V35 Drag Racing

[camr33]

V35 Drag Racing

Hi everyone,

As we are all aware, there are plenty of videos out there of R series Skylines running the quarter mile, but not a lot about the humble V35 350 GT. For obvious reasons, they are not often considered for drag/track applications, especially against other boosted JDM imports.

When the Perth Motorplex held a Nissan VS Honda theme night (not a fair match-up, I know...) in March 2017, where you could run your Honda or Nissan for $20, I thought "bugger it", and decided to give it a crack.

Ill start with a bit about the car first- My Skyline is a 2003 coupe, with a 5 speed A/T gearbox. I have owned the car for 2.5 years and am the first Australian owner. It has the following mods- Tein coilovers, Godspeed front/rear sway bars, vented/slotted rotors, Injen CAI, Mace engineering 12mm plenum spacer and an Apexi 3" catback exhaust.

I did a fair bit of research prior to running. According to "experts" on G35 Driver, they should be running around 14.7 dead stock. I was expecting 14.4 to 14.5 based on my mods, if these "experts" were correct. Boy was I surprised- my first run, with my brother riding shotgun and a full tank of fuel, netted a disappointing 15.050 @ 150.46kph, in full automatic mode (with power set to on). I also forgot to turn off VDC until my third run, which may have also cost a bit of time.

For the next run, I booted my brother out of the car and saw an immediate improvement to 14.860 @ 152.67 kph. Still disappointing, but I knew I could definitely shave a bit of time by shifting manually as the car was shifting into 4th just before the finish line. I knew if I held it in third, I could squeeze a few extra kph out of it.

I decided to let my brother have a run next as per the video below. We still lost, but we were constantly seeing improvement in each run. I believe he ran a 14.8, which was excellent considering I was in the car. He had an excellent launch too.  Apologies in advance, as there is a bit of coarse language. 

 

 

 

My third run suffered from a boggy launch, and a limiter bash in second, so I only managed 14.975 @ 153.87 kph. I cant blame my brother for that one, as he wasn't in the car.

My last run was the best of the night. My brother captured it on his camera, so I will link it in the comments once I have obtained it off him.

My final run was 14.678 @ 156.03 kph. My car had finally achieved (and slightly bettered) what the "experts" said it should have done. I was very happy with that run, and decided to call it a night. I let my brother have another run, where he managed 14.7xx (again, I will link it in the comments once I have transferred it). By the end. I was fairly happy, especially when I learned that the two 350z's that were there only managed mid to low 15's. 

Is there room for improvement? 

For sure.

Perth temps suck at that time of the year in the early evening. The temp was still in the mid to high 20's and it was humid as buggery. As many of you will agree, these conditions have a detrimental impact on performance on our cars. I also went down with a full tank of fuel- this would be the equivalent of carrying another passenger in the car. Considering I gained 2/100ths of a second by dropping a passenger, another run with low fuel and colder temps could see a considerable improvement. I may even possibly see the 14.4 or 14.5 I was chasing.

When I uploaded my video to Youtube, I came across a few G35 and 350z quarter mile runs, and they were all running in the 15's. It just goes to show that you cannot always believe what you read on the internet, and that a "textbook" run is something that trained drivers achieve under ideal circumstances.

I hope this info helps, as there was not a lot out there about what these cars can do.

[camr33]

Final run of the night

[V35_Paul]

Nice wright up bro.

I wish i had taken my V35 down to Perth and did some runs when i had mine. I always believed it could get into the 13s. But i'll never know, unless the next owner takes it.

 

[ka86]

Awesome work man though and good for recording it. I need to take mine down to Willowbank sometime.

Maybe we should make this a 1/4 Mile thread and sticky it for others to join. 

[camr33]

So, just an update. I decided to give it another crack under better conditions to see how it went.

I went down on a chilly night on 10/05/17 after doing the 100k service (new plugs and oil) and saw massive improvements. Best run of the night was 14.3 @ 158kph. I was much happier with this result, especially since it's only a mildly modified car. I beat 2 R34's and an R33, and the look on all their faces at the end was priceless. Terminal speed could still do with some improvement (across all runs, the turbo skylines had a final speed at least 10kph faster than me).

I'm fairly confident some HFC's, headers and an uprev tune would see me break into the 13's. The car really lacks at top end. Another V35 was there that night, and was running 14.7-9s, and a 350z was running very low 15's but was unable to crack the 14's.

time sheet.pdf

Edited May 29, 2017 by camr33

[ka86]

Nice!

Vids or Ban 

[camr33]

See attached time sheet above.

I do have it on video, so I may chuck it up after work.

[camr33]

 

[R377]

14.3 is a damn good result for an auto.  Thanks for sharing

[R377]

100mph term speed 160kmhr is usually around a flat 14 so im not sure how much better you can "drive" it to reach the maximum - you pretty much are dirving the max of the car's potential.  Colder weather, tyre pressure might make a slight difference - diff ration could also help get into the 13's - new tyres.

either way 14.3 is v good for a auto

[camr33]

Yeah, I was very happy to run 14.3. I increased my tyre pressure to around 36psi (from about 30), so I'm wondering if this helped. I had no traction issue either time, which is why I decided to run it a bit higher. Rear tyres were brand new Achilles, which were recommended as I was having traction issues in the wet.

My first night was 14.6 @ 156kph and second night was 14.3 @ 158, so there was only 2kph difference despite a fairly big time gap. The time sheet showed a similar 60ft time, but the 660ft speed was about 4kph difference. 

Overall, it didn't seem like a particularly fast run either, but I dont think it would have managed much faster TBH. The terminal speed was about .5kph slower than another run i did that night, so a 159kph pass would not have been out of the question. I think I have launching down good, as well as manual shifting, but 3rd gear is where the turbos seemed to have their advantage.

Overall though, I'm proud of the result.

 

[ka86]

Good work!

I reckon next mod do HFCs and other exhaust mods (Y Pipe, Mid pipe etc).

Going by the research I have been doing, doesn't seem Headers (though it does make an improvement) are worth it for the price v gains. Though if I got a set of Tomei Expreme V2 for dirt cheap I probably would lol.

I'd say your 3rd to 4th will be quicker with HFCs etc, I noticed my mid to top range improving after getting some.

Then maybe tune.

[camr33]

My mate managed to run 14.3 in his VE SS commodore a few years ago, with a terminal speed of 162kph. So clearly my top end is hurting me (still pretty stoked that a car with a 60kw+ power disadvantage could manage to keep par). I noticed last time around, the car was about to redline as I crossed the finish, whereas the first time I went, it was sitting around 6000rpm. I would definately say I have reached the limit of what the car can do at this point of time.

[Leroy Peterson]

What tyres and sizes are you running? what wheels? Making sure the alignment is up the scratch can help a lot too (no camber in the rear, or minimising camber when squatting on launch).

With an auto, I think a shift kit will improve the car dramatically. I think it would be noticeable on a timeslip due to the quicker change between gears and not the soft/sluggish overlap between 2 gears.

I'm not too cluey on the 5-speed autos, but MV Automatics in SA should have a decent kit available for it?

Good on you for keeping at it.

[camr33]

Running factory forged Rays 19x8/19x8.5 wheels. Cant remember the exact type of tyres, but they were Achilles that a lot of clubsport owners tend to use. Have considered a shift-kit in the past, but can't see it make a huge difference TBH.

Edited June 20, 2017 by camr33

[Leroy Peterson]

Don't knock a shift kit until you've driven a good one. Even if not for the drags, the difference on the road is night and day.

[V35_Paul]

1 hour ago, Leroy Peterson said:

Don't knock a shift kit until you've driven a good one. Even if not for the drags, the difference on the road is night and day.

Great for those short stubby arms