NISSAN RB26DETT
Iconic engine
The heart of one of the most incredible touring cars, a powerhouse that cemented the legend that is Nissan’ s Godzilla: the RB26DETT. This twin-turbo straight-six confirmed its icon status within just a few years of its release. Since then, it’ s made more power, revved harder and attracted a huge fanbase
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issan’ s RB26DETT engine requires you to recalibrate what is normal, what is an ordinary amount of power, what is sensible. The numbers casually thrown around in the world of modifying these engines are absurd for anyone used to the relatively tame world of standard performance car engines. Basically, things don’ t get exciting in the world of Nissan RBs until revs reach 9000rpm and power exceeds four figures.
Nissan’ s twin-turbo 2568cc straight-six was first introduced in 1989 in the R32 generation Skyline GT-R. It would go on to power the next two generations of GT-R, the R33 and R34. The engine wasn’ t a massive departure for Nissan and its other brands, Datsun and Prince. A straight-six had been powering its performance cars since the 1960s. The Datsun 240Z used the L-Series in-line six, which can trace its roots to a Mercedes- Benz motor that Prince had made under license in Japan before developing its own version. The very first Skyline GT-R, the PGC10 or colloquially known as the Hakosuka, used a 1989cc double-overhead cam straight-six with triple Webers called the S10 that made 160hp at 7000rpm. This homologation special cemented the GT-R( Gran Tourismo Racer) status as a dominant force in competition.
18 The Engine Rebuilder Issue 03