Regular Fast Fleet readers may recall that I have something of a carbon fibre fetish and have added some carefully chosen embellishments to Godzilla 2 crafted out of the black magic stuff. I was particularly keen to fit the positively sensual carbon sleeved exhaust tips that Akrapovic make for some of their titanium exhaust systems, but the set for the GT-R were not available at the time I bought my system. However as soon as they were available earlier this year, I pleaded with the factory into swapping my titanium tips for them.

Measuring (like the Ti tips) a massive 5 inches across, but amazingly light, the tips are titanium but with a special carbon fibre sleeve designed to not deteriorate even when subjected to the high temperatures that Godzilla’s fiery breath can generate.

I had a chance to show off the new tailpipes at the superb Wilton House Supercar Event in August (write up here: http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/271828/2011_wilton_house_supercar_gallery.html ) where we joined a group of 170 supercars on the annual charity fund-raising bash and I had a chance to tackle Gurston Down hillclimb.

One interesting development in GT-R tuning circles has been the cracking and copying of the 2011 model’s superior Transmission Control Module gearbox programming. The effusive praise a certain TV presenter has heaped on the “new gearbox” in the 2011 GT-R should actually have all been credited to revised software as the hardware is identical across the two models. Cobb Tuning released the software for their AccessPort tuning device and on advice from Cobb guru Ben Linney of www.gtc-r.com , I downloaded the update over the internet and used my AccessPort to upload it to my GT-R’s TCM.

Having driven a couple of 2011s I knew roughly what to expect, but it was still a revelation to have even faster and smoother shifts in my 2009 car. It now pulls away much more smoothly from rest at slow speeds too, and the biggest improvement is the ability to select 1st gear manually whilst slowing down approaching a junction or roundabout; something that was at best a rather hit and miss affair with the original software.

I had a chance to try out the “new gearbox” at the Nurburgring at www.trackdays.de ‘s last event of the year in late September. Godzilla 2 behaved impeccably, with the 400mm Alcons soaking up even the hard braking at the GP circuit which was open to the public the evening before. The actual Nordschleife track day went very well apart from a heart stopping moment at 120mph when I got distracted by a very well driven GT3 RS and completely missed my braking point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGV-RE_myPc

As I say in the video “in any other car, we’d have been straight into that barrier”... Thank you GT-R.

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