How Fast and Furious Chose the Toyota Supra, and Nissan Skyline GT-R R33

Which Fast and Furious car is your pick?

When it came time to pick cars for the first Fast and Furious movie, Craig Lieberman, the technical adviser went to his Rolodex and called up the people he knew.  The cars came out to several casting calls at Universal Studios.  We were one of the ones that showed up to a casting call with several R32 GTR, and an R33 GT-R.  These JDM cars were never originally sold in the US, but imported and Federalized through MotoRex.

R33 GTR purging nitrous. Or the kids call it - NOS

 Leon's R33 Nissan Skyline GTR, named Big Bird after the movie, was the car we supplied.  Since we only had one demo car available at that time, this car had a pretty limited roll. Watch the video from Craig, and visit his website to find out more information about Fast and Furious.


Buy USA Legal R32 and R33 Skylines at Importavehicle.com!
Buy-R.com for Nissan Skyline GT-R and GT-R parts.

Read More

The Best R34 Nissan Skyline Memes

We just posted some of the best R33 Nissan Skyline memes, now here come a few R34 memes.  What do you have?

Read More

Aerodynamic and Chassis Reinforcement for Nissan Skyline GT-R : R32

At about this point, Taka was screaming at me that he had to drive the car back to LA. 

Every now and then, we have some cars with some interesting modifications.  This car was one of them.  This is a car that Taka had bought in Japan and we imported it to the US to sell.  The car had a few little aerodynamic things under the car, and HKS Kansai chassis bracing.


This is what Mr T had to say about the R32 chassis...

"R32 front chassis is weak in bending and torsion. Add as much bracing as possible , such as Do-luck sub frame connectors and HKS Kansai Kit "

More general chassis bracing information
Body reinforcement videos

If you have worked on R32,R33, and R34 GT-R, you can see some of the improvements that did to the chassis to stiffen them. There is a point though, when you wonder if all the weight you are adding in bracing is worth the extra benefits in stiffness.  Not sure exactly where the point is located.  There are some other options to really stiffen up a car. Things like a roll cage, like spot welding, however those two items really take some work.

I need to get some of the pictures of Josh's car up.  He sent them to me about a year ago, and never got around to documenting what he did to stiffen his car up. 

These little lips look like they are trying to direct air under the car.  Never seen them on another car. 

These little lips look like they are trying to direct air under the car.  Never seen them on another car.

These little lips look like they are trying to direct air under the car.  Never seen them on another car.

HKS Kansai underfloor brace.  The R34 GT-R has a similar piece of bracing to stiffen the front.

HKS Kansai underfloor brace

Bump steer correction

HKS Kansai, rear bracing

HKS Kansai, rear bracing

HKS Kansai, rear bracing

HKS Kansai, rear bracing

He was still screaming here. 

Buy USA Legal R32 and R33 Skylines at Importavehicle.com!
Buy-R.com for Nissan Skyline GT-R and GT-R parts.

Read More

Nissan Skyline Gas Mileage : MPG : Miles Per Gallon

Nissan Skyline Gas Mileage - lets call it 19 mpg for a GT-R, and be mostly correct

There is not a lot of information out there for gas mileage or mpg on a Nissan Skyline.  Its really not something that most people factor into the cars.  However we do see the question about mpg asked enough to address it.

There are several different trims, transmissions,engines, and gear ratios available for Nissan Skylines.   All these factors play into fuel economy.

The R32 GT-R has the aerodynamics of a brick, a short stroke, high revving twin turbocharged engine.  4.111 gear ratios. This is not a fuel economy machine.  In our 20 years of driving this car under real world conditions, a factory stockish car, gets about 19 mpg. Under certain conditions, like following a van to Las Vegas we have seen up to about 24 mpg at times, but that isn't very normal. Most of the time you will be on the fun lever, and your mileage will be less.

R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R -   18.9 mpg - Autocar Magazine November 28, 1990

R33 GT-R also gets about 19 mpg

The R33 GT-R has slightly better aerodynamics than an R32 GT-R, but it has the same engine, transmission, and gear ratio. It is also heavier, which plays into gas mileage.  Another factor, wider tires on the R33 vs the R32.

R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R - 19 mpg Japanese city cycle. 34 mpg steady 37 mph. C/D observed 11 mpg - Car and Driver Magazine December 1995

R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R - 19.6 mpg , 22.2 mpg, 22.2 mpg, 13.5 mpg - Performance Car September 1997

R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R - 24.2 mpg best over 21,092 miles - Autocar December 8 1999

The R34 version of the GT-R, also gets right around 19 miles per gallon

The R34 GT-R has the same engine, with some slight camshaft, and turbocharger changes. It goes from a 5 speed transmission to a 6 speed Getrage V160 transmission. Overall gear ratios front and rear are dropped to 3.545.  Still not an economy car. If you are looking for economy, Prius is your car.

R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R - 11 mpg Top Gear April 1999
R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R  - 18.9 mpg , 24.7 mpg , 24.7 mpg , 10.6 mpg     Autocar 11 August 1999
R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R - 16.8 mpg Autocar April 3 2002

The fuel economy figures you see on most cars, are not actual measured on the road numbers. They are calculated from EPA emissions testing results. Yes, it is all a lie.  Car and Driver has a very detailed story about emissions testing and the EPA from 2009. 

Measuring fuel economy during the tests is likewise hugely complex, which is why the automakers and the EPA both follow precisely the same protocol. For openers, the chemical composition of fuel varies slightly, so simply retrieving it from a local gas station won’t produce repeatable results. The EPA has a specialized company manufacture small batches of consistent fuel, which is 93 octane (cars running 50-state certifications get a slightly different, 91-octane “California” blend). Before being used, the gas is analyzed to measure its properties, and fuel economy is then calculated based on the measured carbon content of the various tailpipe emissions—unburned hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), and oxides of nitrogen (NOx)—that are collected in bags made of a special Kynar plastic. A $350,000 gas-analyzing machine then makes minute measurements. The one-percent accuracy of this machine from Japanese company Horiba is amazing considering the minuscule amounts of some of the exhaust constituents—some in quantities as low as a half-dozen parts per million.

The final city and highway ratings are calculated by taking the fuel-economy results from specific portions of each of the five tests and piecing them together.

R33 GT-R on the FTP dyno at G and K. 

This fairly recent revision in the testing protocol isn’t cheap for automakers to adopt. The EPA estimates that to build a test facility capable of running one SC03 or cold FTP test per day would cost $10 million. Even the EPA’s own lab is incapable of performing two of these new tests, which it instead contracts out. But the revised tests are likely worth it as we’ve noticed a big change: Pre-2008 test cars in our enthusiastic hands rarely returned fuel economy anywhere near the EPA’s highway projection and would regularly get poorer mileage than even the city figure, which—not counting hybrids—is the lower of the two. Now we generally see mileage between the two numbers, and with a little restraint, the EPA’s highway number is usually within reach. The EPA maintains a repository of ratings from 1985 to the present at www.fueleconomy.gov.

R33 GT-R on the FTP dyno at G and K

Buy USA Legal R32 and R33 Skylines at Importavehicle.com!
Buy-R.com for Nissan Skyline GT-R and GT-R parts.

Read More