Having reviewed the vehicle, we're not surprised it was capable of such a run given the 700 HP it's making at all wheels. We're also not surprised one of the company's customers achieved a record for the quarter-mile with an R35 trap speed of 141 MPH in back-to-back runs. This is Godzilla on speed.

Switzer GTRs Blister Tracks Across the Globe

October has been a busy month for Switzer Performance. After kicking off a 1-2-3 finish at the Moscow Unlimited, the company's tuned GTR Nissans posted record-breaking results (for an R35) in standing mile and dragstrip events in Miami, Moscow, and the company's home state of Ohio.

First up was last weekend's Milemarker-1, a standing mile event in Miami that saw one customer's GTR reach an official 191 mph in the standing mile, despite the extreme humidity and sweltering track temperatures of the Florida Everglades – conditions not usually kind to turbocharged cars.

Next came word of a similarly spectacular quarter-mile pass from one of Switzer's Russian GTR customers – a 10.193 second pass at over 133 mph.

One-hundred and thirty-three miles per hour in a quarter mile, while fast, is still shy of the unofficial R35 trap speed record (10.48 @ 134.3 mph). With that trap speed in mind, another Switzer customer offered to take his car out to Ohio's Dragway 42 for on open test and tune … and recorded back-to-back passes in excess of 141 mph! (141.41 and 141.51, respectively)

Tym Switzer is, understandably, very excited about the car's performances, saying that "it's been an amazing couple of weekends here for us. We really just went to the mile event to see what the car would do, and were excited to break into the 190's in those conditions. The really exciting thing for us, I think, is that all of these numbers were generated by customer cars, with off-the-shelf kits, being driven by their owners. No ringer cars or ringer drivers – that 141 speed was even on all-season tires. I don't know if you can call any of these runs 'official' or 'records', but one this is for sure: these cars are rockets! It's been a great October for the shop and the R35 platform. I couldn't be happier or more proud of everyone's performance these couple of weeks."

Switzer's R35 GTR tuning packages are available now through Switzer Performance dealers. Contact Switzer for more.

The "R" in R850, as you might guess, is for the "race fuel." We wonder if the "P" in P800 means "pump" or "plebeian." The 850 HP and 820 lb-ft numbers are the assumed amount at the crank given the dyno numbers, which show about 740 AWHP and 715 lb-ft. If you've got a GT-R and are itching to throw all warranty concerns to the wind, the package runs about $20,900 and includes the tunes for both pump and race gas, as well as a larger dual-core radiator, thermostat, and Switzer MONSTER intercoolers.

And if you can't handle the power, there's always this thing to save you.

[Source: Switzer]

A sharp right turn looms dangerously close and you're traveling about 50 MPH too fast for a safe transition. Physics are against you as the rear attitude of your Switzer-tuned Nissan GT-R yaws to the right whereas it should be radically left. Overzealous on the throttle after the long left sweeper, only a carefully controlled slide will save your hide now. You pitch the wheel right and apply a sharp stab on the accelerator. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, the genius differentials work their magic and spread the new energy towards all the right vectors. The heavyweight hypercar rotates clockwise in preparation for the immediate turn while you're fighting the precision wheel with instinctive, twitching movements. No time stumble through the traction circle in your head now. Even in laissez-faire R-mode, the dynamic stability control works diligently to keep everything in order while you're sailing through the tight, flat bend sideways.

The more mild-mannered P700 –- developing only 626 HP at the wheels –- rattled off a no-launch-control 0-60 time of 3.35 seconds and a 1/4 Mile of 11.28 seconds at 132 MPH. Here with more boost and up over 74 HP, the as-yet-untimed P800 should do even better.

A flat foot on the gas then a pull on the right paddle and you're back in the triple digits. 110 MPH. Audacious power like you've never experienced grips your chest. The straight hugs gently left to follow the curvature of the landscape — but not enough to deter you from your pursuit of ultimate speed. 130 MPH. The small white braking markers register on your radar, but, if you remember one thing from driving school, it's that you brake too damn early anyways. 145 MPH. You're rocketing past the 200m mark and still flat out. You're even with the 100m mark and threshold braking for your life. The delicate ballet of velocity and balance repeats itself and you manage to make it through yet another hectic turn. On the exit, you lay into the pedal and you're gone.

Riding in the van on the way back from the track, you're utterly depleted; both physically and mentally. Only now are you able to reflect on the day's events and the details of exactly what piece of demonically engineered hardware did this to you. Through the fog, the technical details come streaming back to you. The assailant was a Switzer P800 Nissan GT-R with over 700 HP at the wheels. The meat of the tuning package included a new pair of turbos, monster intercoolers, a new fuel management computer and catalytic converter deletes. The kit resembles the Switzer P700 package, but de-smogged and loaded with even more piss and vinegar. Other than these carefully chosen pieces of precision racing equipment, the car essentially remains stock. You keep everything, from the Gran Turismo-themed center gauge stack to the 8-way power driver's seat. In automatic mode, the dual clutch transmission cooperates as smoothly as the new Town and Country minivan. Astonishingly, all of this added power comes without any major drivability compromises. Turbo lag is basically nonexistent compared to a stock, 480 HP GT-R. Aside from the slight flutter of aftermarket blow-off valves after lifting the throttle, even the most vetted Nissan enthusiast would have difficulty distinguishing this P800 GT-R from a stock vehicle This goes double when you stop at the gas station and feed it the recommended 93 octane fuel instead of the race gas that most setups of this caliber demand.

Surely, there must be some strong disqualifying factor about this whole package, right? The new Godzilla has been called "mechanically untouchable" by many. If you go home to your cadre of driving buddies with nothing but sunshine, you'll surely come off as nothing more than a converted fan-boy. There are indeed minor troubles; the off-road-use-only designation as a direct result of the cat delete pipes. The only other issue that exists is the cost of the package: roughly $16,650, plus the cost of the cat delete pipes and a few other small parts. You also need to bring your own custom cat-back exhaust. Chances are, if you've got the money to be playing with a GT-R, you've got the residual income to boost it into hypercar territory. This early in the Godzilla tuning game, Switzer's P800 package appears to comes out far ahead of the other shops as far as total package value, reliability and streetable performance. Even in the snow.

Pfitzner Performance Gearboxes (PPG) out of Australia wants R35 GT-R owners to have their cake and eat it too. They’re readying their first GT-R gearbox upgrade to hopefully solve the issue some owners are experiencing when over-using the launch control feature. The GR6 gearbox is a beefy unit from the factory, but it seemingly has its faults. According to PPG, the main reason for the GT-R transmission failures occurs on the teeth of the first gear when put under extreme stress. Fractures develop after few hard launches and eventually the teeth give way.

The company will soon offer a drop-in first gear replacement featuring a much wider gear to increase the strength of the unit. A follow up set will include gear upgrades for high-horsepower cars and a 1st through 4th gear upgrade set. We only hope Nissan will look to this option, rather than dropping launch control altogether. This is apparently what Australians are doing when not hooning cop cars.

[PPG via GTRBlog]

After Nissan's GT-R launch control issues the automaker decided to remove the system from the new 2010 model Godzilla. They should have just followed Audi's lead. The folks over at Inside Line have a long term Audi R8 in their fleet and noticed after using launch control the system asks in a polite manner to please pull over, you know, if it is convenient for you. Then the system completely stops you from doing it. All because they care.

[Inside Line]

It's gone," he said when asked if launch control would return in 2010. "We just don't want to deal with the warranty nightmare anymore

Hey, but there's a silver lining.

Said the same source, "It'll make the 2009 GT-R really special. It'll be the only R35 with launch control." So remember that GT-R owners when your engine falls out of your brand new exotic car and Nissan won't replace anything because your teenage son used launch control once in his high school's parking lot in a misguided attempt to impress a girl in the marching band. [Edmunds: Straightline]

We have SickWrathTerror over at the Motive Mag Forums to thank for sharing this photo of one Infiniti G35 owner apparently unaware that the 2009 GT-R was going to be available in the states. [Motive Forums]

All we've heard is that Mine's is bringing their white test car here next month. We're not exactly sure why this mega-Godzilla is coming to our shores, but we thought we'd give you a warning now, just in case things go terribly wrong and the monster destroys a city or eats a helicopter or something. [2009GTR.com][GT Channel]

Some may hate it, but I actually find it charming in that bizarre foreign livery sort of way. [Skyline Australia via JPCNews]

Best Car is guessing that the new Spec V could drop as much as 220 pounds. Horsepower is also expected to increase by as much as 40, bringing the total to a whopping 512hp. This is all just guessing at this point, but we wouldn't be surprised. [Best Car via Japanese Performance Car News]

First of all, this is a Skyline. When the R32 left the factory, the engineers colored the governor yellow so that buyer's could easily locate it and rip it out, unlocking the engine's full and quite super potential. With the new GT-R, Nissan is doing a 180, and not just in kilometers per hour. According to reports, the ECU on the latest Skyline is is quite heavily encrypted and therefor not easily hacked. So, that's no good.

Our second gripe is all about Orwellian, Big Brother-type precedents. Yeah, how cute, when you get to the track you can go faster. We get it. But how long until this sort of technology filters down to the rest of us? As in you're in a 35 mph zone — you can only go 35 mph. Never forget how O'Brien described the future to Winston Smith, "...a boot stamping on a human face forever." We may be hyperbolizin' and feeling a bit like the Red Rocker, but we're still shuddering. (You need to take a SOMA or something dude... - Ed.) [Gizmodo]