Comparisons between Porsche’s turbocharged 997 and Nissan’s newest GT-R have kept the automotive press pretty busy in recent months—with the general consensus being that the GT-R stacks up against Stuttgart’s performance icon pretty well, thank you very much. Now, however—a year after the GT-R’s debut—the first tuner GTRs are starting to reach customers … which seems to beg the question: how do these tuned GT-Rs stack up against tuned Porsches?
Switzer's P700 GTR
Back in January, the thousand-horsepower SLEDGEHAMMER 997 introduced the world to Tym Switzer and his Oberlin, Ohio-based tuning firm. With more than 15 years’ experience tuning high-performance cars from Europe and Japan, Switzer is uniquely qualified to answer that question: Compared to the Porsches, Nissan’s Godzilla is a different animal altogether.
As an all-weather, four-passenger supercar, the GT-R seems like it could appeal to the same kind of audience as the 997, but the GT-R is much more of a digital type of experience. It’s really amazing how close these cars are, in terms of ultimate performance.
Switzer would know: for the last few months, Switzer has been carefully studying the GT-R, developing a series of sensible, high-performance bolt-ons aimed at producing a streetable GT-R performance package that didn’t force GT-R owners to sacrifice reliability or drivability.
Called the P700, Switzer’s new package promises more than 700 bulletproof crank horsepower on 93-octane pump gas.
“I was always impressed with Nissan’s application of certain technologies. One thing I was not impressed with was the amount of fluff parts I was seeing being distributed for the cars or the banzai sort of crank-the-boost with 100+ octane racing fuel antics I was seeing in the aftermarket. I knew that it was important to take a look at what the car was reliably capable of, and what was really going on within the platform.”
Under the hood of the P700
Switzer’s first step was extensive data-logging and analysis.
“We checked for pressure drops, temperature variations, everything. After replacing the stock turbos with application-specific custom units and our own unique MONSTER intercooler package, we slowly dialed up the boost, checking all the data again and again.” said Switzer. ”Eventually, we ended up going beyond the limits of the standard ECU calibrations and hardware, so we built the necessary components and the data-gathering started again.”
With more than 626 hp and 583 lbs.-ft. of torque on tap, the Switzer P700 GTR is certainly set to deliver a driving experience that is many steps above Nissan’s standard Godzilla GT-R, without putting unnecessary stress on the GT-R’s driveline.
MSRP for Switzer’s P700 GT-R performance package is $16,650. Contact your Switzer Performance dealer for more information and compatibility with your current aftermarket hardware. P600 and P800 kits also available.
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