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
