Hennessey Adds Nissan GT-R Tuning Package

For those of you out there lucky enough to have acquired one of the all-conquering Nissan GT-R's and insane enough to want it to be even faster, there is hope! American tuning firm Hennessey, famous for their insane twin-turbo conversions for the V10-power

18 May 2015

Parts in the kit include a new induction kit, a new exhaust from the downpipes rearward, a new boost controller, new wastegate actuators, a larger air-to-air intercooler (heat exchanger) and Hennessey's ECU reprogramming to take advantage of these mechanical upgrades. The company claims this kit bumps the output of the GT-R from a stock output of 480 horsepower and 430 lb-ft (580nM) to a more substantial 600 horsepower and 570 lb-ft of torque (772 nM.)

What's alarming to me is that the page makes no mention of upgrades to the transmission. Considering Nissan has been voiding warranties for using the car as intended, (that is to say, if you break your transmission using the included Launch Control function), adding 120 horsepower and 140 lb-ft of torque to the already fragile stock transmission seems like a bad idea. Considering Nissan is probably dropping Launch Control from the 2009 GT-R, this might be a moot point. Hennessey doesn't exactly have the best reputation among the tuning community, though. And why no mention of fuel system upgrades (fuel pump, injectors?) Do you want your GT-R's 3.8L twin-turbo masterpiece to lean out under boost and explode?

Still, this kit will probably be less cost prohibitive than other tuning firm's offerings (HKS products are notoriously overpriced), and considering it looks like the vaunted GT-R VSpec won't actually have any more power than the standard one despite being almost twice the price, packages like this for the GT-R will certainly become more common in the future. Pricing on Hennessey's Godzilla 600 kit hasn't been announced at this time, but I would predict you'll need a big bag of money.