FEATURE: BenSopra R35 GT-R

At this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon there was one particular GT-R which stood out from the crowd – BenSopra’s effort. Up until now only a few ‘generic’ bodykits existed for the super Nissan, but BenSopra’s was the first to fully transform its looks with a full clamshell front end, huge rear overfenders and a monster spoiler Pikes Peak would be proud of! But there’s a lot more to this GT-R than meets the eye…

If you’re a die-hard JDM fan you might recognise this GT-R in it’s previous ‘guise’ – the Blitz-stickered RWD which appeared at the Auto Salon a few years back. This was going to be driven by Ken Nomura in the D1 drift series with promises of over 1000bhp, but due to unforseen circumstances the car was sold to BenSopra where it was eventually finished.

What you’re looking at is a fully forged engine with two monster Garrett GT3082R turbos strapped on, easily flowing enough for the 1000bhp originally intended from this GT-R (albeit running low boost for testing). JUN camshafts have also been installed along with uprated valve springs allowing this GT-R to rev even higher given a proper useable powerband even with the larger turbos.

Taking care of all that power is a set of KW Clubsport coilovers – specifically developed on the Nurburgring for those drivers looking to extract even more performance from their GT-R, a must when running additional power even as impressive as BenSopra’s above! You can see a video of them in action on KW’s own GT-R by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AabxOSPxnE8

But the most unique feature of this GT-R is undoubtedly it’s powertrain. This 4WD system is renowned worldwide as being one of the best which has allowed the R35 (in standard trim) to lap the ‘Ring in just 7min 30, so it seems almost insane to ditch one of it’s best features… that’s why we love Japanese tuners! A Holinger 6-speed sequential box now feeds all that power through an R34 rear differential which, when you stick a decent driver behind the wheel, is capable of doing this:

We’d like to say a HUGE thankyou to for Jon @ Jonsibal.com for allowing us to use his fantastic images from the initial test/shakedown run. You can see even more snaps (and his own feature) by visiting the link here: http://jonsibal.com/blog/2012/02/bensopra-gt-r-drift-test/