Built R33 GTS-T, soon to become a Nürburgring track car

[Alex787B]

Hi everyone !

Let me introduce you my R33 - I bought it last year with one single goal for it : turn it into a track oriented Skyline to run on the Nordschleife.
I have a passion for this race track, and I've been lucky enough to be born and to spend my life at approx. 1 hour and half from this petrolhead paradise.
As if that wasn't enough, Luxembourg is a fascinating country when you can register 100% road legal cars that have loads of mods, big single turbo exhaust and so on.

The R33 GTS-T was an obvious choice for me - RWD, "light", still one of my favourite cars in the world... and also, not as rare and expensive as a GT-R, should a disastrous relationship happen between the car and the Nürburgring security rails... It's not that I'm planning to crash it, it's just that when you enter the Green Hell, you must keep in mind disasters CAN happen, for various reasons. So much stories to be told about this... but that's part of the thrill, ain't it ?

So I bought this car :

Nice mods, the only thing it's missing is a proper mapping. It's running on OEM ECU with original mapping, turbo only blows @0,3 bar.

I'm about to finish the registration process - last appointment is on 27/06/2019 and hopefully that day I'll be able to drive it.
I have to do various things to get the registration certificate - replace some parts by other parts that can be registrated more easily (wheels, suspensions, ...), get a certificate for each and every mod on the car from a specialized organization, make everything compliant etc...

Had to pass a dyno test that I did yesterday : VIDEO
For a low boost setup RB25, I'm pretty happy with the result !
287 hp / 330 Nm

After all that paperwork is done, I'll bring it to the Nordschleife where she'll perform her first laps.
At the end of the season, I'll begin thinking about upgrades - starting with a standalone ECU + proper mapping.

Thanks a lot to everyone who red this post until the end - it'll be a pleasure to share the evolution of this project with you all, and I really hope you will appreciate it !

I wish you all a nice day,
Alex

[KiwiRS4T]

Wow I'm surprised it runs at all with stock ECU! Have you been able to ascertain what turbo, injectors etc you have? Got an ECU in mind? It would be great to be able to drive the Nurburgring in anything  -  but your own built Skyline would be fantastic!

[Duncan]

Wow I thought I was lucky being 30min from Wakefield Park! Sounds like an excellent place to stretch the car's legs.

You will certainly want to get a proper tune on it, there is way more potential available for those long straights

[WMDC35]

2 hours ago, KiwiRS4T said:

Wow I'm surprised it runs at all with stock ECU! Have you been able to ascertain what turbo, injectors etc you have? Got an ECU in mind? It would be great to be able to drive the Nurburgring in anything  -  but your own built Skyline would be fantastic!

You can see the stock injectors in the photo, must be stock electrics so will run with low boost

[GTofuS-T]

Very cool! I'm jealous and very much looking forward to some in-car footage at the ring. Do you have much experience on the track already?

[Alex787B]

Thanks everyone for your reactions ! Will try to answer all the questions lol

Looking at it I have the model of the turbo, but I don't know which brand it is - I believe it's a no name thing, however model is TD04E T3T4, A/R.50. Injectors are stock. At low pressure I believe the setup is not really far from a stock setup (still 287 hp on the dyno so it's not that high), that's why the stock ECU can handle it. But for sure, if I wanna raise that boost a little bit, I'll have to go for a new ECU  

I haven't explored all the possibilities yet, because I have been focused expecially on paperwork and registration for the moment. I've had some bad experience with the administration when I tried to registrate my ex RX-7 FD3S, so I try to keep away from interesting topics as long as I am not 100% sure the car will be able to be driven legally

Anyway, which ECU would you be advising me ? The previous owner gave me a Z32 ECU that could be used to remap the Skyline, but I did not like the idea and I'm way more interested by fitting a standalone instead of another car's modified ECU... Maybe I'm wrong, but it's for my own peace of mind haha

@GTofuS-T - I've done several laps on the Nordschleife, not enough to consider myself as a driver anyway, but I've done it in several cars like my Supra, some Lexus, my ex girlfriend's shitbox rust bucket VW Polo that gave me the biggest fears of my life, some passenger laps in cool cars as well - yes the Skyline will be a great car for this, and the experience will be really really amazing. I can't wait !

And I've bought a GoPro copy to make some in-car vids lol, I think you will like it ! Here's a test vid I made with my Supra and improvised external mic (basically, iPhone headphones stuck on the rear bumper lol) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUugsfQ9PMA
Will do the R33's first Nürburgring laps with a similar setup, and I'll post all the vids on this YT account for sure  

 

[GTSBoy]

3 hours ago, Alex787B said:

Anyway, which ECU would you be advising me ? The previous owner gave me a Z32 ECU that could be used to remap the Skyline, but I did not like the idea and I'm way more interested by fitting a standalone instead of another car's modified ECU... Maybe I'm wrong, but it's for my own peace of mind haha

Z32 with a Nistune chip will work and used to be the only option for Nistune, but more recent development means that an R32 ECU with Nistune is a better choice. Works perfectly and is pretty cheap.

Standalone is somewhat easier. Any modern ECU will do - seriously. Whatever your favourite tuner is most comfortable with will be the best choice unless you have specific I/O needs.

[Alex787B]

I've just had a quick look, and I learnt something new today. I didn't know that R32 ECUs could be used with Nistune. Also, you're absolutely right saying that I should ask which ECU my tuner will be most at ease with. That's the first time I'll be looking at remapping a car so I'm not that used to the correct way to proceed. But I believe the standalone option will be easier as you said - Luxembourg is a small country and I think professional mappers will be more at ease with a standalone than with a Nistune chipped R32 ECU !
Thanks a lot for your advice !

[PranK]

Welcome! I'm excited to see how this project plays out.

Super DOOPER jealous of you being so close to the 'ring. 

[Alex787B]

Thanks a lot PranK. Yes I must admit I'm lucky to live here haha

Got my appointment yesterday to get all the mods analyzed and registered before I go to the final registration/MOT appointment.
All the mods have passed with success, nothing to be changed on the build so that is pretty cool !


Only one thing I need to be careful of - the Skyline did not pass the first emissions test because the cat was not hot enough. I had to get out, cruise for 1 km with a sporty driving and come back immediately to make a second test that went through with success. That means every year for the periodic MOT, I'll have to keep the cat hot enough even if there are a lot of people before me for the test, so I don't really know how I'll manage this but... We'll see that on d-day

Edited June 12, 2019 by Alex787B

[GTSBoy]

5 hours ago, Alex787B said:

so I don't really know how I'll manage this but

Ask Volkswagen.

[Alex787B]

16 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Ask Volkswagen.

Already asked them about 3 years ago, when I was trying to register a Mazda RX-7 - they did not appreciate the joke.

[MBS206]

On 6/13/2019 at 4:03 AM, Alex787B said:

Thanks a lot PranK. Yes I must admit I'm lucky to live here haha

Got my appointment yesterday to get all the mods analyzed and registered before I go to the final registration/MOT appointment.
All the mods have passed with success, nothing to be changed on the build so that is pretty cool !


Only one thing I need to be careful of - the Skyline did not pass the first emissions test because the cat was not hot enough. I had to get out, cruise for 1 km with a sporty driving and come back immediately to make a second test that went through with success. That means every year for the periodic MOT, I'll have to keep the cat hot enough even if there are a lot of people before me for the test, so I don't really know how I'll manage this but... We'll see that on d-day

Retard ignition timing, richen it up at idle. 

If you can do it on a switch, you can make sure its running normally for emissions test

[Alex787B]

All right fellas, here's a very good news - the Skyline is now 100% STREET LEGAL !!
???

Got my registration certificate + MOT yesterday and to be honest, that was a nightmare lol. A lot of issues happened during the day, but I ended up with only small things left to be done on the car.

Most problematic of them is my reverse lights are actually not working, wasn't aware of that. Both sides do not light when I go in reverse, so I doubt it's only the bulbs... However I bought new ones this morning, will give it a try this evening. I saw there are multiple topics on this matter on the forum so I'll make some quick searches as well to know a bit more about the thing.

I read that main things to check are bulbs, fuse, and a switch near the gearbox that can fail.
So I have 28 days to solve the problem, and hopefully after that I'll be able to do my first laps on the Nürburgring !

Here's a pic taken at the registration center/MOT with my mate's R32 GT-R :

[Duncan]

Best not to drive around the burger ring backwards anyway

If both lights have failed, I'd check fuse and then wiring at the gearbox is plugged in. The actual switch is a bastard to get at in the car because it doesn't have a proper hex shape and can be very tight in an area with poor clearance. Easy to change at least 1 globe first but it's unlikely both failed.

[Alex787B]

I have replacement bulbs ready, will try this evening. Will also have a look and find out where the fuse is, and try replacing it.
I really hope that's nothing to deal with the switch... if this is too hard to get to, I believe I'm gonna make an in cabin on/off switch to the lights, and use it instead of passing reverse gear when the MOT guy asks ?

Edited June 28, 2019 by Alex787B

[Alex787B]

All right so I did the test, and I really start to think I'm lucky with this Skyline.
Here's what I found on the left :

And here's what I found on the right lol

2 new bulbs later :

Everything went better than expected !

And here's another pic from yesterday I forgot to show you
I'm officially in love with this R33 !

[Duncan]

hahah easiest outcome!

[Alex787B]

Two new pics from yesterday

[Alex787B]

Hello everyone, here's a new pic taken at the Ring - we finally did it and reached our goal to run the Skyline before the end of the season 

Now I've noted a bunch of things I'd like to upgrade on the car :

- brakes as they tend to shake when getting hot

- and get a proper mapping on it, that will involve getting an uprated fuel pump, switching to MAP, uprated injectors and an AEM V2

Some work to be planned at the end of the season I guess