The N1 Bonnet... And "Hood Top Molding"

Although I tried researching what, if any differences the N1 bonnet has over the stock one, I could not find anything at all. I did find a couple of photos of what the N1 car looked like, on the GTR-World website.

You can see the rear spoiler wing in carbon, but the front hood is white

What's interesting of course is that, if the N1 cars were all offered only in white, then I wonder why the replacement bonnet I bought on Yahoo Auctions was unpainted with only the black primer coat? To paint on the racing team livery? I've also seen scale models of the N1 car, with a carbon hood, but this doesn't seem to be part of the actual factory package, although it's possible there might be a factory carbon hood option Nissan offered AFTER the car went on sale which I don't know about.

Rear view - no rear wiper.

For those who don't know what an N1 car is, let's do a quick review:

Towards the end of R32 GT-R production, there was a change to the FIA Rules which essentially eliminated the Group A category by 1993.   Cars now had to be even more similar to the mass produced cars they were based on.  The result was the N1 Endurance (or Taikyu) race series, and by July 1991 the first BNR32 N1 cars were rolling off the assembly line.

So it was only natural that when the BCNR33 went on sale in 1995, there was already an N1 version available. Now, as to how many N1 cars were actually made remains a mystery that I haven't been able to solve, however my resources list out these technical differences between N1 cars and their regular road car brothers. (Reference: book, "Shingata Skyline GT-R no Subete" (translated - All About the new Skyline GT-R) published by MotorFan magazine on February 18, 1995).

To increase durability:
1. Turbo chargers used metal turbines
2. Thickness of piston second land increased from 4.0mm to 4.6mm
3. Changes to material used in con-rod bearings
4. Strengthened air inlet hosing
5. Use of air cooled oil cooler
6. Larger vanes in water pump
7. Strengthened areas around cylinder boss head bolt boss.

To increase response:
8. Thinner piston ring gap (top and second - from 1.5mm to 1.2mm)
9. Changes to cam profiles (the exhaust side overlap - 0 to 5 degrees)

To increase cooling ability:
10. Placement of 2 engine cooling slits
11. Air ducts in bumper
12. Elimination of screen in bumper
13. Placement of "hood top molding"

Chassis Related:
14. Use of multiple oil coolers (optional)

Aerodynamics related:
15. Change to shape of rear spoiler
      CD:    0.35 -> 0.35
      CLF:  0.09 -> 0.01
      CLR:  0.14 -> 0.15
(numbers are compared to standard R33 GT-R)

16.  Use of CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastic) front undercover.

Other than these performance upgrades, the N1 car also had no radio, no rear window wiper/washer, no UV blocking windows, no passenger airbag, and no air conditioning, all in an effort to shave excess weight off the car.

Finally, the price of the N1 car was about 1,200,000 yen more than the standard car, and 700,000 yen more than the V-Spec model (all N1 cars were based on the V-Spec). A classic case of "paying more for less"?

So, the only reference to how the hood/bonnet is different is the bonnet lip spoiler, or "hood top molding" as referenced above.

In any case, I had always been a bit annoyed since I found a slight crease on the front right leading edge of my hood - it was ever so slight, but enough to be noticeable.  My theory was, someone sat on the hood for a photo or something, and left the crease! Bastard!! And when I approached body shops to fix and repaint, the answer was always - it'd be cheaper to find another hood and paint versus trying to fix the aluminum hood. So I was resigned to trying to find a good quality used hood.

Anyway -  just when my car was at Nissan Prince to get the Getrag installed, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I found the unused N1 Bonnet on Yahoo Auctions. So I bought it and had it sent to Nissan to be installed and painted while my car was there.

(again, these were scanned in hence the poor photo quality)

This is how it arrived at the dealer

Started peeling away, good to see the whole thing was bubble wrapped!

Nothing wrong here, either!

Aha! Someone found a small bump. See it? Nope me neither...

The underside looks very clean too.... this will end up painted grey

As the wrapping comes off, looks pretty good

So this is what makes it an N1 bonnet... predrilled holes for the hood spoiler

On the underside, you can see how cleanly drilled out these holes are

Fits perfectly, of course

Actually, the black looks somewhat good!

Wonder why the trunk is open, lol

The car was then transported on a transporter, over to the paint shop, as I found out in this post.

And then when I got it back (but before the professional detail job at RAPT):

In any case, the car looks great now, and I can lay claim to having an N1 bonnet. I think if there is any homework for me, it is to explain how this bonnet lip/hood top molding works, although I suspect it simply helps to divert some air underneath the hood to help cool the engine better?

By the way - look what I picked up on Yahoo Auctions the other day (thanks to Miguel and Matty from Newera for helping me push the bid button):

Brand new N1 rear parcel shelf - note lack of rear speakers and no rear wiper cut-out - not sure if I will install...

So lucky me, I now have two brand new N1 items... not sure what else out there would work on my car, but might as well collect them for now...

Update - I Got Lucky! (aka Additional Work to be done at Nissan Prince Tokyo)

For any of us car guys living here in Japan, Yahoo Auctions is basically a way of life. You can find some pretty good deals, if you know how to search, happen to have the money, and move quickly enough to bid and win.

The stars DID line up for me last week. I hadn't spent time on YA in a while, figuring that while my car was at Nissan Prince Motorsports I didn't need anything extra.

Until I found this going for an initial bid of 1 yen!

Ok so why are you excited about a black hood Aki?

So what, you might say. There are several BCNR33 hoods being offered on YA any day of the week. That is true, however THIS one is really special.

First, it's an OEM Nissan hood.  Second, the seller claims it was unused. Third, it's for an N1 spec car. This explains the holes at the leading edge of the hood, predrilled. I am not sure if there are any other differences between the standard car or the N1, but OEM and unused were VERY attractive features for me!

5 holes...hopefully this means no one else bids... but I was wrong.

Caveat on the UNUSED - due to storage there are some scratches so the seller said "no OCD people." Oh well...

Extremely clean - definitely hasn't been used and is paint ready!

I actually had planned on installing what Nissan calls the "Hood Top Molding" (or hood spoiler or bonnet lip as I've seen it on English language forums), so I had purchased an OEM one a long time ago. 

Here is the part number...note the "U21" is the code for KR4, as these are pre-painted!

double checking it's the right color!

However I had never gotten around to installing it.  I had been meaning to have my hood repainted, not just because there were some rock chips but also because it appeared that someone had, at one time, sat on the hood and left a slight crease in it, right above the right headlamp.  But, when I asked for quotes to fix it, the answer was always "it'd be easier and cheaper to repaint a used non-damaged hood or a new one." I had actually bought a cheaply priced used hood at auction previously, but it turned out that it also was banged up.  So, the Hood Top Molding stayed in the box all this time.

But when I saw this N1 hood at auction, I had to get it.  The buy it now price was 40,000 yen, so despite some others trying to get it as cheaply as possible, I simply bought it at the "buy it now" price.   However, I was still a bit nervous that, photos aren't everything and people don't always tell the truth when selling stuff at auction.

Earlier today (Monday) however, I got a call from Yamazaki-san at Nissan Prince Motorsports. The hood had already arrived (I had bid on Friday!), and further, it was as described - a few scratches and a small dent but nothing that couldn't be relatively easily fixed, it has to be painted anyway! To test the fit, and to double check the quality, they already replaced the hood on the car with this N1 one, and the car is now being sent to the paint shop. Hopefully there are no issues but I will post here if there are!

Meanwhile, I've sent the Hood Top Molding to them so hopefully it arrives on Wednesday.

Oh, and Yamazaki-san mentioned that the work (the Nissan/NISMO part installation) for when the car was actually taken there for, was already done, so now all that was left was this bodywork. Good timing!

So, when I pick up my car (whenever that is), I will have not just the part I mentioned installed, but this hood newly painted, with Hood Top Molding, so the car will LOOK better than when I dropped it off, and one long standing blemish which annoyed me every time I looked at it, will be GONE.

Stay tuned for more updates...