Nearly pronounced dead after a barbaric wall-slamming incident at Fontana's drag strip, this R33 Skyline GT-R has been resurrected to realize its full potential. The GT-R, a top-of-the-line V-Spec forged into existence by Nissan and Nismo in 1996, is one of the prized possessions of Alex Shen, chief proprietor of SP Engineering. Like many success stories, Alex started from his home garage with a lot of skill and passion and one influential customer, Ken Henderson. The weapon of choice was Toyota's 2JZ-GTE Supra. As his customer base expanded, Alex moved from his garage to a shop in 1997 and then leap-frogged to his current digs in City of Industry, Calif., in 2000.
The Supra's 2JZ and the GT-R's RB26DETT have many intersecting points; both are inline sixes, come with twin turbos and beg for more boost, and SP Engineering planned to make the RB beg for mercy. The goal was to live the dream; the GT-R is the ultimate car for a vast majority of import enthusiasts and SP planned to hit its R33 with high-quality parts and tune it for serious swagger.
The build-up started with the engine being pulled and the body shuttled to Superior PV Autobody in nearby El Monte. The RB was broken down and the block and head were sent to Taylor's Engines in Whittier for honing and decking. The block was bored from 86 to 87mm, which pushed displacement to 2.8 liters and made way for the hardcore HKS internals that SP had waiting in the wings. The entire reciprocating assembly, crankshaft, pistons and rods are forged propositions from HKS that were balanced before SP's tuning specialist and resident GT-R guru Hirofumi Kondo assembled the bottom end.
Select HKS gear has been grafted into the head as well. Kondo painstakingly ported the head to ensure max flow before adding in the HKS goods. A set of HKS valve springs provide high-rpm capability while a pair of 280-degree cams deliver 10.8mm of lift to ensure full ingestion from spool to max boost.
Said boost is generated by a well-executed turbo system with an HKS T51-R SPL dual ball bearing turbo playing the ugly guy with the big battleaxe. The T51-R SPL, secured by a trick HKS stainless steel turbo manifold, is HKS' biggest turbocharger and it packs a wallop with a 1.02 A/R compressor housing and efficient 56-trim wheel coupled with a .82 A/R turbine housing. The GT-R ran a T51-R Kai prior to "the crash," but the SPL unit was introduced during the downtime and Shen jumped at the chance to see what the new turbo could do.
The remainder of the turbo system features a 60mm HKS GT-series external wastegate, a GReddy Type-R blow-off valve that's vented to atmosphere, HKS/SP Engineering piping, a sweet big-plenum GReddy intake manifold and a custom SP downpipe. A GReddy 4-row intercooler is mounted midstream to provide the all-important charge air cooling.
On the hot side, the SP downpipe connects to a JDM-direct HKS Racing Muffler straight out of the HKS Master Goods catalog. The GT-R-specific muffler, which looks like an axle-back affair, sports massive 102mm [4-inch] piping and an equally well-endowed 115mm [4.5-inch] tip.
Like the Supra, the only ignition modification needed on the RB is an HKS Twin Power DLI. However, the fuel side of the combustion process requires some real whip cracking. When on a mission to make 1000-plus horsepower at the flywheel garden hose analogies are realities. The Skyline's fuel system is a twin pump setup that gushes 71 gph at 45 psi. The RB's twin in-tank HKS pumps are teamed with a Staff Auto twin collector tank. From there, go-juice flows through custom lines to a high capacity HKS fuel rail and into upgraded 1000cc HKS injectors. The HKS rail facilitates the conversion of the fuel system from the stock side-feed configuration to a top-feed setup that accommodates the four-digit injectors. An HKS regulator moves unneeded fuel back into the system.