Its maker claims for this R32 GT-R to weigh only 140 kg heavier than stock, but pack 3x the power.
Come one, come all to witness something stunning yet sacrilegious in equal measure! That is as someone has just created the world’s first dual Tesla-motored Skyline R32 GT-R. Meet, the EVZILLA.
Now just before the bad takes start flying, let’s just discuss touch on the simple aspect of what exactly the EVZILLA is. Shown off recently at SEMA 2023, it is brainchild of Eric Dotson from Evolved Imports out of New Mexico and is essentially a Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R shell that has been stuffed with the drivetrain of a Tesla Model S P90D Ludacris.
A car that quickly earned itself the nickname of Godzilla for its utter dominance in the Australian racing scene back in the late 80s, this electrified GT-R will expectedly (but unfortunately) not be roaring like original RB26DETT within it once did. Though even the best tuned versions of the original twin-turbocharged straight-six will be hard pressed to put out the combined 900 hp rated for these Tesla motors (600 hp for the rear motor, 300 hp up front), which in turn should at least make this EVZILLA a bit of a monster off the line.
Rather surprisingly too, even when factoring in the the 16 Tesla battery packs that were stuffed under the hood and behind its rear seats, the EVZILLA only tips the scales at 1.6 tonnes. A figure that is incidentally significantly lighter than the donor Tesla its dual-motor drivetrain came out of, and perhaps more impressively just coming in at 140 kg heavier than stock R32 GT-R.
And in spite of the lack of boot space due to some of its batteries being in the trunk, its maker nevertheless still claims for this electrified GT-R to maintain a rather Porsche-esque 44/56 front/rear weight bias. With fully adjustable Ohlin coilovers fitted on all four corners as well, it would certainly be interesting to see the just size of a gap this Tesla-powered EVZILLA will presumably make over its stock counterpart on a track.
What more is that regardless of which side of the E-swap debate one is on, credit has to certainly be duly given to its creators for actually having gone and attempted such a wild build. The main technical challenge with the EVZILLA according to its makers was apparently the difficulty in programming the power bias relationship for its dual-motor drive units, which hence resulted in the interesting engineering solution of a BMW shift lever and an iPad mini stuck onto the dash to control said power delivery.
It is also worth highlighting at this point to the JDM fan boys that the original RB26DETT that once resided within the GT-R has been apparently moved on to a good home, but even this notion would likely not be enough to convince them that it balances out the sin of the EVZILLA being created from a clean (but in bits) donor GT-R. In fact, it is likely the fact that a true blue R32 GT-R was used in this project to be the main bone that detractors will be picking with the EVZILLA.
Though just being devil’s advocate for a second, while certainly on the rarer side, it is not as if that Nissan did not make nearly 44,000 units of this particular iteration of Godzilla from 1989 to 1994. Lest not everyone forget too that the Japanese automaker themselves were actually considering doing something very similar earlier this year, with it having announced one-off prototype ‘R32 EV’ back in March.
Having said that however, there is still perhaps a debate to be had on what cars could perhaps be more better suited to e-swapping. And while people certainly have the freedom to mod their own cars the way they see fit, removing the iconic RB26DETT and its ATTESA four-wheel drive system does sort of remove what actually makes the R32 GT-R a Godzilla.
