It's been a while since we have seen a Japanese Supercar on US shores.

While we were all excited to see the new Nissan R-35 GT-R, rumors were circulating that this car was so electronically advanced that it could not be modified.  Here at AMS we were intrigued by this notion and so was Chuck Hannold of the popular GT-R forum board Nagtroc.  As time passed tuners including ourselves have been finding ways to improve the GT-R but Chuck was looking for something more.

Chuck established a lofty goal of 1000 horsepower while retaining the GT-R's street manners and has commissioned us here at AMS Performance to get the job done.  We will be documenting the process of engineering and construction along with the difficulties of doing something never attempted before on the GT-R.

Below are the beginning stages of the build and the extensive measures needed to build a 1000hp GT-R!

Day one was as to be expected. Chuck’s injured GT-R arrived at AMS by one of our recommend covered transport carriers. The next time it gets loaded onto this carrier she will be touting over 1000 hp!

She looks like your run of the mill GT-R. The beauty of what we are about to do is that when we are done the aesthetics of the car will not change much. Well except for maybe a parachute! :)

The car came to us in pretty rough shape. The motor had been severely hurt and was unusable. It really was the perfect candidate for a build of this magnitude. Take a good look because the engine bay will never look like this again.

 A simple roll bar setup was installed by the previous owner. This setup is great for those looking for some high 10 sec passes but for Chucks 1000 hp build he will need an 8 second certified cage. This one will have to come out.

 The car came in with this nitrous system and is certainly a large contributing factor to the demise of the stock engine. This system will be completely removed. 

The tear down is about to begin.  In the background you can see another of our customers GT-R’s that is being out fitted with the AMS SR850 Package. It is still the current record holder on pump gas with a 10.4 @ 134mph trap speed in the quarter mile. Removing the front bumper and intercooler assembly unearthed a bunch methanol injection lines. Those along with everything under the  hood are about to be a memory.

The factory GT-R IC assembly is shrouded very nicely from the factory. This is something the AMS replacement unit will retain.

The VR38 is now removed from her home. From here we can begin to compile data and dimensions to engineer our own custom turbo kit.

Another shot of the shell of the GT-R. Space constraints are a real problem with this car so advanced engineering solutions will be necessary for this build.

In order to hold 1000 plus horsepower the GT-R transmission will need to be addressed. Some top secret ideas and products will be used in this build. Here you see our lead GT-R technician Ivan Phipps removing the entire GT-R subframe.

The previous owner’s water injection and nitrous wiring left a mess of wiring behind which had to be removed. The end goal is a car that looks and drives like stock…but just happens to be capable of flight with the right set of wings.

The first step in our engineering process is to measure the space we have to work with. Here you see Drew Johnson (engineer at AMS) using our Coordinate measurement machine (CMM ARM) to plot the points on the GT-R for cad design.

By using the CMM Arm he can touch any point on the car to record its respective measurement. Here you see Drew taking exhaust manifold dimensions.

After all of his data is collected he has the painstaking task of recreating the GT-R’s chassis and engine in CAD form so we can begin the development of the turbo kit.

This is the early stages of Drew’s CAD rendering. Here you can see how tight the GT-R engine bay really is.  It will be difficult to fit two much larger turbo chargers in a space not designed for them.

Here we have a view of the placement of the exhaust manifold flanges. The next step is optimizing that space and building the best manifold we can given those constraints.

The first rendering of the driver’s side is shown here with the wastegate, header and turbo.

Another view of the driver’s side highlighting the tubular manifold.

Using Drew’s talents we are now able to isolate the header itself. This piece will be the most complicated and expensive piece of the kit. Coincidentally this will also take the most time to completely develop.

Here is another shot of that same header. The V-band flanges will help in making this kit gasket free and easier to install.

To fabricate this piece by hand would not only yield an inferior product but be very time consuming. By casting the manifolds we are able to get the absolute most out of a given area and are not held back by the restrictive design and flow characteristics of a hand fabricated piece.

The next step was to take that design and print a 3D model using our rapid prototype 3D printer.

By printing an actual model like this we can build a demo kit to test for final fitment. This ensures that our customers will not only get the best performing product but the highest quality and best fitting piece.

In 3D form you can really see how intricate our header design is. All of the bends flow very smoothly and will result in some very impressive power output.

Heat becomes a big problem when confined to a small area. For this reason we had to employ a complex but suitable heat shield for our exhaust manifolds. Here we have the unwelded sample being tested for fitment.

The passenger side heat shield gets the same royal armored treatment. Just making horsepower is one way of doing things but making reliable horsepower is the AMS way of doing things.

Now that we have our header print we can actually assemble the mock up kit. Here the kit really starts to take shape. The beginnings of the downpipe are present along with the turbo outlet, header and wastegate.

The passenger side looks much of the same. I cannot stress enough how tight this area is and how fractions of an inch play a role in product development.

Take notice of the compressor outlet pipe. We must cast this piece as well due to the complicated bends needed to wrap around existing components in the engine bay.

Now the engine gets set into the car for final clearancing and test fitment. Once this is finalized we can begin to have our 3D prints turned into casted components.

With the engine reinstalled you can see how little space we have to work with.  Our precise engineering resulted in OEM like fitment.  Stay tuned for updates as we continue development of the GT-R turbo kit and our goal of 1000 hp!

-AMS Performance

AMS Performance Website