The Ultimate Nissan Skyline NISMO Z-TUNE

Author: Glenn M MunnArticle:With the 34 GTR no longer in production Nismo decided toattempt building what they believed to be the ultimate NissanSkyline GTR. Utilizing many years experience within differentracing scenes it could be argued that Nismo should have theability to do exactly that. This vehicle was to benefit from themany years of success Nismo had within motor racing. Successfulrace cars include the Gr-A, N1, GT500, and the "Nürburgringspecification," This car had be comfortable for the street andcomply with today's new and strict emission laws, perhapsNismo's biggest challenge to date.The basic concept of the car was completed in 2000 when Nismocompeted in what was called the "tuners battle" power wasrestricted to 600ps and Nismo came out on top. This concept wasthen taken to the next level were luxuries had to be added tomake the car comfortable for street use. Making a race carstreet friendly has many challengers brake and clutch feel needsto be light and easy to use, suspension needs to softer, andluxuries like Leather seats and air-conditioning need to beadded.All these luxuries add weight so Nismo had to find a way to shedit and carbon fiber was the answer. This killed two birds withone stone by using carbon fiber chassis rigidity was alsoimproved. To improve chassis rigidity even further the, doorframes, front strut upper hood reinforcement area, and centertunnel were all spot welded and CFRP adhered. The aero parts ofthe car including the front bumper, front blister fenders, andhood were all made of highly ridged carbon fiber. Aero parts were designed with cooling and down force in mind.The front bumper has large air ducts so cool air is fed to theengine, brakes and oil coolers. Fenders were widened 15mm to fitwider tread and has ducts inside the engine bay to exhaust hotair from the engine bay. The bonnet also contains ducts toexhaust hot air and utilizes a duct to ram cool air into theintake at high speeds. Front and rear under spoilers are used toimprove down force. Beating in the heart of the Nissan Skyline is a race editionRB26DETT which had proven itself lemans 24 hour race and namedthe Z2. This engine generates 368kw and 540Nm. NISMO utilizedthe many parts which had been proven on race engines and eachengine was carefully hand built by Nismo mechanics and engineersto ensure the finest quality. Many would agree that the Nismo Nissan Skyline GTR is theultimate street performance car. It is luxuries, tame enough todrive on the street comfortably and yet its race bread heritagemeans it still performs brilliantly on the race track. In beastmotoring #15 the Nismo Z-tune broke the street car lap recordpreviously held by the Ferrari F360R.Pictures, more specifications plus a time attack video betweenthe Z- tune and the Ferrari can be seen at this websitenissanskyline.6te.net.Glenn Munn Skyline Enthusiast About the author:Glenn Munn has been a sports car Enthusiast for many years. Moreinformation and tuning guides for all popular skyline models canbe found at his website href="http://nissanskyline.6te.net">Nissan Skyline