Hi-Torque Performance Nissan GT-R: Hot Tuner 2016

The Nissan GT-R is not known as Godzilla for nothing. Nope, straight from the crate, this is a serious tool with performance enough to see off just about anything else without flashing blue lights on its roof. And even then…

Hot Tuner 2016 is brought to you by Valvoline SynPower

So what happens when you re-engineer a Nissan GT-R for more speed? This happens. It’s the work of Gold Coast-based Hi-Torque Performance and it’s abso-freakin’-lootely mental.

Aside from the Nismo-sourced Black Edition window-dressing and the HKS coil-over kit, we’re talking some far-out mechanical mods, all aimed at boosting the already hefty stocker’s 404kW at the crank to the modded version’s 450kW at the treads, even on the suspect fuel we inadvertently lumbered it with. On ‘real’ PULP, who knows?

Hi-Torque claims its monster is the genuine, 800-horsepower package, which works out to almost bang-on 600kW, so who are we to argue? Sadly, the GT-R was coughing and missing both on the track and the strip, yet Hi-Torque’s Kent Dalton assured us that nothing had been changed on the car’s tune (or anything else). Taking him at his word, we reckon that’s another nail in the coffin of our fuel supplier.

So what’s the deal with the GT-R’s powerplant? Well, for starters, the stock turbochargers were flung and replaced with a HKS GT1000 kit comprised of a pair of 7460 snails and GTII wastegates. There’s also a 1000-horsepower HKS intercooler kit with both new dump and intake pipes.

You’ll also find a HTP E85-compatible fuel system, along with bigger injectors, and there’s a Cobb access port to get at the custom tune with its switchable maps. Hi-Torque also specified a titanium exhaust system, HKS blow-off valves and, an essential piece of the puzzle, the HKS transmission-cooler kit.

All up, you’re looking at $44,500 over and above the price of your showroom-floor GT-R. That sort of money represents what has obviously been the deep thinking and development that has gone into this car. Dalton is quick to point out it’s not the sort of project Hi-Torque is known for.

“It’s a customer’s car,” Dalton explains. “We don’t do many GT-Rs and initially we weren’t interested. But it’s such a bullet straight off the shelf that we figured it would be a great build. It’s really just a nice street car, not a competition car. My favourite part of it? The fact that it’s such a total package.

“You’ve gotta love a 10-second street car. And I really like the way Nissan has designed 100 per cent for the driver.”

Okay, so by the time you buy your GT-R, write a cheque to Hi-Torque and add your personal stuff, you’re looking at a quarter-of-a-million bucks. But when you consider what it can do and compare it with the admission fee for anything else that gets close, those 250 gorillas look like a dead-set bargain.

WORKSHOP
Car: 2015 Nissan GT-R Black
Who: Hi-Torque Performance
Where: 3/225 Brisbane Road, Labrador, Queensland
How long: Since 2005
Contact: (07) 5500 6512
Email: admin@hi-torqueperformance.com.au
Web: www.hi-torqueperformance.com.au

SPECIFICATIONS
Drive: all-wheel
Engine: 3799cc V6, DOHC, 24v, twin-turbo
Gearbox: 6-speed dual-clutch
Suspension: double A-arms, coil-overs, anti-roll bar(f); multi-links, coil-overs, anti-roll bar (r)
Brakes: 390mm ventilated/drilled discs, 6-piston calipers(f); 380mm ventilated/drilled discs, 4-piston calipers(r)
Wheels: 20 x 9.5-inch(f); 20 x 10.5-inch(r)
Tyres: 255/40 ZR20(f); 285/35 ZR20(r) Bridgestone Potenza

PARTS AND PRICES
HKS GT1000 kit: $44,500
Suspension: $6000
Total Mods cost: $50,500
Vehicle cost (mSrp): $192,000
Total cost: $242,500