Today I revisited one of my favourite cars of all time – Marc’s 1989 Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R. A wonderfully interactive and engaging vehicle, I loved how Marc had it before. But now, in a quest to better it the car is running a single turbo and now making 600+bhp. But, is it better – or just faster?
Laughs foreign if you’ve been following the channel for a while you may recognize today’s car because two years ago i drove it on a day which was really a gran turismo dream i managed to get together r32 r33 and r34 skyline gtrs and drive them back to back having never previously experienced any of them though it was the r34 that was really my childhood
Hero i have to say the standout car of the day was this marx r32 in terms of interactivity and excitement there are very few cars i have ever driven of any description that came close to this and i told mark not to do a single thing to it in terms of chassis or performance so of course in the interim he has spent thousands of pounds modifying this car further now
This apparently was all my fault because after i did that trio of videos i was sent this book called gtr the journey by a lovely guy called alexander kroner i don’t know alex and he is a big gtr fan this particular book was a labor of love and if you’re into not just japanese cars or gtrs but cars at all i highly recommend getting it as coffee table material goes
This is top shelf stuff it’s absolutely packed with interviews and pictures of people and their cars those involved in the creation of the skyline and also fans too one such person is this chap here mr hiroshi tamura he was the chief product specialist for the gtr and 370z apparently in the industry is known as mr gtr though i think there are a few of those he
Was also a product lead in the r34 and r35 gtr he himself has an r32 that looks very similar to this and because i sent mark and the other guys who came out a copy of this book he read this little paragraph here which said that mr to tamura has had his gtr in many different levels of tune but what he wanted was a car that was perfectly balanced with no one single
Element standing out compared with the others and his idea of balanced was 600 horsepower which is what this car now makes most wonderingly of all this extra power previously it was making around 450 horses comes courtesy of one great big garrett turbo in place of the twins it had previously i’m quite a big fan of the twin turbos and their power delivery and when
Mark told me what he was planning on doing i was convinced he was about to ruin a brilliant car but he assures me that he hasn’t so as he’s a man that likes to put his money where his mouth is he’s brought the car back to me today and i’m gonna find out if it’s still just as good or maybe even better wish me luck in addition to the big snail it now has different
Cam shafts new engine management a link g4 it has now been fully resprayed and looks magnificent but i’ve never really been that big a fan of the r32’s shape i have to say this particular example with its trust body kit really does look quite mean the steering wheel is now marginally smaller this is 335 mil as opposed to the 350 that it had previously up front it
Also has r33 v-spec brakes and will soon be getting the same at the rear and the suspension has been changed for some nice to our coilovers it also has a short shifter kit from cube speed which i must say i really love it’s a ludicrously short throw but a very very feel someone in some cars this would be too much but here it works very well beyond that though it is
Very much the same car i drove previously so what’s it like down here is a little switch which changes the power available to the car it’s a full headline figure is 620 horses but i’ve currently got it set to wimp mode which makes allegedly 520 but to be quite honest with you all i don’t think it’s actually making that much in wimpy mode in fact the car feels
So neutered i had this whole spiel plan to telling you how great it was with 500 horsepower then only to reveal that actually it can make a lot more but um yeah i’m just turning it into full fat mode because that doesn’t feel like it was making even 500 horsepower felt like 300. now i’m in full power mode what’s it like that’s more like it yes these cars always
Did need a few revs behind them to do their best work but with this bigger turbo fitted i think it needs even more previously from about 3 000 or so they really started to get a regular on now put your foot down at three and it doesn’t really do well anything in fact let me show you they should be seriously quick even when not making full power 300 horses in a car
Like this should be rapid but uh this is 3000 rpm foot flat yeah i was not it’s not really very terrifying is it i do love that shifter and it’s i still love the steering of this thing it’s brilliant it’s a friend where this car comes alive wow yep yep it’s got some going it it’s really got some go let’s get this turned around and then we’ll explore the rest of
The rev range compliance is pretty good i love that massive rear view mirror up here gives you a view of that beautiful quite angular and aggressive spoiler at the back though the r32 has never really been my absolute favorite i do still have a huge amount of respect for it because this is godzilla this is the original oh that cube speed shift i tell you what i
Love it but it could get you in a lot of trouble the turning circle like high casts on this car which is the all-wheel steer system these has has been removed it isn’t very well loved by the community my handbrake nearly worked oh this is gonna be horrible i’m so sorry and we’re off again that was traumatic foreign turbo back titanium system and it actually
Makes a distinctly different sound to cars with the twin turbo setup still intact foreign oh yeah that was about five and a half and it will rev to eight certainly makes the power but you have a fear i’m not gonna have very good news for mark before i deliver the verdict though i need to explore this car just a little bit more foreign foreign all the flow
And rhythm from this car is just gone absolutely gone let me try and put that into some more concrete words okay so here’s what’s now happening the car is only really starting to make power and when i say starting to make i really mean it we’re doing 3000 rpm now 50 mile an hour fourth gear foot flat 53. there’s 60. so it’s not quick it’s not really boosting at
All come four and then by five it boosts hard i mean really hard so second gear we’re at four thousand rpm foot down we’re doing 40 mile an hour 50 60. there you go you’re just about rev out second gear but you wind up in this sort of weird limbo to get the car to move to get it to shift you’ve got to get it to at least 400 000 rpm when you’ve got it there or
It really really shifts and you’ve got to be ready for it and you’ve got to want it because it’s got serious pace now it does have the grip to make up for it and the handling to carry it through a bend but the problem is come the end of second gear you’re at the national speed limit now i’m not going to pretend for one second that i rigidly adhere to the speed
Limit at every point of every day but the fact is i don’t really like to go that much past it because for what i do i do need my driving license in many other videos i’ve discussed driving a car slow fast by which i mean not revving it out all the way but still driving hard so in my s2000 i’d often drive it and pretend it doesn’t really even have vtec so change
Up by 6000 rpm which is where the car comes on to power however with that car it does still make power it does still do stuff it does still respond does still make nice noises even at those lower rpms this is a car which is clearly frustrated with you unless you’re giving it the absolute big one but then when it gives you the big one it gives you so much it’s far
More than i’d willingly deploy on many roads even ones that i know the last skyline gtr that i drove was the r34 where which granted was probably not entirely standard but about as standard as you’re ever likely to get i suspect the restrictor in there had gone walkabouts and it had a big exhaust on it but beyond that the owner hadn’t done a thing that car was
Beautiful because it had a real naturally aspirated response mini turbo lag and an absolute dream this sure when you’re at 6000 rpm and you’ve just lifted off it responds nice enough but that’s not going to be all that often really really isn’t foreign a while back i took a naturally aspirated supra down here and you know something we talk about balance that’s
The whole reason mark started on this journey and actually i think this car with half the power would be far more balanced because what it has is an epic chassis that’s absolutely brilliant and you and you really really lean on it i happen to suspect that mr tomorrow probably drives his gtr on track a lot and there this would be an absolute riot the issue being
Mark’s now spent quite a bit of money on this car making it look pristine inside it is still a work in progress you may notice a few issues with some of the trimming it’s not yet complete however it is certainly looking a lot better than it did this means he’s almost certain to not want to take this car on track i wouldn’t and for british roads i think he’s rather
Done himself in because the fact is by the time that this car is coming on song in second you’ve already hit the speed limit and in third you’re well past it which means actually you can only enjoy this car for the briefest of moments this engine makes such a great noise it really really does and it’s so capable but it should be flexible too and of course i love
The way that it handles i like these seats they’re out of an integra dc2 which mark also used to own and really does miss the ac doesn’t seem to be working very well though does it i’m enjoying the car but uh not quite that much see foot flat this is the other thing if you want a car for a quick b road sunday morning blast you do need to be able to get past
Traffic and that means you need an engine which is going to respond quickly by burying all of that power further up the rev range where you’re just not going to be sat you know at any normal day you’re not just going to be cruising at 5000 rpm you’ve hidden it you’ve taken it away so actually in the real world this is a lot slower for me than the last r34 that i
Drove because the choice here is either drive it pretty sedately or drive it like an absolute loon um i don’t really like doing either of those i want a nice middle ground and he had that ah i have no real complaints with the coilovers in truth mark didn’t have an issue with the teams that were on it before but they were just getting a little bit tired the car is
Polybushed throughout and to be fair it actually rides pretty well considering it’s a fairly hardcore japanese car their roads are notoriously smooth hours are not it works better than you might imagine heel and toe really nice and that’s the only thing i want to work this gearbox all the time it’s so nice now i want to work this engine all the time i want to use
All the different revs but i’m stuck i’m being punished because i’m doing 4000 rpm 4000 rps should be flying and oh now it wants to fly but now i need to slow it down again i need to bring it in i’ve missed my opportunity i can’t connect this car up in the bins people keep telling me turbo technology has really really improved over the last 20 or 30 years and
I do in some ways believe it i’ve driven some incredible turbo cars but equally it is just a spinny wheel isn’t it i mean it’s like saying windmills have got better i mean it’s a big blade that catches air i mean how much better can it really be i’m sure it’s smoother and slicker and everything but ultimately i think the turbo in this car it’s just too big for
It sorry mark this is not the car for me a big thank you to mark anyway for bringing his car out regardless of what i think of it if he’s happy with it that’s the main thing and of course a big thanks to you for watching don’t forget to hit the like button comment down below subscribe if you haven’t already and even if you have make sure to check the bell icon so
You’ll be notified of every single upcoming video and whatever it is i hope to see you there bye-bye thank you foreign
Transcribed from video
Does Absolute Horsepower Corrupt? Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R – 620BHP Single Turbo By JayEmm on Cars
