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The "right" way to build a car. The eternally undefined quest of automotive purists. Die-hard performance nuts regularly slam the show community for the excessive camber and wheel offset, utility racks, or ground-scraping ride height modifications that, they'd argue, hinder performance. But the show crowd couldn't care less-they're building strictly for style, many times to agitate those they feel take performance too seriously. Considering the job they do to that extent, it wouldn't be wrong to say they're building their cars "right".
But such is the case in matters of subjectivity, where personal taste dictates the verdict. But the guidelines are clearer with performance builds, in which achievements of "fastest", "quickest", and "most powerful" are quantifiable boundaries to be broken-and if you're not doing it, you're doing it wrong. This month we bring you two contrasting performance builds, as different in their platforms and modification as in the culture each represents and the 6,700-odd miles between them, yet bound by their creators' shared drive for perfection. The bar for "right" has just been raised.
What you see here is the rolling embodiment of Japanese work ethic and discipline. This red R34 Skyline GT-R is possibly the most awe-inspiring time-attack car in Japan, and may soon prove to be the fastest. Behind this project is Hiroya Jin, a man who has a deep love for the Skyline GT-R, and who has invested well over $300,000 into this one to achieve one goal: to debut it at Rev Speed Magazine's Tsukuba Super Battle, and lap the circuit faster than any other production-bodied car ever has-including the MSpeed R34 Skyline GT-R, the HKS CT230R Lancer EVO, and the reigning champ: the Cyber EVO.
Whereas the American prerogative has nearly always been to intimidate and out-muscle enemies, defeating competitors with brute force, the Japanese have been known to topple their foe with planning, patience, and strategy. From the sidelines, Jin-san watched four of the aforementioned annual time-attack title fights come and go-waiting, examining the competition, learning from their victories and defeats, incorporating aspects of winning teams' builds into his own, and meticulously perfecting them. About the finished product on these pages (which, admittedly, may not yet be finished), Jin-san only offers, "There was no compromise. What needed to be done was done, and if it doesn't earn us victory, we will be back until we get it." Determination like that is hard to beat.
The most impressive facet of this car is the one rarely seen. We all know that a fast circuit car needs a lot of trick suspension parts, but what has gone on under this car is simply insane. With the help of Garage Ito and Ikeya Formula, the stock front and rear multilink suspension setups were replaced entirely by custom-fabricated subframes and double-wishbone systems. In the front, the upper arms use custom mounting points along a modified and reinforced suspension turret, while the lower arms are fixed to the new sub-frame. The stabilizer bar has been fixed to the upper arms via a custom linkage that's fully adjustable from the driver's seat. The steering column was relocated and actuates custom pillow-ball arms via a one-off pivot. The rear is even more intricate, as the subframe acts as the anchor for both the upper and lower arms. The lower damper mounts are fixed onto the factory hubs, while the tension rods are-like the arms-fixed to the subframe. Like at the front, we find adjustable stabilizer bars-necessary to give the best possible scope for fine-tuning performance on the track.