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.
