Well as you are well aware by now, TommyKaira completed the initial phase of their Nissan GT-R project recently for launch at the 2010 Tokyo AutoSalon. We wen’t along to the show and got the opportunity to sit down with and chat with TommyKaira President, Hiei Takayoshi-san, about the latest range of TommyKaira products and the plans for the future.
Takayoshi-san, as it turns out, is not someone to jump into improving on and already great car without first discovering if he can be passionate about it. Personally he is a Honda NSX-R owner from way back so at first he wasn’t sure if the new Nissan could live up to the hype. You may well know of the NSX-R’s legendary status in Japan so it had quite big shoes to fill.
With an adventurous spirit he jumped in with both feet and tried the GT-R for himself. Immediately he was let taken aback by the GT-R’s sheer ability that we have grown to love ourselves, the whole package of performance and quality which is peerless today. After trying it for himself, he quickly formed the opinion that the sheer value of the GT-R far outweighs it’s pricetag and is easily the match for supercars in the 25million yen range. Obviously, this would be an easy decision to have TommyKaira stamp their own mark on the car.
With Tokyo AutoSalon set as their launch target they had a very short time to complete a very large amount of work. They set to it with a guiding principle to not sacrifice workmanship to meet the end goal. The result shows that they are both willing and able to live up to this.
The concept, and second name for the project Ebbrezza-R, comes from the Italian word Ebbrezza. Translated it means intoxication – that is the vibe Takayoshi-san says he gets when driving the GT-R. The final product is also known as the Silver Wolf Edition and Takayoshi-san comissioned the Silver Wolf artwork from his favourite artist Kazuyuki Takishita-san to capture the essence of the project. That is the artwork you can see across the ceiling of the booth.
Let’s get down to brass tacks though. You’ve probably become familiar with the pricing of the kit as we covered it earlier. You might be wondering about the process of buying TommyKaira parts, especially if you’re familiar with the TommyKaira of days-gone-by. To fill those who aren’t in on the history, TommyKaira was known to sell complete cars at fixed prices. Small options were available but by and large each car was sold complete to end customers.
This practice has changed for the company’s latest products, times have changed and their customer’s have too so now they are far more flexible on what you can buy and how. Smaller subsets of the full aero kit are for sale for example and TommyKaira will also be working with global distributors to get the parts out to the wider world.
For now, the dry carbon version of the aero kit are still in development. That is:
- Dry Carbon Front Lip Spoiler
- Dry Carbon Frony Under Diffuser
- Dry Carbon Rear Underspoiler
- Dry Carbon Rear Racing Diffuser
- Dry Carbon Rear Wing
Right now, there is no plan to develop dry carbon versions of the larger parts such as the front bumper and the side skirts however. We asked why that was and Takayoshi-san believes that it’s most likely the clients would want to leave their dry carbon parts unpainted/clear coated only and he felt that would detract from the overall look of the car. TommyKaira recommend for each front bumper and side skirt set to be painted the car’s body colour following their example for best effect. I tend to agree that this does look best really.
While we were there we also got to sit in the drivers seat to get a feel for the TommyKaira interior treatment. The quality of the materials used is top shelf and the final result is, in a word, luxurious. Carbon and red leather is everywhere but it never feels overdone from the perspective of the driver. The red carpeting is bright in the photos but its not overbearing in the flesh. The attention to detail is refreshing with even the interior lock surrounds being remade in carbon fibre. The TommyKaira special edition Recaro seats are tight and hold you well which is to be expected from the masters at Recaro, but larger guys might need to opt for different seating options.
The optional extras like the TommyKaira brakes are all based on proven technology. The brakes are Endless Calipers (Mono 6 & 6R Caliper kit) front and rear and the TommyKaira Titanium exhaust is made by the same people who manufacture the Nissan SpecV exhaust system and is even made from the same Super Tough Titanium (STTI) material.
So pretty much the remainder of this story should be devoted to how it performs right? Well we can’t say right now. TommyKaira aren’t giving any results yet either as they are still tuning the Quantum suspension. What they will say is that the TommyKaira package does not include any engine / ECU tuning packages or options. This demo car for example is completely stock under the hood and the Japanese ECU 180km/h speed limiter is still in place.
Once the suspension is done however, they do plan to take the car to Fuji Speedway to see what sort of improvements the aero, suspension and brakes add up to on the track.
Please enjoy the photo gallery taken at the show and let us know if you have any questions in the comments!
リンク: TommyKaira R35 GT-R Silver Wolf Edition ウェブサイト
画像: (C) Copyright GTRBlog.com
チューニングニュース, トミーカイラ, パーツ
gt-r, gtr, nissan, r35, silver wolf, tommy kaira
