First, Happy New Year Everyone! 2015 will be a good year for mods, I have lots planned so whether I have the time to do stuff will be the main problem!
Second, I had gotten some requests for a video/sound clip of the Blitz E-ESC electronic exhaust valve in action. Unfortunately it may be a bit hard to tell the difference due to the limited sound recording capabilities of my iPhone, but I think you can somewhat tell the difference. Incidentally, it seems MUCH more quiet from INSIDE the car, but that's probably because one gets used to the drone of the Tomei exhaust at engine speeds above 1200 (so basically all the time) and then all of a sudden when the car is at a light and the revs drop to 1000... silence (ok so it's relative but heck the wife was surprised...)
You will see from the video that what Ninomiya-san (who installed the E-ESC) told me is correct - basically there is no difference in sound from about 20% open all the way to 100%. There is a drastic difference however once the valve closes to 15% or less... here in the video you can hear, when the valve is open at only 5%, the engine sounds that remain at idle, and additionally you can also see that the exhaust smoke (it was really cold outside when I shot the video) diminishes as well.
Well today couldn't come fast enough. As of last Friday, Tomei Powered had shipped their new Expreme Ti full titanium exhaust to BeAmbitious to be fitted to my car - most likely the first in Japan! Now all I had to do was to find a place to dyno the car before and after the new exhaust was fitted - so we could see the difference in power, if any!
Ninomiya-san at BeAmbitious to the rescue - he was able to, at short notice find a shop that had both a Dynapack and was willing to swap the exhausts, and do two sets of dyno runs, for a reasonable price. So off I went today to this shop - called Uchida Car World near the Yokohama Lalaport shopping center, down the street from BeAmbitious.
First order of business. Get the sound of the Fujitsubo on video. Ok so as Dino (who came to take some photos and film as well) pointed out A BIT TOO LATE, when shooting video with an iPhone, hold it sideways...
So I apologize for the "thin" videos that follow.
Anyway, here we are trying to get the sound of the Fujitsubo...
After getting scolded for revving the car on the street - you see Uchida Car Works is on a busy pedestrian street! - we waited until they moved the car inside the garage to be set up for the dyno - a Dynapack which measures at the hubs.
This is in contrast to the rolling road type of dyno at SuperAutobacs where I had my car measured about 4 years ago.
Believing that the boost was set at 1.3, we began the first run... only to end up with some weird numbers - only 299.7ps? What's going on? Ninomiya-san quickly figured out that my boost controller was inoperative - no power going to it. (but actually, that means the boost was set to somewhere around 0.7, which given this uncorrected number - 300ps - means the engine is very healthy, no?)
Suspecting a short or ground issue, he began poking around... and then we began to literally disassemble the dash to figure out where the wiring went. After spotting some burnt wiring, luckily we found that it was a blown fuse, so we put the interior back together and we were in business.
But this time - in order to obtain the best results possible, we set the max boost at 1.5.
Doing the run again - twice - with the Fujitsubo on, we got the following numbers:
First run - 425.3 ps and 54.6 kg/m of torque. Ok, respectable numbers - but Uchida-san said he wanted to let the engine "warm up" a bit... so we waited a few minutes and then ran again.
Second run - 442.2 ps and 56.2 kg/m.
Not bad at all considering these are numbers at the hub, and uncorrected for "what the engine makes." Ninomiya-san had suggested we view only the raw data much as he did in his Nismo days, so that's what we did.
Dino commented that a "standard" correction number thrown around in the GTR world was 20%... Ninomiya said 10%... and later research on the web I found 15%. Anyway, a whole can of worms... but I'll take the 20% figure!!! LOL.
20% means that 442.2 ps at the hubs is "REALLY" 1.2 times that at the engine, or 530.64 ps!! Heck I'll take that! And furthermore, given that the boost as reported by Ninomiya went all the way to 1.38, VERY consistent with my results at SuperAutobacs 4 years ago (508ps at 1.3).
Anyway due to all this excitement I forgot to take video... but I think Dino may have some, I will have to ask...
THen it was time to remove the car from the Dyno, lift it up and replace the Fujitsubo with the Tomei exhaust.
Here it was as they began laying it out.
Finally, they began the run with the Tomei:
Unfortunately the sound did not come out as well as I thought it would. But I DID measure using an dB meter app - and there was a difference of 6dB between the two! The Tomei is LOUD! Will try to re-record something like the first video above.
Results:
So what kind of performance did the Tomei generate?
Again, two runs.
First run - 452.1 ps, and 58.3 kg/m of torque.
Second run - 466.2 ps, and 58.3 kg/m of torque.
Again using the "20%" conversion factor - 466.2 x 1.2 = 559.44 ps. So basically 560ps!!!
Well even if we conservatively multiply by 10% - ie 1.1, that is still 512.82 ps.
Anyway, looking at the raw data, can we say that the Tomei Expreme allowed the car to generate an extra 40.9 ps? (Last run minus first run).
Not quite - I think a more accurate comparison would be 466.2 minus 442.2 (both second runs), for a difference of 24 ps.
Calculated against 442.2ps, we have a gain of 5.42%
Not bad - but there is ONE MORE FACTOR to consider. On the Tomei run, its better breathing allowed the engine to spool up the turbos to 1.49 (vs 1.38 on the Fujitsubo). Clearly by comparing the graphs (which I'll scan in later) you can see that, up until about 4000 rpm, the power curve is almost identical - but then on the Tomei runs, is more vertical and ends up at higher numbers after. Also you will note that the second Tomei run, the power curve is jagged - we think the clutch was slipping!!!
So is this extra 0.1 of boost responsible for the difference?
Honestly, I'm not sure. All I know is that the Tomei pipe is gorgeous to look at, at least 6 dB louder (in fact so loud that when I got home, I had to fit the inner silencer), and a few kg lighter. And priced only about 10,000 yen more! (the price of the Fujitsubo has gone up since I bought it!).
Conclusion - Tomei it is!
So in a couple of days, I'll be tracking the car at Fuji Speedway, and hope to have flyby video so we can hear what it sounds like at speed! LOL. Stay tuned!
Ok so due to some questions and requests that came my way, here are some additional photos and background that hopefully sheds some light as to this whole Titanium Exhaust project.
As Dino mentioned in his best Speedhunters post to date (showing both our cars) http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/11/21/car-life-gt-gt-creating-a-tomei-prototype.aspx
the project began last year when our friend Allen at Tomei proposed that (and I write this with as much modesty as I can muster) two world-famous Skyline GT-Rs (R33 and R34) be used to develop, and then showcase, their new exhaust line.
As you can see, they had my car covered in blue clear wrap, because Allen apparently told everyone at Tomei how OCD (stress on OBSESSIVE) I was on keeping my car clean.
Here is a front shot
And here is a shot from the back, showing no exhaust pipe… I suppose this is when they were taking the initial measurements.
Allen also showed me some component parts of their exhausts – here is the vented inner silencer, along with some fiberglass like strands, I believe both are used in the muffler portion.
Fast forward an earthquake and nuclear disaster and a few months later, and again our cars were called to action – this time for final fitting of the prototypes. Oh, and some photography…
This time when I dropped the car off, I noticed that they had already borrowed a stock R33 exhaust from another tuner:
and then during the week Dino sent the following photos, taken presumably during the photoshoot.
Here is my car, you can see obviously the blue protective sheet.
And a shot of my car outside while Dino's is on the lift.
Once it got dark, they started taking photos. Here is a close up of the underside of my car.
And here is how they set up the lighting for the rear 3/4 view shot.
And here of course once again are the final shots - just beautiful!
Finally - for those of you curious about pricing - we've been telling everyone it's VERY competitive - check back again around Nov 30 when I will be allowed to release the GT-R Magazine print advertisement which contains pricing information, as well as one additional photo no one has seen yet.
And here it is, what everyone has been waiting for:
Tomei Powered will be introducing their new line of EXPREME all Titanium exhausts for the R32, R33, and R34 GT-Rs, in early January (probably) for sale to the general public.
Here is what I know so far:
90mm diameter (what I consider minimum for a tuned GT-R)
High grade Titanium tubing – nothing but the best of course – and top grade craftsmanship to boot - all done in house by their master craftsmen, led by Hatanaka-san.
Pricing that will undercut all other major manufacturers. (Can't reveal it yet, but it will send a shock through the industry).
Weight less than half of stock
My car served as the benchmark by which Tomei measured, created, and then fitted the prototype. And maybe some exhaust flow testing too?
Here is a photo of how it looks from underneath – you can see the very gentle curves to ensure minimal power loss… and yet it fits better than my current Fujitsubo, which is almost straight out (and hence at a diagonal). Benefit to the curve ahead of the muffler portion is, I will be able to fit an R34 style diffuser if I want to…. (yes, still working on that actually…)
Sound – well as DCD told me “better make friends with the neighbors, and buy your wife more jewelry” but that is with the restrictor removed. Presumably, with the restrictor in, it will pass Japan’s stringent noise laws… I will post a video once I buy one from Tomei and have it installed!
In my next related post, I’ll post some close up photos of the exhaust from underneath, as taken by DCD during his visit.
