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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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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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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One Bad ‘Bish | 712whp Demo Car Exemplifies Buschur Racing Philosophy While Chasing the 8s
“No bull” has been the tuning the development philosophy behind Buschur Racing since the beginning. Always a skeptic, David Buschur would test each and every component on the track before recommending it to others. If a part didn’t make the car run quicker, it simply wouldn’t be sold. Today, that […]
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Top Secret-built R34 GT-R Rocks Fuji Speedway with 730 Horsepower
To the hardcore skyline fan, Nissan’s R34 GT-R was the last true skyline. Since the new R35 abandons the Skyline namesake, there is an air of truth to that statement, even though the GT-R badge carries over to Nissan’s current flagship sports car. But after 13 years of dominating the […]
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Wangan Racer | Zimax Mazda RX-7
There is no doubt that the Mazda RX-7 is one of the best sports cars to come out of Japan. Mazda got it right with this car, from its appealing and curvaceous design to its lightweight and powerful twin-rotor and twin-turbo Wankel engine. But what really makes this car special […]
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Suzuka Sprinter | J’s Racing S2000 Aims for the C3S Time Attack Record
There are few tuning shops in the world that remain loyal to a single nameplate. Fortunately, Honda fans can rely on J’s Racing for support. Located in Osaka, Japan, J’s Racing was founded in 1989 by Junichi Umemoto, a professional driver who competed behind the wheel of various Honda platforms. […]
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