Delivering a 259.42mph knockout blow to claim the title of the World’s fastest modified Nissan GT-R in the world, Severn Valley Motorsport’s Hulk is the champ.
If the last half a century has taught us anything about car culture, it’s that any model wearing the three letters G-T-R is going to be something special. Each model graced with the hallowed moniker has raised the bar higher than the last, but with the current R35 model, Nissan took the rulebook and threw it out of the window. And that’s before you modify one.
Few cars in existence have made an impact in the same way as the R35 GT-R. In standard trim the performance is savage, with the car’s complex electronics and brutal power delivery combining to complete the 0-60mph sprint in just 2.8 seconds. That’s just mind-blowing. In a car that is half the price of the exotica of which its performance stats ape, and with four seats to boot (plus a decent sized boot too), it’s the automotive equivalent of a bumblebee – on the face of it, the science suggests that it simply shouldn’t work. But it does.
When Nissan launched the GT-R back in 2007, the Japanese engineers obviously thought that this kind of performance was more than enough for any sane-minded drivers, and proclaimed that the car had a locked ECU, making aftermarket mapping impossible. However, fans of the brand that grew up in the grip of previous Skyline GT-Rs featuring power outputs up to four times greater than when they left the factory, were not going to lay down without a fight. In just a few short months, the electronic wizards successfully hacked the ECU and the ‘untuneable’ R35, was suddenly now very tuneable. And boy did the floodgates open.
Introducing Severn Valley Motorsport
Since then, it seems hardly a month goes by without an R35 pushing ever higher power figures on the dyno or ever quicker quarter miles times on the strip. With the introduction of full billet blocks and tsunami-level fuel supplies, the GT-R’s VR38 motor seems to have no limit to its potential. But as good as the engine is, just looking at the muscular, angular lines of the burly R35, the one area that you wouldn’t necessarily expect it to excel at is top speed runs. This is because, compared to your average low-slung aero-devoted hypercar, the GT-R looks like a house brick. Yet, despite this apparent genetic disadvantage, the car you are looking at on these pages is the fastest GT-R on the planet. That’s quite an achievement from a tuning firm based in Telford.
‘We’ve come a long way from our humble beginnings, 30 years ago, as a one-man tuning firm based out of a wooden shed,’ laughs Kevan Kemp, Severn Valley Motorsport’s bossman and the owner of the retina-searing GT-R you see before you. ‘Now we have a 25,000sq ft premises which can hold over 100 cars and includes 42 ramps dedicated to both MoT testing and the tuning of high performance vehicles – the vast majority of those being R35 GT-Rs.’
From Fast Ford to Faster
Originally specializing in making Fords go faster, it was when Kevan experienced the visceral thrill of an R35 that he changed the angle of the firm to cater for what he could see would be a burgeoning market.
‘We’d always offered tuning services for the fastest cars on the street and back in the day that was Cosworths,’ explains Kevan. ‘However, those days are long gone and now the king of the streets is undoubtedly the GT-R. Nothing can touch them in the majority of environments, especially when tuned. And it was after purchasing one as my own personal car that we started offering GT-R specific tuning packages and services, which has seen the company go from strength to strength.’
A Lasting Impression
The car that turned Kevan on to the Nissan’s supercar slayer was the very one sitting here emblazoned in Lamborghini Ithaca (or Incredible Hulk green) paint.
‘It was a stock model in silver that I bought from new in May 2009,’ Kevan remembers. ‘I used it for a short period as my own personal daily driver, but it soon changed into a demo car which we have used over the years to push the boundaries of what is possible with these incredible machines.’
Even now the car has only covered less than 10,000 miles from new, but it has undergone several transformations in that time and broke several world records along the way, including the feat of securing both the quarter mile drag world record and the top speed world record, back in 2012. Impressive stuff.
Chasing High Stakes
‘We’ve done our fair share of drag racing over the years, but these days our focus has shifted much more toward the top speed events, where you are clocked over a standing mile,’ says Kevan. ‘For us it’s the ultimate challenge, as it’s also one that’s universally relatable to everyone. Not many people can accurately recall many cars’ quarter mile times, but top speeds stats seem to stick in the mind.’
But this need for speed isn’t without its dangers, as was horrifically highlighted when the driver of a highly tuned Nissan GT-R was killed after losing control and rolling at over 200mph at an event at Nola Motorsports Park in Louisiana USA.
‘When you are travelling at these kind of speeds, often in excess of 250mph, you just don’t know what the car will do, and any problems or mechanical failures can be catastrophic,’ Kevan admits. ‘Add to this fact that you still have to accelerate as hard as possible just to get up to that speed before you run out of road, and that you are putting a lot of strain on all of the essential components for a much longer duration than something like drag racing – which is over in a few seconds – and you can see there is much more to it than simply burying the throttle and holding on.’
The Record Run To Become The World’s Fastest Nissan GT-R
The record breaking run which was completed on the 16th April 2019 at Elvington airfield, near York, saw SVM’s manager Mike Little pilot the R35, which has come to be known as the Hulk, to that incredible top speed in under 30 seconds from a standing start – and within a measured mile. That’s a quicker time to reach that speed than the Hennessey Venom, which managed to reach 270mph on its world record-breaking run on the 3.2-mile space shuttle runway at the John K Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Risk vs Reward
‘Our aim was to get the record at 260mph, but then back-off,’ says Kevan. ‘The car is geared for over 270mph and Mike was spinning the wheels in every gear and still accelerating when he reached 260, even with a 15mph head wind and a less than perfect track surface. In perfect conditions we estimate that it should be able to breach 270 relatively easily, even with the space constraints of the UK’s shorter runways (compared with the USA). But the fact is we would only be raising the bar on our own record, so it was decided to play safe and live to fight another day, rather than push on and risk something going wrong. At the end of the day, no record is worth risking someone’s life for.’
VBOX Telemetry
The record run was timed using a specially calibrated Racelogic VBOX, which gives incredibly accurate speed measurements. This was crucial as, at anywhere near the double ton, your car’s standard speedo will likely be well out.
‘We get a lot of people that spout off about how fast they have driven,’ laughs Kevan. ‘But most are going off their speedo readout, not a calibrated VBOX, and the reality is very different. Apart from Mike and a handful of Top Fuel dragster drivers, very few people in the country have gone over a genuine 250mph on four wheels.’
But as much as it is a feat of the SVM team’s driving skill and tuning excellence, you’ve also got to hand it to Nissan for building such a capable brute in the first place. The undisputed champ of road cars straight out of the box, with a severe licking with the tuning stick, it can deliver the kind of knockout blow to not only take on anything and becomes the world’s fastest Nissan GT-R!
The Heart Of The World’s Fastest Nissan GT-R
Making a 3.8-litre engine, even one as potent as the VR38, produce over 2500bhp is no easy task. To accomplish this feat, SVM’s Hulk is equipped with a fully built 4.0-litre forged engine complete with an Omega-spec billet block from AMS Performance. This uses a billet crank and a CNC ported race heads with Omega spec camshafts. Feeding this bulletproof motor with air is a pair of Alpha 22 76mm turbos, which can flow up to 60Psi (4.1 bar) of boost through a huge 6in thick AMS intercooler.
This is matched by the huge fuel demand which is delivered via an AMS carbon-fiber inlet equipped with 12 1700cc Injector Dynamics high impedance injectors, which in turn are supplied by a Kinsler TP1300 Series 2 15gpm fuel pump drawing the high octane petrol/methanol blend from a Jazz eight-gallon Pro Mod fuel cell. Controlled by a Syvec S8 ECU, the Hulk’s engine is currently detuned to just 2500bhp, from its full potential of over 3000bhp. Serious stuff.
Aero Addenda
One of the difficulties with driving at nearly three and a half times over the national speed limit is the effect of aero dynamics on the bodywork. Not only does it try and prevent the slab-sided GT-R from pushing its way to those stratospheric speeds, but even with all the shut lines taped up and the wing mirrors deleted, the air speed at 250mph wants to pull the car apart. Without racing bonnet pins the bonnet would fly open, while the windows and doors visually flex as the air rushing past tries to suck them open. The car used to run a large rear wing, however this was violently ripped off on one run so was replaced with a much more slippery duckbill spoiler bootlid.
Burning Rubber
You’d think a car travelling at over 250mph would need specially developed rubber, but SVM took the record of the world’s fastest Nissan GT-R using a fully road legal set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires. The tires were sponsored by Michelin themselves and are run at around 6psi higher than normal pressures to increase high speed stability and reduce drag. Unfortunately, the trade off for these desirable traits is that they struggle to put the mammoth power down without spinning up, a condition Mike experiences on a run in every one of the six gears!
Transmission Revamp For The World’s Fastest Nissan GT-R
Putting over 2500bhp to the wheels is a task as tough as it is to generate it in the first place and has necessitated beefing up the whole drivetrain considerably. The gearsets, while retaining the stock ratios have been extensively strengthened while the clutch has been upgraded with an Xtreme 22-plate wide-plate high-torque clutch system and a Linney billet flywheel. The gearing has been lengthened to allow the extreme high speeds via a longer Albins crown and pinion 3.4 final drive.
Maximum Stoppage
It’s all very well being able to go super fast, but without the right equipment to slow down safely, things could get pretty dicey. Unlike some of their pure drag racing counterparts, which run small lightweight brakes and small diameter drag wheels, SVM have gone with huge 400mm Alcon big brake kits front and rear. These provide eye-popping stopping power and are adequate to slow the car even from 250mph. because they are so big, that has dictated the wheel size of 12x20in all round, which also somewhat limits tire options, although the road spec Michelins seem to do the job perfectly. As a backup to the big brakes, there is also a special 200mph ‘long chute’ parachute attached to the rear, which can be pulled in emergencies.
Words & Photos: Dan Sherwood. Feature first appeared in 2019.
Modified Nissan GT-R R35 Images
Tech Spec: World’s Fastest Nissan GT-R
Engine:
4.0-litre, 6-cyl, 32v VR38, AMS Omega-spec billet block, forged pistons, rods bearings, head and main studs, crank pulley, oil pan, billet crank, cylinder sleeves, CNC ported race head, Omega-spec valves, springs and retainers, camshafts and timing components, carbon/billet intake manifold with 12 1700cc ID injectors, AMS race front mount intercooler and hard pipe kit, Kinsler TP1300 Series 2 15gpm fuel pump, AMS throttle body set, TiAL bovs, Alpha 22 turbo Kit (with twin 76mm turbos), K&N air filters, Alpha 22 downpipes with full custom 102mm SVM exhaust system, Syvecs S8 ECU, GT1R methanol fuel system kit, Jazz Race fuel tank
Transmission:
Standard dual clutch gearbox with Race specification 6-speed gear sets, Linney billet flywheel, Xtreme 22-plate wide-plate high-torque clutch system, Linney Billet 4wd + 10-plate 4wd clutch packs
Suspension:
KW Variant 3 coilovers, fully adjustable drop links, Eibach front anti-roll bars, Eibach rear anti-roll bars, uprated motorsport bushes
Brakes:
Alcon 400mm big brake kits front and rear
Wheels & Tires:
12in x 20in Advan Racing wheels with 285/35/20 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires
Exterior:
Full respray in Lamborghini Verde Ithaca Green, front carbon canards, full carbon roof, custom carbon-lined headlights with halos and HIDs, iJDMToy LED side lights, quick release bonnet latches, modified bonnet vents, 11-2016 front bumper, SVM race livery, rear carbon diffuser, rear duckbill spoiler boot lid, Difflow Sharp rear diffuser fins, rear bumper drilled with air relief vents, parachute casing and hardware
Interior:
CCSW custom carbon steering wheel, custom Cobra Evolution S carbon front seats, internal Roll Motorsport half rollcage, carbon KR paddle shifters
