THE BEAST WITHIN

In standard form the sleek and sophisticated Skyline 350GT is a competitor to BMW's M3. So when things start getting pushed to the way of extreme, no holds barred modifying, you can be certain that the end result is going be one of the most phenomenal rides in the Southern Hemisphere.

The black tie, cultured looks of this Skyline 350GT may be just a little deceiving. If the true character of this beast was to be better represented by the exterior profile, you would probably turn to run and hide as soon as you caught a mere glimpse of such an evil monster. Housed within is an engine that may as well eat babies, it is that mean and yet amazingly even for all the money that has been spent modifying the car, the actual outlay made by Carl Ronning in building this machine was not all that much more than the asking price of a car such as the BMW M3. Go Japan!

Euro vs Japan is a debate that will polarise modifiers here in Australia. There are those that think the Euro cars are the bee’s knees, or those that think the Japanese rides can do no wrong. Realistically, when it comes down to it there are some great offerings from both parts of the world. I, though, can't help but think the Japanese offerings are just that tiny bit more enticing; they can compete with the Euro equivalents for performance, can be had for a bit less coin and, in our part of the world, they almost always offer greater ease of support when it comes to things like servicing and spare parts.

Carl Ronning has seen both side of the debate having owned, among other rides, a number of Alpina BMWs and a couple of Porsches. Interestingly it seems he is now waving a flag from the Japanese camp, having previously built an R34 GT-R, and now this absolutely insane Skyline 350GT.

Back on the topic of argument, to take this Skyline for example: here is a car that features the same underlying chassis and same powerplant as the 350Z, so many components from each of the two models are interchangeable; and yet the two cars still offer different characteristics to suit different types of drivers. Even if the main goal of Nissan was to save money by using a common platform, they have still developed two vehicles of great handling, with great engines and have made it so much less complicated for each of the platforms to be modified with aftermarket components. Had Nissan gone and developed the 350GT as a completely bespoke vehicle, the purchase price would have been higher for an equivalent amount of performance, repairs would have been costlier, and the aftermarket scene surely would have been dismal. The way things panned out, everyone ended up a winner; especially the modifier.

Among the modifying scene here in Australia, this Nissan is one of those top-shelf rides. It is just out and out engineering muscle, and yet the whole package still rides like a luxury vehicle should. It could take on 90 percent of the tuner cars on the road today and win, in terms of handling and engine performance, and yet it still boasts a cabin filled with plush factory leather and all of the modern conveniences. This is having your cake and eating it too, at its finest.

Nissan intended from the get go to create a performance vehicle with the 350GT, and so the underpinnings are fantastic. Great weight distribution and rear wheel drive, a nice wide track, and performance derived suspension setup meant that Carl didn't have to re-invent the wheel when trying to extract a superb level of performance from his own example. The process of developing such a phenomenal ride was one of taking what was already a good base and honing in on each aspect of the ride in order to sharpen the whole car up.

The most significant change made to this ride can be found under the hood, where now lurks a monster V6 that is capable of spinning over 500kW at the rear wheels (535kW to be exact). Just to make sure that everyone understands the absolute absurdity of this power figure, that is somewhere round about three times the output from standard. The massive power increase has been achieved thanks to Frank at Pocket Rockets Racing USA who put the engine package together from the ground up.

Starting with a new block, the cylinders were taken out to a 100mm bore and fitted with Darton sleeves. With the intention of pumping some serious boost through the old girl, every effort was made to make sure the components used were of the greatest strength, with things like the Crower aircraft chromoly forged steel crank, Carillo H-beam conrods, CP forged pistons, titanium valves and Carillo bolts being employed because of their ability to operate under extreme conditions.

With the new crank delivering a cylinder stroke of 88mm (standard stroke is 81.4mm and standard bore is 95.5mm), the engine now displaces 4150cc and has considerably larger combustion chambers at top dead centre than the original 3.5-litre high compression piston design. The modifications done by Pocket Rockets have effectively doubled the working capacity of the VQ engine, and then added even more benefit through the use of stronger, lighter components and blueprinting in key areas.

Supplying the increased amounts of air required by such a hungry engine is a twin turbo setup from APS - with this being perhaps the only Skyline 350GT in the country to have been kitted with this design. A pair of Garrett GT ball bearing turbos has been bolted on with the APS manifolds (both intake and exhaust) and it also makes use of a full APS exhaust system. With a large front mount intercooler included with the kit, as well as all of the necessary fueling and management upgrades (with 880cc injectors and new fuel rails, plus Haltech ECU), the car has so much power that even during the break in period it was seeing massive amounts of wheelspin around Eastern Creek.

Going part of the way to rectifying the traction problem, the rear of the car now sports an ATS Carbontech 1.5-way mechanical LSD, which shoots power out evenly to the two back Volk Racing 19x10.5-inch rims and 295/30 profile tyres (the front rims are 19x9.5-inch and make use of 245/35 rubber). ATS were also called upon to supply a clutch for the car; a triple plate system with a 1100 pound pressure plate.

From the factory, the Skyline 350GT is kind of like a James Bond type of performance vehicle; its looks are very much all about class and sophistication, but underneath all of that it is still a very agile and athletic car. The handling of both the 350Z and the Skyline 350GT has received praise from those that like to drive hard, so after having been tweaked even further with a few after-market components you would have to guess that Carl's particular example must be a very capable thing on the track. Nismo S-Tune suspension has been fitted all 'round and works in collaboration with some SPC rear camber and caster arms to offer just that one step up in capability over standard.

The standard Brembo braking system offered enough performance as standard so as to not warrant further tweaking by Carl, with the exception of the fitment of some Nismo braided brake lines to offer a bit of a sharper middle pedal. Considering the tripling of power output that this car has seen, to see the standard braking system still in use says something about the quality of car that Nissan has managed to deliver.

Looking inside the cabin of the car, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Nissan is still a meek and gentle luxurious cruiser. While it is still luxurious with all the leather and electronic gadgetry still intact, the car could never again be called placid when it has so much power available at the press of the driver's right foot. Defi gauges have been fitted into the business like cabin to keep tabs on the tightly wound engine, and adds a touch of tech to the driving process. With gauges for all different sorts of temperatures and pressures you would need to be pretty manic to keep tabs on it all, but thanks to Defi's warning system, the units can be set to alert the driver if any dangerous operating levels are reached within the engine bay.

Interestingly, after his time building a phenomenal customised Skyline, Carl is going to be selling this car to fund the purchase of an R35 GT-R. We are fairly certain it would take the sourest of critics not to enjoy the new GT-R, however we will have to wait and see just how he likes the new ride. For the meantime however, the fact that Carl has chosen to go Japanese once again, a man that has had his fair share of cars from around the world, is very interesting indeed.