It was decided that although the car would be a replica in appearance, it would be set up as a modern and competitive time attack car. Phil wasn’t going to get too hung up about keeping it period correct. TEIN fully adjustable coilovers and a Nissan HICAS lock-out kit have been added but with the GT-R on the lift the most notable new addition is the side exit exhaust.
The Skylines that raced at Bathurst sat quite high to cope with the undulating surface of Mount Panorama Circuit. As a track focused car here in the United Arab Emirates, Phil needed to have his Godzilla on the deck which required fabrication of a tunnel to house the straight-through side exit exhaust so the suspension could be lowered to the max. As Phil pointed out, it also looks cool.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the build is not yet complete. The new bespoke dashboard (with instrumentation supplied by Gulfsport ) was off getting powder coated, the headlight units are being replaced by cooling ducts and the wiring loom has not yet been installed. With the helpful team at a2b Garage we manhandled the Skyline outside for some detail and beauty shots.
The Corbeau FX1 racing seat was supplied by Jon at MSW who surprised Phil with the custom colour and logos. MSW are taking care of all the safety features of the build including a Luke 6-point HANS harness, Luke window nets and Lifeline manual fire extinguisher.
Another nice touch from the guys at MSW is the Hot Wheels logo emblazoned on the seat honouring the history of this particular GT-R while it was in the hands of Chris Wishart. When Chris was the owner, this GT-R had a flame motif which, I assume, was the reason it was always referred to as the ‘Hot Wheels Skyline’ when it raced at the Autodrome.