For the past few years I have competed in a race called the One Lap of America and used my new to me 2012 SLS in the event this year. If you are not familiar with the event, the One Lap is an 8 day endurance event where each car entered is street legal on street legal tires and travels to race tracks around the country to compete in time trials on the track. This year’s event had events at big name tracks like Daytona (road course) and VIR mixed in with some lesser known tracks and covered about 3400 miles of driving between the tracks. You cannot trailer the car nor are any support vehicles are allowed. A handful of pro drivers compete each year and has been won by Leh Keen (ALMS, Grand Am, etc) the past 4 years, the last 3 in a GT-R. Nissan GT-R’s have become the car to have (6 in this years event) and after placing 2nd overall last year with one, I decided it was time to mix it up. I had intended to use another project car we are in the midst of building, but we found out that we would not have some of the ECU components needed in time. So, the SLS project which was going to be started next was moved to the front of the line. From the day the car arrived to completion, all of the work was done in about 8 weeks. Pretty amazing feat considering all that was done – body kit, aero supercharger, suspension, exhaust, wheels, racing seats, harness bar. Obviously, I wanted the car to resemble the GT3 car and feel it came out beautifully. We had intended to test the car the week before the event, but unfortunately we ran out of time and were not able to test the car at all. The first time I ever drove the car was on the way down to the event. We were resolved to use the event as the test for the car – after each event we would make changes trying to dial in the suspension. I felt we were getting pretty close, running well in 7th overall and moving up when on the second to last day I had an off at VIR that damaged the front fascia, an oil cooler and popped one of the front tires. We were done. Despite this letdown and with the whole year to dial it in, I am confident that this car can compete for the overall win next year.

Here are some of the details:
Speedconcepts body kit widens the rear by 2” on each side, 1” each side in the front.
Forgeline GA1R 20x11 wheels in the front 20x12 in the rear with 305x30x20 tires front and 335x35x20 in the rear
Kleeman supercharger and exhaust, nearly 800hp
KW Club Sport 3 way adjustable shocks
Air ride suspension kit to lower the car almost 2” when we got to the track with the push of a button
Sparco racing seats

I am looking forward to hearing comments and being a member of this community going forward.

Todd

 

The car looks absolutely amazing.

It is going to take a very good effort to compete with those GT-R's. They've definitely proven to be a great street car.

I wish you good luck!

 

Welcome to 6-Speed! Nothing like a good first impression. :-)