Just finished watching Doug DeMuro’s video about dyno testing his R32. Nissan claims it made 276 hp, which is the hp listed on ManteoMax’s spreadsheet for the R32.
Dyno test showed Doug’s R32 was actually making 320 hp. Maybe T10 should look into updating the R32’s specs while they’re fixing the glitch cars.
Japanese cars from that era were notoriously underrated from the factory due to the “gentleman’s agreement” among manufacturers to keep power at 280 ps.
If I’m remembering correctly, and I’m not 100% certain that I am, the R32 had an in-built boost limiter that when removed (which amounted to snipping a yellow wire in the ECU harness, I believe) would bump power output to about 320. I haven’t watched the video yet but it’s possible that’s what happened with Doug’s car from a previous owner. In any case, the problem with dyno testing vehicles that are 25 years old is that they’ve been through a lot of hands - it’s not always indicative of true stock performance.
That being said, and circling back to my initial point, if they bumped up the power output on the GTR they’d have to go back and adjust basically every car that was over or underrated form the factory. As much as I’d like a more powerful R32, I sadly don’t see them putting in that level of effort to correct it across the board.
I lived in Japan for 5 1/2 years and was a proud owner of a 1990 gunmetal gray R32 GTR. On top of that, one of my closest friends owned a car dealership just outside of the base in Iwakuni (where I bought mine). I like to think that I know a “little” about these cars but I am in no way an expert or authority.
In Japan, there was a hard-limit on HP (Or PS in Japan) to 286. Skylines, Evo’s, WRX’s, RX7’s, Supras, Silvias, Starions, etc. all showed an “advertised” HP of 286. The reality was that these cars in nearly all cases made more power than that.
Japan wasn’t the only country for manufacturers to play this game and the reasons ranged from insurance prices, legal issues, regulations, whatever. Many MOPAR fans will tell you that Plymouth was known for cranking out engines that routinely put out more power than advertised. Incidentally, there are plenty of examples of manufacturers that put out LESS!
The point of this history lesson is that it’s far easier in games to post manufacturers; claimed, or advertised HP/TQ ratings than make an attempt to sort out what really made what. This is especially hard since people have argued about some cars’ actual output for over 60 years!
Scott