R5 for R35

While the Nexus R5 has been quickly adopted by the drag racing and muscle car community, its advanced specs and numerous features also make it supremely suitable for circuit racing applications. We figured the best way to showcase all those features would be in a real, proper circuit racer!

It just so happened that one of our long time friends and a big time attack fan – Brian Bugh had just purchased a NEXUS R5 for his new build – a purpose built Nissan R35 GT-R race car. We have featured Brian’s other car – an LS-powered Corvette a few years ago. At the time the Corvette was competing in the Open Class at the World Time Attack Challenge and other national time attack events. The GTR will take Brian to another level with a ground up, Pro Class spec build.

The engine currently in the car has a bit of history to it. It is this engine (albeit in a different car) that broke the HKS lap record at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2016. The engine was donated by Brian to the American team LYFE Motorsport after theirs suffered a catastrophic failure in practice. With Brian’s engine installed Cole Powelson went out and set a new R35 SMSP lap record.

Once back home in Utah, Cole and the LYFE crew pulled the engine out and shipped it back to Brian who promptly put it in its rightful place – his freshly started time attack build. Fast forward to 2020 and Brian’s car is ready for wiring and ECU install, setup and tune.

Our goal is to do a full NEXUS R5 install complete with a complete wire job. The R5 will be supplemented by a CAN Keypad, iC-7 dash, Thermocouple Amplifier and a whole bunch of sensors.

Once everything is installed we’ll go through the setup process of all the main R5 features like wire assignment, throttle blip, sequential gearbox control, traction control, rolling anti-lag, boost control and much, much more.

The next step is dyno tuning where the car will get a “soft tune” to test it for potential problems followed by a slightly less “soft” tune to get it ready for a shakedown session. The final step will involve getting the car to a race track and see how all the functions perform in their intended environment.

So get in, buckle up and hold on, it’s gonna be one hell of a ride!

Episode 1: Getting ready for NEXUS

In this episode: build overview and history, products we’ll be installing, a quick overview of NSP, wire assignment via the NSP software.

Episode 2: Wiring it all in

In this episode: NEXUS R5 wiring overview, crimping and terminated, R5, iC-7 and CAN Keypad install.

Episode 3: Configuring all the NEXUS functions

n this episode: NEXUS R5 setup including CAN Keypad config, sensor calibration, transmission and flat shift setup, final check and the first engine start!

Episode 4: Dyno Tuning

In this episode: Pre-dyno check, engine protection, oscilloscope, fuel, ignitino and variable cam mapping, boost by target gear, sequential gearbox with flat shift, pit speed limiter, solid state tuning.

Episode 5: Shakedown and Track Tuning

In this episode: Shakedown at Luddenham Raceway, data logging setup, ABS setup, pit speed limiter and traction control setup and testing.