Larry Chen: “War GT-R” R34 Street Car, Making a Cool 1700hp Video

Larry Chen Video Transcript

Foreign we are here to talk about my favorite R34 from this past weekend at GTR Festival it’s appropriately named War GTR correct and you guys at crd built this from the ground up correct before this week I didn’t even realize this was a thing I mean I’ve seen R32

Drag vehicles but I always assumed that the 34 was too heavy for drag racing yep I’m it’s very wrong it is heavy it is the hard way of doing drag racing but people just love them and they just don’t want to let go of them it’s just

What they want to do yeah I’ve never seen a 34 with fat tires and especially a parachute yep it looks so crazy it looks so Sinister with the parachute on the back when we were at the track I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it for the first time yeah You know I’ve loved r34s ever since I found out that they were even a thing right since since they got released back in 1998 1999 I’ve always loved the way it looked but I just never ever would have pictured it looking like this never would have imagined it in this sort of spec-ready

Drag racing street racing yeah I’ve seen drift cars I’ve seen road race cars I’ve seen plenty of show cars right yeah and in every single spec in every single variation every single color this is the first time of course coming down to Australia is very appropriate

For me to kind of get introduced to this style of building what did this start life as this is a pretty rare vehicle too it’s a v spec 2. correct yes it’s not off as a pretty much a stock standard v-spec 2 which Anthony bought probably in 2015 2016 and then he came

To the shop and want to do a big 3.2 liter build that was a cast motor so but that was from engine to gearbox to wiring to everything so it was literally a ground up build front rear diffs everything got operated on it but it was

A cast motor and it had a 76 mil turbo 7685 which made around the 11 1200 horsepower back then once it was running he sort of went to the track once erased it I think he ran it was in a high Eight Second pass in it and then he

Just got hooked from there then it went for a roll cage even there was a v-spec 2 and when we originally done the build he sort of there was no holes to be cut everything to be sort of mounted no it was also used Factory holes even the boot we’ve

Done a false floor nitrous bottle everything in there mounted to the fourth floor and no holes and stuff was literally glued down so we don’t actually put any holes in the car and then once it went for a cage we go do you remember you told us no holes in

It any guys look because I’m over selling the car yeah it’s just it is what is this car I’ve always wanted to do because then that’s it and then went for roll cage and then it just really started racing it more often and yeah ended up running a mid Eight Second pass

With it back then and then race that very often cootamundra the drag strip yeah and then he wanted to upgrade to a bill of block and then go more so that’s what we have here now correct that he had in it and then so where does

The block Come From the Block is a bullet Race Engineering Billet block from South Australia here in Australia they do all the bill of blocks for the RBS two JS and a few other variances or Hondas and stuff like that and so that’s like a like a copy or inspiration from

An rb30 blog correct yes so the rb30 Block it’s literally a copy of that it’s just longer it’s got a bigger deck on it and longer head studs you can put into it the way it’s built just so you can throw more power at it and not worry about it

And then this setup here yes is still Swedish or you could still drive this on so Joshua it’s the full water jacket block so exactly the same galleries as a factory block water through the head to the Block it’s a wet deck so yeah as normal you just drive it around

But the way it sits right now how much power is this making this currently will be around the 1700 horsepower Mark at the moment we haven’t turned the rod up on the Donna but it’ll be around the 17 70 50 horsepower Mark with this turbo setup at the wheels I can’t believe it’s

A street vehicle yeah and honestly we also saw um who who took it out last night Anthony Anthony okay we actually saw Anthony Drive this on the street last night very casually yeah it drives just like a normal vehicle it does it does yeah it’s surprising they’re actually

Pretty good on the straight obviously depending how wide you want to get with putting the power down but yeah cruising around you can cruise around no dramas with that said if this setup was in a 32 it potentially could be faster oh yeah there’s probably close to 200 kilos

Difference in weight so down this drag strip it’ll be a couple tenths quicker possibly more because this body itself is still all metal and it has all the glass and everything it has everything in it yes nothing doors boot nothing’s taken out of it yeah anything has been taken out from

The interior is this seat so it’s got the carbon fiber seats in it and then it has like a z-tune it’s got a z-tuned copy boner on it at the moment but all of this metal glass yep stock Wing stock Wing stock boot All Steel literally just about full weight amazing

Can we talk about the wheel and tire setup yes so these are the Buddy clubs uh 15 by 8 plus 32s I think they generally use them on import cars like little four cylinders or not that they usually run them on you usually see these on Hondas correct yes

Yeah usually same on Hondas are the main things but there’s not many offsets that fit in the skylines so these are the first things that silver people started running on them to run a 15 inch rim with a thicker tire for drag racing why is it that you guys

Haven’t gone wide body with this yet they haven’t really wanted to ruin the body as if you’re not so much Ruiner but cut up but who’s to say down the track because uh how far are they going to go to the owner of it so Adrian now owns it

And Anthony the old owner actually drives it at the moment so but it’s incredible to me that this is this the stock setup this these are actually smaller brakes than the stock these are 240s SX brakes oh oh so they’re a small one to fit the 15 inch

Wheels because there’s no way to fit the R34 with the standard uh brakes on them the brembos they you cannot fit a 15 inch rim on it how is it that this is able to stop that good set of rotors good set of pads a brake vacuum pump to help as well and

That’s pretty much it actually grabs pretty well considering the size it’s actually yeah very surprising yeah but it’s not like it’s for road racing either yeah correct you basically exactly is a sort of correct what’s the fastest pass on this this is run the fastest this is around is an 844.

I think that ran 172 model now back then that is some serious weight to stop it is at that speed I mean obviously the parachute helps correct parachutes there for the main thing especially the drag strip you have to pull it now after a certain model now

But um so the pressure does most of the work and you just pull up but and you had no drums pulling up 170 miles an hour at the drag strip this thing is just so crazy so then did you have to add a lot of coolers and everything to

This engine oil cooler and that’s pretty much it with this gearbox cooler that’s not gearbox cooler transmission cooler anything like that it’s um just a big engine oil cooler and a decent intercooler on it and that’s pretty much it very actually quite simple but man warning to low flying birds look

At that that is just that’s ready to suck you in no kidding yeah that is crazy um okay so let’s take a look at the interior yeah interior this is the part that’s really surprising to a lot of people yep full metal door with every single panel

Full Dash carpets does it still have sound ending yeah so I’m pretty sure yeah it’s got the floor and the carriages we’ve still got a factory sound deadening nothing has been taken out of it it’s either three uh headliner correct Factory everything visors yeah redone rear seats correct racial Alcantara yep full cage

Pretty serious cage setup here carbon seats I’m sure that saved a lot of weight and it’s probably a lot safer too yeah to keep useless for the right seats they’ve got to be fixed seats and then now it’s not a manual it’s all right it is a manual still a manual but we’re

Going to shifter it’s now paddle shift so it’s air shifted with the paddles what kind of transmission is this it’s a samsonus rs90 which is their biggest their strongest five-speed sequential and it’s all all done um just from the wheel here correct yep so you’ve got the pedals up and down and

Then is there an air pump in the correct in the boot yep it’s a air pump tank um it’s a dry sump setup as well so everything’s gonna take a look at that man if you showed up to a meet with this vehicle yeah honestly without a parachute on it

And of course the sound it the sound it makes when it’s idling it sounds like yeah it’s just very very cranky so yeah draw some setup draw some tank um catch can it’s an office bottle correct this is probably to help uh build boost huh um actually no we

Don’t use the builders we’ve just got it there with the old setup we actually used it for as a power Adder awesome extra power okay um which we have it ready for this one once we sort of max out boost wise then we’ll start throwing some mattress

At it but yeah that’s your pump air reservoir for the paddle shift and then there’s still like the stock atessa stuff here yeah pump so run the factory full drop system through the motec we can do tall control through the motec um that’s electric power steering it’s an electric power steering pump

Deleted from the front from the engine bay to clean all that up uh icy because um there’s just no room for it correct and with the bill of blocks you run a dry sump there’s an external oil pump so where your AC and your power steering

Pumps and all that go all that gets deleted plus to clean up a lot of people these days go straight to a power string to delete everything from the engine about to clean up as much as possible so then how much have you had to strengthen in terms of driveline after the

Transmission after the transmission we’ve literally just upgraded now to the uh 8.8 inch diff IRS before we had the factory r200 diff with a LSD Center in it and very strong for what they are but they do break once you start drag racing a lot especially with

His weight so he went through quite a few rear diffs um with the old setup and as soon as we upgraded to the bigger turbo and the bigger transmission we thought let’s do the rear diff as well at the same time so it’s got the 8.8 rear diff it’s got

Billet charm CV shafts um so then is it locked how does this work this one has an LSD it’s not locked oh LSD we’ve got a couple of them with spools in them which is locked pretty much but this one actually has an LSD in it huh and then

The front is still a LSD the front is an LSD Center as well it’s correct and then with the mo Tech you can pick how much power look how much drive to the front to back um how you want to do it you can bleed it off down the track there’s many ways

You can do it so that is so impressive yeah I I’m so blown away at like the Ingenuity and all the stuff that you guys do to make these go down the track thank you this this is such a handful to drive too it is it’s a wild ride why is it that

It’s like that I mean it’s all-wheel drive and oh drive you get some torque steer going to the front especially with the extra power you’ve got to it and obviously you don’t want to take too much drop from the front to the back as

You want you want it to grip and go as well so you’re fighting torque steer you’re fighting a lot of weight and you’re also fighting a manual which is in between gears you’ve got that little nudge and shift in between whereas an auto you’re sort of clicking the other

Converter that absorbs it whereas with a manual once it’s on it’s on the clutch is locked pretty much you grab it and it sort of unsettles in between gears yeah when I watched it leave the line I mean it’s changing lanes whether the the driver is wanting to or not you know because

It’s just like dancing all over yeah I mean I’m sure you in car it’s probably so crazy just to try to keep it straight oh 100 it would be it’s um yeah they like to sort of especially with the powers sort of tries to kick out on you

So you’ve got to swine maneuver and counter stay that and then as you’re steering it’s going to talk steer as well so it’s a little bit of a fight it just blows me away that all of this like Factory struts all the rubbers in it yep all plastic just all business

This is pretty cool this is something that the motive guys Andrew yeah this is the motive headlight duct so they do them for the 32 to 34 to allow obviously it still runs a light so you can at night you can still see where you’re going but headlight duck to allow

Airflow to the turbos how much does this actually get driven on the street actually at the Muhammad Fabian at the moment if they beat it was obviously it was off the road for probably a couple years once it got sold once Anthony sold it um Adrian took it

Down to Melbourne he drove it down in Melbourne for a while which though it’s another state and then I sat there for a while then it got um raffled off and bought back again but now yeah now it’s out for war and ready to rumble again

And this is going to be a stupid question but if you’re not running an air cleaner yes what what is like the big issue with I mean is is it going to be something where you’re going to have to I don’t know change the oil more often

Or what the oil gets changed uh pretty regularly every time we go to race we put a fresh we do a service on it so after each race event generally for the street we do put a turbo guard on it which is a little screen that goes onto

This just in case like a rocker yeah just for something decent that sort of goes through a bit of rubbish especially on the street others you’re actually a bit different we take it off to get maximum airflow because at the drag Shooters there’s generally nobody in

Front of you anyway so you sort of go unless you suck up a bird if you’re unlucky enough to do that then here I like enough to do that but um yeah generally on the street we run air cleaners on the little turbo guards we take them off from Maximum airflow that’s crazy

There’s something else all right well thank you so much for showing us this I knew as soon as I saw this at GTR Fest I needed to kind of get a closer look at it yeah because um it’s just something that’s we’re not used to in the States you know it’s just

These it’s almost unheard of yeah well r34s in general are just so rare because they’re still not federally legal in the U.S correct and the ones that we do have are either show and display or maybe they were imported before the law yeah you know with the uh there was a bunch

Of cars that got converted but those are just stuck in time correct and every time we see one it’s like a special treat but to see one go through this mechanical transformation yeah and just the the there’s no other way to put it but it’s not abuse because obviously it’s built

For it yeah correct but it’s you guys are just pushing it so much at the track and it’s just so cool to see this every time he shifts is shooting this huge it’s almost like you’re abusing him but it’s actually built to be that way as

Well so yeah yeah put the handle that one to go fast uh it is very different for people to say like oh wow what the hell they do in that car yeah but um yeah to actually say you got down the track looks very violent as well but it’s what

Makes it cool as well it just looks so good yeah I love it thank you so much you’re more than welcome mate hey thanks for watching if you want to support us directly go to larrychanprince.com I print and sign every single one of these this is the perfect gift or it’s the

Perfect piece of art for your wall Thank you foreign [Applause]