Looking For Photos / Information On Group A Skylines

[Chris Wilson]

Specifically suspension, subframe, brake and other drivetrain photos and info from the likes of the Gibson Motorsport R32 race cars. Engine mods (and cheats...?) info. Anything from the golden era of Skylines in national and international circuit racing. Thanks.

[West]

Specifically suspension, subframe, brake and other drivetrain photos and info from the likes of the Gibson Motorsport R32 race cars. Engine mods (and cheats...?) info. Anything from the golden era of Skylines in national and international circuit racing. Thanks.

Maybe this help a bit?

groupagtr.pdf

[Chris Wilson]

Maybe this help a bit?

Thanks, but I can't get the link to work, would love to see it, can I grab it from anyone else please? Cheers.

[Chris Wilson]

Got it now, many thanks

[Sydneykid]

That's an early version, I have some stuff on the later versions (in Winfield colours). I will dig them up and post them.

cheers

[Duncan]

get digging gary

and what about the other in between scheme, I think they had another colour (similar to this) in its first season before winfield took over in 92?

[Sydneykid]

Some outside pictures;

What everyone should have in the driveway;

More pictures to come

cheers

Edited June 11, 2006 by Sydneykid

[Sydneykid]

Some cabin pictures;

This is the last version and had the electronic ATTESA

More pictures to come

cheers

Edited June 11, 2006 by Sydneykid

[Sydneykid]

Some engine bay pictures;

Underneath the engine bay;

More pictures to come

Cheers

[Sydneykid]

Some suspension and under body photos;

My favourite, rear LHS note the HICAS dissabled via the replacement bar (no steering rack).

The rear brake ducts

Some more pictures to come

cheers

Edited June 11, 2006 by Sydneykid

[Sydneykid]

The Bathurst spec fuel system in the boot. The two large cylinders either side are the dry brake fittings for refueling.

The mechanical (high pressure) fuel pump was driven off the inlet camshaft

The fuel rail, injectors and inlet system (note the standard throttle bodies and fuel rail)

More pictures to come.

cheers

Edited June 11, 2006 by Sydneykid

[Sydneykid]

The coolers, in Bathurst spec it had 7 coolers;

Rear diff

Transfer case

Gearbox

Engine oil X 2

Radiator

Intercooler

The Gearbox, Transfer Case and Rear Diff Coolers

The RHS engine oil cooler, there was also one similarly placed on the LHS.

cheers

Edited June 11, 2006 by Sydneykid

[AlexCim]

LOVE those rear brake ducts!

[CruiseLiner]

thats the most awesome skyline of all time i reckon, love the quality of the finish of everything on that thing

just wondering whats that little round plate on the side of the plenum for? is it a burst plate incase it overboosts?? similiar to the ones on the supercharged doorslammers, etc?

that car looks like sex on wheels

cheers for the pics sk, anyone got any others???

what sort of turbos were they using in those days? n1's or something bigger and better? anything equivilant to todays style turbo setups like 2530s, etc? or bigger?

what sort of hp at wheels were they putting out? i remember reading over 500hp or something?

Edited June 11, 2006 by CruiseLiner

[Guest Mashrock]

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht...Flanguage_tools

there is a bit more. but from japan

[Sydneykid]

thats the most awesome skyline of all time i reckon, love the quality of the finish of everything on that thing

just wondering whats that little round plate on the side of the plenum for? is it a burst plate incase it overboosts?? similiar to the ones on the supercharged doorslammers, etc?

that car looks like sex on wheels

cheers for the pics sk, anyone got any others???

what sort of turbos were they using in those days? n1's or something bigger and better? anything equivilant to todays style turbo setups like 2530s, etc? or bigger?

what sort of hp at wheels were they putting out? i remember reading over 500hp or something?

Yes, they were sure nicely made, Fred sold a couple to customers, around $300K was the rumoured going price. That's equivalent to $650K in 2006 money.

The turbo's where the unbiquitous steel turbine "Group A's", as per the regs.

Due to their total dominance, CAMS limited the boost and made them fit a blow off valve. That's what the round plate on the inlet plenum is for.

They first appeared with around 550 bhp that quickly grew to a bit over 600 bhp unrestricted. Then dropped to ~475 bhp with the boost limit.

I do have some more pictures, but they don't really show anything that isn't shown in the above selection.

cheers

[gazza750]

untitled.bmp

great pics .always good to whatwent into the history of domination @ bathurst

would love this instrument cluster in my gtr lol

[Chris Wilson]

Great pics, thanks for sharing! A few observations:

Whilst someone posts on the build quality, it may have been awesome back then, but now we have the mega spending of teams like the DTM and WRC cars, ducts are vac moulded in carbon, roll cages are far more complex and efficient, brackets are milled and anodised, the whole shebang is costlier and "prettier". How times, expectancy, and spending have changed!

What is the ecu (HUGE....) that they ran?

Any detailed pics of engine water cooling mods? Here in the UK some of the best known RB26 tuners take steam pipes from the water gallery pipe that runs parallel with the intake plenum, back to a swirl pot, to take any steam pockets from the head. Hard to see if that's the case in these photos?

Whats the header tank in the RH bulkhead corner of the engine bay?

The low pressure side of the fuel system, in the boot, looks heavy and complex, is this because everything has a back up in case of failure?

Did all the Group A cars run custom suspension links, hubs and uprights?

If not, how was rear bump steer, which from my mesurements on a stock R33GTr and GTS-t, dialled out? It appears a lot of toe in on rear roll is engineered into the stock rear suspension, and is proving undesirable to me.

Finally, roughly how many proper Group A and JGTC Skylines were built, and although I see quite a few R32's in photos, of course, and some R34's, it seems that the R33 was never represented in such numbers? Do many come up for sale in Oz?

Thanks again for posting all this. More very welcome!

[r32line]

Sorry to be a pain, but I have looked everywhere for pictures of that Winfield GTR.. those pics are great, do you have anymore of the car maybe on the track etc or are they all detailed shots of components, etc

[Sydneykid]

Great pics, thanks for sharing! A few observations:

Whilst someone posts on the build quality, it may have been awesome back then, but now we have the mega spending of teams like the DTM and WRC cars, ducts are vac moulded in carbon, roll cages are far more complex and efficient, brackets are milled and anodised, the whole shebang is costlier and "prettier". How times, expectancy, and spending have changed!

What is the ecu (HUGE....) that they ran?

Any detailed pics of engine water cooling mods? Here in the UK some of the best known RB26 tuners take steam pipes from the water gallery pipe that runs parallel with the intake plenum, back to a swirl pot, to take any steam pockets from the head. Hard to see if that's the case in these photos?

Whats the header tank in the RH bulkhead corner of the engine bay?

The low pressure side of the fuel system, in the boot, looks heavy and complex, is this because everything has a back up in case of failure?

Did all the Group A cars run custom suspension links, hubs and uprights?

If not, how was rear bump steer, which from my mesurements on a stock R33GTr and GTS-t, dialled out? It appears a lot of toe in on rear roll is engineered into the stock rear suspension, and is proving undesirable to me.

Finally, roughly how many proper Group A and JGTC Skylines were built, and although I see quite a few R32's in photos, of course, and some R34's, it seems that the R33 was never represented in such numbers? Do many come up for sale in Oz?

Thanks again for posting all this. More very welcome!

Hi Chris, sure there is a change in materials used, but the quality of the fabrication, regardless of materials, is the impressive part.

1. From memory the ECU is an Electromotive, they also made the Nissan ECU’s for the LeMans prototypes

2. The water head tank is located just in front of the RHS strut tower. It has 3 connections, one to the cylinder head and 2 to the radiator. Note that the radiator was mounted lower so as to give room for the airfilter box and ambient air feed for the turbos. So the high mount header/filler tank was necessary.

3. The fuel system is the endurance race spec, so it has back up/redundancy system plus a 2 lap reserve with a lower pick up in the tank.

4. The Group A regs allowed modifications in the suspension arms. Conceptually because they were running slicks it was considered a safety issue. The standard components may break under the loads.

5. Bump steer (front and rear) was zero over 80 mm of sprint race suspension movement. I know the endurance race spec was different due to the weight of fuel.

6. I believe the Gibson guys made 5/6 in Australia, 2/3 for overseas customers, 2 team cars and 1 local customer car (the GIO/Windscreen O’Brien car). In Japan I saw one grid of over 20 X R32GTR’s in the one Group A race. The ones I have seen overseas are not anywhere near the Gibson standard, they were considered by Nissan to be the best in the world.

7. From memory Group A was discontinued by FISA before the R33GTR was released, so I don’t think there are any Group A R33GTR’s. SuperTourers took over in the rest of the world and V8SuperCars here.

cheers