# we back (officially) and we've been busy



## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

We have not been spending as much time on the forum as usual and we have not been traders for a while. This is due to a few reasons, both ourselves and the market were not really ready for what we can offer now. No point putting the horse before he cart 

Since buying our JDM R35 in September 2007 and taking delivery end of Jan 2008, we have been having full on fun and testing the new platform from Nissan.

We were involved with the small number of import R35’s that came from Japan to UK. We think around 60 unofficial imports came into the UK. Other than that there were not enough cars in the country to keep us busy so we became really involved with the US, Middle East and Asia markets. We supplied quite a few parts overseas and were seriously shocked to find where some 35’s where turning up, i’m talking India, small islands off Thailand, Pakistan, 600+ in Singapore, 300+ in HK, South America, Greece, South Africa, Eastern Europe. 

One of the saddest parts was hearing of brand new cars being shipped from Japan landing in NZ, India, Phuket etc.. and boxes breaking within 100’s of miles without abuse. We were all shocked tbh, after we all knew how much testing had been done at places like the Nurbergring etc.. and blame could not be placed on the fact these guys didn’t have HPC looking after their cars, as this was happening in Japan as well, big time. Thankfully though nagtroc community spirit and sharing tech info both fixed their cars without needing to be shipped to Japan.



Last year with our JDM 35 was lots fun and lots testing

I decided to name this car White-R (my friend Koichi-san of Duke racing suggested)

Photoshoot straight out the show room



















Straight on the boat destination Southampton










Seeing her for the first time in the flesh. happy days

Very next day straight to Rockingham ! Car magazine vs Audi R8, 911, M3..










No rice !










Next day straight on the dyno 










Week after Fifth gears Jason Plato gets to grips with R










A few days later more abuse at Santa pod & Bedford aero for Evo mag



















White-R meets Silverstone



















Mclaren techs get scared of the advanced technology / creme themselves










Dunsfold Park with Mclaren


























A few days later head for Mondello Ireland


















wet GTROC meet at Ace










GT5 Pitlane nite










PTM show. well be rude not to ?



















JTS Silverstone










Sunline Ti arrives










Helping out Davros with GT-R day










Mags hit the shelves



















First accessPORT arrives into the country changes everything










Exhaust comes off ! heavy, so-so gas flow & cheapo










Fifth Gear round 2 with Bruno Senna vs 996











Silverstone again with 350z national meet + special GT-R










Athens Tuning Show

This is amusing !





































Brands Hatch




























ROC



















Have some events and testing missing, but you get the idea. She has done over 10,000 miles of hard hard use and i mean hard we all tried to break her, me, Plato, ben barry, senna, and everyone else i gave a drive to.. never missed a beat.. ok tell a lie we did kill the ecu one time until being bought back to life. Rockingham twice, silverstone three times, top gear track, Brands, Wembley, Anglesey, Mondello...


In 2008 we assisted a number of brands with developments as well as starting our own work on 35 GTC parts. We worked with Dymag to develop wheels for the R35, Cobb Tuning to get the bugs out of the JDM R35 and others we can’t mention yet.


















We also road tested and aided dev with various brake pads, engine oils and test transmission oils


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## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

This year we bought a EDM 35 from Marshall HPC. Collected on 6th April. White-R2.

Next few months that follow would be way less fun time and way more testing

Jumping into the car, things that instantly shocked me were the indicators on the wrong side of the steering wheel ! found myself throwing the wipers a few times.  No biggie will get used to it. Was a very pleasent surprise to see an English dash and factory MPH, defo a massive massive advantage over the JDM cars.

The only down side was the MFD (non sat nav) is less high res than the JDM models... (again will get used to it) and i do quite like the hyper LEDS which are not available with UK spec, but i guess those can be added 

The new Storm White is stunning in the flesh ! Nicer than the previous white, (sorry jdm'ers).

Drive wise, the UK spec is defo superior on the road, i felt it instantly the suspension improvements, less oversteer. No doubt the UK spec would record a faster lap time on track too. The Euro GT-R team have clearly dialed the car in well. Will be interesting to see exactly how much faster at Nurb in April when Nissan go back.

OEM fuel economy is still not great, everyone notices black soot all over pipes as runs so rich (see our tech post).

Gearbox feels smoother, clearly its come on since the early cars with crash bang noises.

Big thanks to Davros and Phillip @ Marshal Nissan.



















































































Dealer making me sign a degree worth of documents stating i won't turn off vdc or tune 










:clap:



















Not actually uploading a new map but saving the stock ecu data rom files which gets cracked fairly quickly. It’s actually quite similar to the 2010 USDM R35.

Consult III arrives










My Transformer arrives 











Our own inspection after 1 month / 350 miles only !



Had the UK car on the ramp at weekend, noticed a few tweeks / improvements over the JDM. Haven't had a chance to weigh her but i did hear the euro is heavier (weather prevent/safety).

Lots of under seal looks a good job. would have ages to take off for anyone prepping a race 35










































Not too impressed how much rust is on my 'new' car, only done 350 miles collected 4 weeks ago never driven in rain / wet weather or been near any salt, so can only assume must have happened on ro-ro boats 


































Didn't want this piece of cheap ass 17.45kg junk anyway 










GTC Titanium exhaust prototype

mmmmm




























































































Our good friend, GT-R owner and F1 Test driver / A1GP driver Fairuz Fauzy gave us a lot of his valued feedback & advise before deciding on this design.




















http://www.gtc-r.com/PDF/GTC_TITAN_Full_Titanium_Exhaust_GT-R.pdf - note this Y-pipe design has now been changed. We have now tested out 6 different designs no joke!

http://www.gtc-r.com/PDF/GTC_New_GT-R_parts_range_2009.pdf 


*See other post for full details on GTC Titan*


New Workshop coming soon











New name for R35 she now known as GTC Titan










Redline Mag











Dyno work to develop Euro accessPORT set ups











Enkei’s












GTC 35 now away for Intercooler development
Testing on Forge dyno












So what do we have coming ?

X 3 different GTC Titan set ups

Power packs 550, 570 & 600 +

GTC Down pipes / Turbo outlets

Actuators

GTC Suspension kit

Very special Carbon aero – including GT1 Full dry carbon vented bonnet, carbon side skirts, carbon rear under, carbon rear wing (this is special and should have been the wing that came fitted stock with the GT-R), carbon front spoiler, and loads Carbon engine bay parts.

Also watch out for some very exciting parts from Forge Motorsport UK, AP Racing brakes and a few others we can’t name yet...


As well as the above we are still heavily involved with supporting and distributing for top JDM brands such as Zele Performance, Top Secret, Power House Amuse, Duke Racing, HKS Kansai, Auto Select, Sunline Racing and many more.

If you contact any of these guys they will pass you onto us, as their tried and trusted European based agent. Any other company on here who sells these brands will be doing so without consent and selling outside their region.

USA Brand wise we also handle the amazing SSP brand, Cobb Tuning as is well known

We will also be supplying parts from New Zealand GT-R part manufacturers Dobson Racing

We urge you to please try and support British based guys whether it’s us or our colleges/competitors, registered companies, vat registered. Vat has been lowered, support your local economy. We in turn help the UK mags, UK shows and UK scene in general. This place used to be full of UK companies, now only a few and I am genuinely sad to see some guys gone.

A few of us, you know who we are own Euro 35’s, we know them, we road test parts before we sell them. We are in the UK so you can call us, visit us. Want to return something you know where we are and have UK law. Just bear that in mind before you buy overseas to save 15% vat.

Exciting times. Thank you Nissan for breathing new life into the GT-R scene

Living the Golden period right now

Ben


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## supracork (Nov 28, 2008)

Great thread Ben, best of luck in the future with the rest of your research and developments on the r35.


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## Hazardous (Nov 30, 2007)

Cool. Looking forward to seeing new aero parts.


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## hodgie (Oct 23, 2003)

A very interesting read, thankyou. Welcome back to the forum as an official trader.


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## guycuthbert (Jan 1, 2009)

Ben -wow - you HAVE been busy  Will be checking your website regularly...


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## Trev (Nov 1, 2003)

Fantastic thread Ben :smokin:

Good to see you back Trading


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## tarmac terror (Jul 16, 2003)

Wow Ben, loads of stuff happening on the R35 front eh??? Nissan/aftermarket just need to sort out the apparent 'toffee gearbox' issues and it looks like happy days for the new GTR.

Glad to see that your taking the bull by the horns and getting some tasty goodies out there. I'm really interested to see how Nissan themselves approach the issue of tuning. Spec-V seems to be, at face value at least, a bit of an overpriced, mildly breathed-on attempt to join the tuning party. I'm sure they have many more 'sport' models lined up but will be interesting to see how they approach it...

Anyway, welcome back. I might pop over to your website to see whats-what 

TT


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## Hope4Sun (Jul 28, 2003)

Nice one Ben, all the best for the future, and don't forget to let me know as soon as the carbon is in!! lol


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## Lex DakarDatsun (May 22, 2002)

any static pics with the Enkeis ?

Keep up the good work dude


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## Ellsworth (Jan 4, 2008)

great thread. you have obviously created a business out of a passion. Mine arrives December and Ill give you a call then.


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## cracker (Jul 6, 2009)

what is the website? thanks


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## stealth (Jul 6, 2004)

cracker said:


> what is the website? thanks



At the bottom of my sig ,click it


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## kennyc (Aug 25, 2005)

Good write up plenty of R&D which is good to see


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## johnhanton57 (May 2, 2009)

*More power to your elbow*

Ben,

Hope that you prove up the down pipes and actuators for my next order and of course deliver the first. Looking very much forward to the 28th at DN's and my first day with the beast. NEED MORE NOISE AND POWER!!!


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## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

Thanks Guys 












Great intercooler design, and a long period for the charge air to be in contact with air through the front of the car, unlike the stock units. Fully ducted to the rear, and the front to follow. Running the left bank inlet from the right bank turbo and vice versa. 


Also could well be some advances in the actuators to make mapping life easier


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## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

prototype valves 

Fully recirc, 50/50 recirc and blow off, or full blow off

Adjustable preload on the spring so no need to change springs when you up the boost.

Extra large 25mm recirc and bov ports


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## Nicks_Pop (Jul 12, 2009)

Hey Benji, those would seem to be functionally pretty much the same as the "BLOW-OFF VALVE - STEALTH FX" from GFB -- look here.
There was a really nice write up on that BOV over on NAGTROC.


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## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

**UPDATE**

Forge Motorsport Intercooler

Please note these are still very much 'work in progress' and not production pics.

Just waiting on some foam tape now to seal the edges of the ducting against the bumper which is what Nissan use as stock. The intercooler is FULLY ducted as you can see, so all the air through the front has to go through the cores  Braces for the undertray pass from the crash bar through the ducting so there's no loss of rigidity. Despite its obvious size and bulk it only weighs 4kgs more than the stock pair with ducting (14kgs vs. 10kgs).















































Next will post up pics & info on the pipework routing for maxium cooling with left bank turbo into right bank inlet manifold

This is a far superior set up & quality to what we have seen first hand from ARC, Greedy, Esprit and other brands.


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## Lex DakarDatsun (May 22, 2002)

The ducting looks good enough to be factory OEM spec


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## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

Another sneek peek moment


Here is our Super GT1 Aero bonnet for the R35 GT-R

FULL DRY CARBON

Again work in progress, a one off 'alpha stage' so far, looking to release production model next year.


We expect something along these lines to be to the R35 what the Ztune Nismo bonnet was to the R34


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## Rain (Apr 8, 2006)

Mmmm carbon  you able to show the reverse side ?


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## MarkRiccioni (Dec 9, 2003)

Looks awesome Ben, Forge intercooler is huge!

Drop us a bell with some high res images when you get a chance, will have to get them in the mag


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## Nicks_Pop (Jul 12, 2009)

Benji Linney GTC said:


> Next will post up pics & info on the pipework routing for maxium cooling with left bank turbo into right bank inlet manifold


Hi Benji, looks to be a nice product, well thought out and executed as we expect from you. Just one thing. Not to be picky, but doesn't a "turbo to inlet cross-feed" which is no doubt an optimum flow-wise, cause substantial problems by having the ECU controlling an 'incestious' situation? Or are the dynamics between the banks so 'clone-like' that in the real world the flow simplification makes no difference? Just a thought. :blahblah:

That bonnet already looks very promising too.


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## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

Nicks_Pop said:


> Hi Benji, looks to be a nice product, well thought out and executed as we expect from you. Just one thing. Not to be picky, but doesn't a "turbo to inlet cross-feed" which is no doubt an optimum flow-wise, cause substantial problems by having the ECU controlling an 'incestious' situation? Or are the dynamics between the banks so 'clone-like' that in the real world the flow simplification makes no difference? Just a thought. :blahblah:
> 
> That bonnet already looks very promising too.


Good reply that man ! this has been a topic of discussion last few days behind scenes. Chris Lloyds findings have been that, a balance pipe running across the back of the inlet manifold and connecting the two ‘collectors’ together just after the throttle and before they split into the individual cylinder runners. With balance pipe it all ends up the same pressure anyway regardless. Chris will get wiring sorted just in case. And AccessPORT will aid us and log both banks to see any issues first. 


That bonnet is just the start. CF side skirts, rear under, front spoiler, trunk, stunning rear wing to follow soon...


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## Nicks_Pop (Jul 12, 2009)

Benji Linney GTC said:


> Good reply that man ! this has been a topic of discussion last few days behind scenes. Chris Lloyds findings have been that, a balance pipe running across the back of the inlet manifold and connecting the two ‘collectors’ together just after the throttle and before they split into the individual cylinder runners. With balance pipe it all ends up the same pressure anyway regardless. Chris will get wiring sorted just in case. And AccessPORT will aid us and log both banks to see any issues first.


Hmmm......quite a ticklish exercise. To be honest, at first I was thinking I'd still have fears about ECU issues which derive from MAF, boost, and so forth, but would in fact because of the crossed boost air flow be applied to the wrong bank --- but I haven't been able to think of any! But you're basically saying that Chris's findings have indicated that there is a definite 'need' for some form of 'adaptation'? Interesting. Of course, with the 'straight' flow path turbo->inlet an optimum gas flow arrangement results, which should be beneficial from mid-range on up. That balance pipe may actually also cause some pesky 'headaches' of its own. 

I'm sure you and your team are up to the challenge -- happy engineering!


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## Kochi (Jul 25, 2003)

No, what Ben is saying is the balance pipe is there from the factory - look under the back edge of the engine cover. That pipe connects both left and right intake manifolds togther after the throttle bodies  Doesnt matter which turbo blows where, it all gets balanced.


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## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

oops missed your reply.


The stock setup left turbo feeds the right bank of cylinders and vice versa. We flip this around. However the stock inlet manifold features a 'balance pipe' (thats what Nissan calls it) that connects the left and right collectors together just after the throttle bodies, but before the manifold splits into individual runners. Therefore its a moot point as to which turbo feeds what bank as the pressure will always equalise out between the banks/turbos. This also means that the ECU can only adjust fuelling for the whole engine (rather than per bank) if one lambda probe reports a lean condition as the ECU cant necessarily tell which bank of cylinders caused it. Interestingly only one of the MAF's records inlet temp as well, the other is dumb - chances are that both will be getting the same temperatures though !
Theres a stack of r&d still to do of course so its still very much a work in progress. Hopefully have it running next week, but like all Forge products, if it doesn't work Forge won't sell it.


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## Nicks_Pop (Jul 12, 2009)

Benji Linney GTC said:


> The stock setup left turbo feeds the right bank of cylinders and vice versa. We flip this around.
> - Take it you meant "The stock setup left turbo feeds the left bank...."?
> However the stock inlet manifold features a 'balance pipe' (thats what Nissan calls it) that connects the left and right collectors together just after the throttle bodies, but before the manifold splits into individual runners. Therefore its a moot point as to which turbo feeds what bank as the pressure will always equalise out between the banks/turbos. This also means that the ECU can only adjust fuelling for the whole engine (rather than per bank) if one lambda probe reports a lean condition as the ECU cant necessarily tell which bank of cylinders caused it.
> - Who'd have thought? That means actuator synchronization and BOVs don't have to be spot on either?
> ...


By the way, just what kind of wiring was Chris working on?


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## thistle (Oct 27, 2007)

Whether to swap around the MAF sensor wiring between banks was the issue.

As stock, the left MAF feeds the right bank. This setup would make the left MAF feed the left bank.

I think it is still important that actuators are at identical cracking pressures (rods are different lengths just to complicate it  ) as the wastegate solenoid is shared between both banks and you also don't want one turbo spinning at a different speed to the other giving a difference in exhaust manifold pressure which would change the volumetric efficiencies between banks.

The MAF calibration is slightly different between the two banks as well, this is a puzzle when they use the same sensors.

Accessport can log a lot of items for either bank so it will be useful to compare logs when up and running.


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## Nicks_Pop (Jul 12, 2009)

thistle said:


> Whether to swap around the MAF sensor wiring between banks was the issue.
> -Oh, ok.
> 
> As stock, the left MAF feeds the right bank. This setup would make the left MAF feed the left bank.


Maybe I've been ignorant to that _detail_ all along? Am I correct to assume, that the actual "crossover" is in fact a 'feature' of the stock inlet manifold? That would explain everything. But Benji's new cooler does flow from one side directly through and out the other, right?


thistle said:


> I think it is still important that actuators are at identical cracking pressures (rods are different lengths just to complicate it  ) as the wastegate solenoid is shared between both banks and you also don't want one turbo spinning at a different speed to the other giving a difference in exhaust manifold pressure which would change the volumetric efficiencies between banks.
> 
> The MAF calibration is slightly different between the two banks as well, this is a puzzle when they use the same sensors.


Thanks for the heads up Thistle, sounds almost as if Nissan has built in their 'dongle' against tuners directly in the aspiration side of things.


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## Nicks_Pop (Jul 12, 2009)

@Benji: After a tad more thought on my part, I came to the conclusion that:

-> With the re-wired MAFs you've now "restored" that beautiful VR38DETT to its 'true' self -- 2 individual 3-cylinder turbo engines sharing the common crankshaft.
-> Sooo.......why not try REMOVING that crossover entirely, as in this cleaned-up 'environment' it's nothing more than a silly, tuning aggrevating appendix. :clap:


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## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

A few pics i don't think have been seen before, of our first JDM 35 before she came to UK in Jan 08.


















Z-Tune


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## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

and a few track pics in UK


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## MiGTR (Jul 31, 2007)

Benji Linney GTC said:


> Good reply that man ! this has been a topic of discussion last few days behind scenes. Chris Lloyds findings have been that, a balance pipe running across the back of the inlet manifold and connecting the two ‘collectors’ together just after the throttle and before they split into the individual cylinder runners. With balance pipe it all ends up the same pressure anyway regardless. Chris will get wiring sorted just in case. And AccessPORT will aid us and log both banks to see any issues first.



Apologies for the thread resurrection. I gather from the fact the Forge intercooler is on the market that there were no problems resulting from swapping the flow-path? Was there ever any results from a comparison test against stock released?


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