Car Feature>> Changing Man – Rk Tuning R32

The thing with history is that you can’t change it, what has been done is there for perpetuity. You can try and hide it, paint it in a different light or cherry pick the best bits if you want but that’s your choice. Ron Kidell has history and we’d love for you to know it all, which after over thirty years racing isn’t possible in just one article.

This is Ron and just part of what he’s done, the R32 GTR race car you can see in the pictures is a brutally effective example of how history can be distilled in to one car. This is Ron’s truth.

I’ve got history with Ron, first meeting and then writing about him in the mid-00s so I know the way to his very well hidden workshop in Essex countryside. He’s a modest man who has come from the drag strips to where he is today, via some unusual car choices. So Ron, give us some history, “I started drag racing in 1980, my first car was a V6 engined Mk1 Cortina, but that just used to throw the diff out the back.”

Not ideal, it’s Ron’s next project I remember him the most for, “It was index racing I was in to. This Vauxhall Firenza came along and I had the idea to convert it to be a road car and drag at the weekend.”

The Firenza is a two door coupe produced from the early to late 70s, “The best it ran was a 10.3 quarter mile in 1991, I’d won the championship three years in a row by then. It was running a Lotus 2.2 slant four, dry sumped and fuel injected with about 150bhp of nitrous.” Today it’s easy to pass off a ten second quarter as good, but twenty one years ago to get that sort of time from anything less than eight cylinders in a steel bodied car was seriously impressive.

It was time to move on though and after a stint in a methanol dragster culminating with a seven second pass at 200mph, by now Ron had found the Cosworth brand. Right about now we’re firmly in the early to mid-90s, the UK is wading through an economic slump and Cosworths are the getaway drivers favourite. I vividly remember seeing one fishtail out of a sports shop window in 1993 at about 3am after a smash and grab. If it hadn’t have been so blatantly illegal, I would have almost enjoyed the scene. Almost.

Point is Ron was running around North London in a 500bhp Cosworth at this time, but splitting up with his then wife meant moving to a flat and a part of London that could be a bit better presented, Walthamstow. As Ron says, “I couldn’t leave that out there as it would go missing in a second. But I just didn’t know what to buy, I used to read Motoring News and lo and behold a skyline came up for sale.

I think I saw an R31 GTS, 2.5, big turbo. I quite liked it and it was quite interesting, but because I’d seen the Aussie touring car videos I really liked the R32.”

It’s almost alien to think now that we weren’t really aware of the Skyline here in the UK, but that was the reason it worked so well for Ron. Again you have to remember that this was before the internet and your car buying was based around being the first at the newsagents to get the jump on the classifieds, which is exactly what Ron did, “All of a sudden there was an advert. I called the number and it was a mile down the road from where I worked,” so what did you find? “This Japanese guy had brought it across with him, he’d listed it as a R32 GTS, but when I drove it I thought hang on this has got a turbo? Turns out it was actually an R32 GTST, it was TH1 blue and a little bit tatty I bought it.”

This was in 1995 and the ’89 car set Ron back about ten thousand pounds, as Ron says something clicked inside that day, “That was it from there, I watched the Aussie touring car videos again and where before it was the bastards beating the Cossies, now it was, yeah the Skylines are winning.”

Now you’ll forgive me for laying all this history out, but I think it’s important you know where Ron has come from. We can all read a tech spec, but Ron is the reason this incredible GTR is sat here now so this is his tech spec.

It’s also not often that you find somebody was has moved so successfully through different tuning scenes, Ron founded RK Tuning around twelve years ago, having run a general tuning shop in North London for somebody else and latterly with a partner. It was the move out of London that made all the difference for Ron and after selling the GTST, his distinctive demo car that started life as an imported R32 GTR ended up producing 998bhp and ran a 9.81sec quarter mile @ 148mph.”

That was in 2006 and now six years later we’re stood here looking at Ron’s new demo, so how did this GTR come about Ron? “I got that shell from a customer and started to put a cage in it, but I couldn’t wait to go racing so I bought a GTR from Japan that was my first Time Attack car running around 550bhp. That went to Holland in the end, it was a great little car.” With Time Attack and circuit racing now having replaced Ron’s love of the straight line, he upped the anti again, “I then bought an Auto Select car from Japan but I ended up parking that in to a barrier first time out. It was set up all twitchy like they like them in Japan.”

Ron has always looked to Japan for his inspiration, as well as building his own experience into every Skyline he touches. By now he was competing in the Dunlop Saloon Car Championship and ironically the car he kept getting beaten by was a Cosworth engined Escort, “I knew I needed a lighter nimbler car, because it was the handling he was beating us on. The Garage Sauras car and others all had rear rads, so that was how that came about. I didn’t like the way they did the aero though.”

So how do you go about designing the layout? “The worst bit was how to duct it, a lot of the rallycross cars have NACA ducts in the rear quarters and have the whole boot occupied. Then there’s the roof intake method with a letterbox outlet. Basically any surface that is 7,9 or 11 degrees, air will stick to it. So the whole lot has been designed around that.”

Ron continues, “We had it all made up to air con ducting and Neil moulded off that. Then the rad was going to be in all different positions, so now for weight it lays flat on the floor and I can retain some space for fuel items.”

Aside from using GRP and carbon panels, the other way to lose weight is obviously in the components, so Ron tell us about the suspension?

“The rear cradle is a pretty much a lightened version of the rear subframe, the pick up points are changed for better adjustability. We asked the question do we go to double A arm suspension? But when I talked to my suspension specialist who is ex-WRC, he pointed out how expensive that would be. We sat down and had a chat, he said if I was doing something like you I’d be better of going to Macpherson strut.”

When you’re stood next to the immaculate Motul liveried R32 it’s hard to believe it’s been built on a budget by Ron and a dedicated team of helpers and specialists, but that’s why it’s taken four years and as yet, hasn’t turned a wheel in anger.

Now we’re not going to try and work out how many man hours have gone into it, but Ron how do you balance work and then the project? “Till this day I will not work on the car until 5.30 and then I pounce on it. Thursday nights are race car nights, then weekends too. It was just a continual thing.”

Would you have changed anything? “The worst thing on my car is that I got carried away with the carbon, it got completely out of hand. It was thousands of pounds, but when you’ve got the carbon it’s like ahhh. I need more.”

The work has been worth it, and an all up wet weight of 1200kgs has been achieved. A change in regulations has meant Ron will now to be looking to the Classic Thunder Series for his racing kicks, as rear mounted radiators have been outlawed in Classic Saloons.

You can see it’s frustrating for Ron to not have used the R32 yet, his wheel time has been limited to trying to find his trailer after this years Autosport Show where we first saw it. The pressure of business and the budget needed mean it might have to wait a couple of months yet, but when it does hit the track we’re sure this R32 is going to be dominant.

What Ron has created here takes thirty years of history, observation and craftsmanship. This R32 is Ron and that’s no bad thing at all.

Engine

RK Tuning built Nissan RB26 3ltr 24 valve turbocharged inline six cylinder, T04Z with teal stainless housing, 650-1000bhp depending on turbo spec, 9000rpm limit, custom made titanium exhaust and silencer, Titan drysump oil pump, custom sump, Motul 33V oils, rear mount radiator

Electronics

Life Racing F88 ECU, NGK sparkplugs, custom made wiring loom, GEMS DA37 dash, custom made 4WD controller

Fuel system

ATL 45ltr fuel cell, two Bosch 044 in tank pumps, Aeroquip 910line hoses and fittings, Tomei 5bar regulator

Transmission

Carbonetics 4-plate carbon clutch, Holinger 4WD 6-speed sequential manual gearbox, Quaife front torque bias, RK uprated transferbox with custom made plates and incar adjustment, Nissan standard drive shafts, RK lightweight propshaft

Suspension

Mcpherson strut type, custom made arms and subframes, Black Art design shock absorbers

Brakes

Alcon six pot callipers, 380mm front discs, Alcon four pot callipers, 343mm discs

Wheels and tyres

Rays forged one piece 10.5x18in wheels, Michelin 270/305/680×18

Bodywork and aero

Fibreglass doors and boot lid, bonnet, front bumper, splitter, carbon canards, brake ducts, radiator ducting and intercooler, rear wing, steel roof and floor pan rear quarters, aluminium front wings, polycarbonate windows including screen, Motul livery

Thanks

Dave Woods, Stuart Nice, Mike Hayward, MDV, Ian @ Camauto, Neil Oldham, Plastics4Performance, John Hill, Dave Wilson, Jason Lavender, Darren Bly, Ronnie Smith, Greg Jukes, Malcolm Lowe and all my family and friends for their time and effort


Contact

www.rktuning.com email ron@rktuning.com

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Comments



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89 comments

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1

wtb high res version of the first pic for my desktop!

2

Clean ... Too clean. Truly amazing !

3

Awesome, great write up!

4

What a beautifully-built car. Thank you for sharing!

5

I'm always torn, the beauty of an unraced car like this is amazing, even underneath. But then there is something so great about it after its seen some action too

6

Awesome feature Bryn, can't wait to catch this monster out on track!

7

Nice one, Ron - she's a BEAST! And gorgeous with it. Will have to pop in myself one day and check her out in the metal, err, carbon! Dan Max Power.

8

High res of the Alcons pleae?!?!

9

Don't like the way its written, sorry

10

Sick fvcking R32! Thanks for sharing, but please don't tell me this thing was built on a "budget", you ain't kidding nobody.

12

Wow this is amazing, would this qualify for the WTAC?

13

This is what I want more of! What a clean build.

14

d1 spec wheel nuts on such a high budget car? those thing strip so easily.

15

John Swift! Is that you in the background with Ron and Tarzan?!

16

Oh man, the car is too clean!

17

This R32 is the physical manifestation of the term "obsession." Nicely done.

18

This is a kind of story I like to read more often on SpeedHunters. There is always a story behind a car and the man who created it.

19

My god, its beautiful. Perfection.

20

Can we have a wall of the last picture of the car, please? would be awesome.

21

This is what we need more of...

22

this car is a freaking beast!!!!



i had the pleasure of see it at the Autosport in Jan!! but not in this depth, pictures are awesome!

any chance of celebrating for first car feature with some desktops?!

23

speechless....

24

Wow what a beast. Unbelievable build quality.

25

Writeup was a bit airy-fairy for me. *Tial stainless housing

26

So proud of my Dad,seeing the car on Speedhunter's site makes me very proud son,well done Dad for your hard work n dedication,cant wait to see this on track n looking forward to testing and being there when he does :)

27

sam said

Those wheel nuts are for show only

have rays nuts for racing!!

still some things to be done before testing begins

cheers Ron

29

I can totally agree in the fact that the car owner's history has way more substance than a simple MODS list. Great read!

30

Ron's one of the most down to earth humble guys you'll ever meet, but probably one of the UK's best GT-R tuners (One of the reasons he prepares Newera's cars as they arrive from Japan). This car is a showcase of his tallents. Amazing car - can;t wait to see what it does on the track!

31

Desktops coming up later on guys, thank you for the criticism too, Big Ced, Sam feel free to add to that though, the whole idea here is that we give you more of what you want so if some of you feel the writing isn't to your taste, tell us what you like.

32

Stunning car

but i need high res pics plz

33

I did enjoy this post quite a bit :) Interesting story and what a car! That thing is as clean as the Gobstopper! :)

34

I agree with sam, write up ?

35

Mi gusta mucho!!! This is just wonderful, I love seeing builds like this.

36

Jesus!!!

37

Need that photo #1 Hi-Res. NEED!

38

Slicks are the business!

39

Fantastic car and great read Bryn - really enjoyed that. Cannot wait to see this in action and always nice to hear about how tuners got to where they are.



As you said, anyone can write a tech spec. Heck, quoting every tiny detail (like the guy moaning about Tial stainless housing - sorry maybe tial 3.5in 1.04 A/R yadi yadi yadi would be better...) doesn't make it a better read and i'm sure there's a fair few parts Ron wouldn't want to give too many details on.



Rambling aside, really good read. First article i've properly read from start to finish in a while - usually i just scroll down especially when the car's as exciting as this, but it's really refreshing to see something more than just 'say what you see' i.e. tech-spec writing.

40

If you want to race it.

Go back to Holland to drive the Time Attack series.

I visite allmost all the time attack events in Holland, and i would love to see this beast perform.

41

Love everything about this apart the suspension, quite a serious downgrade from sophisticated multilink rear and classic race car proven double a-arm, I do hope they will be upgraded so this car will be above level 9000

42

Simply R32 GTR evolution at it's best!

43

Great R32 build... the details are amazing and looks well planned out & executed. The story struck a chord too, growing up with Nissan/Datsun straight 6's Z cars I loved seeing Australian Touring Godzilla's owning the hill at Bathhurst. We didn't get many cossies in the states, but always good giving it to the V8 guys. Yours has given a bit of extra (if that's needed) motivation on my own R32 project. Hope to see some lap times and track photos to follow up!

44

Most tech article ever on speedhunters?! I think so! Keep up this kind of work!!!

45

So jelly :( Amazing car, inside and out. Perfection none the less..

46

That thing is gonna dominate!!! What an amazing build!!! My proverbial hat is off!

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