R33 Skyline GTR, do they still cut it?
Discussion
Im after a new car, the 2 favorites on my list were the E39 M5 and Monaro, also looked at Imprezas. After the blog about the R34 Skyline yesterday it got me looking at R33's. Seems good, lightly modified examples can be had for less than £10k!!
Always loved them when I was younger, and they seemed pretty much unbeatable as a drivers car 10-15 years ago, but do they still cut it nowadays or better left in the past?
They were quoted as 280bhp, possibly putting out a bit more, nowadays with Meganes and Focii making 250bhp plus will the Skyline feel heavy and slow compared to them?
4wd and turbos is an itch I need to scratch, as well as a V8 at some point. Would the Skyline be a good buy or lead to a world of hurt?
Always loved them when I was younger, and they seemed pretty much unbeatable as a drivers car 10-15 years ago, but do they still cut it nowadays or better left in the past?
They were quoted as 280bhp, possibly putting out a bit more, nowadays with Meganes and Focii making 250bhp plus will the Skyline feel heavy and slow compared to them?
4wd and turbos is an itch I need to scratch, as well as a V8 at some point. Would the Skyline be a good buy or lead to a world of hurt?
Ran one at 430hp for two years. The RB26 is a great engine with a nice warble above 5k.
Contrary to belief I'd beware buying a lightly modified skyline as it opens up a Blackhole of potential modifications and will addict you and your wallet - I'd buy
one which is already tuned by an enthusiast. Great cars but time consuming to find one
which hasn't been ruined by a Chav.
Contrary to belief I'd beware buying a lightly modified skyline as it opens up a Blackhole of potential modifications and will addict you and your wallet - I'd buy
one which is already tuned by an enthusiast. Great cars but time consuming to find one
which hasn't been ruined by a Chav.
Joe M said:
Im after a new car, the 2 favorites on my list were the E39 M5 and Monaro, also looked at Imprezas. After the blog about the R34 Skyline yesterday it got me looking at R33's. Seems good, lightly modified examples can be had for less than £10k!!
Always loved them when I was younger, and they seemed pretty much unbeatable as a drivers car 10-15 years ago, but do they still cut it nowadays or better left in the past?
They were quoted as 280bhp, possibly putting out a bit more, nowadays with Meganes and Focii making 250bhp plus will the Skyline feel heavy and slow compared to them?
4wd and turbos is an itch I need to scratch, as well as a V8 at some point. Would the Skyline be a good buy or lead to a world of hurt?
Hi Joe,Always loved them when I was younger, and they seemed pretty much unbeatable as a drivers car 10-15 years ago, but do they still cut it nowadays or better left in the past?
They were quoted as 280bhp, possibly putting out a bit more, nowadays with Meganes and Focii making 250bhp plus will the Skyline feel heavy and slow compared to them?
4wd and turbos is an itch I need to scratch, as well as a V8 at some point. Would the Skyline be a good buy or lead to a world of hurt?
I own an R33 and I used to own a R32 GTR - your best bet is to be patient and look for a very mildly modified example, check for rust on the front suspension turrets and the under body. Avoid cars that have been slammed with big rims as they're most likely to have knackered the bushes.
Don't worry about the factory rated power, it's not as sluggish as it seems on paper. A grey import R33 will not have the UK 'Middlehurst map' on the UK cars 0that was tested by Autocar, so aslong as you use Premium 97/98 unleaded or V-power, avoid 'Super unleaded' fuels such as BP ultimate/Supermarket fuels as they do not have the same stability as premium or V-power.
Avoid straight-thru de-cat pipes and excessively large and loud exhaust systems, you can buy metallic 200 cell sports cats from jetex or source a de-cat silencer box. Find an aftermarket tuned factory ECU, usually they're called 1 bar/stage 1 mapped (fetched around 100-150 quid) - remove the boost restrictor ring and you will easily reach 380-400+ HP and no loss of low rpm response.
Edited by CoupeCrazy on Saturday 25th August 17:08
Why should you avoid a large and loud exhaust? Assuming you are going for some power upgrades, you will want a 3" system, if it didn't come with one as standard, and as for loud, which has no bearing on power anyway, the louder the better - Skyline GTRs are one of the best sounding turbo cars going, they deserve to be heard.
Either way, even the most mildly modified example will have a louder exhaust on it, it's probably one of the first things 99% of Skyline owners do.
Either way, even the most mildly modified example will have a louder exhaust on it, it's probably one of the first things 99% of Skyline owners do.
Mastodon2 said:
Why should you avoid a large and loud exhaust? Assuming you are going for some power upgrades, you will want a 3" system, if it didn't come with one as standard, and as for loud, which has no bearing on power anyway, the louder the better - Skyline GTRs are one of the best sounding turbo cars going, they deserve to be heard.
Either way, even the most mildly modified example will have a louder exhaust on it, it's probably one of the first things 99% of Skyline owners do.
Loud exhausts are anti-social and is very trailer trash. The RB26 sounds fantastic , good exhausts are tuned to not drone and defen the driver and annoy others. The standard factory exhaust designed by calsonic is very good also.Either way, even the most mildly modified example will have a louder exhaust on it, it's probably one of the first things 99% of Skyline owners do.
Velocity of exhaust gas is key, and this where 3 - 4 inch zorsts you'll find on most gtrs kill low rpm response.
Excellent info above, im liking the idea of buying one more and more as I look into it.
Will probably aim to get a V-spec, without suspension mods. Chances are it will be difficult to get one without a changed exhaust or wheels. 400bhp ish would be good, but I dont want the power to be too excessive as it will reduce the reliability and probably wont be as nice to drive most of the time.
Its not going to be used on the drag strip or anything like that, just blasting round the west coast of Scotland and the occasional trackday.
Are the Middlehurst ones mapped for normal unleaded then? Theres one on egay just now.
Will probably aim to get a V-spec, without suspension mods. Chances are it will be difficult to get one without a changed exhaust or wheels. 400bhp ish would be good, but I dont want the power to be too excessive as it will reduce the reliability and probably wont be as nice to drive most of the time.
Its not going to be used on the drag strip or anything like that, just blasting round the west coast of Scotland and the occasional trackday.
Are the Middlehurst ones mapped for normal unleaded then? Theres one on egay just now.
Some dodgy info on here. There's no boost restrictor ring (that's Supras) and fitting a proper decat improves response everywhere.
I fitted an Abbey Motorsport decat and HKS Silent HiPower exhaust, which is a large bore but has a front resonator fitted. Sounds great without being too anti-social. I used an AVC-R boost controller along with an Apexi ECU and HKS mushroom air filters. This netted me 375bhp @ 1 bar boost (do not exceed this on stock ceramic turbos, you'll break the exhaust wheel which turns into a nice ceramic dust which gets drawn back into the engine under reversion when you slam the throttle shut after thinking "What was that loud bang?")
In hindsight, I should've left it there but the tuning bug got me and I fitted bigger HKS turbos, injectors, changed the intake setup, manifolds, downpipes, dump pipes etc. I even did a bearing refresh only for the bloody thing to lift the head after the rad split and all the coolant ended up on the M62 (water temp gauge showed normal, it was only when I noticed the oil temp shoot up I realised something was up and at that moment it gave a cough and white smoke started billowing from the exhaust).
Anyway, long story short: they're awesome but only if your prepared to keep pouring cash into them. You can't run them on a shoe string.
I fitted an Abbey Motorsport decat and HKS Silent HiPower exhaust, which is a large bore but has a front resonator fitted. Sounds great without being too anti-social. I used an AVC-R boost controller along with an Apexi ECU and HKS mushroom air filters. This netted me 375bhp @ 1 bar boost (do not exceed this on stock ceramic turbos, you'll break the exhaust wheel which turns into a nice ceramic dust which gets drawn back into the engine under reversion when you slam the throttle shut after thinking "What was that loud bang?")
In hindsight, I should've left it there but the tuning bug got me and I fitted bigger HKS turbos, injectors, changed the intake setup, manifolds, downpipes, dump pipes etc. I even did a bearing refresh only for the bloody thing to lift the head after the rad split and all the coolant ended up on the M62 (water temp gauge showed normal, it was only when I noticed the oil temp shoot up I realised something was up and at that moment it gave a cough and white smoke started billowing from the exhaust).
Anyway, long story short: they're awesome but only if your prepared to keep pouring cash into them. You can't run them on a shoe string.
CoupeCrazy said:
Loud exhausts are anti-social and is very trailer trash. The RB26 sounds fantastic , good exhausts are tuned to not drone and defen the driver and annoy others. The standard factory exhaust designed by calsonic is very good also.
Velocity of exhaust gas is key, and this where 3 - 4 inch zorsts you'll find on most gtrs kill low rpm response.
I would not want to be driving a 400bhp car with a <3" exhaust, and I've never driven a car that has felt flat when upgraded to a 3", providing it was making enough power to start with. I wouldn't put one on a N/A car though.Velocity of exhaust gas is key, and this where 3 - 4 inch zorsts you'll find on most gtrs kill low rpm response.
As for "loud exhausts are anti-social and is very trailer trash" - this isn't Mumsnet you know.
s m said:
Word. 
Outside: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFfiSfiGcN4&fea...Inside: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eohR7C7L4b0&fea...
Edited by NotoriousREV on Saturday 25th August 21:00
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