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In 2011, Ho purchased an R35 chassis’ 09 GTR, primarily because he liked its potential and knew the allwheel-drive platform was a better choice for his needs.“ I went out to California to look at it and brought it home,” he recalls of the fateful trip that set in motion a build of epic proportions. The car had already been upgraded with a built motor and GReddy turbo kit, but Ho had bigger plans for it.
Unfortunately, with the purchase of the GTR, he inherited someone else’ s problems and soon after taking possession, a turbine wheel broke, causing a tremendous amount of internal engine damage. He had to rebuild the entire motor as a result, but knew the perfect place to task with his car’ s overhaul.“ I had been with Tony [ Palo ] of T1 Race Development in Rockwall, Texas, since my Honda days. He decided to go into the GTR scene and it worked out,” Ho says of his relationship with the record-setting and storied Honda guru.
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It took almost a year for the first phase of Ho’ s GTR upgrade to be completed, consisting mostly of power train improvements. The original twin-turbo configuration was retained; however, the 3.8L V6 VR38DETT engine onto which the turbochargers were bolted was completely rebuilt. Brandon Jackson and Terrence Cox from T1 were tasked with the actual build of the GT1R short block, while necessary machine work was performed by Watt’ s Shop.
Internal fortifications consisted of Manley pistons and rods on the bottom, pushing a 10:1 compression ratio, while the heads were filled with Ferrea valve springs, oversized stainless steel valves, titanium retainers, bronze valve guides, GT1Rspec Kelford cams, and more. In order to make sure the GTR had an ample air supply, a Wilson intake manifold was selected while three Walbro 485 l / h fuel pumps feed six 2,000 cc Injector Dynamics fuel injectors. Bolted to the engine is a stage 4 transmission from the GTR
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experts at Shepherd Transmission in Ohio with a matching, custom Shep / Dodson Pro Max clutch.
Given that the GTR handles great straight from the factory, Ho made only minor updates by way of adding Swift sport springs and Stillen front and rear sway bars.
When it came to selecting parts, Ho’ s plan was simple:“ Buy the best that I can for whatever power I’ m working with so that I don’ t have to buy anything again! I wanted the GTR to be an all-around car with decent power; a street car, a drag car, and something I could take to the road race track if I wanted. If I were to do it all over, I’ d probably start with a stock car, but then I wouldn’ t be as far along as I am now,” Ho says of what it has been like working with a previous owner’ s build.
Although he hasn’ t had to touch the incredibly reliable engine since its rebuild in 2012, early last year Ho continued with the next phase of
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his project. Gone was the old GReddy turbo kit in favor of a new kit with Forced Performance GT35Rbased, ball-bearing boost units bolted to a kit from Extreme Turbo Systems along with TiAL wastegates and blow-off valves.
Ho’ s philosophy of“ do it right the first time” is evident in his selection of an engine management system. Early on, Ho was running a Cobb Tuning unit, but eventually realized that inconsistency with traction and launch control in the early software wasn’ t what he needed for drag racing.“ We would get weird numbers all the time and when we switched to the ETS turbo kit, Tony [ Palo ] told me to switch to MoTeC, and it’ s been a lot better ever since,” he says of his tuner’ s safe advice.“ I wish I had done it a long time ago! It dead hooks every time now!”
Although he was originally looking for about 1,200 horsepower, Ho’ s GTR well surpassed that expectation. Easily eclipsing the GTR’ s stock 545 horsepower and 463 foot-pounds
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64 STREETRACE |