2009 Hennessey GTR600

[sirwilliam]

ARTICLE LINKY

Now that we know Nissan will not be bringing the GT-R SpecV to the U.S., we at Road & Track went looking for a fitting substitute, one that properly enhances the performance of the car without disrespecting its spirit — and besides, not many people could justify the steep $160,000 price tag of the SpecV. Call it fate, but just as we were about to throw in the towel, an email arrived from Hennessey Performance Engineering, whose all-conquering Dodge Vipers have graced many pages of past R&T issues. Turns out, he had just finished his own special GT-R, one called the GTR600, and wondered if we were interested in driving it.

If it seems odd that John Hennessey, owner and founder of Hennessey Performance Engineering, is now also tuning Japanese cars, let us remind you that he got his start tweaking Mitsubishi 3000GTs nearly 20 years ago. And it was clear after driving the Hennessey GTR600 that he's still familiar with Japanese cars.

The first thing Hennessey worked on was on the twin-turbocharged V-6. The factory turbochargers were modified with new 47-mm compressor wheels, with boost set at 17 psi. There's also a long list of new parts (under the company's SUMO brand) that includes the exhaust system, ECU, intercooler piping and wastegate actuators. All this results in 642 bhp at 6400 rpm and 611 lb.-ft. of torque at 4500 using premium gasoline (Hennessey claims that it'll pump out 700 bhp with racing fuel and boost turned up to 21 psi).

And man, does this make a difference at the dragstrip. The launching system limited engine revs to just about 2700 rpm with VDC on or off. Take your foot off the brake pedal, and you could swear the GTR600 is about to go airborne as it leaves the line. The GTR600 hit 60 mph in a scant 2.9 seconds and reached 100 mph in 6.5. The quarter-mile mark goes by in10.8 sec. at 130.4 mph. Hard to believe, but this thing made the GT-R SpecV feel slow...With race gas and the boost turned up, the GTR600 hit 193.8 mph in the standing mile, said Hennessey, and it hit 150 mph in just 14.3 sec.

The amazing part? Hennessey has kept the GTR600 easy to drive around town. He chose not to tweak the suspension too much, lowering the car an inch or so, but keeping ride quality smooth, There's a KWs suspension coilover kit that improves body roll through tight corners. The GTR600 failed to outperform the SpecV on our handling tests primarily because it wore the less-sticky Bridgestone Potenzas instead of the Dunlop SP Sport 600. The GTR600 circled the skidpad at 0.97g and raced through the slalom at 73.2 mph.

Hennessey Performance Engineering has started taking orders for the GTR600 (call (979) 885-1300 or go to hennesseyperformance.com). The cost of Hennessey's tweaks with installation included is $38,800. Add that to the base price of the Nissan GT-R, and you get a total price of $118,090. Not bad for a car that makes the $160,000 SpecV seem like it's slow.

[GaToR]

The GTR600 hit 60 mph in a scant 2.9 seconds and reached 100 mph in 6.5. The quarter-mile mark goes by in10.8 sec. at 130.4 mph.

Engine mods only on stock runflats? Dayum.

[Sabre]

Now that is an impressive little car!

[avriette]

ARTICLE LINKY

And man, does this make a difference at the dragstrip. The launching system limited engine revs to just about 2700 rpm with VDC on or off. Take your foot off the brake pedal, and you could swear the GTR600 is about to go airborne as it leaves the line. The GTR600 hit 60 mph in a scant 2.9 seconds and reached 100 mph in 6.5. The quarter-mile mark goes by in10.8 sec. at 130.4 mph. Hard to believe, but this thing made the GT-R SpecV feel slow...With race gas and the boost turned up, the GTR600 hit 193.8 mph in the standing mile, said Hennessey, and it hit 150 mph in just 14.3 sec.

But will it still be as fast as the original around the 'ring? Hennessey built us 1,000hp twin-turbo Vipers which were really cool to watch and evoked memories of the Superbird, but were useless for anything but oval-track, drag-strip, and tire smoke. He seems to be missing the point. The car was faster around the track than cars with (if not twice, at least close to) twice its power because it is so perfectly set up.

I have a very, very hard time believing his cars will be anything other than "mine's bigger than yours" items for the crowd that need to measure whose Skyline is... bigger.

[Mr Kleen]

Hennessey built us 1,000hp twin-turbo Vipers which were really cool to watch and evoked memories of the Superbird, but were useless for anything but oval-track, drag-strip, and tire smoke. He seems to be missing the point. The car was faster around the track than cars with (if not twice, at least close to) twice its power because it is so perfectly set up.

I have a very, very hard time believing his cars will be anything other than "mine's bigger than yours" items for the crowd that need to measure whose Skyline is... bigger.

[GaToR]

But will it still be as fast as the original around the 'ring? Hennessey built us 1,000hp twin-turbo Vipers which were really cool to watch and evoked memories of the Superbird, but were useless for anything but oval-track, drag-strip, and tire smoke. He seems to be missing the point. The car was faster around the track than cars with (if not twice, at least close to) twice its power because it is so perfectly set up.

I have a very, very hard time believing his cars will be anything other than "mine's bigger than yours" items for the crowd that need to measure whose Skyline is... bigger.

In the same stroke, one could say we are all crazy for tuning an STI/LGT/FXT because they are faster out of the box than cars costing twice as much. But we all know that a spare 100whp makes them faster than cars costing 4x as much. Sky's the limit.

From 400-hp Lamborghini-chasing EVOs, to Ken Block's 600+bhp autocrossing STI to 1000hp Skyline R34s... there doesn't seem to be a detriment to having a few extra ponies under the hood of a well-sorted chassis that can keep right-side-up and front-end-forward.

The other stats like skidpad and slalom stayed exactly the same. Hell, its performing here almost identically to the 500hp R34 Z-tune. That car ran a 10.5 in the 1/4-mile, yet didn't do anything funky in the corners.

I think this is a very different car from a Viper. It shouldn't have nearly the tendency to spin under partial throttle.

Tuner R35s are beating the base GT-R around Tsukaba by A LOT. Mine's, Amuse, HKS to name a few. The evidence that this car was perfect out of the box like Mizuno wanted people to think doesn't seem to be holding water.

Its a tuner wet dream, IMO

Edit: at the same time I'm not suggesting the Hennessey would be the way to go.
The only reason this article was exciting to me is that Car and Driver actually put some numbers to what a 600hp GT-R can do.

There are about a half-dozen people in the US with the Cobb + HKS kits getting close to that. The Hennessey's numbers are only impressive in that you could get sub-3's in 0-60 yourself, for far less.

[Mr Kleen]

In the same stroke, one could say we are all crazy for tuning an STI/LGT/FXT because they are faster out of the box than cars costing twice as much.

not the same argument at all. Hennessey makes some great stuff but they usually appear to my eyes to be dyno queens. this is a general comment on Hennessey, not necessarily this specific tuning job.

and there certainly are STi/LGT/FXT/WRX tuners that go overboard and loose sight of the forrest for the trees.

[UpgreyD]

This actually reminds me of a thought I had. Is there a place like this for WRX's? Other than EasyStreet? Buy a subie, send it off, hit the track.

Not to hijack a thread ot anything ...

[GaToR]

In the same stroke, one could say we are all crazy for tuning an STI/LGT/FXT because they are faster out of the box than cars costing twice as much.

not the same argument at all. Hennessey makes some great stuff but they usually appear to my eyes to be dyno queens. this is a general comment on Hennessey, not necessarily this specific tuning job.

and there certainly are STi/LGT/FXT/WRX tuners that go overboard and loose sight of the forrest for the trees.

Agreed, some of Hennessey's stuff are dyno-queens. I'll clarify by saying I was disagreeing that track times of this car will be negatively affected (though clearly overpriced)

This would be like Hennessey coming up with a Stage III WRX. Its been done, owners can do it themselves, and it doesn't hurt the drivability to a degree that makes it miserable to live with (subjective).

Hennessey claimed to not have hurt any of the normal driving characteristics, but thats not really Hennessey's doing at all. What he's done here is really no more impressive than what HKS has done, for example. That was my main point. Thats just the nature of the GT-R. You can do a Stage-II+ tune, and it really doesn't have much of a downside.

I just thing that if you own a GT-R and want to get up to 600hp, why the hell not? From what I can tell, you could get in the 10-second range in a GT-R for less than $10K in mods with no side-affects.

[zaxrex]

This actually reminds me of a thought I had. Is there a place like this for WRX's? Other than EasyStreet? Buy a subie, send it off, hit the track.

Not to hijack a thread ot anything ...

Depends on what you mean by 'track'
http://www.vtcar.com/photo.htm
http://www.rallispec.com/service.htm


Mmmm, Gumball......