Nissan

Date Acquired:

09 Apr 2009

Year:

2009

Cost:

£53,490

Fuel consumption:

17.2 mpg

Odometer:

8,352 miles

Servicing:

£195

Annual Insurance:

£642p.a.

Other costs:

£1800 - vinyl wrap, £95 - K&N air filters, £98 - MCR 4 light kit

Knowing how fussy he is about the aftermarket pieces he puts on his car I was intrigued and the quality did look mindblowingly good.

He put me in touch with the company - based in Slovenia - who in turn contacted their UK distributor, Performance Parts Ltd (www.performanceparts-ltd.com) who sent out a full GT-R Evolution system for me to review.

Akrapovic are very well known in the superbike/Moto GP world as they are the premier supplier for the top teams, but they are now a growing presence in the performance car world, supplying loads of race-winning Porsche teams (including the famous Manthey team who have won the Nurburgring 24 race twice) and are even the OEM supplier for the mighty 997 GT2's titanium exhaust.

Uniquely, Akrapovic have their own foundry for blending their own special proprietary titanium alloys and hence can make beautiful mandrel bent systems where other manufacturers have to resort in welding multiple "rings" together to form a bend.

The finished systems are a work of art, with a sensuous semi-matte sheen and perfect welds. Even the mounting brackets are fabulous drilled box section girders with a reassuring sturdiness that implies the system will outlive any car it's mounted to.

I entrusted the fitting to my friends at Autofficina (who are also a supporting sponsor of this site, see advert) who normally fettle Ferraris and Lamborghinis, but have always helped me with my track oriented cars. Resident race prep guru Peter Ward was flabbergasted by the sheer quality of the material, finish, TIG welding and design of the system and he is used to working with F1 exhaust fabricators!

It went on more easily than the stock system came off and whilst the resulting sound was no louder than my previous Milltek Y-pipe/stock cat-back set-up, it was bassier and smoother.

Even on the traffic-bound drive home it was immediately apparent that the Akrapovic allowed much faster spool up of the already very responsive turbos. With the same GTC 99 RON custom map, my boost gauge was now hitting 1.2bar by 3000rpm with much more torque instantly available at all revs.

I immediately returned to Surrey Rolling Road where I had originally figured Godzilla 2 (see entry 5) and where it had more recently produced a rather devilish 566.6hp courtesy of the aforementioned GTC 99 RON custom map.

Most tuners will tell you that there is little to be gained by changing the cat-back exhaust system, particularly on a turbo car. However, Akrapovic claim a 17hp improvement if bolted onto an otherwise standard car - as well as a useful 17.3kg weight saving - so I was rather staggered to see the new power curve that showed not only a further 24hp improvement at peak power, taking the total up to an impressive 591hp, but a maximum power gain of 30hp and torque gain of 37lb.ft with a healthy lift across the rev range.

Now comes the painful part: quality costs, and the peerless quality of the Akrapovic GT-R system engenders a high pricetag of some £4,800. But guess what? I've decided I have no choice but to buy this system off Akrapovic now that the review period is up. You can't get higher praise than that...

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