Apr 23, 2015

Way To Do The Walk | Aylezo's Liberty Walk R35 GTR


For the past recent years, the craze of super wide and super flashy aero parts has been hitting the internet pretty hard. Doesn’t matter if you love entry level FR coupes, old Porsche 911s or even super cars. None can escape from being part of the craze. It seems nowadays there will be a crazy aero trend for the types of cars I stated. It was pretty much the same story for Cheah of Aylezo.



While he was casually reading Speedhunters, he came across an article that featured the Liberty Walk Ferrari 458 Italia. He was inspired by how different and unique the car looked with the LB kit. He wanted to see more, so he went to Google and that’s when he saw the R35 GTR with the Liberty Walk kit that blew his mind.



Not long after, Cheah, who helps run the Aylezo Super Trofeo team was at the Sepang International Circuit for round 1 of Super Trofeo. During the down time, he walked around the pits of the other teams. That’s when he came across one team with a green Lamborghini Super Trofeo that had a huge Liberty Walk decal on the side. But since it’s a one make race, the car didn’t come with an LB kit. Turns out that team was partly sponsored by Liberty Walk and their garage and Liberty Walk was only a few blocks away.



So fast forward to the Fuji round in Japan, there were some vendors and a tuner display at the race. So just like Sepang, Cheah went to walk around during his down time at the race. That’ when he came across the Liberty Walk booth and saw the cars in the flesh. At the time, the 458 Italia and the Murcielago was on display. Straight away Cheah got hold of his boss, Zen Low about it and briefly pitched the idea of building a Liberty Walk car. Zen was cool with the idea so after the race, he approached the guys at the Liberty Walk booth.




There, they met Kato-san and his right hand man, Toshiro Nishio. They have to since Toshi-san was the only one there who can speak English. After a bit of discussing, they expressed that they did have an interest in the Malaysian market and they planned to visit. So he told them that Aylezo would like to be the Liberty Walk dealer in Malaysia. With that in mind, the guys at LB gave Cheah a huge bundle of Liberty Walk brochures bring back.




A month later, Kato-san and his team flew to Penang to build the first Liberty Walk R35 in Malaysia. That’s when on the same trip, they went to visit Aylezo’s garage. After checking out the garage, the LB team was satisfied with the place. But they suggested that Aylezo try to fit the LB kit themselves. The guys at Aylezo were caught off-guard with that suggestion but since Toshi-san will guide them, there’s no harm trying. So straight away they got hands of a 2008 Nissan R35 GTR for the build.




So as they carried out the build, it was not as difficult since throughout the whole build, Cheah and Toshi-san were constantly on WhatsApp for reference. From things like measure points, cut points and fitting details. During the build, they came across a slight issue on the third tail lamp placement for the car since the stock third tail lamp will be covered by the wing. At first they thought of placing one inside the cabin but it seem to be a bad idea. They thought of using the triangular bumper light like the Toyota 86 but it might disturb the existing lines. They even thought of cutting the ducktail wing but the possibility of breaking the wing is too great. So at last, they fitted an LED strip in between the trunk lid. Seamless fit and functional.




Aylezo decided to go for approach where this car would be a track ready car. For that purpose, instead of going for air suspension, they decided to go for a functional coilover set up that was based on an idea by Litch Field, a tuner in the UK. The purpose is to keep the R-mode on the R35 functioning. So the plan is to use Bilstein coilovers and modded to fit the LB set up.




The engine set up is very close to stock to sustain its reliability and keeping the drivability close to stock. After much experience on the track, an R35 with 600bhp and one with 900bhp only has a 2 second time difference in lap time. So they decided the only thing to be done to the engine is an ECUTEK tune to 600bhp.




Mid December 2014, the car was pretty much done, but there was one problem. The custom wheels haven’t arrived yet. For temporary use, they fit the stock wheels with two really huge spacers for each wheel. Since the fenders are acceptably wide, the offset for wheels needed was -5 front and -62 in the rear. But when Sky Forged, Liberty Walk’s wheel partner sent the wheels over, it was the wrong offset. About -82 so they were sticking out like a monster truck. So they returned the wheels, met Kato-san and Toshi-san at the Tokyo Auto Salon to discuss about the wheel problem. At last, in February, the right wheels arrived and fit perfectly.




Finally the build was done and the finishing touches were in place. One of the last things on the car was a custom CNC Aylezo badge on the car that is half painted, half exposed carbon fiber. So when the Liberty Walk team came to see the car, Kato-san was extremely happy with the outcome. For that, he decided Aylezo will be the official dealer for the Southeast Asia region and they will do the fitting and installation.



Some might ask how a radical looking car can be legal on the roads in Malaysia. They were wondering the same thing since when they bought the R35, they never sent it for inspection for JPJ. Only when it was 80% done, they realized that. So they sent it in anyway and to their surprise, they passed. Reason is, the Liberty Walk kit is only a body kit so it is considered legal on the road. The guys at Aylezo really hope to establish a Liberty Walk society in Malaysia and the region, thus making it more accessible. So hopefully in the near future they can have 10 to 15 Liberty Walk cars rolling together. But for now, their R35 will be a head turner for years to come.





TUNING MENU
Owner: Aylezo
Model: 2008 Nissan GTR R35
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

ENGINE:
3.8L VR38DETT V6
Delete cat exhaust,
Custom Y-pipe,
EcuTek 600 bhp tune

DRIVETRAIN:
6 speed automatic
Dual clutch.

SUSPENSION, CHASSIS AND BRAKES:
Modded Bilstein coilovers (custom spec)
OEM rotors and calipers
Endless brake pads.

WHEELS AND TIRES:
Sky Forged S204
20 x 11 Offset -5 Front
20 x 12 Offset -62 Rear
Toyo Proxes R888
285/35/20 F
315/30/20 R

EXTERIOR:
Full LB Works Liberty Walk aero kit.
LB Works Version 1 GT wing
LB Works Version 2 ducktail
Aylezo badge

INTERIOR:
Stock





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