Dinner with Nissan and R33 GT-R Legends!

So due to my new position in the Nissan Group (some of you might know exactly), I was lucky enough to be invited to a very special but casual dinner/drinks with some legends from the R33 GT-R world.

Thank you everyone! Especially Hiromi-san for arranging this!

First of course, was Mr. Kozo Watanabe.  Most of you know that he is the real father of the R33 and R34 GT-Rs, so of course I took advantage of this to ask questions to confirm my belief that the R33 is the better car (lol).  So yeah, on my promise to not publicize the details, I learned about why the R34 GT-R never had published numbers for Nurburgring, actual horsepower numbers of the GT-Rs, and how the shorter wheelbase of the R34 was not something driven from a dynamic performance perspective.  He was quick to deflect admiration on his efforts, saying that most of the amazing work for these second generation GT-Rs was by Ito-san, father of the R32 GT-R, and the teams of people involved.  Oh, I also got him to autograph a couple of things for me...  

As Sunako-san looks on, Watanabe-san squeezes his signature onto...

The front GT-R emblem!! 

I do not think I will install this on my car... way too valuable... but on the other hand...　

Watanabe-san was kind enough to sign and leave a message on my car's sun visor!

Note that in addition to his signature, he asked me if I wanted to have him write anything special? My response was, "Anything, I will leave it up to you sir!" 

So he wrote - 究極のドライブングプレジャー　(Kyu-kyo-ku-no-dora-i-bing pu-re-jah) which translates to "The Ultimate Driving Pleasure"- this is the concept Nissan pursued for all of the Skyline GT-Rs beginning with the KPGC10 to produce world-class sports cars. Watanabe-san would obviously be the one guy intimately connected to this phrase, and when he showed us all what he wrote, there was a murmur of Wow and Naruhodo! expressed at the table from the others, including Matsumura-san and the race drivers.

Matsumura-san is a super interesting guy.  He retired from NISMO in 2024 where he had been the COO; but as a career Nissan motorsports engineer (with a PhD!) he was involved in all of the cool stuff, working with Ito, Watanabe, and Mizuno on the GT-Rs.  Known as the "The God of Engines" at Nissan and NISMO, I learned he is the father of the SR20DET?!!! But most importantly, he owns an R33 GT-R and I have heard the guys at Omori Factory about the lengths he went to in order to get the RB26 engine running PERFECTLY in his own car.  Hopefully I get a chance soon to check out his car, and when I do I will post what I learn here!  I have actually worked with him on a couple of projects at Nissan/NISMO and so he knows me well, but I never had a chance to post about him before.

Anyway, as you can see I am pretty happy with just being in the same photo with these two legends!!! 

Another bucket list item for me!

Matsumura-san's successor at NISMO as Chief Motorsport Officer is Kiga-san - who was kind enough to pose for a photo with me and ex Nissan racing driver and current WTAC driver Tarzan Yamada who I had not seen for several years!

Long time blog readers probably remember the time he drove my car on the track, testing out the Tarzan G-Box.

I was also able to meet up with Sunako-san, who I had not seen in about 10 years!

This man does not age..

In addition to teaching me on how to drive on the track, his real claim to fame is winning the 1996 Super Taikyu Class 1 Series Championship in an R33 GT-R, of course.

From Sunako-san's website

In addition to his WTAC fame, Yamada-san was Sunako-san's co-driver in the Super Taikyu series, so it was interesting to hear stories from both of them from that (golden) era.  I was just happy that both of them remembered me!

And then I was able to get to know Katsura-san too!

Super nice guy Shinichi Katsura

I had met Katsura-san very briefly at TAS before, but this time I got to sit down with him and have a series of very interesting chats with him about how awesome the 33 GT-R is (in front of Watanabe-san, of course!). He also talked about Aston Martins, a topic Watanabe-san actually knew a lot about, so that was really interesting too!

You can see a very young Katsura-san (oh and a very young Sunako-san too) in this Best Motoring video from 1997, upon the release of the kohki BCNR33.

And finally, another NISMO legend - Mizuki-san, long time NISMO Racing Team Manager/Group A GT-R Chief Mechanic! Even though I lift weights at the gym, Mizuki-san apparently works out every day and showed off his impressive shoulder and arm muscles - the guy is 64 and SOLID!  Here, Katsura-san is laughing at how weak I am compared to Mizuki-san...

And finally, I have to thank the both of these lovely ladies - Hiromi-san (long time NISMO) and Yumi-san (long time AUTECH PR) - for arranging and for keeping the conversation going at all times!

Anyway, first thing I did when I got home, was to reinstall the sunvisor in my car.

Yeah, I know it is not an OEM part, being an S15 part, but as you know I installed these to match the dark grey Alcantara on the roof! So now, everytime I drive the car, I can flip down the sun visor and remember this evening I had with so many incredible people who have contributed to the Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R!

Busy Day! ItalDesign Event, Nismo Omori, and Daikoku PA

at Daikanyama T-Site

So since my GT-R normally lives on top of the car lift, and it is somewhat of a hassle to get it out of the garage (move my Elgrand; move my Lexus IS-F; move my Skyline Nismo), lately for me it has to be a special occasion before I can be bothered to do so.

But today was such a day!

My friend Andrea Porta at ItalDesign had invited me to his company's world premier of their newest book which has the theme of engineers with ideas: "ItalDesign Engineers of Ideas"

The event was at the gigantic Tsutaya store/parking lot in Daikanyama, Tokyo, called Daikanyama T-Site.  Longtime readers will recall that I was on hand with my R33 GT-R when ItalDesign launched the GT-R50 in the very same parking lot back in 2018. 

Anyway, this time Andrea reached out to me (probably because he knows I don't drive the R enough) and gently asked if I could make time for this event - but I had to bring the R. A bit confused, as I heard that all the other cars were going to be ones that were actually designed by ItalDesign, but I figured it was a great excuse to get out and hang out with fellow car nerds but of the non JDM variety.

After checking out the cars for a couple of hours, we headed inside for an hour long presentation of the book's contents, as well as an update on what we can expect ItalDesign to be doing going forward.

As I was learning that ItalDesign had been influential in the design of objects other than cars, such as Seiko watches and Nikon cameras, I got a text message from a fellow R33 owner, SHOHEI.  He asked if we could meet up at Daikoku, since last I saw him (at Mine's and then also at Umihotaru) he had been itching to take photos of my car.  I was agreeable, but he proposed meeting up at Daikoku at 1400.  But the ItalDesign event ended at about 1230... what to do, since it was only a quick 30 minute drive from Daikanyama to Daikoku?

Well, why not go to where I always like to go - Nismo Omori? Maybe I could kill some time there...

When I arrived, some kids from Finland saw my car and got excited, so I talked to them for a bit... (Eetu? Sorry...)

Inside Nismo Omori Factory, I found this Tomica display

I need to talk to someone about putting a Tomica of my car in here...

And then a couple of mildly interesting cars:

But sadly nothing R33 related. Luckily, SHOHEI volunteered to stop by Nismo first before Daikoku...

SHOHEI in green about to take some photos of our cars

I think this is the first time I have compared a KL0 v KR4 silver car in daylight!

Both silvers are awesome! Especially as both have the new Veleno LED headlights!

After talking to some guys at Nismo, it was off to Daikoku, finally.  I took this photo of SHOHEI taking some photos but he was also kind enough to later send me some samples of his work as well.

Yeah ok but WOW check out his photos:

I guess he likes using filters, or Photoshop, but heck they look good. Thanks SHOHEI!!

Also thanks to SHOHEI for giving me a couple of new ideas for future mods....!!!! 

Finally - Install of the Veleno LED Headlights (How to)!

So even though I myself was one of the first to post about these headlights, and had placed an early order, until now I did not have the time to do the install.

But that changed over the reent Golden Week holiday. 

First order of business was to move my cars around so I had the garage space free to work on the GT-R. 

Step 1 - move the Skyline Nismo out from its parking spot underneath the GT-R.

Initially, I thought this would be enough. But then reading my own old posts on headlight removal, realized I would have to pull the car out and jack it up, in order to remove the front wheels and thus get access to the fender liners.  Yep, the headlights have one bolt on the side that requires either bumper removal - ideally - or some tricky access via the inside of the fenders (and bumper removal is a major hassle). 

But before I lowered the car, I went ahead and removed the 3 part Silk Road front diffuser.  And as you can see, this car is no garage queen. Check out all the scrapes and bits of plastic coming off. Time for some repairs soon I think!

Step 2 - I then lowered the GT-R, and then opened up the hood to do a visual inspection of the headlights and surroundings, to make sure I would have all the tools I need ready to go. (socket wrenches, screwdrivers, etc. Not rocket science but helps to have it all lined up ready).

Given that I needed more space in the garage to jack up the GT-R, this meant Step 3, I would have to move the Lexus into a nearby parking lot.

Despite my recent troubles with the original PPF application to the Skyline, all is well that ends well - the car looks fantastic and is an absolute blast to drive!

And of course, I had to take one last picture of the car with the original Xenon headlights in action! Gonna miss the blue discharge warmup!

Not sure if this is due to heat but you can see some cloudiness in the lens cover. Maybe I should invest in a lens cover replacement kit?

Relatively big box from Veleno...

That contains one box for each headlight within.

Inside each box, lots of styrofoam padding. No scratches or problems that I can find...

With the Skyline now parked outside, I went ahead and moved the GT-R into place, jacked it up, removed the right front wheel, then started to remove parts to get access to the right headlamp.

Hello, nice looking carbon fiber intercooler piping...

Lined up next to each other, the OEM on right and the VELENO on the left.

Here is another annoying issue. The hoses for the HKS oil cooler. There HAS to be a better way to route them, they are so ugly.

First challenge of the day. Why two sets of harness adaptors?

You can see the double cuts are on the left for the grey, and right for the black ones.

So it turns out, that at least for my kohki/series 3, the supplied black connector connects to the OEM harness. The supplied connector then has separate leads to the high beam and low beam on the LED bulb side.

Took a bit of a firm push, but then "click" into place!

Oh and this piece of masking tape - I guess they just wanted to make sure the inside of the parking light space didn't get dirty or something.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And now for the left side.  This one is a complate pain, becuase the HKS oil cooler sits right under the headlight, meaning access to the side bolt is blocked by the oil cooler.  This necessitates the need to partially uncliip the front bumper cover, being very careful not to apply too much pressure.  Then use a screwdriver to quickly remove the bolt - a socket is too big, but luckily the bolt has the Philips screwdriver cross pattern on the head...

And if that wasn't enought, I realized once I removed the headlight, or tried to, that again because of the oil cooler, the ignitor box and its bracket had been relocated into a spot right on the core support.

Lots of patience and some really thin spanners and socket wrenches were required to get the box off...

Finally.

But then it was again another plug and play, and then bolt the new headlight back into place. Front bumper trick included in reverse. 

With nighttime coming quickly, I did not have presence of mind to try out the lights by taking the car out for a spin, but a quick check on the neightbor's house across the street revelaed these LEDs are unbelievably bright, like spotlights. Sorry no photos but will take some next time!