Filed under: Aftermarket, Gadgets, Tuners, Coupes, Sports/GTs, Tech, Supercars, Nissan
Cobb Tuning gives the GT-R a serious bump in power
Cobb Tuning has re-engineered its AccessPort control unit for the new R35 Nissan GT-R. For those of you lucky enough to own a GT-R and not content with its performance out of the box, the $995 AccessPort will reflash the ECU to any one of six different tuning levels.There are three levels each for Stage 1 and Stage 2. Stage 1 can get you up to 63 additional ponies and 70 lb.-ft. of additional twist, while Stage 2 can boost the numbers by 70 and 90 respectively. The AccessPort can also save your stock ECU data and reflash it when you decide you're finished with all that extra gumption. According to a GT-R owner who tried it out, you can be blowing past all those regular GT-Rs in less than an hour.
And that's not all: you can store multiple engine mapping programs, remove trouble codes, install reduced-power valet and economy modes, and update maps over the Internet. It seems like a ridiculously easy proposition for making your supercar that much more super. So if you got one of those GT-Rs that are a little low on horses, this could be just the ticket.
[Source: Bespoke Ventures]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Franz 4:32PM (8/21/2008)
Was only a matter of time. The most surprising thing to me was that people actually thought the car really couldn't be tuned.
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2007RC46SP2 4:55PM (8/21/2008)
ive been saying it all along,
just wait till they boost this thing to 700+hp
MadScientistMatt 7:57PM (8/21/2008)
I suspect that was a ploy on Nissan's part - brag it had an uncrackable ECU, and tuning shops will go into a mad rush to be the first to crack it.
TJ 4:33PM (8/21/2008)
Sounds like the best way to keep the kids from wrapping it around a poll on prom night.
This should be standard on EVERY vehicle. Call it the P-Chip (get it, p for power, instead of v-chip)
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BigMcLargeHuge 4:50PM (8/21/2008)
Maybe someday a manufacturer will develop an ECU that test its own tolerances and re-flashes itself.
Never leaving anything on the table, but keeping shy of engine knock at the same time.
BigMcLargeHuge 5:20PM (8/21/2008)
If you really wanted to protect your kids on prom night, you could re-flash to 'Valet Mode' and then keep the AP at home, so kids can't tamper w/ it.
Prevents aggressive driving. And junior still gets to look cool and hopefully get some.
Brilliant!
MONTE 6:52PM (8/21/2008)
Or you could not let your punk kid within 20 feet of it. I never quite understood the people saying that Nissan "left nothing on the table", hell even Nissan said that as if it were true. I can't think of a single turbo car ever that couldn't be tuned higher whether it was with an aquarium bleeder valve or some high end tuner box. Congratulations to Cobb for being the first out and I'm sure Vishnu and the others will be close behind.
paul34 4:47PM (8/21/2008)
Well, other than the actual computer part, FI people usually have it easier to actually get meaningful gains out of a tuner. And by "meaningful" I mean numbers like that listed in the article.
5-10 HP gain is still a gain on a NA vehicle, but not as much as you can get tuning a factory FIed car.
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Franz 4:53PM (8/21/2008)
So true. There's no way a grand would get you 70hp & 90lb-ft. on a naturally aspirated vehicle, or the ability to go back to stock at the push of a button.
Jin 5:14PM (8/21/2008)
i have cobb accessport v2 for my sti and its the easiest thing i've done to increase power.
extremely easy to use, definitly multiple times easier than getting it tuned by a tuner.
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Rob 5:26PM (8/21/2008)
Like a lot of Subaru owners, I have a Cobb access port. The valet mode is great, and I use it a lot. Anytime I have to leave my car somewhere, I know they won't be joy riding at 150mph, bumping the redline and hitting 20psi.
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Adam Carolla 5:37PM (8/21/2008)
That review in the link is such a bunch of fanboy bull. No hard numbers. Just "WOWOWOWOW." Like he can tell the milliseconds difference in acceleration just by "feeling" it.
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BigMcLargeHuge 5:52PM (8/21/2008)
70 hp is not a small increase.
This is like the increase that the Z06 has over the Z51. Unless you are paralyzed from a stroke or something, you will notice.
Franz 6:24PM (8/21/2008)
Thanks, BigMcLargeHuge. I dunno who wouldn't be able to tell a 70hp difference. Hell, ask any car guy who's ever used nitrous oxide and you'll hear just how much difference a 50hp dry shot makes, let alone an extra 70whp shove in the back. Talk like that will get you laughed at around here.
Adam Carolla 6:40PM (8/21/2008)
We are not talking about your 90whp Civic with NAWZ here. We are talking about a 500+ hp car that already breaks 60 mph in 3.5 seconds. Another 70 hp will not be noticeable, unless that miniscule increase is breaking the sound barrier or something.
Franz 6:56PM (8/21/2008)
LOL. Now THAT'S a typical fanboy response. "My 90whp Civic". LOL
Ok, smart guy. Lemme speak from experience. I don't have a 90whp Civic, but I do have a 500+whp Evo IX. And trust me, If it picked up an extra 20whp, I'd feel it, let alone 70... not to mention the extra 90lb-ft. of torque. Do the math: according to MT's recent slew of dyno tests the GT-R makes a little north of 500whp. 70whp is almost a 15% increase in power and unless you're comatose, you're gonna feel it. Quit pretending you know about high horsepower cars.
BigMcLargeHuge 7:16PM (8/21/2008)
If it were 10-20whp I would agree with you, that would cause only the slightest raise of an eyebrow at this level.
But we're talking a 10% increase in torque in ONE HOUR. Park the car and by the time you get in again you'll be saying "Who's car is this!?!"
Cobb Stage I on a 200whp WRX? Noticable.
Water injection kicking in on a 400whp STI? Neck-twistingly noticable.
Been there. Done that. Nice try. But you fail.
BigMcLargeHuge 8:04PM (8/21/2008)
Almost forgot,
You'd think since the Car and Driver testers were able to feel the
difference between the 515hp GT-Rs that keep showing up:
(0-60 in 3.3s)
and the 480hp test-cars:
(0-60 in 4.0s)
that you would automatically know that you would be able to feel 700 milliseconds worth of acceleration on a ~35hp difference.
And you're saying you wouldn't be able to feel twice that much?
Hmmm....
tekdemon 5:47PM (8/21/2008)
That's a nice increase but it would have been more fun if they had capped horsepower to 276HP stock and made it ridiculously easy to increase horsepower like with the R-34.
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Tourian 6:01PM (8/21/2008)
That's borderline rediculous. If it just "only" had 276 hp, ignroing the fact that most of those cars from that genetelmen's agreement era where very underrated, then it would probably only be about a 14sec car because it would still be 3800lbs. It wouldn't have set the crazy ring times and it wouldn't have all this hype surrounding it. But boy oh boy all the tunerhedz would flock to this 70K 14sec car in the hopes of seeing who could void their warranty fast enough to see if they could get it to beat a stock Mustang GT. Brilliant.