It Turns Out All The GT-R Needed To Be Fast Was 1,500 Horsepower

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

My experience with the original Switzer P800 GT-R was so impressive that I ended up working with the company briefly in 2010 before the 246-mile daily commute started to get a bit tiresome. Naturally, they waited until I was out of the building before completing a GT-R with a staggering one thousand horsepower measured at the wheels.

That previous milestone now looks, shall we say, conservative.

Quoth the Switzer press release,

The Goliath car was built to explore the limits of Switzer’s package architecture, building off of the same hardware upgrades as the Ultimate Street Edition, as well as the same intercoolers, plumbing, and exhaust hardware used in the USE, as well as the P700, P800, and record-breaking R1K-X Switzer GTRs. “The other component to this exercise,” explains Tym, “was to see how much power we could make on our engine program’s standard-bore/stroke 3.8L VR38 build that’s been so reliable for us over the past four years.”

Keep in mind, this is not some chopped-up dyno-queen/ringer car. Grinding or welding on the chassis was not permitted, so Goliath’s firewall, frame rails, and power steering systems are totally intact. The factory AC system is completely intact, and “is a must”, according to Switzer … which makes sense, considering how many of these cars end up in extreme climates.

We’ll see what we can do to get behind the wheel of this highly unreasonable GT-R. Keep in mind, it’s winter in Ohio, so the accidental-death factor will be high.

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • FJ60LandCruiser FJ60LandCruiser on Jan 04, 2013

    Reminds me of those idiotic Hennessey vipers Car and Driver tested ages ago with their 700-1200 hp engines that couldn't keep from blowing up every quarter mile unless tended to by 12 techs with two spare engines and a half dozen diffs and transmissions back in the truck...

    • See 3 previous
    • Porschespeed Porschespeed on Jan 06, 2013

      @Mea Culpa, I'd written them off 10 years ago after hearing all the stories and seeing their pathetic "build quality". It was so bad it made contemporary Lingenfelter stuff look good. I don't do Vipers so I haven't paid any attention to them. But I did a quick search and apparently they are as larcenous as they ever were. Caveat Emptor.

  • Krhodes1 Krhodes1 on Jan 04, 2013

    I just don't see the point. Though I suppose it is a bit like climbing mountains just because you can. I'd much rather have 120hp in a Lotus 7 replica that weighs 1200lbs minus my fat ass, skinny tires, and no electronics at all. Would certainly be a lot more fun, and your license would last a lot longer.

    • See 1 previous
    • Raph Raph on Jan 06, 2013

      @nrd515 720 HP and just breaking 140? Does he employ the stock gearing? I'm about 130hp short of that at the crank and with the stock gearing in my car blowing past 140 in a short amount of time is really not hard to do. Matter of factly, I can trap right around 120-123 in the quarter and run smack into the rev limiter in 4th (152 mph) very shortly there after. The "wall" so to speak seems to come up just before 160 or so as the acceleration past that point in 5th gear really slows down. Popular Mechanics IIRC took the speed limiter off of a stock 07-09 GT500 and reached 183 mph in 5th, it must have taken forever to get there.

  • MeaCulpa MeaCulpa on Jan 04, 2013

    Am I being a bit pessimistic in assuming that the service intervals might be short at 390hp/l?

  • Owenstanley Owenstanley on Jan 04, 2013

    Don't forget: the F1 cars from the Turbo Wars also were fueled by a mixture of indolene, heptane, toluene and liquid manganese, plus up until 1987 most cars carried the fuel in vessel that could maintain a very cool temperature as the fuel was cooled by liquid nitrogen as the car was filled. This resulted in a fuel that measured 91 RON but had the effect of about 130 octane gasoline in the combustion chamber. Watch the starts on an old Youtube video - it's a rolling Superfund site!

    • Porschespeed Porschespeed on Jan 06, 2013

      Pump gas is 40%+ toluene, but yes, you're right. They had all sorts of other tricks too. Oh the sounds they made. I was just talking about spec output.

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