A tiny bit of history
Godzilla. Or to be more precise, Godzilla’s boy.
As winning all the races from 1990-1993, GT-R R32 got it’s infamous nickname, crushing the competition like there is no tomorrow. But, the moment came, and R32 needed a successor, to carry the name in the future.
New Gran Turismo-Racing was born. Not a lot of effort was put into naming the new boss. Just added 1. And R33 became alive.
HICAS, 4 wheel steering system, 4 wheel drive and now almost legendary RB26 engine, they all kept their role in the new car.
Fed with twin turbochargers and 6 ITB’s, but still strangled at 280hp, as a part of Japanese gentleman’s agreement, R33 just cemented the fame that R32 earned on the tracks.
What did we get???
Beautiful 2 door coupe, in iconic Jade Green, lived till 21st century and one of the UK owners decided to make it HKS demo car. Some UK company forged the engine and installed the myriad of HKS things, from DLI ignition amplifier, HKS coils, HKS Fcon ECU, external boost controller, full HKS turbo system, camshafts, etc ,etc. And the engine run like…… There is no nice word that can actually be used. Constant ignition break up, consumption of 30+ litres per 100km, no choice to use A/C (as the engine would die when A/C engaged)….simply not usable, not even on a basic level.
So…the new owner decided to change all that and make the car useful again. The plan was to ditch all the gimmicks and make the engine/car modern as it can be. We had to remove and ditch all the “goodies”.
Redesign of turbo system
The turbo system also went under revision. Twins are ditched and one double ceramic ball bearing unit from Turbosystems jumped into place. 6Boost exhaust manifold and Turbosmart eGate just fitted nicely into plan for a redesign of GTR. Bespoke downpipe was made to connect eGate with exhaust. Hypertune sourced their 4” thick racing intercooler with billet tanks.
ECU, wiring harness, DBW conversion, triggering system….
Emtron KV8 ECU was chosen to manage the whole car. Later on, we changed to KV12. New injectors, Bosch EV14 957cc balanced set, instead of old pink HKS units, new Turbosmart FPR, with Bosch fuel pressure and temperature sensor, new NGK COP ignition coil, EBP sensor on the turbo, EGT’s, BW turbo speed sensor….all integrated into one complex system. MAP sensors are added for Emtron TMF fuel model, to perfectly utilise 6 individual throttle bodies and Bosch LSU ADV lambda sensor added to bespoke Milletech exhaust system. One of the most critical Nissan part, is the CAS. After years of hard use, these hardly perform. With ignition check on the dyno, after 5000RPM, each cylinder had its own ignition angle. It was more than obvious that a CAS needs to go away. As one of the mayor players on the market, PRP had the solution, crank/cam trigger system. And that, was a mistake. We can’t comment more then: stay away. For ALL other projects, we used Ross Performance, and that is a proper piece of triggering system you want for your GTR. Hands down, the best quality we saw considering the RB, but also SR and CA Nissan engines.
Engine was rewired and one last detail added: BMW S54 drive-by-wire motor added to control ITB’s instead of cable. Neat?
Tuning
Tuning was performed on Mainline 4WD dyno, so the result was perfect tune and repeatable numbers. Emtron once again showed the power in fast and reliable engine control. Individual knock control with 2 Bosch knock sensors removes any uncontrollable detonation that can lead to engine damage. Emtron’s perfect TMF fuel model keeps the engine under superb, zero worries fueling conditions, compensating for any drop in fuel pressure, different temperatures, and all the rest scenarios that occur in car usage.
And what was the result? 620 happy horses. Smooth running engine, no matter if AC is on or not. More than double decrease in consumption! Removed a bit of loopy idle (thanks to HKS cams).Backpressure perfectly kept below boost levels. Beautifully specced turbbocharger and high flow exhaust.
