While I eagerly await the arrival of our next 2 prime acquisitions from Osaka, I have been keeping myself busy around here lately with a Nissan of a slightly younger generation.   December 6th of 2007 marked the return latest incarnation of the highly anticipated Japanese super car killer, the R35 GT-R.   The good news was that America would FINALLY be able to get a taste of the forbidden fruit we’ve dreamed of for years.  The bad news was that we wouldn’t be seeing this car stateside for another 7 months.   This car is the epitome of what the Accesport was designed for, and Trey knew that the ECU that Nissan execs deemed “uncrackable” only meant that we may need a little head start.  So with that he made the bold decision to get a jump on the market and import a JDM model right off the assembly line.    I remember the day container arrived like it was yesterday,  a giant metal Christmas present we all couldn’t wait to unwrap.

There it is, fresh off the boat with it’s only modifications being a couple of stickers which we all know are usually good for a couple of horsepowers, especially Cobb ones.

The only drawback was that due to the nature of importing a newer vehicle strictly for R&D purposes is that you are forbidden from registering it or driving on the street.  Bittersweet?  Yes.  Luckily we had a dyno, a trailer and Miller Motorsports Park right down the street.  And the process or R&D began….    Here’s a few random pictures I’ve put together of our life and times together with the car over the last 3 years.  It’s first public outing was at a Performance Nissan meet in California where a father and son shot was inevitable.

Next  up was the Modified Tuner Shootout at Firebird Raceway.

While Billy Brooks manned the GT-R, this was around the same time I was driving the Cobb’s Mazdaspeed 3 in time attack competition and the first time I’ve ever track driven at night which I must say was quite an experience.   I actually had the task of figuring out how to use the GT-R’s launch control feature in the paddock at Miller for the drag race portion of the event before any of us knew it was also a “void warranty and break first gear” button that it has been notoriously known for since.

Next up was California Speedway for another Redline event.  The first wheels we had on the car were some 19″ Volk progressive ME’s that were actually for our G37 and just so happened to fit the GT-R with some 25mm spacers.  Tires were one of the hardest things about that car as no one offered ANYTHING decent in a 20″ option so were forced to downsize in order to run Toyo R888′s.

Here’s a purdy little sunset shot of the car at Buttonwillow raceway on it’s stock wheels that we painted gold to fit the Cobb theme….

Alongside the MS3 that as much as I loved it, was always the ugly sister whenever the R35 was around.  It was fun to see peoples reactions whenever we brought the car out,  this was one the only ones in the states at the time and to get to see it wailing around the track instead of just sitting in a showroom was amazing.

Back to Cal Speedway again.. for a duel with this heavily modified R34 which I’m pleased to say we won by the way ;)

This one is from Portland International Raceway taken after winning both of our respective classes.

And back at Miller for another Redline event.   The car was a bit more modified at this point running our complete coilover kit, swaybars, secondary oil cooler, silicone intercooler pipes, turbo-back exhaust  and some tasty new black RE30′s in 19×11.

I LOVED the car with this setup.  You can also see the custom dry carbon diffuser strakes that Billy and I made in house.  Believe it or not, just making carbon fiber parts isn’t really all that difficult but making them strong and actually look good is an entirely different challenge because once you mess up the weave there’s no going back.

We also made a subtle Carbon fiber splitter as well.

Uggghhh…..

Once we picked up the blue and white USDM car to take over track duties, the JDM R35 was relegated to being nothing more than an couple of ECU’s with a car surrounding it for constant testing and development to further improve the Accesport which is pretty phenomenal at this point.  We now have the ability to  control every parameter of the engine ECU as well as the separate transmission ECU.  With the 2012 currently for sale it was now time to upgrade which meant the JDM car would need to be completely returned back to stock by yours truly before it could leave.  Here’s how it showed up to the shop a few weeks ago with a crate full of stock parts accompanying it…

Yikes!  I didn’t realize how much stuff we took out of the car…  it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me.  And while putting a car back to stock is not nearly as much fun as modifying it, at least I’m still working on a GT-R right?   I guess since I took all this stuff out, I should probably be the one to put it all back in.  I just hope I labeled all those bags of bolts properly.

Air conditioning, airbags, injectors…  all that stuff has to go back in.  I must say it’s quite a bit different to work on than a Hakosuka that’s for sure.  For example there’s 13 clips and 2 screws just to hold in ONE  fender liner!   A couple days later and here she is all de-stickered and stock as can be with the exception of the gold wheels.  It’s actually pretty amazing how clean it still is with all the track and dyno mileage this thing has accrued over the last few years.

And here she sits in the showroom and awaits the long boat ride next to the DR30 that’s in the shop for a custom exhaust….  more on that later.

I wonder if the new owner in Japan will have any clue of this car’s history in the states?   And while I’m feeling nostalgic about my time with the R35 I decided to keep a little part of the car for myself.  A while back Billy was making a trip down to the tire shop to scrap some pretty abused R888′s and I decided to snag one.  Why?  Not sure,  but a 305/30/19 R888 was too cool of tire not to do something with and I finally had a plan…..

Step 1, drill a big hole (this part is oddly fun to do)

Step 2, add a big hook.

Step 3, compare it’s enormous size with the tiny 13′s on my Starlet.

Step 4, find a suitable branch and hang.  On a side note I decided to use some 300lb. test rope because you KNOW I’m going to end up on this thing sooner or later.

Step 4, recheck.  For some reason my boy always has to double check all my work, I don’t think he trusts me ;)

Step 5, Testing.  Okay, so I ended up on it sooner than I thought.  Can you blame me?

And how do the kids feel about it?  That’s right, try fitting 2 kids in your average tire swing.

So while I may never see the GT-R again, I’ll always have a little reminder of it hanging in the frontyard.  And there’s no way in hell I should ever hear the kids complain about one of the neighbors having a cooler tire swing.

Have a great weekend, it’s Springtime baby!!!!