The Start of the Skyline Legend

The Nissan Skyline has a rich heritage of representing Japan in the arena of world class motorsports. The legend began in the Japan Grand Prix of 1964. A 2.0 liter Prince (a small company later absorbed into Nissan) Skyline sedan piloted by Japanese drivers led the race for one lap ahead of the Porsche Carrera 904 GTS which eventually went on to win. That’s when Japanese motorsports was sparked into action because they knew that their drivers and the cars that they built could take on the best that the rest of the world had to offer. Almost 50 years later, Nissan is still making a distinctly Japanese style world class sports car in the GT-R.


Source: Nissan Newsroom on YouTube

HKS GT800R Turbo Kit for the R35 GT-R


What you’re looking at is the HKS GT800R 800 hp turbo kit for the Nissan GT-R. HKS has 575 and 600 horsepower kits for the GT-R that maximize the stock turbines. This 800 horsepower kit upgrades the turbos, engine internals and fuel system. If you look closely you can see that the turbos on either side of the engine block are mirror images of each other. HKS had to design a new turbo with a reverse flow direction just for the GT-R because the engine bay was so tight. There wasn’t space for a larger turbo whose output pointed straight into the engine block on the right cylinder bank. Seems like something simple, but nobody had ever done it before. The result is the perfectly neat and symmetrical twin turbo V6 package you see above.

Check out these video interviews with the lead engineer, project engineer and engine engineer from HKS Japan. HKS Europe had the video translated, so be sure to hit the “CC” button on the bottom right next to the video quality control to turn on the English subtitles. The guys set out to increase the output of the GT-R to compete with European supercars of the likes of Porsche and Ferrari. If you’re actually in the market for an HKS turbo kit for your R35 GT-R, head over to the HKS Website for details on all of their offerings.


Source: HKS Motorsport on YouTube

Tokyo Auto Salon 2012

I’m a little slow getting this posted, but here’s coverage from the Tokyo Auto Salon (TAS) that took place at the beginning of this year. TAS is Japan’s equivalent of our SEMA show. It’s a national showcase of the latest and greatest from automotive aftermarket tuning companies ranging from wheels to power adders and aero kits. The Toyota GT-86 / Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ was still pretty scarce when TAS took place, so the main focus was on the R35 Nissan GT-R. The Ben Sopra wide body kit for the GT-R made it’s debut on several of the demo cars for the top tuning companies including their own rear wheel drive converted drift car that they purchased from Blitz. There was also a drifting exhibition from the professional drivers of the D1 Grand Prix.


eGarage.com // Tokyo Auto Salon
from Maiham-Media.com on Vimeo.

The best in show award was given to the 1200 horsepower Trust/Greddy R35RX GT-R:


Source: Greddy USA

A New Page in the Evolution of the GT-R

I’m not going to do my usual number of posts today because I’d like everybody to focus their attention to this video released by the Nissan Newsroom. It’s a 20 minute mini-documentary about the GT-R development team’s experience at this year’s 24 hours of Nurburgring. I know it’s a lot to ask of your internet browsing time, but please trust my judgement on this one if you have enjoyed the content of this blog. The documentary has a backdrop of racing, but I wouldn’t say it was about racing. Instead, it’s a truly moving record of a group of engineers and mechanics who have the utmost passion for the development of the automotive pride of Japan. The GT-R development team entered the 24 hours of Nurburgring as a separate entity from Nissan’s factory racing branch, NISMO. Their goals were not to produce a special race car for the event. Their entry was a 2013 GT-R Track Package that was mostly production based. The team used the race to expose the GT-R’s weaknesses at higher speeds and more importantly to grow the skills of the engineers and mechanics responsible for the car’s development under harsh conditions. They knew that they would have to become better at building GT-R’s if they were going to meet the hopes and dreams of their future customers. The GT-R program is unique in that it has continued in full scale development even after the car was released. That’s why the new 2013 model is almost incomparably good when put next to the first 2007 GT-R. In the end, the failure of a 12 cent c-clip prevented the team from having perfect race results, but they were more than successful in growing the teams ability to shape the future of the GT-R. Head over to our Facebook page to discuss this video with other Flux Auto fans.


Source: Nissan Newsroom on YouTube

Motor Trend Drag Race: GT-R vs. Z06 vs. GT500

I came across another one of Motor Trend’s random gratuitous drag races. This is the 2012 Nissan GT-R vs. the 2011 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 vs. the 2011 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. One of the interesting stats to note is that the Corvette is the only car without forced induction, but weighs in under 3300 pounds while the other two are north of 3800. Enjoy:

Source: Motor Trend on YouTube