CARSPOTTING> Ben Sopra R35 GTR at Buttonwillow

This weekend, I went out to Buttonwillow Raceway for the Global Time Attack and Shift S3ctor Pro Am with my friends from Whiteline Suspension. While walking around the paddock, I couldn’t stop staring at this blue Ben Sopra R35 Nissan GTR from R’s Tuning. This thing looks menacing as hell, especially from the rear! While many people might have seen this car at the SEMA Show in November or in the Fast & Furious 6 movie trailer, I honestly didn’t recognize it at first.

When I walked up to the car in the paddock garage, I was thinking, “Oh damn. Someone built another Ben Sopra GTR?!” While I see R35 GTRs all the time (there are 3 of them on the street I live on), it’s not often that I get to see one done up with the super expensive Ben Sopra aero kit. At $45K, the Ben Sopra aero costs slightly more than half the price of the car!

This was definitely a treat and a surprise – this weekend was the first time I got to see a Ben Sopra GTR in action on a race track! Here’s the R35 GTR attacking the rumblestrips on the Buttonwillow East Loop’s Cotton Corners.

The humongous rear wing on this GTR makes me think of the incredible Super GT R35 GTRs I encountered on my last trip to Suzuka Circuit for a Super GT race. Love it!

The reason I didn’t recognize this car at first is because it was rewrapped in this blue vinyl. When I saw it at SEMA, it was red! I didn’t realize at first that this was the same car I saw in the Mackin Industries booth! We were instagramming the hell out of that car when we saw it in SEMA’s Central Hall.

Even when this R’s Tuning GTR is cruising the paddock slowly, it still looks fast. And mean.

Check out the sliding vent cutouts on the side windows…

I just love the rear end of this R35. From the gigantic GT wing to the huge rear diffuser under the bumper, the ass end of this GTR just looks incredible.

The Advan Racing GT wheels look like 5-spoke versions of the extremely popular Volk Racing TE37 wheels, but they have relatively big outer lips. I love how they look in white.

The R’s Motorsport Club is represented on the Ben Sopra GT wing’s end plates.

Behind the iconic GTR taillights, I found a timing transponder ziptied to the GT wing’s uprights. I don’t have any information about the car’s lap times yet. Maybe someone from Shift S3ctor or GTA can furnish those?

Even though the rear under-bumper diffuser has provisions for two exhaust mufflers, the car’s actual exhaust outlet is in the middle of the rear bumper. Looks awesome!

I’m not sure how I feel about the one piece front end of the Ben Sopra kit. Sometimes I like it, and sometimes I don’t. One thing is for sure though, its large vents provide plenty of cooling.

This is the car owner, Ricky Kwan, behind the wheel just before he headed out to his run session. I would have liked to speak to him more, but we didn’t have much time to talk, since I was stuck out on the track for most of the day, and we had to leave the track shortly after I got back to the paddock.

Hell yeah. I was happy to see the MotorMavens logo on the Global Time Attack number plate! Thanks JD! There are a few other media outlets on the number plate too, but I didn’t see them at the track this weekend. I wonder if they just sent someone that I didn’t recognize…?

Even though the right side of the car had white Advans, the  left side of the car was rocking black Advan Racing GT wheels. Check out the big ass Brembo brakes behind the wheels too…

This was actually the first photo I took of the R’s Tuning R35 GTR. I first noticed it just sitting in the garage, and it still looked every bit as fast and menacing a it really was on the racetrack! I wanted to take interior and engine detail photos of the car, but there wasn’t enough time unfortunately. Oh well, hopefully our paths will cross again sometime soon!

:: Antonio Alvendia