Owner: Gervase Tuxworth

Make/Model: Nissan Skyline R33 GTR Vspec2
Engine: RB26DET
Turbo: GT3788R
Power: 540hp at the wheels

Sponsored by: Elite Racing Developments / Federal Tyres / Fulcrum Suspension

Queensland Raceway
Current Best Times:
Sprint: 59.40 sec
Clubman: 62.20 sec

June 2009 Update

Despite some horrible bad luck with weather, the ERD R33 GTR has made a couple more ventures out to Queensland Raceway to compete in the TimeAttack 2009 series. The April 2nd day was the first time out with the new setup, but the weather didn't want to come to the party. Light to medium rain stayed around the whole day, causing large pools of water to form on areas of the track, particularly the dipper, making lap times
very difficult to improve on. Gervase kept the boost turned down for the day as getting all 620hp to the ground would have been nigh impossible. He managed to run 2nd fastest in his class on the day, keeping him on top of the 2009 points table.

The next track day was May the 19th and despite not a drop of rain falling on QR since the previous time attack day, the 18th saw some heavy rain and on the morning of the 19th, the clouds were thick in the air. By 8am the rain had started to fall again, however by late morning it had stopped raining and parts of the track started to dry out. While the sun didn't quite manage to poke its head, the rain abated for a few hours so Gervase was able to start working on improving his lap times. Despite both the dippers still having pooled water in them, Gervase ran a 1.01.66 around Sprint, again 2nd fastest in his class for the day, keeping him narrowly on top of the points table with Stephen Faulks in his Subaru WRX and Nathan Stolz in his Mitsubishi EVO not far behind.

The next series round isn't until the 18th of August, but Gervase will be heading out to QR on July the 8th to work on his times on both Clubman and Sprint, and hopefully get below the 1.00 mark around the short sprint circuit. Stay tuned for further updates.

March 2nd, 2009 Update

The ERD R33 GTR has continued to perform, having just completed Round 2 of the Project Mu TimeAttack series. Gervase arrived at the track using the same setup that he used for round 1 of the series on the Clubman circuit, opting to hold off on a new set of tyres in order to establish a base time to work off. The car was still running with the 3” dump pipe and netting just shy of 500hp. With the experience still fresh in his mind from the first track day, Gervase’s first lap was a 1.06.28 and in his first session he got that down to a 1.05.14 – a very promising start. However the following sessions were not yielding any improvements – just consistent 1.05 – 1.06 lap times.

After looking at the car, bits and pieces of rubber were found to be peeling off the tyres. The track was simply too hot and the tyres were peeling. Gervase let them sit for half an hour in an attempt to cool them down but this didn’t seem to have much impact – his following session was again filled with 1.05 second passes. Determined to break that 1.04 barrier, Gervase waited another half an hour and headed out again. Despite the car sliding on quite a few of the corners, Gervase managed to lay down a 1.04.74 only to go out for 1 final session and lap an impressive 1.04.14.

As of this writing, the car has been fitted with a new 6boost manifold and is currently being fitted with a new 4” exhaust system. With these items in place, a retune should net over 600hp at the wheels. To compliment the power upgrade, Gervase has decided to perform some suspension upgrades including camber and castor adjustment and some sway bars. Once these have been installed, some Federal 595RS-R tyres will be fitted in time for Round 3 of the Project Mu Time Attack on the 24th of March. Stay tuned for more updates.

January 27th, 2009

Project R33 GTR has been a success. This project started as a basic rebuild but grew into something more special.

Gervase saw the GTR for sale and it pretty much had everything done and all parts on paper looked very impressive. It was certainly an impressive package and the asking price was quite good considering the parts and work that had gone into it.

After purchasing the car with all his hard earned money and the sale of his beloved R33 GTST, Gervase had only driven 1000kms when problems occured. It was the sound we all dread and shouldn't be hearing from an engine that was supposedly 3000kms old.

The engine was pulled down and it was found that the problems were much much worse than first anticipated. The block had a crack that had been repaired by way of sleeving. But instead of sleeving the whole engine like most good engine builders would do, they only sleeved the first cylinder where the crack had occured. They incorrectly installed the sleeve and caused the piston to wear in an oval shape. This was the cause for the engine knock. Excessive piston to bore clearance. It was also revealed that regular GTST bearings had been used on the mains instead of the superior GTR bearings with the extra oil holes. The block was a throwaway and the little end bush on cyl 1 had copped a bashing as well. It was quite a task to repair the damage to the Tomei forged conrod but with the expert services employed by Chilton Engineering, the job was always certain to be thorough and of the highest quality.

It was determined that the previous workshop was not responsible for the mess we found, but we knew the cause of failure so the most important thing was to ensure it didn't happen again.

The engine was built to ERD specs and it was soon running again. Gervase was as happy as larry when he first got to drive it again. There have not been any real issues with it at all. It has seen over 100 dyno runs and approx 5000kms on the clock now without so much as a single hickup. It turned out a figure of 480hp at the wheels but the exhaust is proving to be a restriction. It will soon be copping a dose of 6Boost manifold and a full 4 inch custom exhaust. This should see it net up near the 600hp at the wheels where it should be. It saw it's first track day since the build on 27/01/2009 for Time Attack round 1. Gervase being extremely green, was unsure of his ability to perform on the day but with determination and a willingness to listen, he was always sure to impress everyone. Starting off with some 1:30's and 1:18's etc in the wet, he pushed on trying to get some faster times. The car never missed a beat and came out of it without a single issue. After the rains had cleared and the track had dried, Gervase had his times down to 1:10. With a few pointers from Old Man Noel (Fineline), he was soon snapping up seconds in the corners to achieve a final best on the clubman circuit of 1:08:814.

The car still runs on street tyres and its ability to handle the corners at high speed was stumped by this restriction. Next time, hopefully we'll have some slicks or at least semi's on her to give it the best grip possible so we can get down under the 1:00 minute barrier.A great day was had by everyone and it was good to see another young person eager to do the right thing and take it to the track. Gervase shows true potential and I am proud to have him represent Elite Racing Developments.

Owner: Ben Curran
Make/Model: Nissan Silvia S13
Engine: RB20DET
ECU: Blitz remapped
Turbo: Standard
Fuel System: GTR Fuel Pump
Power: 240hp at the wheels

This Silvia started out life as a 1.8 litre automatic and after blowing a water hose on the factory CA18DE Ben decided that it was time to put a decent engine in it. So the search for a donor car began. At that time the market was busy and finding a half-cut was almost impossible, luckily ERD was able to source Ben a perfect condition, low kilometre R32 GTS-T half-cut that had perfect compression on all cylinders and luckily enough a Blitz remapped ECU.

Then came the conversion, it was a simple affair, remove old engine and gearbox, drop the front crossmember and then bolt in the Skyline crossmember, engine and gearbox.(after replacing the water pump and timing belt and tensioner bolt and a 5 puk NPC button clutch wuth TODA Racing lightened flywheel).

Next came the power steering, a few minor alterations needed to be made to adapt the S13 system to fit over the larger Skyline crossmember. Wiring was made easy thanks to Jason, in just a few hours he had the wiring done for us.

The Skyline gearbox crossmember was used and we only had to elongate 2 holes in order for it to bolt up to the factory position and a tailshaft from a manual S13 Silvia was used which was a direct bolt in. Cooling is taken care of by a standard R32 Skyline radiator with 2 10" SPAL thermo fans running at all times. Induction is via a Drift brand pod filter and the charged air is cooled down via a ERD RBS13 Intercooler kit.

The car is udergoing some shakedown testing and will then be back in the ERD workshop for the fitting of a freshly shimed LSD, whiteline sway bars front and rear, ERD adjustable castor rods, toe rods, traction arms and control arms which compliment the already fitted XYZ race spec coilovers. Then the gearbox will get the usual ERD treatment consisting of a full stripdown, cryogenic treatment of all internal parts for improved strength and wear characteristics
then re-assembly with some Redline Shockproof for good measure.

The braking system is also getting a make-over with rotors from a R33 GTS Skyline (4 stud) being used in conjunction with a pair of callipers from the R32 GTS-T donor car, rears are from a SR20 Turbo S13 SIlvia and EBC Red pads will be used all round. These brakes should be enough to keep this stripped out S13 on the black stuff when it hits the track.

Future mods will include a turbo sourced from a R34 GTT Skyline (direct bolt on), Nismo 550cc injectors, Nistune ECU, Adjustable Fuel Regulator and a fuel surge tank with a Bosch 044 fuel pump for good measure to stop fuel surge when on the track as well as a custom roll cage.