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Eric Hsu posted on January 27, 2012 02:13
Greddy 35RX GT-R + Tarzan Yamada at Fuji Speedway, December 2011
by Eric Hsu
The day before I went to Fuji Speedway, I was checking out the 2011 Rev Speed Hyper Meeting which is an annual time attack put on by the people at Rev Speed Magazine in Japan (pics and story coming soon to BTD). Tarzan was driving the Street Special Garage BNR32 Skyline GT-R that sported a Hollinger sequential transmission, a single Greddy T78 turbo, rear mounted radiator, and a good shot of nitrous. You gotta love Japanese time attack for allowing nitrous! Being the BNR32 junkie that I am, I was checking out the car in great detail and talking to Tarzan. He mentioned that he was going to Fuji Speedway to attempt hitting a terminal velocity of 338km/h (210mph) on the front straight the next day and invited me to come along. I was hanging out with the guys from DSPORT and they were filming video for their DVD so I asked Tarzan if we could all go. Tarzan is always game for a little media attention so he picked us up in his RHD PT Cruiser the next morning.
Yes, Tarzan's daily driver is really a JDM RHD Chrysler PT Cruiser. He says he likes it because it's different, easy to drive, and practical.
It was actually an open track day at Fuji and not a private test day. I asked Tarzan, "Uh wait....so you're going to try to go over 330k's on the front straight in traffic?" His reply was simply, "Yes. Try." Keep in mind that the Greddy 35RX is a company demo car and not a dedicated track car. The only real safety equipment it has is a Racetech bucket seat and TRS 4 point harnesses. It has no roll cage. How's that for massive cojones? Japan is pretty free with safety equipment and tech outside of professional motorsports. Then again the thoroughness (read analness) of Japanese mechanics and conservativeness of drivers definitely helps to keep cars on track.
An open track day at Fuji Speedway is always a treat. Why you ask? Check out some pics of my visit back in January 2009: Track Day @ Fuji Speedway Jan 11, 2009.
Right next door were several Skyline GT-Rs. Some, like me, would say that the BNR generation are the real GT-Rs, but others might say the real GT-R is the old school 1971 KPGC10. And of course some think that the computerized Cadillac R35 is also the real GT-R. The fact is that they are all GT-Rs and Nissan is the only Japanese car manufacturer to have the balls to keep a car like the GT-R alive all these years. One could almost say that the GT-R line is the soul of the passion within Nissan. Well, Mazda actually did pretty good with the RX rotary cars until last year, but Toyota gave into the accountants long ago just until recently. Hopefully a new RX is in the pipeline and the Toyota accountants will eat a dick with cars like the Scion FR-S, Lexus ISF and LFA.
Back to the subject at hand: obviously a near full weight behemoth R35 trying to get over 330k's on the front straight is going to need a bundle of horsepower to do it. Fuji's front straight is the longest straight on any circuit in Japan, but the Greddy 35RX makes plenty of power:
Here's Tarzan holding the dyno sheet. I'm not sure if this is power at the wheels, but I suspect these figures are derived using a flywheel correction formula via the Bosch chassis dyno's coast down measurement of drivetrain inertia and drag. At 2.0kg/cm^2 (28.5psig) the VR38 makes 1205.9ps (1189.4 American HP) @ 6880rpm and 118.8 kg-m (1085.2 ft-lbs) @ 4840rpm. At the wheels or not, it's a bundle of power to be used on a road course that is much harder on a car's drivetrain than any standing mile or 1/4 mile run.
Friday, January 27, 2012 3:19 AM
Thanks for the story Eric. I've been very curious about the Bensopra aero. Maybe Andrew should chime in.
Friday, January 27, 2012 3:25 AM
BTW, I'm not really impressed by the power, but the torque! Holy shit that thing can haul!
Friday, January 27, 2012 3:35 AM
Eric, I could be wrong, but those air filters look like MaxFlow filters: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20733247@N06/2170134833/in/set-72157626689808831/lightbox/ (I took this pic at J's Racing few years ago). You can see the filters on the wall, in the center of the pic.
Friday, January 27, 2012 8:38 AM
The hood and fenders remind me of the old Viper. Or if you're into British cars, the Triumph Spitfire. I like seeing the street-oriented cars here too. The full-on race cars are beautiful, but seeing stuff that's more down-to-earth is also fun.
Friday, January 27, 2012 9:46 AM
Very cool. Also, I agree that the true GT-R's are the BNR's...anything with Attessa and a RB26.
Friday, January 27, 2012 3:13 PM
Wow, loving the work into the front end. I can't wait to see more of this beast in action... my somewhat un-connected question is, will the chunky Cyber GTR be able to post times on par with the Cyber Evo.
Friday, January 27, 2012 3:32 PM
Thanks for the write up, and pictures. That car is pretty beefy. Aero is interesting too. On page 3 - "A Greddy oil cooler kit is used to keep the engine oil temps under control.", that looks like Greddys transmission oil cooler. They put it on that side. This car has the stock oil cooler on the other side.
Friday, January 27, 2012 4:41 PM
Sean: thanks, I fixed the captions mixing up the coolers.
Friday, January 27, 2012 4:42 PM
eeeen: Possibly. It will depend on they Cyber GTR's budget because the more money that is available, the quicker the lap times.
Friday, January 27, 2012 5:21 PM
Edit on page 3: The air filters are the new Greddy Airinz RZ filters. Airinx RZ filters
Friday, January 27, 2012 8:05 PM
Eric - I LOVE it when you bring us fast cars working on fast times! Unless the GTR goes on a wholesale carbon fiber diet, I do worry about its ultimate competetiveness (if that's even a word). SO looking forward to your Tsukuba coverage :) PS Still waiting for word on that Time Attack project that was almost a Lotus, now a ___?
Friday, January 27, 2012 10:01 PM
Eric - The car is great and all, but you completely derailled me when you mentioned Coco's. After living on Okinawa for three years, I'm suffering from severe Coco's withdrawal. Smuggle back a few boxes of that stuff (beef or pork sauce)and you can make some serious coin off us Coco-philes.
Saturday, January 28, 2012 12:48 PM
Bruce: you gotta remember this isn't really a time attack car although you will probably see it at a few Japanese time attacks in the future. Also, story on the TA car is coming soon. I promise! Czubaka: JDM Coco's is great isn't it? Tarzan had this hamburger steak cooked up with their beef sauce/glaze in a aluminum foil wrap. It looked so tasty. I learned to like the JDM famiresu when I lived in Kanagawa for 6 months a while back.
Saturday, January 28, 2012 7:24 PM
I can't imagine that the Greddy GTR won't make sure it runs a sub 1:00 at Tsukuba for more "street cred" but you're right this is more of a demo car. My statement was more about GTRs in general needing big weight loss programs for times. For example, I don't know how the CyberGTR plans to beat CyberEvo? One's a Steakburger and one's a steak taco. Both tasty but one's gonna 'get in my belly'(imagine voice of Fat Bastard!) faster. I hope that TA car story comes real soon, because I could use some inspiration and who better to give me brilliant ideas ;-) I've been looking to do a budget track car build for months but can't find a decent car to start with so now I'm thinking of doing something newer..... Being 6'4" limits some choices.
Sunday, January 29, 2012 5:18 AM
The CyberGTR also has 2 more cylinders and should have least another 2L of displacement over the CyberEVO. It's probably going to have an extra turbo over the old Evo as well. It also has a much more well suited chassis design and suspension geometry right from the factory than the old Evolutions do. They are rally homologation cars at their core after all. Even with that, WRC cars are becoming 2 door now anyway. With the better weight distribution of the rear mounted transaxle and the motor being so far back, plus the ability to run much larger wheels and tires. The GTR is probably much more aerodynamic than an Evo is as well. I bet we start seeing mid thousand horsepower ranges in unlimited GTRs by next year, if not this year. Tuners have already built 1000+hp cars and sell the parts as packages. Hell, I know of at least two street car GTRs that almost make 1000whp every day. What was CyberEvo? 700-800 something? I'm excited to see them shelf the Evo to make way for this new car.
Sunday, January 29, 2012 12:51 PM
Bruce: Story's coming soon for sure so you can share your brilliant ideas :). Remember my favorite engine? It's using one of those. OMG: EVO chassis tuners use the severe front/rear weight distribution to their advantage. Let's just say a GTR could never follow Tarzan's line on the track. And I do mean never. However, like you said, the GTR with more cylinders, torque, bigger tires, etc. would be able to power out of a turn significantly earlier. Well actually there's no tire advantage actually since unlimited/Pro class time attack DOT tires only come in 295's and both EVOs and GTRs use them. The main thing against the GTR will always be weight and its sheer size. It will be very difficult for a builder to drop the car's weight by 1000lbs. even given an unlimited budget and unlimited access to a carbon shop. I believe it needs to be at least 1000lbs lighter than stock to be competitive in world class time attack. The R35 is more aerodynamic, but there's only one place on the track where that greatly benefits the R35 and that's at the end of the front straight. Everywhere else on the track it's going to be all about downforce and that's fair game for any car. The R35 has twin turbos, but that's also twice the necessary weight and complexity. The VR38 makes a ton of power, but it also needs a ton of heat exchangers to keep it cool too: water, oil, trans, intercooler, diff(s), etc. Crap I can't imagine the complexity, hoses, and number of coolers required to keep the thing alive on track and the weight of all those components. And of course the negative impact those coolers will have on it's aerodynamic advantage over the evo. How complex? Check this out:  The R35's superior front/rear weight balance is an advantage in endurance racing for sure (i.e. tire wear), but like I said above, for a one lap special a knowledgeable chassis tuner can play any car's jacked up weight balance to it's advantage. Watch the Tarzan take the CyberEVO on a lap and you'll see he drives it very much drives like a RWD car. And of course the main thing any R35 has against it is cost. While the CyberGTR picked up a sponsor with plenty of capital, C-West, they're going to be pouring a shitload of cash in the car to make it competitive. C-West's primary source of income isn't their aero parts, it's their network of used car lots, GT Net, they have throughout Osaka and southern Japan. My buddy has been sending them used LHD US cars in containers up the ass with the weak ass US$. They sell them in Japan for big profit. No doubt the R35 could be a competitor in world class time attack, but it isn't "the" platform of choice in my book. I think the EVO is still a better platform. It's too bad we couldn't bring the SSE EVO out of retirement and just cut some sheet metal out of her because I'm definite it would be the car to beat for 2012 and beyond if it could just loose 300 lbs. Or better yet, put SSE's Cosworth engine in the CyberEVO. Holy shit, now that would be the car to beat for a long time to come...
Sunday, January 29, 2012 10:31 PM
Haha, my brilliant ideas!? Yeah, daring maybe, brilliant if you're English (you know, 'cause everything is 'brilliant' to them!). I'll keep my ass-hat comments like "that VQ would look great in a BNR32 or lightweight AE86 or dare I say NSX" to myself and will try and offer up something truly brilliant like "keep up the good work". :-)
Monday, January 30, 2012 2:43 PM
excuse the ignorance, but why do you guys call it the "BN"R3x instead of just R3x? whats the BN stand for? (sorry, I'm not a JDM expert)
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 1:30 AM
Because those are actual chassis codes. For the R32 base chassis, there are quite a few variations. These different chassis codes basically cover the different configurations such as coupe, sedan, RB20 engine, RB25 engine, and RB26 engines, FR, or AWD, etc. FR32 HR32 HNR32 HCR32 BNR32 GTR ECR32 and there might be a few others, but I can't remember off the bat.
 
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