Giant peak horsepower figures made on race gas make for great headlines. Just the mention of a “1000-horsepower Supra”, “740-horsepower WRX” or “500- horsepower EVO” draws attention. While peak horsepower numbers are real and exciting to any enthusiast, these high- caliber numbers tend to distort the total performance picture. This […]
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Part 8: Project RH9 GT-R | GT-R Back in Black, Getting Ready to Attack
We almost forgot why our Project RH9 Skyline GT-R was our dream car. With a broken factory transmission, our Project RH9 GT-R went from its daily- driven, head-turning glory to a very-large obstacle in our garage. While obtaining another factory transmission would have had us back on the road in […]
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Homegrown: Our Project Pro-Am Honda Civic EK Comes to Life
To Street or not to Street, that is the question. Do we allow our Project EK Civic to roam the streets or do we dedicate it to a life spent in garages, trailers, dynos and drag strips. With this project, we have reached a crossroad that many of our readers […]
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Part 7 : Project RH9 GT-R | A New Mission
Guess what broke on Project RH9? Another factory transmission. Old school Turbo readers might be seeing visions of another Project Talon in the works. To be honest, I’m picturing the same thing. Text & Photos by Michael Ferrara Back in the days, Project Talon chewed up every single available transmission […]
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Part 6: Project RH9 GT-R | Building a 1000 Horsepower, 9-Second Daily Driver
Call us a little crazy. No. Instead, just call us insane. As we continue to improve the performance of our Project GT-R, we also continue to raise our goals. In many ways, this project mirrors our experience with the magazine as a whole. We make progress every issue and we […]
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Part 5: Project GT-R | Slowly but Surely, We Sort Out the Problems
Last month, we promised to upgrade the fuel system, do a compression check, do a leak-down test and more to figure out why our GT-R had made a step backwards in terms of power output. We were then going to strap the car back on the dyno and give it […]
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D’Garage Nissan S14 Runs 10’s
In his first return to the drag racing action since his Honda Civic days, Jeren piloted his Nissan S14 to an E.T of 10.6. With the 700 hp S14’s maiden voyage now accomplished, Jeren has turned his attention into making this a 9 second street machine. Stay tuned for future […]
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Test & Tune: 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8
A normally-aspirated 6-cylinder engine making 300 horsepower deserves some praise. Until recently, 300-horsepower required a V8 or some form of forced-induction. Today, technology allows more horsepower-per-liter than ever before. Unfortunately, a well-tuned engine from the factory means that the aftermarket may struggle to find any additional horsepower. As the Hyundai […]
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9-sec Street/Show/Strip Supra | Overcoming Tragedy to Build 919 HP JZA80
The JZA80 twin-turbo Supra is arguably the best import-performance vehicle to be sold in the United States. For brothers Tony and Kyle Nino, the Supra was their dream car. Older-brother Tony purchased this Supra in June of 2005 with the intent of building a 700-horsepower, daily-driven street monster. During the […]
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Test & Tune: 2005 Mazda RX-8
Rotary versus Piston: The rivalry between rotary and piston owners has long been established before many of us were born. The rotary engine represents the epitome of small displacement engines that pack a heavy punch. The first 10A rotary engine was used in the Mazda Cosmo in 1965. With a […]
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Becoming the World’s Most Streetable 8-second R33 GT-R
Back in May 2015 the D’Garage R33 battled through early issues and multiple test days to finally become a member of the famed RH8 club. Now running as smooth as ever the D’Garage GT-R continues it’s journey to push the boundaries of a street car by going even faster.
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Part 4: Project GT-R | Smaller Turbine Housings Good, Tuning Issues Bad
The orders have been placed, but parts delivery for the GT-R is taking longer than expected. This downtime has enabled us to get back on the same DynoJet chassis dynamometer at XS Engineering to evaluate the performance of the engine with the smaller P13 turbine housings in place. As it […]
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Part 3: Project GT-R | 749 Wheel Horsepower Found, One Transmission Lost
It’s the night before the biggest race of the year. The BFGoodrich Tires IDRC International Finals presented by ICEMAN Intakes is coming to Los Angeles and the DRAG Sport Project RH9 GT-R is going to be ready. The IDRC International Finals mark the biggest import drag racing event on the […]
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Part 2: Project GT-R | 655 Rear Wheel Horsepower and More on the Way
It’s official. We think we accidentally built the most-powerful GT-R in the U.S. At least, it’s the most powerful one that we know about. The previous record holder was the nitrous-fed “Big Bird” from Motorex. Big Bird generated 654 horsepower at the rear wheels. Text & Photos By Michael Ferrara […]
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Part 1: Project GT-R | Building the First RH9 Skyline in the U.S.
Meet our DRAG Sport Project GT-R. This is a 1996 Nissan Skyline GT-R V- spec. Before the turbocharger upgrade that you are about to see, the car generated almost 380 horsepower at the wheels. That’s enough to run in the 112-116mph range in the quarter mile, with low 12-second elapsed […]
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