The newest generation of the venerable Nissan GTR platform has provided one of the most significant leaps forward for the marque in years, particularly on circuits. While the drag strip has proved more difficult to adapt the highly strung supercar to, it has been making leaps and bounds in the hands of South Australia tuning house Willall Racing.
Willall has long had an association with quick GTRs and Willall’s CEO Martin Donnon said it started with the company’s president and driver Keir Wilson sampling the original GTR back in 1991.
“Very simply the GTR was the best supercar available in its day,” he said. “Keir drove the Porsche of the day, the Ferrari and then the GTR, which was better at everything than the others, hence he bought a new Australian delivered example then.”
Willall Racing were the first members of the Japanese RH9 (Record Holders 9 second club) outside of Japan. Donnon said the club was started to breed inter-workshop rivalry, stating the GTRs involved must run on radial tyres, gasoline and retain manual transmissions while recording nine second time slips.
“Willall Racing were the first into the 8s with a GTR outside of Japan,” Donnon said. “Our best run was 8.7 @ 163 in the Willall Drag R32 GTR on radials.
“There were two Willall R32s, one was the drag version and there was another which was essentially identical (Australian delivered car), which Willall still have, that ran low nines. It kept glass, air-conditioning and so on so it could be comfortably road driven back in the day.”
Much of what was learned with the original iteration of the GTR had to be relearned for subsequent generations and especially the leap that was the R35.
Arguably, the R35 GTR is one of the main cars that coaxed ANDRA into making changes to roll cage specs, with lightly tuned examples easily breaking into the ten second zone.
“Integration of the engine and transmission electronic systems combined with moving 1750kg of weight have been the biggest challenges,” Donnon said. “We need to work on the 60 foot and 330 foot performance via electronic tuning. The power and trap speed are already there.
“Once we have achieved an 8 second pass we will reassess our direction with the car, but that 8 second timecard is a must!”
Under the bonnet sits a 4000cc stroker with larger external gate turbochargers. The engine runs on E85 fuel through a custom Willall fuel system. The transmission is fully internally strengthened using all Willall Racing parts. The engine and transmission are controlled via a Syvecs S8 R35 GTR fully programmable engine management system. The whole lot is built as the ‘WR1000; package which any customer can order to be built – should a low nine second street car happen to be your thing!
“The Willall Racing WR1000 GTR is the quickest, fastest, and most powerful in the country,” Donnon said. “Having just trapped 160mph it will run easy 8s in the new year, which will put it up there as one of the quicker GTRs around in the world.
“At the moment it is unbeaten in the current craze of standing 1000m racing, having the fastest time in the country by nearly two seconds (17.2) and the highest trap speed (312kmh). Willall GTRs have won both the Snowy Mountains 1000 and Temora 1000 events for two years straight now.”
Check out the video below of the Willall Racing GTR in action at Adelaide International Raceway.
Image with thanks to Chris Harvey.
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