NISMO- Lunatics from Japan

Hello fellow gearheads! Today we are starting new series and this time it will be about most famous tuning houses which from stock cars makes completely mad and astonishing cars for which we would be ready to sell both of our kidneys just to be able to own one. We will talk each week about one tuning house so stay tuned!

Today we will be talking about my favorite tuning house, NISMO. You probably didn't get the impression of that but I'm huge fan of Japanese cars. Japan gave us a lot of things but if I have to single out one thing, that would be cars. One of my dreams is to go to the Japan, travel a little bit in it and then go to the car dealer and buy Nissan Skyline, Mitsubishi Evo or any other JDM car and import it to my country. 

If you ask me now what is my dream car I really couldn't tell. I mean is it possible to have just one dream car? But first car on my list would be Nissan Skyline, especially the R34 GT-R. I literally fell in love with that car the first moment I saw it. I would give anything just to be able to won one.

And then I saw Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R NISMO Z-Tune. I was stuned. All I could do for the next half an hour is to just stare at the picture of it and wait to cargasm to go away. At that moment I realized that the NISMO is going to be the tuning house that will occupy most of my time, as far as the tuning houses are concerned.

Now it is time to introduce lunatics who made this car and a lot of other cars from Nissan division.

NISMO, which is short for Nissan Motorsport International Limited, is the in-tuning, motorsports and performance division of Nissan. It was founded 32 years ago in Tokyo, or to be exact September 17 1984. It was created as a result of a merger of two motorsport departments. NISMO cars have participated in JSPC (All- Japan Sports Prototype Championship), JTCC (Japanese Touring Car Championship), 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona.

The first car on which they were working was Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R and they called it NISMO 400R. The 400R (it was named like that because it had 400 HP and R stands for Racing) was developed using the R33 GT-R as a base platform. Its RB26DETT engine was customized by REINIK and it was called RBX-GT2. The engine featured 77.7 mm stroke crankshaft (stock GT-R had 73.7 mm), forged 87 mm pistons (86 mm on stock car), upgraded rods, polished ports, high lift camshafts, upgraded oil system, larger exhaust manifolds and higher output turbocharges. NISMO also produced an upgraded exhaust, a twin plate clutch and intercooler system. NISMO brake pads were also fitted to the car. 400R also got new aerodynamic updates, such as wider fenders, side skirts, new rear bumper, new front bumper with bigger air scoops and redesigned  bonnet and rear spoiler made of carbon fiber. The result of all thatis 400 HP, 470 Nm of torque and a top speed of over 186 MPH (300 KMH) and it was capable of doing 0-60 MPH (0-100 KMH) in just 4 seconds flat. Like if that is not enough, if you set higher boost setting on turbocharger you could  achieve easily 500 HP.

This is the reason I'm losing my head when someone mentions to me Japanese cars and their tuning houses, especially NISMO. This is why they are the best tuning house in the whole world for me. Obviously they haven't heard about the word boundaries. And it's good thing they haven't.

And now we come to, in my opinion, the best car ever produced. I know this is something about we could argue for 10 years and we wouldn't find any agreement but stay with me and listen what I have to say about this car. The car in question is Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R NISMO Z-Tune. 

NISMO originally designed the concept of Z-Tune in 2002 when Nissan was putting and end to the R34 Skyline production. The first Z-Tune was built in 2003 using the used 2002 Skyline GT-R V Spec II. It was built with a concept RB26DETT Z1 engine which was based on Nissan's Le Mans GT2 and GT500 racing experiences. Engine block was strengthened and stroked crankshaft were utilized. With new displacement of 2.8 l and upgraded turbochargers the Z1 produced 500 HP. It was capable of doing 0-60 MPH (0-100 KMH) in just 3.8 seconds and it had top speed of 203 MPH (327 KMH).

After Nissan saw what they did with that example they gave NISMO approval to build Z-Tune models for the NISMO anniversary. NISMO purchased 20 used R34 GT-R V Spec, each with less than 18 000 miles (29 000 km) on the clock, then they were completely striped and resprayed to a „Z-Tune sliver“, a special color exclusively for the Z-Tune. For each of the 20 models the 2.8 l engine was revised to allow it to reach 8000 rpm.

The entire car is practically handmade, with the car being completely stripped and re-built from the chassis up. Engineers reinforced and stiffened the chassis seam welding in key areas such as  the door seams and door frames and added carbon fiber to the strut towers and transmission tunnel and the engine bay, completely redesigning the suspension, drivetrain, engine, gearbox and other components to get maximum efficiency and reliability. Only 19 examples were ever built with 2 prototypes. Nowdays their prices go up to $300 000.

I hope you can see why I think this is the best car on the world. If not, it's not a problem, maybe one day you will see what I see in this car.

After that Nissan was not producing Skyline anymore so NISMO throw themselves on other cars from Nissan. First of them was Nissan 350 Z or Nissan Fairlady. It had several editions from NISMO and the first one was the 2004 Nissan 350 Z NISMO R-Tune.

As the moniker R-Tune suggests, this is they daily car and racing car, all in one. It had VQ35 3.5 l V6 engine  with 305 HP which was developed by NISMO. The engine was treated to NISMO R-Tune billet camshafts, NISMO R-Tune cold air intake, NISMO R-Tune headers and the NISMO S-Tune stainless steel cat-back exhaust system. The handling has been improved with the S-Tune suspension system, designed for increased roll stiffness, less body lean, less pitch and dive and more neutral handling. It featured  5-spoke NISMO lightweight forged alloy wheels and a NISMO graphics kit.

The second edition was 2005 NISMO S-Tune GT. NISMO developed a version of the 350Z to celebrate their win in the Japanese 2004 GT500 Touring Championship. It is a road-going version of racing car. Only 20 were handbuilt. It has extended front and rear bumpers, side sills and a rear wing modeled on the GT car. It featured 19“ 5-spoke alloy wheels, racing stripes and pearlescent white paint.

The third edition was 2007 NISMO Type 380 RS. This was road version for Japanese market of the Type 380RS Competition race car. It includes detuned version 380RS-C race engine rated at 345 HP and 387 Nm of torque. It featured RAYS wheels, front and rear dumpers came from Yamaha.Only 200 units were made.

The last edition that was made by NISMO is NISMO 350Z. It was produced from 2007 to 2008. It featured the same engine as regular 350Z, the VQ35 but only with 6-speed maunal transmission. It also featured Viscous Limited Slip Differential (VLSD) and Traction Control System (TCS). It recieved NISMO aerodynamics package based on Super GT Championship Car which included an agressive front fascia with chin spoiler, side skirts, an extended rear fascia with underbody diffuser and a rear wing. The car also had NISMO tuned independent multi-link suspension developed by Yamaha, Brembo brakes  with four-piston front and two-piston rear calipers and NISMO branded gunmetal grey RAYS alloy wheels and NISMO braned tuned exhaust. Yamaha also included a front and rear dampener to help with stability with the chassis.

After that Nissan announced that they are releasing new GT-R, the Nissan R35 GT-R. So NISMO took that car as well and released their version of the new GT-R. I will mention only the last generation, the 2017 NISMO R35 GT-R because all NISMO's versions of R35 GT-R are pretty much the same and we will talk more about it more later on. The 2017 model features 3.8 l twin-turbo V6 engine with 600 HP. It is capable of doing 0-60 MPH (0-100 KMH) in 2.9 seconds and it will go up to 186 MPH (325 KMH). The shocks, springs and stabilizers are returned to correspond with the body whichis in 2017 model much stiffer. The large V-motion grille collects more air, reinforcements to the hood help avoid deformation at high speeds and the new model generates more downforce thanks to new aerodynamics package.