Killer pics--for some reason they display a lot better here for me than on nagtroc. My favorite is the one in the garage with the brake lights on. So here's what I want to know Cicio--were you laid over across the front seats pressing the brake, or did Leh chop you out of that one?

And as for Kingleh, we knew he could drive the wheels off the car, now we know he's pretty darn handy with a camera--what's next? National anthem at Daytona in a couple weeks?

 

As some of you may have seen, exciting news has just because public for the TSM OneLap project. AMS has come along side of us with a full sponsorship. The car will be proud to wear an ALpha9 badge! We have worked with AMS on other in house projects and know that their products are second to none! With their Alpha9 kit on the car we will be able to run the car at a much higher power level without having to push the limits of the factory components.

We along with Leh would like to thank Eric, Martin, and all the guys at AMS for backing this project!

Here is the AMS Alpha9 Kit in action curtsy of MotorTrend

 

Here is a little more eye candy for the day....


Wrong offset???

 

nice runs!

 

nice twin

 

Ok guys, sorry for the lack of updates the last little bit. We have been slammed with customer projects leaving very little time for the OneLap build. However thats all changing this week as the car goes under the knife for some crucial additions in order to get ready for our first test day. .... More on that later.

The news for today is a new sponsor that has come on board. All of us at TopSpeed including Leh would like to thank ENDLESS brakes for coming on board with the project! In 2010 Leh worked closely with EndLess during the 12 hour of Sebring race
resulting in a GTC victory for Leh and his team. Continuing to build on that relationship ENDLESS has come behind us with some great parts. We will be testing pad combinations over the coming track days in order to ensure the best combination for the GT-R with our setup.

Lots more to come.....

~Cicio

 

As I said in my last post the car has been under the knife this week getting ready for her first test week after next. Doug and the teem have been working some late nights in order to ensure the car is ready for its madden voyage in partial OneLap trim. Everything is a work in progress at this point, and coming along nicely.

We started out the week with a "To Do" list that looked something like this:

Aero
-Front Canards
-Custom front splitter
-Rear wing
-PasswordJDM fenders

Power
-AMS intercooler
-Exhaust
-Injector Dynamics 1000cc injectors

Cooling
-Tranny fluid flush
-HKS DCT Cooler

Wheels&Tires
-Volk G2 20x11.5 Square
-Tires TBA


We installed the HKS cooler first and as always with HKS product we were very impressed. The fitment on it is absolutely perfect It comes with every bracket, rubber grommet or bolt you could ever want. Every line clears by just enough, and fastens in place securely. The core, ducting, and replacement washer fluid tank are great quality and also fit perfectly. I will update you on how we feel the unit performs after the test.

While the bumper was off it was on to the AMS FMIC. This thing dresses to impress from the time you open the box. Fit, finish, and quality are amazing. It comes with all the new IC hardware that replaces factory bolts as well as the lower intercooler piping. Installation was time consuming, but very straight forward, and fitment was flawless. We have yet to put the car on the dyno, or test on the street, however our experience with AMS in the past leads us to believe that performance will be just as impressive.

As you can see in the pictures below the fab work is just mock up at this point. Still lots of work to do there. We are custom building our own uprights for the carbon wing. While we won't have time for tunnel testing both Doug and Leh have enough experience in this area to be very confident in what the car needs. After several templates and placements the one you see below is fairly final.

The front splitter was a signature on the GT2 last year. The custom peace made the front of the car work so well that we had to increase the rear wing size. After the race last year I had countless calls from Porsche owners asking me what it would cost to replicate it. Well what works…works, so we have constructed a similar design on the front of the GT-R this year. The only notable difference is the under tray portion. The underside of the GT-R works differently than the Porsche did to create downforce, so our new designed kept that in mind.

The rest I will let you guys see in the pictures below. The car will continue until its phase 2 completion and ready for testing. We will not be installing the AMS turbos for the first test, but the rest of the car will be close.

Enjoy the pictures and please feel free to ask any questions you have. I can get Doug or Leh in here as well to answer the more technical questions if you guys have them.

Thanks for following

~Cicio
TopSpeed Motorsports

 

Fantastic Build! Thanks for the updates guys!

 

Here are some pictures of the progress on the front splitter. Turns out we are going to be building a custom front lip to work together with the splitter!! In the words of my designer "Its gonna be good"

 

So I received clearance to announce some exciting news about next weeks test day for the TopSpeed Motorsports GT-R.

Next week we will be going up to VIR with some friends that are renting out the track for the entire day. There should be
no more than ten or so people on track at a time which makes for perfect testing conditions.

That being said we will be testing product from our newest sponsor JRZ Suspension. Now....while I am sure you guys have
seen many tests of the JRZ shocks, what you have not seen is a back to back comparison. We will be running the first half
of the day on stock shock to totally dial the car in. With Leh behind the wheel its safe to say he will maximize the potential
of the factory setup and then some. Mid day however we will pull the car in a garage and install the JRZs. We will not only
have a report as to if the JRZ actually went faster, but a full writeup from a pro driver as to how they made the car feel vs.
the stock shocks. We will be reporting to you guys all the advantages and ,if there are any, all the disadvantages of the
aftermarket shock.

We started this build out tell you guys we were in this to help the community and truly determine what makes the car Go Faster....
and thats precisely what we intend to do.

I want to thank JRZ Corporate and Bryan Hise from JRZ USA for this opportunity, and the sponsorship. He will be trackside with
us helping our guys in any way he can. TopSpeed and JRZ have joined forces many times in the past, winning lots of races
together, including last years OneLap of America. We are excited to be working with them again, as well as bringing valuable
data to the community.

I am doing my best to get as much in car data for you guys as I can.

 

I'm so going to follow this...

Excellent idea with the JRZ tests!

 

Well its a late night here at the shop getting ready to leave for the test day tomorrow afternoon. I figured I would share some pictures with you guys while the fab team is working on welding the wing uprights.

Front end is pretty much ready to go, Dodson tranny fluid is in and HKS cooler is full...ARP extended wheel studs are in, new brakes are on curtsy of Endless & Stillen! (more on that later)

Tomorrow a couple more packages come, then we button the car up ready for the 400ish mile drive to VIR....Yes thats right...we are driving the car to the track. This girl is no trailer queen!

Well here are some pictures, I will write a little more official update tomorrow.

Oh and P.S. ......Evidently Leh and his girlfriends dog Turbo really like canards!! **See Last Pictures for Proof

~Cicio

 

Well the car is on the scales getting a final setup for the track tomorrow. The day has gone pretty well, but was not without its trials. I would have to say the biggest one being the front tire/wheel combo that doesn't fit :0

We are going to be testing on the brand new Michelin PSS. If all of the testing is accurate these tires are going to be awesome. They tested 2 full seconds faster than a PS2 yet hold a higher treadware rating. They were just released, but only in very limited sizes. One of the available sizes however is a 315/35/20. That tire seemed to meet our criteria so it was the weapon of choice. However we had no way of knowing that the PSS 315 measures more like a 335 with a 12.8inch tread width!!! :doh:

With the Password:JDM fenders we were planning on running the +15mm offset Volk G2s with the PSS 315s square. When we went to set the car on the ground however, the tires hit the fenders.

That being said we had to do some mad scrambling to figure out a solution....turns out the rear wheels being 10.5inches wide with a +25 offset fit the front fenders just right.

While its not the perfect solution, or the prettiest one, it works! Which is all that really matters. We will come up with a more permanent fix after the test.

I will make a more complete post when I have some time, but here are some pictures of the car for now....

multi colored, different wheels, and the car still looks MEAN!

~Cicio

 

Here is a video of the first test day @ VIR

This lap is on stock shocks with KW sleeve kit and a VERY conservative tune.

Its hard to capture on video just how fast Leh is driving the car, but the on screen speedometer helps

Enjoy.....

~Cicio


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EC28njJD5M

 

We are happy with the data we did get at VIR, however we aren't able to report as much feedback as we would like.

Just after lunch we broke out the JRZ suspension to get it installed. Half way through the install we realized that there were some crucial spacers missing from the kit. While we did our best to "make something work' after just a couple laps Leh reported that the car just didn't feel right. Between that and the rain coming our way we decided to call it a day. The crew reinstalled the factory suspension and are headed back to Atlanta now.

I want to thank Bryan from JRZ for taking the time to come down to provide support...next time just bring a complete kit

We were able to feel out the car and get some aero ironed out. There is for sure a little time left in the car even on the factory shocks. Our next test will be in a few weeks at Roebling Road in Savanna.

~Cicio