x11 and 20x12) with their steamroller Toyo R888's. Took it out for a spin and immediately realized how much I hated the Toyos. First off, I intend for this car to be just mildly upgraded, and it must be stealthy and everyday livable. The tires made the car skittish, tramline, and LOUD. Holy crap they were loud. It also didn't help that I am still running stock exhaust so the only thing I hear is road noise. Ugh.

The next day was spent at the shop where Lee and Derek installed the H&R springs. These drops the car about 3/4" for a more squat, aggressive stance while still maintaining the oem cockpit suspension setting control. Once they are on for a good chunk of time I will go back to get an alignment done to street settings. Lee also installed the SpeedByDesign catted and resonated midpipe. Interesting thing: the MP appears to be about 1" too short, but it was discovered (actually I had to call Chris Riggs in OK) that the oem rear exhaust section has up to 2" lateral play so we were able to pull the section up to the midpipe and it all bolted up nicely with the supplied gaskets. This frees up a lot of pressure which allows the car to make easy power once tuned. I love the sound! I want to maintain some civility so the stock exhaust stays but I'm a sucker for the look of Titanium so I installed a set of burnt Ti tips by Rexpeed.

Final thing is an oil change with the suggested Mobil1 5W30 and we are good to go!

Godzilla comes out of storage today

It's Easter long weekend, there still snow on the ground, but thankfully the roads are clear. Called my broker and started up the insurance on my R35 today and decided to wake her up from her long winter's nap.

Right away I wanted to install the ADV1 7.1 deep concave wheels. They are 20x10 and 20x12, GTR specs. Got them with Toyo R888 and TPMS from TheBison on GTRLife. They are a really cool design. They are true 3 piece, but all the rivets are hidden inside the wheels (they face the hub), and the valve stems are hidden as well, so you end up with this slick, monoblock look. I love the concave rear face.

I also swapped the license plate and front dtrl lights with LEDs and installed the RSW CF interior panels. Love how they transform the interior.  For those looking for a oem quality CF interior, you cannot go wrong with these.  I cannot speak for the less expensive versions available through Ebay but the RSW are just beautiful.  You pay more for them but IMHO they are well worth it.  I can't believe I was thinking of wrapping them before.

I also dropped in the HKS filters --fastest performace mod ever..30 seconds per side lol.
Next week: SBD catted and resonated midpipe, clear corners, Rexpeed TI exhaust tips, H&R springs.

Today is March 5. 2013...Happy 3/5 Day!

I help to run the R33 tribute page on Facebook and last Sunday I was asked by its creator, Aki, to run a contest for 3/3 day. We did a little poll of our fave uploads last year and the winner was made into the new banner:

That got me thinking...I wonder if the R35 guys know of this little numerology thing the JDM owners are into? The GTR owners like to gather at Daikoku PA on Aug/6 for Hachiroku or "86" day, and likewise the GTR boys do the same on 32, 33, 34 and 35 days. I posted a thread on nagtroc here: http://www.gtrlife.com/forums/topic/82323-today-is-march-5-2013/


To celebrate I did what any owner would do and that is to shower my baby with gifts. First arrived my SpeedByDesign catted and resonated midpipe:
It will replace the straight through midpipe that came with my (yet uninstalled) HKS GT570 kit. I am hoping to up performance without the nasty noise and drone.

Next to arrive was my set of 20x11 and 20x12 ADV1 "7.1" forged 2 piece wheels. I picked them up with fresh Toyo R888's and TPMS from TheBison on NAGTROC for an incredible price. To be honest they were not my first choice. I wanted Advan GTs or BBS LMs for my car but they are hard to come by and mucho dinero. I made an offer on the ADVs based on what I would pay for wheels that were not my first choice and surprisingly he accepted. I'm glad he did because when they arrived they were glorious.

Carbon goodies from Japan

After being on the fence for 2 months, I finally decided to pull the trigger on some subtle carbon fibre highlights for my interior.

One thing I never liked about the CBA GT-R ( which Nissan must have known since they corrected it with the DBA) is the cheap, black rubber background for the radio/ac controls. It's RIGHT THERE in front of you, why couldn't Nissan do something about it from the getgo? The car is jam packed with technology and yet the one thing that stares you in the face every day is the cheap centre control panel.

I knew I wanted something in flat black (dry) carbon, but couldn't decide on which solution. I spent a lot of money getting real replacement CF door panels and console made for my NSX which did not age well. The console spiderweb-cracked after a few summers and the door switchgear panels warped. The bolts holding them all in place popped out after a while too. Very frustrating. My philosophy is nothing beats oem. i prefer a wrap or a adhesive panel fitted over the original console. I looked at the DBA console but found out its just a well made stick on piece. I looked into fake CF wraps, but I saw a few jobs and didn't like the risk of creases or them pulling apart after a few years of extreme temperature fluctuations.

I decided on a set of window switchgear and centre console piece from RSW of Japan

Their pieces are really well made --as good as anything from the factory. Theres a review by David Yu of GTROC HERE

eBay also have a lot of Chinese made CF stick on pieces and even though they were cheaper by about 20% I saw a couple of them on other cars and they did not have the same fitment, sported rough edges and generally cheapened an already cheap interior feature.

So a quick text message to my good friend Daryl at Tunerlab, $570.65 via PayPal and these arrived 2 weeks later:

Tribute to my R32

This was the one that started the madness.  My first GT-R, a beautifully done, almost stock 1989 BNR32 that inspired the advent of GTRCanada.com, signalled the wave of RHD JDM supercars to Canada, and most importantly, gave me kms of driving pleasure.

It was one of the very first brought into Canada legally under the 15 year import law, beaten only by my buddy Justin's nearly identical gray BNR32 by a few weeks.  With it I learned everything I know about the R32 to date, turbo cars, JDM tuning and the ins and outs of importing one for Ontario roads.

The car was found by my friend Martin Skye of Skyeservice SPL Imports in Japan and brought over in the winter of 2005.  I cannot explain what a thrill it was seeing it on Canadian soil, (covered in snow on the lot in Markham, Ontario) that very first time.  Unreal.  The culmination of months of emails, lost auctions, lost leads and frustration.

She came with period correct Blitz boost controller, GReddy FMIC and A-pillar gauges, Nismo N1 bumper ducts and side skirts, R34 inspired red valve covers and very rare Work RSZ-R 17x9 wheels shod with Toyo Trampio 255 40 R17's that I sourced separately from Yahoo auctions.  I had her inspected and tuned up at C-West in Yokohama prior to shipping.  

Incidentally it also helped a well known automotive writer named Colum Wood with his career in a small way as he found out about my car and did a little piece on it for a local newspaper. This eventually got him a job with Modified Magazine.  He currently works for Autoguide.   Here are the raw pics he took for the article. I'll try to locate or scan it and post it up here.

Buying the R35, or how I've learned to love the fat girl

After I had sold my modified 1992 NSX (see my NSX Blog here) I thought I would be happy with a 2008 Honda S2000 Club Racer (aka CR).  I owned the CR for 2 months, spent some time at the track and really appreciated its Lotus 7 like simplicity. However, in the end I craved for something greater.  I got the CR through a trade with my 1996 Skyline GT-R V-spec. I thought wanted something LHD and cheap to maintain and run on the track. I tried to like the little S2000 but the call of the GT-R was just too loud to avoid. Thus, just 8 weeks into its ownership I decided to sell it and my hunt for the R35 began.

First of all I will admit that the R35 was not high on my shopping list.  I was really looking for a newer, unmolested NSX, hopefully with the 2002+ facelift and a supercharger. I love the Honda and still think it is one of the finest automobiles ever made.  I checked NSXPrime for a few months, negotiated with a couple of prospective sellers but never found a perfect fit.  The NSX market is not like your usual used car scene.  These cars were built in small numbers and owners feel like they have a piece of history on their hands.  As well, a seller's perspective is always different when they are approached by a motivated buyer vs. them placing an ad in the media and hoping to find one.  Everyone was asking too much, even with cars I knew the history of and what they had paid previously!  Sheesh.

As well, being a Skyline guy, I had the typical RB26-powered GT-R owners' "attitude" towards the R35. It's a very capable car with assessible supercar abilities but it was not a true GT-R. It's too big, it's too heavy, it's LHD, it's not powered by a small inline 6.  It's got a face only a mother can love.  However, the more I searched for alternatives: Audi R8, Lambo Gallardo, NSX, Porsche 911 Turbos, Lotus Exige, even other R32 or R33 GT-Rs, the more sense the R35 made.  I started to appreciate its owner's community (GTRLife.com), the aftermarket support, and the fact the car takes really well to mods.  Also it would be nice to own a car built in this decade (lol) with a warranty and all the modern gadgets like GPS, voice-activated controls and that sweet mutltifunctional display.  The decision was made to go look for one.  

My only criteria was that it must be within 1 day's driving distance, low mileage, not a 2009 (with their inherent tranny issues), and hopefully either Gunmetal Gray, Titanium (very rare colour) or Silver.  Right away the obvious choice was there.  A car with 21,000 kms in gunmetal was located in Kingston, 200 kms away.  I emailed the owner, a nice mature guy who owns a bus company in town And who had originally bought it off the showroom floor in Montreal.  It's seen the track 2 times, and he's kept all receipts and work history.  Pics were offered up and we negotiated a price.  Coincidentally my cause was helped by the fact that another Ottawa doctor had wanted the same car but was BS-ing around with him over the price, which pissed him off enough to make him want to sell it to me.  Two weeks later on Oct 21, 2012 I hopped on a Viarail train to the Kingston and returned in the afternoon with my latest Godzilla.

 Pics he sent me:

  

Here she sits in my garage:

Gone but not forgotten:

Who, what, why and where (and sometimes, How).

I might as well start with a little intro.

In case you stumbled upon this blog and was not directed here via my posts on various GTR forums, social media outlets or referenced here from a friend, I'll give you a bit of background...

I'm John and I'm a certified Nissan Skyline GT-R fanatic based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Canada's been one of the countries blessed with a little automobile importation law that permits any vehicle built for foreign markets to be legally imported for our use so long as it is at least 15 years old.  In 1989, Nissan Motors Co Ltd. released a little gunmetal gray AWD car called the Skyline GT-R.  According to wikipedia:

"This car was nicknamed "Godzilla" by the Australian motoring publication Wheels in its July 1989 edition. The BNR32 (R32 GT-R) would end up winning 29 straight victories out of 29 races, in the Japanese motorsport. The GT-R proceeded to win the JGTC Group A series championship 4 years in a row, and also had success in the Australian Touring Car Championship winning from 1990–1992, until a regulation change excluded the GT-R in 1993.^[1] The Skyline GT-R (BCNR33) was also the first production car to lap theNürburgring race track in under eight minutes."

If you do the math you'll see that the R32 was legal to be landed in Canada in late 2004.  Mine arrived in 2005 and was one of the very first ones in Canada.

Before Godzilla landed, I was full of anticipation and concern.  This is a car with ZERO sales figures, parts and technical support in Canada.  How will I keep it running?  Being a big car forum user starting with my account "JohnnyZ" on the Z32 forum, Twinturbo.net, I decided to start an online forum called GTRCanada.com.  Original goals were very modest.  I figured we'd probably get at most 20-50 GT-Rs and assorted Skylines brought in by import car nerds like me.  All I wanted was a means to get group buys going for parts like brakes, belts, gaskets, etc.from Japan to save shipping.  Maybe we'd have a swap meet every so often, or a nice cruise.  When membership reached 100 members, we even celebrated and gave the user "Anton" a special title.  After 9 years, we now have over 32,000 members.  I say "we", but really it should be "they" as I sold GTRC to Daryl Henwood in 2010.  At the time I was just getting too tired of running the forums, haven't owned a GT-R for over 5 years, and just thought time was right to pass the reins on to someone who could inject new life into the forums.  Little did I know I would buy a beautiful midnight purple R33 in 2011 which eventually was traded for a gunmetal gray 2010 R35 in Sept. 2012.  Life works in funny ways.

But hey, this is not a blog about GTRCanada, it's about my love of all things Skyline (and Nissan) GT-R.

I plan to use this place to document the build of my current 2010 R35,  reminisce about my past Skylines (the 1989 gunmetal gray BNR32 and 1996 purple BCNR33), the community in Canada and internationally, post breathtaking glamour pics of these cars, and my talk about my occasional forways on the track.

Please come back often to see what is up.  I just ask you to be civil, mature and keep language on a PG level as my kids may read this in the future.

Happy motoring,
John ("JZ") C.

New year, new car, new blog.

Welcome to my blog.