Backyard Behavior: GTR-engined S15

This is really nothing new technically, Tein has a demo S15 with a RB26 conversion done a couple of years back. HOWEVER they are a full-fledged established Japanese tuner with significant resources...

And out come this Australian guy who did it in his own! In his own frigging drive way!!!

Here's his exact posting on nissansilvia.com

"hey guys this is my 2001 rb26 s15

i bought the car 1 year ago it had the sr20 in it along with a auto gearbox, i had plans for the car when i bought it and that was to do the rb26 conversion and convert it to manual after doing a little research the sr20 and auto gearbox came out and made way for the rb26dett and rb25det gearbox
all the work was carried out in my drive way with help of a couple of mates and long nights. "

Here's how it looks like before the conversion.

After the conversion. Twin air filters = twin low mount turbos!

Stock clutch fan needs to be removed and replace with twin thin electric fans to generate enough engine bay space for the much longer RB26.

Check out the custom number plates. Props to this amazing achievement!

R35 GTR thrashes F430 Scuderia???

Much as I love the R35 GTR, watching something like this makes me feel strongly that the Best Motoring videos are staged in the name of nationalistic pride. On such a wide open course as Motegi, the AWD advantage wouldnt have been as strong as a tighter circuit.


Yet the R35 GTR thrashes the RWD machines, the GT2 AND the F430 Scuderia... The only other AWD in the race, the Gallardo LP560-4, whose power to weight is SIGNIFICANTLY better (2.5 kg per p.s for the Baby Bull versus 3.5 kg per p.s for the R35) than the GTR best the GTR by a mere 300 hundredths of a second.. How is that possible?

WRC-style WRX

I was at Race Tech at Paya Ubi today to sort out some car stuff when this went right by and parked at McWell Ventures a couple of shops down. It probably got lost at a rally stage... Nose-mounted Blitz oil cooler and FMIC shows that this car is meant for circuit work though. Roof scope not to my taste. Car sounds great and there's definitely some serious ponies under the hood.

Here's the real deal 2006/2007 WRC STI. I like.

Touge Battle! Hachi Roku vs JWRC Swift

Was reading an article about the JWRC Swift so I went onto Youtube to see what I could find. Well there were the usual rally footages but I found this gem as well. Hot Version's touge battle between the AE86 and the JWRC Swift!

I was rooting for the Hachi Roku but it was soundly outclassed. :(

Oh well, there's more than 20 years' technology difference between the two cars.

Drag racing GTRs in the States - IDRC GT-R Challenge 2008

Found out that the GT-R Challenge section in the DSPORT magazine DVD was posted on Youtube from Eric Hsu's blog. Amazingly, XS Engineering won the event using their TIME ATTACK car with a 10.4sec 1/4 mile with street tires (Nitto NT01), road race alignment with -3.5° camber and a stock BNR34 Getrag 6 speed. Kudos to XS for their achievement!

My only question is.. why were the Hollinger and OS sequential tranny cars on drag radials going slower??? Watch the video here

ST Power's Lambo Spyder and R35 GTR

Go to ST Power and the first thing your attention are drawn to is this pair of babies..

Gallardo Spyder looking menancing in midnight purple. Check out the fusa knot hanging off the rear view mirror. I can almost imagine myself cruising the Wangan at night with the top down in this baby bull.

Behind the Italian exotica is GTR looking all Gundam like. Truly the greatest supercar to come out of Japan.

Normally I am not a fan of chrome rims but these 22 inch Vellano go well with the white GTR. Being a ST car, I wonder how much ponies is the GTR packing? Garage R has already got their demo GTR up to 680 ponies so ST's cant be too far behind...

Teacher's Pet - Clement's RPS13

Clement is a teacher and he drives a boring Toyota Corolla. NOT! Well, the teaching part is true but his chosen ride is definitely more exciting than a run-of-the-mill econobox. Rolling to school in a RPS13, the swoopy coupe's good looks are further enhanced with a URAS body kit and 17 inch Volks Racing rims to present an authentic JDM drift look.

Committed to improving the breed, Clement executes the pre-requisite SR20DET swap and throw in HKS 256in/264ex camshafts, HKS valve springs, Tomei rocker arm stoppers, Tomei 1.5mm head gasket to the already potent Nissan inline 4 pot engine. The stock turbo is politely shown to the trash bin to make way for a Garrett GT2871R ball bearing turbo. Engine management duties are handled by a Power FC D-Jetro, which replaces the stock Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor with a Manifold Air Pressure (MAP) sensor, with twin advantages of more accurate mapping and better fuel efficiency.

Tuning is done by renowned tuner Fuguwara-san from ST Power, with the end results being 400 horsepower at the crank. To keep a firm grip on all the extra power, the puny stock brakes are uprated to R33 GTT 4 pots up front and Cefiro 2 pots out back paired with steel braided hoses.

Surrounded by a sea of MPVs and family sedans in the school parking lot, Clement's RPS13 flies the tuner flag proudly. Somehow, I am sure his students approve.

Surprise Banzai Attack!

A photographer friend of mine took some pictures of my car a few months ago and liking the way they turned out, I sent the pictures over to Banzai magazine's Street Life column. I kinda forgot about it after a while. So you can imagine my delight when I bought this month's issue and saw my car staring back at me.

CNY Hiatus

Well i know that posts have been slow over the last week but it was the Lunar Chinese New Year hols, and we Chinese take this opportunity to eat, drink and gamble aplenty. I made and lost a small fortune but that's a story for another day. This post is to serve as notice that my normal blogging service shall resume today. :)

Later, I will be heading over to Gek Lim Motors (www.geklim.com) to do an interview with Chief Mechanic Ah Guan. For now, a small excerpt from Banzai (UK mag on Jap cars) on yours truly...