Unlim 500+ people: Oleg Kondakov

You are familiar with a lot of Unlim 500+ participants. You’ve seen some of them in our videos, met others during the stages. But now we decided to make an official introduction. So here comes our first guest — Oleg Kondakov and his Nissan GT-R (R35) Mk.1 DT1200 R.

DT: Oleg, nice to meet you! To start with, please tell us where does your interest in cars come from?

Oleg: I’ve been interested in techniques, devices and driving since childhood. I used to study in actual practice the way cars and motorcycles were assembled. In fact, the subject of my first experiment was a motorcycle, which I managed to put together myself detail by detail. My first car was Ford Sierra. I chose it because it seemed very comfortable and fast at that time. It boiled over so awesome in hot weather. By the way I’m still a fan of motorbikes. As for two-wheelers, I have S1000RR in my garage.

DT: BMW makes excellent bikes! But your four-wheel friends are not Bavarian, aren’t they? And they are also far from being stock cars?

Oleg: That’s true. What concerns sports cars, right now I have GT-R DT1200R and Evo VIII. Nissan went through all the customizing in the Dragtimes workshop. Evolution has just chip and exhaust tuning. It’s being used only in winter time. So it’s all rather humble with Evo.

DT: So Nissan is the only car prepared for the races. How did you get to Unlim 500+? How did it all start?

Oleg: In 2009 in Moscow everybody knew all the places where the owners of the fast cars could meet. And all those places were not intended for the races. So we had an idea to organize an event, bring it to the high level and what was the most important — make it ultimately safe for the participants and the audience.

DT: So you were one of Unlim originators?

Oleg: Well, yes. We came up with this idea together with Yuri and Andrey. Since that time the amount of people involved has increased a lot. There are more organizers. Just the three of us wouldn’t have been enough.

DT: Let’s step aside from discussing the organizers and return to the subject of participation in competitions. Tell us about your achievements so far.

Oleg: I was first in autumn 2012. I also showed twice the best result behind the wheel of cars belonging to other people — Bugatti and Yuri’s GT-R. All in all I take the stable 2nd or 3rd place. Though my primary goal is to be in top 5. I never chase the first place. I come to Unlim to relax and enjoy socializing; I really like the atmosphere here.

DT: You are not chasing the first place but your car is being constantly upgraded. By the way, why did you choose Nissan GT-R?

Oleg: It just happened by itself. I used to own the sports versions of Audi, Mitsubishi and other cars before Nissan GT-R. And GT-R is just a good car which meets the highest standards and allows making a lot of modifications. It’s possible to create something even out of an old car but I would like it to be more up-to-date.

DT: In order to win in our races the car has to be very fast. How did you prepare your car?
Oleg: Like in any other matter, one of the most important things is to know precisely what you want to do with your car. You have to think over the conception and technical design specification. After that you start working on the engine, transmission, suspension, aerodynamics, tires, etc. It’s a rather complicated process. In spite of the fact that thanks to the Internet the whole world is within your reach, one still has to make a lot of effort. Some people take their cars to the USA for customizing but I want to do everything myself. Otherwise it’s not interesting for me. Thanks to Dragtimes, people all over the world can watch us racing here in Russia though drag racing is relatively new for our country. Ten years ago we had something but the majority of projects were limited to chip and exhaust tuning or creating “hot rods”. So all in all this direction got further and became wide-scale five years ago. Unlim 500+ brought the technological development of cars to a very high level. The cars are becoming ultimately powerful; the owners have a more intelligent approach to customizing. They are not simply hopping up the horsepower but looking for the balance between the power and the output so that it doesn’t all go into slipping. I’ve been selecting spare parts for my car for a long time. I borrowed a few solutions from the famous tuning studios but all in all I managed to assemble a completely unique car.

DT: You’ve put so much effort in this car, made such thorough preparations but did not participate in the spring stage. Why?

Oleg: It’s all very simple — I did not have enough time to prepare the car. I was waiting for some spare parts and they didn’t arrive in time. I guess it was when the Post warehouses were burning. It just didn’t work out.

DT: That’s a pity. But hopefully all the spare parts arrive by autumn and we are expecting to see you racing. What plans do you have for the 11th stage?

Oleg: Increase the power up to 3500 hp and win. Jokes aside, we’ll see. I’ll prepare the car and we will see who is the best.

DT: Taking into consideration your passion for cars can you single out “the best of the best one”? And what other car — except for GT-R — would you have chosen?

Oleg: Every car is good in its own way. You should learn to understand each car. And as soon as you understand what it was made for, you start treating it in a different way and driving it in a different way also. But if you ask me to single out one certain car (except for Nissan) I would say I also like Audi. They are safe, comfortable cars with excellent steering in any road conditions. I like all-wheel drive.

DT: So there you go — from Japan straight to Germany. Maybe you had any plans to create a sports car based on Audi?

Oleg: Yes, I do have such plans. I would go even further and say it would be based on Audi R8 V10 with manual transmission. I’m planning to start this winter and finish it up for the spring stage of Unlim 500+ in 2014. So there are a lot of chances to see the first R8 in Super sport category next season.

DT: We will be looking forward to it! Meanwhile I would like to turn aside and ask you about the world tracks you’ve been to. Which one you liked more?

Oleg: Nürburgring, Groß Dölln, Spa (Belgium) and Assen (Netherlands). I drove a stock GT-R there. I liked Nürburgring most of all. It hooks you up with its unpredictability and speed. You should know it well to go fast. I’m going to Spain soon. Will tell you about it when I return!

DT: Thank you, Oleg! While you are still here, one last question. You arrived here driving your racing car. Tell us please, how does your Nissan feel in the city streets? 1200 hp should have a certain impact.

Oleg: Driving GT-R in the city is quite pleasant. It’s a bit louder than others and a bit faster. Comfort is still here and the speed…. Well, don’t put your foot down and it will drive calm.

DT: Thank you again. We’ll be following your closely during the upcoming events. Good luck and see you!

Oleg: Thank you. I’ll do my best.

Specifications and dynamic parameters of Nissan GT-R (R35) Mk.1 DT1200 R:

* estimated data

Technical specification of Nissan GT-R DT1200R:

Engine:
Carrillo rods, JE Pistons, ARP cylinder head studs, ARP main studs, Kelford 272 camshafts, Cosworth cylinder head gaskets, Schrick springs/plates, Ferrea valves, Tial wastegates, Tial blow off, AMS pipes, AMS Race Version intercooler, K&N air filters, HKS cold spark plugs (heat range 9), 3-port solenoid, DT1200R turbo kit based on Garrett 35 turbos, GReddy 94mm titanium exhaust, NOS intercooler spray bar kit.

Fuel system:
Dynamics Injector-2000 ML injectors, AMS fuel rail, Aeromotive fuel regulator, Bosch pumps.

Transmission:
Dodson Motorsport shim kit, seals, circlips. Dodson PROMAX clutch kit, oil pump gear (increases pump efficiency). Also the gear selector fork rods and 2nd and 4th gear selector fork were intensified, additional SSP clutch cooling and T1 rear reduction gear booster were installed, rear reduction gear locking was upgraded, reinforced front and rear gears (Driveshaft).

Other modifications:

Mines brake pads, Goodridge reinforced brake hoses, MAG-2 fire extinguishing system, OMP seats, OMP 4 points safety seat belt, carbon sills and bumper skirts, cooling radiator with increased output, Dymag carbon fibre wheels, AVS F7 wheels, Toyo Proxes R888 tires, M&H tires, Racelogic V-box Lite.