|
| JIM EDWARDS |
| 1995 TOYOTA SUPRA TURBO |
| 6 SPEED |
| LIME TIME GREEN/TRUE BLUE PEARL/BLACK LEATHER/CARBON FIBRE |
| PORTLAND, OR. USA |
 EMAIL JIM |
|
| 20 photos |
| 2348 words |
| September 23rd '04 |
|
|
|
|
GENERAL:
This car was originally one of the first dozen cars featured on T04R.com, but when the site underwent changes and my email address changed, it got deleted off the site and I was unreachable. The car has been rebuilt a couple times. So, to describe what it is now is to acknowledge what it was before. I bought the car originally in April 2000. It was a black 6 speed and came with BPU mods. At about that time the MKIV was beginning to pick up in popularity. However, I was in the dark about the degree of performance it allowed.
My dad and I have always driven fast vehicles. For many, many years we rode motorcycles together. He would trade up and then I had to follow suit – an arms race in the making so to speak. As I approached middle age my interest in motorcycles was waning and I began to look toward getting a sports car. I liked the C5 Corvette, having read the book that covered the story on its making. However, I had never bought any domestic vehicles and pretty much stuck to Toyotas. For some reason my father stumbled across the MKIV supra online and began plying me with all sorts of supra information and how I should get one instead of a vette. I remembered the MKIV supra styling when it first came out in 1993 and I thought the wing and look were a bit over the top. But, he kept at it and decided to get his own supra when I didn’t immediately bite. He flew to Arkansas to pick his car up and bring it back to the Pacific Northwest.
I still remember the first time he let me drive it. I was hooked by the looks, which when reconsidered today were quite forward looking, the great 6 speed tranny, the road handling, and the appeal of a smaller turbocharged engine making as much power as a domestic V8. After that first ride, I began to immediately look for my own supra, which had to be a black 6 speed. Within 2 weeks, with alot of help from my father, we located one in California. After much back and forth with the owner trying to get all the info and establish trust - buying long distance without actually seeing the car except in pictures took a great leap of faith for me – I decided to buy and my father flew down to pick the car up. I was on pins and needles waiting for him to deliver it back safely to Oregon. Finally he arrived, almost having an accident just shortly before reaching my house. I already knew what to expect having drove my dad’s car, but this one was BPU. It felt like it had a little less bottom end than stock but it had a mid-range kick that more than made up for it. I began to read everything I could find on the Supra and turbocharging, pouring through all the tech articles on MKIV.com and reading daily the MKIV email list. At this time only a very small minority of supra owners had single turbos, but I like many others, dreamed about getting one.
Within 3 months of getting my supra I decided to go single turbo. The work on that upgrade was done by Intense Motorsports and was originally planned to allow me to take the car to 2000 Vegas Supra meet, but as in most upgrades optimism is rampant on how long it takes to get parts, etc. So, the car missed Vegas and was finally ready to dyno in December, 2000. During dyno tuning the turbo blew a thrust bearing. So, it was rebuilt by FasTrax into a T51 hybrid. The car finalled out again (after more mods – LOL, it never stops) in June 2001. Unfortunately, on the drive home it suffered a meltdown right in the middle of the desert near Barstow, CA. Calls to various supra owners in California led to help (Thanks Mani and Chip) and the car was trailered into Los Angeles to be worked on by UPRD. There it went another round of upgrades, including new built engine, head work, rollbar, interior, and a fuel system with more capability. That all took well over another year as UPRD became UPFD, but finally I got to drive it back to Oregon in September 2002 with my fingers crossed it would not have another mishap. That pretty much blew away another driving season as Fall was in full swing with the rainy season approaching.
Over the winter, I decided to finally take care of the exterior (the black paint was a bit ragged around the edges). I had procured Mani’s TRD widebody kit while the car was previously down at UPFD. I started looking around for good references to a body shop, but everything I got was second hand information about how somebody knew somebody that did nice body work. To tell you the truth, the body and paint work I saw was not all that good. I finally got a lead to a custom rod shop out in the country side that did no advertising and contacted them to set up an appointment to meet. When I met and talked, I could tell these guys were meticulous craftsmen and felt comfortable I had found the right shop. However, they could not take the car until Spring, 2003 due to a backlog of other cars. Finally, in March, 2003, the car rolled in for its biggest visual change. During the whole process I visited every other week and we kicked around ideas, agonized over paint and paint combinations, and pulled out our hair to do something new. We agreed on a theme around clean, muscular looks (thus everything shaved and no wing) but wanted a hook that would draw the eye. Finally, we arrived at the two tone paint scheme. I’ve got a lot of flak about this online but given the reactions I receive when people see it in person, I know it was the right choice (and first and foremost, I love it). The car rolled out of the body shop in October, 2003; another driving season missed. I had picked up new HRE wheels to go along with the new exterior, but the wheel hubs were thicker than we expected and the stock wheel studs were not long enough. So, on went longer ARP wheel studs, new wheel bearings, and a whole host of other minor work needed to get the car in running trim again. This work and more was done by TorqueFreaks in Portland, Oregon (finally, a dedicated Supra shop right in my backyard!). That took throughout Winter, 2003 and into Spring, 2004. Along the way I was convinced to ditch the VPC/SAFC combo and go with AEM. Dyno tuning was not possible due to how low the car was and the fact that the body work extended underneath the car, making strapping down on a dyno impossible. So, the car at this point has been road tuned and we’re looking into addressing the dyno strap down issue so further tuning can be done. All during these mods, I have always kept driveability in mind; that’s the reason for 18” wheels over 19” wheels. Although this car has a lot of “Form”, it is very “Functional”. While the car can enter car shows, it is meant to be both show and go and so I expect to focus again on upping the performance another notch during Winter, 2004 through Spring, 2005. | ENGINE:
The car was on a stock block with 272 cams before suffering a meltdown in the California dessert in June, 2001. The engine now in the car is fully built with a crank girdle, Carillo rods, JE pistons, a Ferrea valvetrain, and port work. When I originally bought the car it had a TRD clutch and I liked the idea of sticking with a quiet, drivable single disk clutch that could hold under hard launches, so I chose the original WOTM clutch. I like this clutch very much. | FUEL:
The fuel system from rear to front was overbuilt with 2 AN-10 lines to the dual exterior Bosch racing fuel pumps, which then go forward to the fuel rail in AN-8 lines and return through a single AN-8 line. The most limiting factor right now is the fuel rail and 750cc injectors, which I plan to upgrade significantly in Spring, 2005 to match the rest of the fuel system flow capacity. I also plan to convert the wet Nitrous system over to a dry setup by using the AEM to control much larger injectors (think 1200 cc). | ELECTRONICS:
Back in 2000 the VPC/GCC combo was the only ballgame in town and that is what this car started out with when I went single turbo. In 2002, the GCC was changed to an SAFC to match the AVC-R boost controller. In Spring, 2004 the VPC/SAFC was changed over to AEM, but I kept the AVC-R. | BRAKES/CHASSIS:
The car has the Brembo monster front brake kit, TEIN HA coilovers, TRD front/rear sway bars, and a TRD front strut tower brace. The strut tower brace is not shown on the pictures because of a recent mishap where the car rolled free when being winched on to a trailer – the cable that was hooked around the strut tower brace stopped the car from rolling further but in the process it was contorted into a nice pretzel shape. A new brace will be put on as I like how it affects the handling. | WHEELS/TIRES:
I originally started out with 18” Volk III wheels, which I like very much. They are no longer made and I think they are one of the best looking spoked wheels. The Volk III wheels are now on my other (daily driver) supra. During the paint/body upgrades I decided to replace the Volk III wheels with my all time favorite, HRE 540’s and these are 18” wheels. I run Michelin Pilot Sport tires, 275/35/ZR18’s in the front, 315/30/ZR18’s on the rear. I could go with wider tires in the rear but didn’t want to do some interior fender adjustment with a sledge hammer. I have used many different tires before but the Pilot Sports have the best dry/wet grip that I’ve experienced. | INTERIOR:
I’m pretty tall (6’5”) and the lower back support on the stock Supra seats has always been a sore spot for me. I decided to change the stock seats over to Sparco Torinos which have much better lumbar support. I can go hours and hours driving the car without having to give my back a rest. These seats and the rear seats were recovered in soft black leather with chameleon accents by Stitchcraft. The rest of the interior, including door panels, shift boot, instrumentation panel, and guage pods were covered in a really unique leather that looks like a carbon fiber weave (but is not). The roll bar is a 6 point with removeable side bars. My requirement for this roll bar was that the side bars and center bar be removeable and that it still be possible to stow the sport top in the rear. Although all these goals were achieved, I can’t put the seats back as far as I’d like and have to sit pretty upright to drive the car. If you ever see me miss a shift, imagine having your legs so straight up with little leverage on the clutch. | EXTERIOR:
If you read the general section, you can see the exterior body/paint work is pretty extensive. I had a Trust rear bumper with an integrated diffuser lying around in my garage. I liked that a lot more than the TRD rear end, which looks pretty weak in my opinion. So, the guys at Kreative Images expertly matched the Trust rear end with the rest of the TRD widebody kit. Along the way, we decided to shave everything (door handles, side markers, rear brake light, etc) except the radio antenna. Even the license plate slot in the Trust rear end was shaved and a new license plate was slotted into the diffuser portion that moves up and down automatically on power down/up of the car. I call this my James Bond mod. As I said before, we agonized quite a bit on the paint: the specific colors, what color was on top and bottom, the width of the stripe and its color and pinstriping accents. Along the way many paint samples were sprayed, first on paint cans and then finally on my stock fenders to see just what combination worked. We couldn’t get the right stripe combo and so brought on somebody who does nothing but paint stripes to suggest a half dozen or so options. Finally, we had that worked out. Like I said, I take a lot of flak on line about the paint but the car gets tons of positive comments in person. Photographs just do not do it justice. | PERFORMANCE:
Like everybody who goes single turbo, you set your sights high. Back in 2000, the high bar was horsepower in the 600 to 700 rwhp range. There was nobody above the 700 rwhp range at that time except Bryce Danna with his huge T51R turbo. You have to remember at this time the T66 was considered pretty laggy. On the hybrid T04R/T51 setup, the car dyno’ed out around 651 rwhp, 651 lb-ft at 24 PSI. The car hasn’t been retuned on it’s new engine and AEM EMS to achieve maximum horsepower, partly due to the fact I can’t yet tie it down on a dyno (will get that addressed in the next couple months). I know the car has more in it though since it has many more mods than when it originally dyno’ed (e.g. head work, etc). | THANKS:
|
PARTS LIST:
| ENGINE:
ARP head studs, rod bolts
JE pistons, 0.020 over, 8.5:1
Swaintech piston/side skirts coating
Carrillo rods
HKS metal head gasket
Under Pressure main stud girdle with ARP studs
EGR block off plate
TRD motor mounts
Under Pressure custom chromed combo oil catch can with twin AN-10 breathers and water overflow bottle
Chroming and polishing throughout (valve covers, intake plenum, throttle body, etc)
Painted spark plug cover, timing belt cover, power steering reservoir, etc
Under Pressure Stage III Head: Ferrea valve train-Ferrea 1 mm oversize valves, hi rev springs, titanium retainers and keepers, port work, resurfaced head, 3 angle valve job
HKS 272 cams
HKS cam gears, purple anodized
Unorthodox power pulley set, Boostlogic crank pulley, purple anodized
TRD Oil Filler Cap
Thermal Flex blue silicon hoses throughout engine bay
HKS T04R/T51 FasTrax modified hybrid turbo
HKS polished front mount intercooler
Under Pressure custom chromed piping to/from turbo and FMIC
Twin chromed HKS Racing BOVs, BOV output from both routed back into intake via custom piping
Stainless steel polished heat shield both on turbo and around firewall
K&N filter
Kreative Images custom chromed air intake box
Polished exhaust manifold and header
HKS 3" downpipe
HKS 3" midpipe
HKS 4" Hiper Titanium race series exhaust | FUEL:
All Earl's stainless steel braided fuel lines and fittings
Twin AN-8 fuel lines rear to front, single AN-8 fuel return line, AN-6 fuel line to NOS system
Rochester 750 cc injectors
MaxRev fuel rail, twin end feeds and single center return
Twin exterior Bosch 044 racing fuel pumps
Twin Aeromotive fuel filters
Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator
NOS 120 HP direct port setup with polished/chromed lines, distribution blocks, racing solenoids
NOS progressive controller
NOS chrome bottle, bottle heater with pressure sensor, bottle blanket, remote bottle valve opener, dump tube
NOS pressure gauge
NOS purge valve kit
NOS mounting plate
NOS RPM window, turbo pressure, and full throttle micro switches
| ELECTRONICS:
AEM Engine Management System
Greddy turbo timer
Motec PLM wideband O2 analyzer with bosch O2 sensor
Apexi AVC-R boost controller, Apexi S-AFC fuel controller (setup just to monitor), Apexi rev/speed meter, Guages mounted in custom triple guage pod in passenger airbag
Apexi 60mm boost guage, Apexi 60mm EGT gauge, Apexi 60mm fuel pressure gauge, Guages mounted in custom triple gauge pod off of instrument panel
TRD 10K Tachometer
RaceLogic traction control system
Gear shift light
K40 undetectable front/rear radar/laser detector and laser diffuser
Powerhouse polished full alternator upgrade, 175 amps cold and 160 amps hot
Twin Lightning Audio Storm blue top dry cell batteries mounted in rear trunk, Taylor battery mount and shutoff switch, Custom sheet metal battery covers covered in Toyota vinyl
2G black/red battery lines
150 amp resettable main circuit breaker
HKS twin power ignition amplifier | DRIVETRAIN:
WOTM AZ clutch
RPS pressure plate
Stillway sequential shifter | BRAKES/CHASSIS:
Brembo 13.1" monster front brake kit
Brembo cross
TRD stainless steel rear brake lines
Hurst linelock controlled through either instrument panel toggle switch or horn
Tein HA coil-overs
TRD sway bars, front/rear
TRD front strut tower brace-drilled rear rotors | WHEELS/TIRES:
HRE 540, 18" wheels, polished & chromed, front/rear
Michelin Pilot Sport tires, 275/35/ZR18 front, 315/30/ZR18 rear
ARP wheel studs
| INTERIOR:
Kenwood DDX7015 headunit, Kenwood Sirius Tuner
Focal 165KP 6 1/2" components, Focal 165CV 6 1/2" two-ways, MTX T551044 10" subwoofer
MTX TH564 4 channel amp, MTX TH502 2 channel amp, MTX 1F Cap
Sparco Torino seats recovered in soft black leather with chameleon leather accents and embroidered Supra logo
Sparco competition shoulder, lap, and dual sub seat belt harnesses, driver and passenger side
Rear seats recovered in soft black leather with chameleon leather accents
Carbon fiber leather accents on door panels, instrument panel, instrument panel triple guage pod, passenger airbag triple guage pod
Chameleon leather accents on door panel armrests, shift boot cover
Under Pressure custom 6 point roll bar with removeable driver/passenger side bars and cross bar, all covered with a zippered chameleon leather padding.
Chrome fire extinguisher
Adjustable videocam and laptop mount
Aluminum billet sport pedals | EXTERIOR:
Two tone paint job in Lime Time Green and True Blue Pearl with engine turned silver foil stripe outlined with magenta pin striping
TRD widebody kit replica with following modifications:
Wing is removed
Modified stock hood
Trust rear end with integrated air diffusor custom fit to TRD kit
Shaved door handles, rear wiper, rear brake light, side markers
Custom retractable rear license place (folds up into air diffuser)
30% black tint front side windows, 5% black tint rear side and rear windows
'97-'98 rear taillights
'93-'95 euroglass front headlights |
|
turbo: TO4R/T51R
pistons: JE
rods: Carrillo
head: ported +1mm
cams: HKS 272
boost:
injectors: 750cc
pumps: 044 x2
fmic: HKS
clutch: WOTM
nitrous:
rwhp: 651 (dynojet)
circa 765hp at the flywheel
|
