So yes folks it has been awhile - sadly no mods to the GT-R really this year, however going to this event DID allow me to meet up with some tuners and shops and yes get some inspiration for at least one project this year. In additon to a new extra job at Nissan as well as doing most of my driving in the Elgrand, it has been quite a year.
Anyway, some photos...
The banner in front of the stage
My Favorite...
Another angle for you guys.
Then of course I stopped by my friends at Mine's. Only the usual R34 this year.
They were getting ignored so I asked them to open the hood. This attracted a new wave of people!
Can't remember which tuner but those lights are weird.
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Slightly smaller turbo there
Very clean. A rebuild, I heard.
Have to say very well done.
A 400R is a 400R, Rebuilt or not.
Then it was about time to go. So Dino did his walk in the parking lot, the 34s and 32s were boring so of course I checked out the many R33s there...
Why? Just why???
See what I mean? 34s are boring
Even Dino spent more time with the 33s than usual.
Not sure what was interesting but I guess we will find out on his YouTube video
Rear of that Autech is strange too. I guess being a midnight purple R33 4 Door GT-R didn't attract enough attention?
Not sure if this is a hidden code or something...
Super clean. Super OEM. Super Normal
Saw this red one and then...
...then this one. I prefer this one. More sophisticated red? Burgundy?
Damn this one was barely held together...
this was interesting. The color...
camera does not do it justice. a deep grey but a hint of green?
At Ebina PA
We left early to beat the traffic. On the way back at Ebina PA, saw this yellow thing with a Do-Luck body kit. Reminded Dino and I to recall that neither of us have seen Ito-san of Do-Luck at any of these GT-R events lately. I guess maybe he's no longer in the GT-R scene?
With no Nismo Festival this year, I guess that was THE event to go to, but it really isn't quite the same. With the Nismo Festival, since there are cars other than GT-Rs there the variety of tuners and people are different, and there is more energy. A shame it got cancelled this year. Hopefully, next year?
In the meantime I am looking for an excuse to drive the GT-R. Maybe soon???
So I've been skimming some of the social media coverage of the R's meet lately, and one tuner/booth that seems to not get much attention is the one for NAPREC, short for Nagoya Precision. Established in 1997 by Minoru Nagoya (yep, so the company is not named after the city), everyone in the aftermarket engine tuning world here in Japan knows about NAPREC.
It's no secret that, if you want your rebuilt engine to perform at its best for its specified usage, you get in line and send the cylinder head in to NAPREC to be machined properly, so as to allow for the use of bigger valves, ensuring the smoothest flow of fresh air into and exhaust out of each cylinder, and changing the shape of the combustion chamber, to give a few examples. Check out their high-response menu. A not so well kept secret is that all the big name famous tuning houses send their engine heads into NAPREC - I recall Nakayama-san at Mine's telling me that he used to spend hours himself manually porting out the intake/exhaust ports for each engine he worked... but given the stuff that was included in the menu for my engine, I am pretty sure for the rest of the nifty bits added to my car's engine - strengthened valve guides, intake valves, etc. - the head was sent into NAPREC. In any case, for sure now, given how busy Mine's is, I am sure they outsource most of their cylinder head work to NAPREC (confirmed by Nagoya-san at his booth...)
Anyway, I wanted to share a few photos I took at his booth.
Just sitting pretty. Not even an RB26 head!
Anyone know what that gold ring is around each valve cutout?
Ok so this is an RB26 head, but check out how each cylinder combustion chamber is shaped differently in order to demonstrate what NAPREC can do.
Here are some close-ups, starting at the top.
OEM normal combustion chamber, with normal intake side valves of 34.5mm and exhaust side valves of 30.0mm, and normal seat rings.
This one (on bottom) shows "High Response Kit Machining" - normal combustion chamber, intake showing NAPREC forged big valves at 34.8mm (0.30mm more than oem); normal valves used on the exhaust side, except they have been refaced; and normal seat rings.
This one (on bottom) shows the "High Response Big Valve Spec" with the combustion chamber machined to "full squish", intake valves the NAPREC forged big valves at 34.8mm, exhaust valves the NAPREC forged big valves 1.00mm wider than OEM at 31.00mm, and normal seat rings.
Bottom one here shows the "High Response Intake Drag Valve Spec" which differs from the "High Response Big Valve Spec" by having the combustion chamber machined to "Hemi Circle shape" and the intake valve is a NAPREC Drag spec forged big valve at a massive diameter of 36.00mm, 1.50mm wider than OEM!
Finally, this one on the bottom - sorry for the poor quality photo - shows the Drag Kit Machining, which adds to the High Response Intake Drag Valve Spec by incorporating a full circle machined combustion chamber, exhaust side NAPREC Drag Spec Forged Big Valve with a diameter of 1.50mm wider than OEM at 31.5mm, large diameter seat rings - beryllium ones shown here.
I guess the bigger valves make sense, but I was most curious about the different shaped combustion chambers. Check out this NAPREC webpage for details. Interesting that the OEM combustion chamber has a volume of 65cc, Full Squish is 69.5cc, Hemi circle is 70.3cc, and Full Circle is 71cc.
From top to bottom - Full Circle, Hemi Circle, and Full Squish.
So even though the Full Squish looks pretty OEM, it actually provides the biggest step up in volume, with Hemi and Full Circles only being with 1.5cc of the Full Squish. And yes I asked and my Mine's engine should have the Full Squish (and yes it seems that way in checking this old blog post).
Anyway, it was nice to learn something somewhat mechanical - and yes basic - but hey some of these things you have to get up close and personal to really appreciate the precision that is required to produce super smooth and responsive engines.
In my next post, I am going to try to explain something very interesting I found... a possible future product which I am definitely interested in...
So after lunch, as I gazed out onto the pit below us, I saw the Nismo race team manually moving the R33 LeMans cars. So, I sensed it might be a good idea to leave the warm, cozy Guest Room and back into the cold.
Ronnie Quintarelli walking past the blue car
Right when I got downstairs, I received a text message from my buddy Matt Rearick - he was coming back from lunch too so we arranged to meet up in one of the pits where some of HIS friends had fielded a race car. As we were chatting we also got a text from Abe (visiting from Hawaii!) who had just finished the "pit walk" and so we had a mini ClubR33 meet right there! (Dino is a member actually...)
Ironically, in front of a (Z) 34 car...
As we all had places to go, we said our goodbyes and I went outside with Dino and Alessandro again.
Where I ran into this beauty!
It was about this time that Dino, good guy that he is, felt that Alessandro should be able to enjoy the machines a bit closer up - so he lent him his Press Pass, and the two started enjoying close up access to incredible machines.
Watching from a distance, I realized that for a member of the Press, Alessandro looked ridiculous taking photos only with his iPhone. So, I leant him my Nikon DSLR but asked him to focus on the 33 cars.
Here is Alessandro, practicing with the auto setting.
This was the best shot I could get, from afar with my iPhone
Here is the car close up, thanks Alessandro!
And the No 22 car, taken with my iPhone
And by Alessandro.
Alessandro and Dino, both exhausted by all the hard work.
But I have to say, Alessandro has a very good eye for photography. He knows how to get just the right angles.
Slightly different angle - which one do you prefer, this or the one above?
Probably my favorite photo by Alessandro that day.
Here are the machines from the other side (33s and 32s)
And before the cars were driven out, with their drivers for the day. Toshio Suzuki took this one.
And Masahiko "Match" Kondo, who started out first as a pop singer and then transitioned to race cars! He now runs his own team, but was one of the original drivers for this car at LeMans!
nice closeup!
The Penzoil 23 from the side.
Then, it was time for the LeMans cars to leave the pits and hit the race track!
Dino not really caring, but engaging in debate with Ronnie!
Although they weren't lapping at full speed (I'm guessing around 250kph?), it's hard to understand how fast these cars were going on photo, so here is a video I took from back up in the warm Guest Room.
It seemed too soon, but the cars started coming off the track.
Meanwhile Mr. GTR was busy getting his photo taken with two other greats - Hoshino-san and the Drift King!
probably my favorite photo of the day. This car is just WOW
Match pulled the car in without issue. Not as pretty from above as the Clarion car IMO.
It was now about 4pm, and time to leave before the rest of the crowd also did. So, Dino and I gave Alessandro a ride to his rental car, and then we proceeded to try to beat traffic. We agreed to avoid the Tomei Expressway going home and have some fun doing so by taking the touge roads up in Hakone and going around the worst of the traffic on the Tomei.
But first, I had to get some gas, and for some reason the IS-F indicated it was low on oil, so we stopped off at a gas station to get that taken care of.
I guess even Toyota V-8s burn oil...
Unluckily, some genius decided to have an accident on the stretch of road right past where we would merge from the mountain road, which meant that our time back STILL took 6 hours! Mind you, in the morning we got to Fuji Speedway in about 90 minutes, so this was an all time worst.
Here is the genius that caused the enormous traffic jam. Now how exactly does someone end up doing this?
Finally, the traffic cleared past Machida and we picked up enough speed for me to enjoy a fun drive home. Next year, I will think about getting a hotel room and staying the night, OR getting someone to drive ME out there...
I hope this two part chronology gave you a sense of what the Nismo Festival is like!
