S3 Magazine // Issue 34

Real car guys all seem to have a similar dehabilitation,
and it manifests itself in different ways. But what it all
boils down to - is that enough is never enough. In every
other facet of our lives, we might be humble, satisfied,
sensible, laid back, generous, socially-functioning
people. But when we lock into our automotive frame
of mind, our inner-beast breaks the leash. And we
become dead-set & consumed with nothing else but
hunting down that extra 1 horsepower, or that extra
1 pound, or that extra 1/10th of a second, or that
extra 1/10th inch of clearance. Some people says it’s
a problem, or a dangerous obsession. I say - suck it
Trebeck.
This GTR makes 1200hp. It was built by Topspeed
Motorsports in Atlanta. And here’s the thing - when
you’re building a car to this degree, it’s a lot like
building a legitimate competition race car… with
interior & AC vents instead of numbers. And in your
higher levels of motorsports, success isn’t achieved
by having better ‘parts’ than the next guy… because
everyone at this level is running cutting edge parts.
The real advantage is achieved by having the best
strategy & in-depth knowledge of the chassis through
& through. It’s the secret tweaks, and the tricks
learned from repetition & experience. And that means
there’s a lot that’s going to get left off the final ‘spec
sheet’. A lot that is chalked-up to talent, and REAL
tuning mastery.
For example, a Motec ECU is just a paperweight
without the right brain tuning it. You don’t send your
car to Topspeed to keep your fingernails clean. That’s
not what it’s about. You send your car to Topspeed,
because what you get back - is greater & more
capable than the sum of it’s parts.
This GTR car has a Topspeed Motorsports 4-liter build
(up from the original 3.8) with the Alpha 12 package.
The Alpha 12 is a turbo system package put together
by AMS, and targeted for insane power numbers… but
with a main focus on drivability & broad powerband.
See a lot of times, when you’re talking about 4-digit
horsepower numbers, you lose real-world drivability,
and you end up talking about cars who can’t find any
rhythm until they’re high in the RPMs & have 4 lanes
of open freeway that stretches clear onto the horizon.
Good for Texas2K brag videos… but limiting as far as
actual drivability goes. The Alpha 12, however, has
different intentions. It sets the stage for your GTR to go
from 60-130mph in a blistering 3.3 seconds - while
maintaining OEM-type city manners. Jason, the owner
of this GTR, lives in Farmington, New Mexico… which
according to Google Earth is precisely in the middle
of bumf*ck nowhere. There are no freeways within
hours, just 2-lane desert roads. So Jason was looking
for a setup that would allow for completely insane
explosive light-to-light bursts > landspeed records.
For that reason, Topspeed settled on the Alpha 12 for
his build.
And from there, Topspeed built the motor & the rest
of the car to support the Alpha 12. The car has a
Topspeed in-house fuel system upgrade - utilizing
a complete 4-gauge rewire, with a 3rd fuel rail,
Topspeed 1300cc injectors, and a 3rd Walbro 485lph
pump. The third fuel rail mounts to the center of the
intake, and feeds an additional 6 injectors - for a total
of 12 injectors (6 on each outside rail, and 6 on the
aftermarket 3rd rail).
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ISSUE 34 :: 2015
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