Evasive Motorsports' 2010 Nissan GT-R - Smooth Is Fast
It's not all about power with this R35
Jorge NunezPhotographerSam DuWriter
Evasive Motorsports' 2010 Nissan GT-R - Smooth Is Fast
It's not all about power with this R35
Jorge NunezPhotographerSam DuWriter
In the next few pages, you'll be getting a taste of two of North America's baddest Nissan GT-Rs; however, both couldn't be anymore different. Depending on your preference, you'll either be drawn to one or the other. What we can guarantee you is that both have been engineered to go fast as hell on the track, and both somehow still have the driveability to make the two-hour drive home—with the air conditioning on!
We'll begin with this poster child from Evasive Motorsports (dubbed "poster child" because it was featured on our TE37 10th anniversary poster last month). Painted a beautiful Porsche black, this GT-R is no stranger, introduced at the '14 SEMA Show within the Yokohama booth. Not meant to just sit there and look pretty, the intention of the car was always to make its way onto the circuit, which it did with flying colors, running a 1:47-second lap at Buttonwillow Raceway. To put that into perspective, that would position the car in second place in the Unlimited AWD category at last year's Super Lap Battle. Does it have 1,000 hp and has it been completely stripped? No. In fact, Evasive achieved that lap time without even touching the motor or upgrading the turbos!
The team at EVS accredited much the GT-R's quickness to the chassis improvements. TEIN suspension with three-way dampers, designed specifically for the R35, included custom valving. Everything else was upgraded as well to complement the suspension, for example, the A-arms, sway bars, bushings, and camber/traction/toe links.
Every GT-R comes equipped with OEM Brembos, but this whip needed something that could handle a constant pounding on the brakes without too much pad wear and overheating. Alcon big brakes with six-piston calipers and Project Mu pads were installed all around.
The wheel and tire package is also another winning combination of gear, pictured here with Volk Racing's latest TE37 Ultra Track Edition wheels and Advan A005 tires.
On the outside, the Ben Sopra bodywork looks sexy as hell, but after closer inspection, Evasive determined the kit wasn't necessarily designed to be functional on the track. Adjustments were made to allow the aero to support high speeds. They began by redoing the front end, adding their own one-off carbon splitter. Carbon ducting was created to help with cooling, and there was also custom ducting put in place to ensure air went to where it needed to go, not just flowing into empty holes and creating drag.
For the rear, the original design of the Ben Sopra aero seemed to beg for a center exhaust exit from the bumper; however, it never came with the proper hardware to make it happen. Evasive fixed the issue by filling the lower exhaust cut-out holes and rerouting the massive titanium pipe out through the bumper—easily one of our favorite details of the car.
Power was addressed last and, as we mentioned before, you won't find a built block or larger turbos on this V-6. What the VR38DETT does feature are key bolt-ons, cooling upgrades, larger injectors, and an E85 tune that makes 725 hp all the time.
"The car...it looks crazy, but it's not that crazy," concluded Mike Chang of Evasive. "The interior is still intact, it's still a registered street car, and you can drive it to and from the track. You won't need to pay attention to it after each lap—just run it all day."
To most folks, Evasive's GT-R can easily be mistaken as a full race car. Well, it sort of is, having accomplished one super-fast lap time. The project also wasn't an overnight bolt-on affair, considering hours and hours of development were done to the chassis, aero, and reliability of the powertrain. But if you thought for a minute that this is a 1,000hp GT-R build that's been stripped of its interior, air conditioning, and has to be trailered home from the track... Now you know what's up.
