Project Supra

Hi Guys

I am toying with the idea of getting another Supra as a project car and keeping my current car as the day to day drive instead of getting rid it in favour of a Nissan 350z.

I would really like a supra for track days and something for a blast at the weekend so would probably look at getting an early TT and then spending a few grand on modifying the car and striping it out it to make it more race car than road car.

Question 1: Engine

I think I would be looking at trying to achieve about 400-450 bhp as I guessing that anymore power would require some serious engine modifications. How easy is it to get this sort of power from a TT and what mods would you recommend.

Question 2: Track Performance

When modifying any car I know its not all about tuning the engine so what other areas of the car would need to be upgraded to cope with the extra power and to aid with handling and peformance such as a brakes and suspension. In particular with the brakes would the UK TT brakes be good enough to cope with such a powerful car or would some aftermarket brakes be required.

Any other help on this would be great and or if someone with a similar spec supra to what I am after could post up a list of mods they have done that would be great.

Cheers

Hi Guys

 

 

 

Question 1: Engine

 

I think I would be looking at trying to achieve about 400-450 bhp as I guessing that anymore power would require some serious engine modifications. How easy is it to get this sort of power from a TT and what mods would you recommend.

Piss easy, double decat, boost controller, FCD, fuel pump and colder plugs....check your intercooler uprate to UK brakes and check your suspension if its a track car

Question 2: Track Performance

 

When modifying any car I know its not all about tuning the engine so what other areas of the car would need to be upgraded to cope with the extra power and to aid with handling and peformance such as a brakes and suspension. In particular with the brakes would the UK TT brakes be good enough to cope with such a powerful car or would some aftermarket brakes be required.

 

Cheers

As above excellent condition intecooler, cold air ducting, good brakes (UK are fine) and maybe water injection, and a nice set of tein's or chris wilson shocks

BPU will get you 400+ bhp. You'll need the usual stuff like decat, plugs, catback exhaust, fuel pump, maybe a FMIC. Shouldn't need a boost controller for a j-spec but will need an FCD.

UK brakes should be fine for most usage including track days, but if you feel they're not up to it there are upgrades available.

Get some good coilovers on and set up (CW?), you'll be laughing.

Cool this is sounding nice and easy so far and I am very tempted to get my hands on a TT now.

Now for the most important question, costs. How much do you think roughly it would cost to get all the bits needed (listed above) for a standard soop to reach the magical 450bhp range?

A few grand?

The answer to all your questions is "the best you can afford"

You could do it for £500 not including brakes and suspension or FMIC, and that's if you get some second hand bargains and do most of the fitting yourself. Set aside £1000 for BPU, then add on brakes, coilovers and FMIC to that.

also I might sound really stupid but what does BPU stand for?

I have been looking at this very subject here is some of the things i have thought about prices are a guide

Chris wilson suspension 1250 + alignment optimised for track ( or thereabouts.)

Pads for brakes £240 ( assuming larger brakes)

exhaust £4-500

cat pipes £300

restrictor ring £15

smic (if yours is past best) £600 ?

Oil cooler ?

road legal slicks + 17" uk wheels (unless you have these)

Bucket seat for drivers side only. £300 +

Removal of weight ( air con etc) depends how good you are with a spanner and how far you want to go.

Thanks for that, very helpful. I am getting the itch to try and get hold of a TT now and get this project started.

Had some ideas on how I would like the project to look. Check out some of my early designs here

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?p=859545#post859545

thats not far off what mine wil look like..

Right I am very close to parting with some money to purchase a project car based on what people are telling me but I don't think my initial budget will allow me to buy a TT.

The other option is to go for a N/A supra but would I be able to see power gains of up to 400bhp from an N/A car and what would the tuning costs be like compred to a TT. I have read that a few people opt for a turbo kit for the NA but the costs seem to be very high.

Your Thoughts Please

Save your money and get a TT.

yeah the only real way of getting more speed out of a NA is striping it down and replacing panels with carbon fiber and that aint cheap, or bolt a turbo on and that isnt that expensive when you see how cheap you can get an NA these days. Basic kit is around 2500-3000 with fitting and thats around 300-350 RWHP.

Don't spend much time or money on the engine, the secret of a fast track car is in the brakes, suspension and weight reduction. If someone with a decent budget did a proper track Supra, even on a stock / bpu engine, it would be a superb fun tool. Not seen one yet....

Don't spend much time or money on the engine, the secret of a fast track car is in the brakes, suspension and weight reduction. If someone with a decent budget did a proper track Supra, even on a stock / bpu engine, it would be a superb fun tool. Not seen one yet....

Yep.

I sat down and worked out the cost to build what I would consider a light weight Supra, the cost was, well pretty damn high. Titanium, carbon fibre and lexan certainly aren't cheap!

Gaz.

the thing is even a light NA can be bloody quick if you can get the power per ton up to a decent point it can be real quick the thing is as Gaz said it costs money as the soop is a heavy old bird

If you don't go mad i think 100 kgs is a fairly achievable figure before the need for exotic materials comes in to play.

I have completely stripped my interior and i reckon on it being at least 60 kg lighter (kerb weight calculator) makes my car about 1430 kg's.

The tailgate weighs 27 kg's, a carbon fibre one isn't too dear £5-600

thats you down to 1400kg. Remove the aerial motor and aerial, the rear wiper motor, the radio and all 4 speakers + mounts, the door cards.

Then the aircon can go, remove the gloveboxes and i think you could get down to 1370 kg or thereabouts, thats less than a Mitsubishi EVO IX

I am planning on taking my sup to a weigh bridge near Cannock just to see what it weighs in at.

If it was my money i would get a manual N/A this would give you more money to spend on brakes and supension and lightweight materials.

Hi Everyone

I have decided that I am going to bite the bullet and have a go at making this project light weight Supra as a track day racer and am going to base the car on an SZ and not a turbo due to my budget and reading what other people have said. I think that if I can reduce a lot of the supras weight and add new brakes, suspension and some other mods that it will be a very quick machine.

I have been spending a few days working out what I would like to do to the car and working out the estimated costs for the project and I will post up the proposed spec in a few days.

Also my current 97 gunmetal SZ is up for sale at £9995 but I am also taking offers to downtrade to an earlier SZ as long as its a red manual with no more than 60-65k on the clock.

You will also be able to track my progress on the project which I am currently calling Project SZ-LR (Lightweight Racing) on a website I built at the weekend.

http://www.wavedesign.net/sz-lr/

Theres not much there in the way of info at the moment but Ill be adding a load of information over the next week or so.

Sorry to be a party pooper mate, but if the web site updates depend on selling your current car then it could be blank for some time.