Project DBA R35 Nissan GT-R, Bolt On Power Mods Part 1

Our last work on our project R35 GT-R was to do the suspension and brakes to bring them up to a high level and address some of the R35’s shortcomings in those departments.  With our suspension and brakes now at supercar levels of performance, it was time to shift our focus to the engine.  The VR38DETT engine found in the GT-R is an exceedingly easy engine to get power out of. However, the R35 is plagued by heat issues even in stock form. In our efforts to get balanced performance we will attack the issues of heat and work to get 620-630 whp using simple bolt-ons.  At this point, we are close to the limit of the stock connecting rods  and the driveline and we will have to go inside the engine and transmission to maintain reliability.  Our end goal is 1000 whp which we feel is the GT-R’s sweet spot.  At this power level, it is possible for the car to be bulletproof and have better than stock driveability.  Our goal is to be able to drive to the track, run a high 9-second pass, then drive home in comfort in a car that can still lap a road course with a 200 mph top speed. Of course, this power level is chump change for the VR engine as some tuners are already more than doubling that power level but we want a fuss-free car that can give any exotic supercar grief. We think we can even get to supercar parity with bolt ons! Well, it’s on to step one, getting more bolt-on power with the folks at Greddy Performance Products, Cobb Tuning and Radium Engineering.

Read More About Project R35 GT-R here!

We were hard at work getting the peripherals of our car to be in line with a big boost in power in our previous articles.  At MotoIQ we are firm believers in balanced performance and that the capabilities of the rest of the car need to match engine upgrades.

We improved our aero with some parts from Verus Engineering.

Our suspension and brakes were up to snuff as well using components from KW Suspension, SPL, Forced Performance, Whiteline, and Brembo.

We will be replacing the twin stock intercoolers with this large Greddy front mount.  The Greddy unit is huge and takes up as much room as possible for the available area in the nose of the car.  The frontal area of the Greddy core is larger and the core thicker.