Drift Tengoku — September 2004 · Page 11
Page 11 — English translation
An ECR32 RB25DE is the starting point, with Tomei 272-degree intake and exhaust cams. Detailed work includes porting, modifications to the squish areas, and valve-seat work. GT-R individual throttle bodies were cut apart and welded to an RB20 manifold.
More recently the bottom end was changed to a balanced C34 RB25DE assembly, whose connecting rods are thinner and lighter than the ECR32's. That alone changes how freely it revs. Power was estimated from fuel consumption, but the figure is unclear in the OCR.
A light Silvia body for a naturally aspirated RB25! That electrifying naturally aspirated sound comes from an RB25DE. 'A tuned AE86 sounds great and drifts quickly. I wondered whether we could build an NA car that beat it in both sound and performance, so I focused on the RB engine,' says Yamauchi of Top Mode Project. He and driver Yokoo jointly own the Silvia and pursue their ideal setup. Originally, this engine...
Using a C34 engine crossmember makes the RB25DE installation essentially bolt-on. The transmission is the same type as the RB20DET's, and the driveshaft reportedly required no modification. To retain the clutch-driven cooling fan, the radiator support was cut and the radiator moved forward; the fan comes from an early S14. Moving the engine from a Cefiro into the light S13 body saved about 100 kg.
...Fujitsubo exhaust manifold was reworked and fitted. The engine internals were balanced and modified for high-rpm use, with airflow-meter-free control through V Pro. Everything is geared toward revving freely. 'A turbo car is faster, but the sound is great and winding it out feels fantastic,' they modestly said. Yet it gave little away to SR turbos on the straights, and its drifting...
Captions and page details
ORC Drift Challenge
RB25DE engine swap
Yokoo's Silvia
PS13
Only the front bumper is aftermarket; the other bodywork is standard. Yokoo made all the vinyl graphics and stickers himself. It looks like an ordinary Silvia, but the engine swap has been officially approved and the car registered in the larger '3-number' class.
Happy to run at 8,500 rpm!
An SR turbo can't imitate this, can it?
The theme is a naturally aspirated car that goes beyond the AE86. An AE86 excels on technical courses, but on some layouts its lack of power leaves it behind turbo cars. The RB25DE has plenty of power and revs to its 8,800-rpm limit...
TOP
Incidentally, this gauge...
It revs!
...because six-cylinder and four-cylinder engines generate different tachometer signals, we replaced it with a middle-series Cefiro tachometer that looks almost identical to the Silvia's original gauge.
V8 to inline-four; inline-four to inline-six: engine swaps in pursuit of driving pleasure
The Silvia body
The best choice for a tuned RB!
19
...was in a Cefiro, but the body was too heavy to bring out its potential. They moved it into a lighter, more controllable Silvia: the engine came first. Its ECR32 RB25DE base lacks the ECR33's variable valve timing, allowing high-rpm 272-degree cams. The intake manifold was modified for GT-R individual throttle bodies, and an equal-length...
That's what they found.
...looked incredibly...
...cool!
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About this issue
ドリフト天国 (Drift Tengoku), September 2004, is a Japanese drifting magazine. This archive preserves 316 scanned pages in their original right-to-left reading order, including the covers.
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