The one car which completely blew me away at this years Nostalgic Car Show in Yokohama was this original KPGC10 Hakosuka 2000 GT-R that is having an entire book of EPIC modifications thrown at it. It is going to be one of THE most hardcore classic sports car to come out of Japan this year and I’ve got the details on what’s gone into it ( and what’s going into it ) at this stage of the build. Wanna know all about it? Right this way please…
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I’ve had an absolute avalanche of requests for this car over the past 24 hours and I’m glad to say that I can show it to you right now, as it is. The cars owner, Sudou san, was at his booth just relaxing when I came past and expressed shock and awe as I stood there slack jawed at what was sitting in front of me. I’d seen so many Hako GT-R’s that day, that I was beginning to think I’d seen them all and then BAM, this one came into view with a vicious right hook…
…knocking me out cold but leaving me with the biggest smile on my face.
Sudou san and I had a great chat about the car. Because he doesn’t speak English, my Japanese skills were being put to the biggest test! I had so many questions, I felt like an interrogator of some sort but he answered all of them at length and walked me around the car showing me all the little details. There’s already so much that’s gone into it, that it deserves a primary feature to show you all just what’s happened.
I’m going to start with the body. This original GT-R Hako has actually been Sudou san’s car for over 2 years now and only recently have the extreme modifications begun. He recounted how he was out at Suzuka one day driving the long course when he noticed the chassis flexing badly under load, braking and directional changes. It was then that he decided to strip the entire car and stiffen it with a multi point cage and chassis bracing, also making it lighter in the process. Keeping weight in mind, with an expected total of just over 1000kg’s all up, he went on to say that this modification was one of the heaviest he made to the car.
He added this amazing cage work you see here, making it with his own hands by the way, also giving it a number of great little upgrades across the whole platform. Take a look at how much the rear half of the car has been modified! A lot of material has been jettisoned to make the car as light as possible…
You’ll notice the carbon fiber floor (which is wet carbon incidentally ) but this is actually an overlay for the original floorpan. It still helps to increase the rigidity significantly.
Sudou san is absolutely crazy about Carbon Fiber and I have to agree that I’m the same. We had a good laugh at knowing we would eat the stuff if we could. And this Hako has been force fed a massive diet of the expensive automotive dietary supplement.
The doors, door skins, front and rear quarters, front and rear bumpers, B Pillar air vents, hood, trunk, front under spoiler and rear diffuser are all made from CF, with everything but the bumpers, diffuser, vents and hood painted in an original shade of Nissan silver.
It’s actually a mix of both dry and wet carbon parts, with the hood, doors, fenders and trunk all made in dry carbon and the rest wet carbon. A few different manufacturers were used to source the parts since not one single company manufactures a complete solution for the Hakosuka. Surprisingly, the wheel arch flares, much wider than standard, are FRP since CF items couldn’t be sourced.
Benetec Japan were called in to supply the dry CF hood, doors and fenders. The hood alone is a cool $5000 USD. The doors are over $10,000 for the pair. This should give you a rough idea as to how much money has already been thrown at this magnificent machine on bodywork alone and we haven’t even started looking at the mechanicals yet! Trust me when I tell you, shit is about to get REAL serious.
This Hako is the perfect study in the fusion of old-school JDM metal and new age technologies; with Sudou san being the mad scientist that’s mixing the tonic. Try it if you dare. For some reason, when I look at and study this type of creation, I realize that the Japanese just “get it”. They just know how to build these cars better than anyone else. Only a handful of examples of modified classic Japanese sports cars that I’ve seen anywhere else in the world have come close to looking as visually attractive and functionally spot on as the ones the Japanese make on home soil. They made the cars and are the best in the world at modifying them, simple as that.
Let’s get back to the Hako and dive underneath, shall we? The suspension and braking package on this thing is just as serious as any other sections to the car and Sudou san has employed Brembo, Aragosta and Swift to head up the package. You’ll find the latest Brembo 4 pot, monoblock calipers biting down onto slotted and drilled, 332mm 2 piece rotors taking care of the front…
…with a matching set of Brembo 2 pot calipers and slotted 320mm discs taking care of the rear. The pads used to aid in the braking are Endless. The suspension units are pretty serious Aragosta dampers with the front using Swift springs. The fronts are loaded to 8kg’s with the rears at 12kg’s. If you look closely, you’ll see that much of the aging suspension has been completely replaced with thicker, stronger aftermarket components.
Covering all of this awesomeness from sight is the obvious choice of a set of 16 inch RS Watanabes wrapped in competition spec Toyo R888 rubber. The front is a modest 8.5J and -6 offset…
…with the rears a fair amount wider at 9.5J and -19 offset. The reason Sudou san went with this was for the balance of the car. We’ll get to that shortly because the engine is a big part of the equation.
And what an absolutely fantastic piece of engineering this engine is. Of course it’s not yet finished but without a doubt, this is shaping up to be one of the best tuned S20′s we will ever see. The attention to detail, the materials selection and the raw potency of it is simply astonishing. The S20 is already a world famous, legendary engine in its own right. To then fork over a Kings ransom to obtain one and then do what you’re about to read has been done to it, is borderline certifiable! But we love people who go borderline crazy on Hakosuka builds, don’t we?
Sudo san was good enough to remove the rocker cover and let me have a peek at the internals. It’s an S20 but may as well be an S25, since its been given 500 more cc’s of capacity thanks to a vigorous stroking. The crank responsible is a custom 73mm, balanced unit from R Factory Japan. Inside this monster block are 84mm oversized R Factory pistons and OS Giken racing camshafts. You’ll find a metal head-gasket up top that supports a huge 14.5:1 compression ratio. Timing the beat of the heart is the latest 2012 OS Giken chainless-drive system. You can see the addition of the extra cog that strengthens and supports the load of the timing system in this picture. It needs to be strong too because the car redlines at a stratospheric 10,000RPM.
Delivering the fuel to the beast, is the necessary inclusion of a triple set of 50mm Solex carburetors, mated to an OS Giken intake plenum that will be sucking through a completely custom fuel delivery system yet to be finished. These beauties are capped off with a most beautiful set of titanium intake trumpets; Sudou san says that this 50mm set up is great for the current build because they match the increased capacity of the block. Had the car run a standard 2 liter configuration, 45mm at the most would have been suitable. Adding to the aesthetics of the engine is a complete set of titanium nuts that extend from the head through to the entire network that holds the intake system together. I’m willing to bet you’d need Titanium nuts to drive this thing as hard as you dared.
Then we got to the gorgeous exhaust system. Sure it’s only wearing headers at the moment but you wouldn’t believe what they’re made from. Not Titanium, Magnesium nor Stainless steel. They are actually made from Inconel. This super-alloy is actually up to 8kg’s lighter than traditional stainless steel in this case and is only 0.5mm thick – a very interesting fact is that the McLaren MP4-12C and Koenigsegg Agera use the same stuff for their extractions. F1 exhaust systems use this material as well. You flick it and you can feel the vibrations coming back through your fingers thanks to its paper like thin-ness. Like I said, the materials selection for this build was top shelf!
So how much power is it making, I hear you ask? 300hp @ just under 9000RPM with 28kg’s of torque to back it up. Don’t scoff, power junkies. That’s massively potent in a car that weighs around 1000kg’s. It gets even better when you take the rest of the drivetrain into account. OS Giken have supplied a bulletproof twin plate clutch assembly. The gearbox? None other than a top shelf, 6 speed sequential from Quaife. You just can’t get much better. Even the propeller shaft is a custom carbon fiber item. Getting this power to the ground reliably is a Nismo LSD and the interesting inclusion of Nissan S14 N/A, 4 bolt driveshafts. Sudou san has promised 7Tune readers that we’ll hit the circuit together when the car is done so we can show you all just how it actually SOUNDS and handles in real life. The words “blood”, “curdling” and “holy fuuuUUUU” spring quite easily to mind; Oh yes, we will definitely be revisiting this car and shooting another proper feature on it complete with video.
What to say really…? All the amazing engineering that has gone into one of the worlds most famous sports cars, adds up to one of the most incredible Hakosuka builds ever created and 7Tune will be here to cover the car every step of the way. Sudou san tells me that he’s aiming to finish the car by mid year so until then, you’ll have to stay tuned for any progress.
…In the mean time though, while the build is going, how about I go around to see Sudou san and shoot his 980hp, 8.7 second 0-400, all carbon fiber, Garage Saurus R32 GT-R drag car? Let us know if that’s something you’d like to see.
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Words and Photos – Adam Zillin
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