With the aid of 3D Audio, all the wonderful pops, bangs, and whistles of a tuned RB25DET are for the YouTube viewer. Normally, the straight-six’s muted whoosh is the most someone sitting at their computer can experience, but a well-sorted turbocharged motor provides so much more sonic pleasure than what’s usually captured on camera.

Nathan Dale’s motor barks through a 4″ straightpipe exhaust which exits just beneath the passenger door. The RB’s raspy bark is complemented by the hiss of the turbocharger, and the two are neatly punctuated by the pops and crackles of an anti-lag system to keep that massive snail spooled. It’s quite a soundtrack—and the motor which makes it is almost entirely custom, too.

The blaze-orange block is fitted with CP pistons and a custom crank of Dale’s own handiwork, and even though the motor displaces a healthy 2.5 liters, it takes a minute to get the hefty Kinugawa turbocharger spooled. Since the 470-odd horsepower available comes in one brutal shove around 4,000 rpm, and has no difficulty spinning the driven wheels, even if they’re shod in Yokohama R-compounds. Remember, this is a GTS-T, not a GT-R, and does not enjoy the four wheel-drive traction its better-known sibling enjoys.

Nevertheless, the lightened Skyline looks agile and controllable, and thanks to Dale’s delicate steering and throttle work, it’s exploitable even on narrow backroads. A successful hillclimber, Dale has managed to tame what is obviously a fierce machine, and to the onlooker, the smoothly-driven Nissan might look subdued. Good thing the intimidating engine note sounds anything but.

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