Spending a lot of time going to car meets and motorsport events will teach you a thing or two. And if there's one thing we'd like to point out today, it's that you should never buy into a car's performance figures without a dyno sheet. We've often heard people bragging that they're running 1,000-hp, but a dyno test would reveal a considerably less impressive result. And even dyno sheets can be "rigged" at times.
The Hoonigan Media Machine is an impressive feat accomplished by Ken Block and his peers. They've created several video formats over the years, including the Gymkhana movie, drag racing content, and now this. Testing cars on the dyno to see what numbers they can achieve is always fun to watch.
And they've added a sort of guessing challenge in an attempt to bring gamification into play. We've seen several cars featured in the Dyno Everything series, including a 2JZ-swapped A90 Supra, a supercharged Corvette Z06, and a big turbo Trans Am.
This time we are looking at a 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R, the kind of car that always gets people riled up for one reason or another. Just the other day, I had a 12-year-old motorcycle racer ask me this question: "Do all GT-Rs come with 1,000 hp from the factory?"
And I've heard a similar misconception regarding the Supra as well. As kids these days tend to get most of their information from YouTube without additional research, some of them have reached this conclusion. And you will bump into these ideas quite often on Facebook groups too.
Anyone that has spent at least 10 minutes reading about Skylines will probably know about the Gentleman's Agreement that limited cars to 276 horsepower (280 PS). There have been rumors that some of the cars built during that era had more power than officially stated, but they were not up to four-digit figures.
Going up to 1,000-hp is by no means a kind of Mission Impossible, but it's not a walk in the park either. Reportedly, upgrading the RB26DETT engine on the Skyline GT-R is also going to be more expensive than doing the same with the Supra's 2JZ-GTE.
A lot of things have changed in the car we're looking at today, and engine displacement is one of them. It has gone up from 2.6-liters to 3.0-liters, which is a good sign of what's to follow.
Given the fact that it's packing a Garret G45 turbo, we should see some exciting dyno runs next. The owner hasn't opted for any crazy visual upgrades, and that goes to show that you should never underestimate your opponents when racing.
The first run of the day is going to be the most impressive one you'll see. According to the dyno sheet, this R34 puts out 1,013 horsepower at 5,550 Rpm. And we are talking about wheel horsepower here; just think of the drivetrain losses, given this is an AWD vehicle.
With 2,000 more Rpm to go, we were hoping that those numbers would go up to about 1,200 hp. But alas, over-boosting issues prevent that from happening for now. Fine-tuning these issues takes time, and you can't expect magic to happen overnight. That's just what the project car life is like.
The things Dragos enjoys the most in life are, in no particular order: cars, motorcycles, diecast cars, and drifting. He's seen (and driven) many vehicles since he started his writing career back in 2009, but his garage currently houses a 1991 Mazda RX-7 FC3S Turbo II and a 1999 Suzuki SV650-S. Full profile
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