chilli

I see you have a j-spec, normally it is recommended that you de-cat both cats and use a restrictor ring to put some backpressure back in the system. Not sure about just removing the second cat, but anything that reduces the back pressure can raise the boost on a j-spec, more boost = more power. Just ensure you stay at 1.2bar or below for a decent turbo lifespan...

He's Phat not Fat Edit: Well I suppose he could be both but I don't want to speculate on personal matters...

Actually I havn't yet, thats not a bad idea, just need to find someone who can do decent trustworthy 4 wheel alignment. I've only had the car a few months, got a list of things to do already! I only worked out what my wheels where last night when washing the car lol, I'd been wondering about them for a while lol. How do you have your car set up? Mine is extremely low and the springs/damping is very firm. Means it's less optimised for the wet (don't care) and also for very bumpy roads but it's like a go cart on good roads - perfect for the track, quite shocking how agile it is for such a big car!

Ok Ok I'm sure this topic always gets this heated lol - but in terms of the original question: The manual will be quicker and that seems unanimous and also common sense IMHO... It has 6 gears not 4, it gives less power loss, it allows better car control (even if you don't use engine braking), it's lighter and slightly stronger. Toys like RLTC with full throttle shifting allow even more performance to be extracted from the manual should you require it. For daily driving many people love their auto's, that’s fair enough, I'm sure it's a lovely box. The auto still can be driven very fast and is still an amazing car, an auto still makes a good track car. You need to be on the edge with everything else sussed (braking, racing line etc) before something like the gearbox makes the difference - this is why you will see auto's beating manuals sometimes. But with everything else equal as per the original question, the car with the manual gearbox will be quicker. Regarding F1 CVT transmission, I don't really see how that applies to this convo, the CVT couldn't be further away from a supra auto box if you tried. If you had an F1 CVT box fitted to your car you could drive everywhere at literally max rpm (max for power) lol. This means full power is _always_ available. No wonder this was an advantage and got banned - however Supra's don't come with these, and if they did I expect we would be having threads about engine life and fuel consumption lol... The auto offers other advantages, comfort, effortless driving etc, but pure all out speed around the track is not one of them.

lol just a tad hard then. I don't think I'll be going that crazy with it. Right sounds like I need an EGT gauge fitted asap lol, I'll add that to my todo list... I think I'll aim to stick with the 1.2 bar limit, interesting to know that people have been running more for some period of time though!

I ran my 'grale and drove it every day for nearly 5 years and so I got to know it pretty well indeed! IIRC 1.2 bar is the figure I remember for 270bhp, 1.4 bar is quite high and TBH without other suitable mods would lead to premature failure somewhere. It would be possible to supe up a grale to take on a stock Supra, but once you start fiddling with that 2jz-gte it has so much more potential being an immensly strong 3.0 24v i6 that it's game over really, even with just BPU style mods, let alone big singles. 270-300bhp is "fairly" easy on the 'grale, much beyond this it starts getting more tricky. Running lots of boost results in cracked heads, blown turbos, damaged crank and so on and so forth... I had one engine die (crank big ends), another crack the head and another start to go on me! Regarding handling, I've never driven a completely stock supra, or 'grale for that matter. I can honestly say that for the kind of driving I do most, the supra actually handles better - think it's wider and more stable for starters. The 'grale is more chuckable at low speeds, the supra requires more care when sticking your foot down round very tight twisties, but then it's much more powerful too so this is to be expected to some extent. At higher speeds the supra is rock solid, more so than any other car I have driven. Overall the 'grales handling is very good, they do suffer from understear, switching to sharp overstear on lift-off - a feature of permenant 4wd and weight transfer. The 'grale really comes into it's own in the wet or on lose ground. However, standard its dry handling performance is not the best. Often people change the suspension to improve this dry handling, but at the detriment of what was its original strength, this can leave a car that has no best strengths and takes away what it originally had going for it. For me, I don't race around in the wet or on mud/dirt and TBH 2wd or 4wd or 'n'wd doesn't make the car stop quicker or have higher lateral g handling. So I have gone from a 4wd evangelist to more of a 2wd is fine for all circumstances I'm interested in going fast in lol. So after having fun with one for many years, it was not much of a sacrafice to switch to 2wd. RLTC and decent rear tires should give enough grip for all dry weather requirements, I have no illusions that I want a fast wet weather car now, this means the supra can be less comprimised for raw dry weather performance. As for off the lights performance, well you have to go careful. 4wd, a fair degree of power, something has to give. I've pulled away with massive 4 wheel spins before, but if it grips something has to give. I broke a clutch one time and a drive shaft another time doing this, so go careful... Both great cars though, I certainly appreciate both, the 'Grale gave me a lot of fun. I see the supra as a definite step up the peg. I would have gone for a skyline but having realised why 4wd is not the 'silver bullet', I'm very happy with the choice now lol

lol and I was worried about getting near 1.2 bar! I guess over 1.2 bar maybe it's a bit pot luck as to when they blow up. Did you drive it hard at 1.3 bar a lot, or were you often lightfooted/running less boost? I'd be happy with 22k at 1.3 bar, by then I'd probably also be ready for (or not be able to resist it any longer!) a big turbo upgrade!

Thats some serious shit, whats that turbo and whats that large air box, is that just to collect cool air or is there more to it than that? Whats the specs of this car, come on spill the beans! Just 15k, damn why do I have one already lol

imi, I could host them for you, I've got unlimited space as its my server... Not sure how you could get them to me though, I could give you ftp access to upload them, or I could grab them off you one at a time from your site, just an idea Yeah its really refreshing to see the supra's handling demonstrated, I think with some good suspension/wheels and tyres the supra really can handle. This is coming from me, someone who drove a Lancia Delta Integrale for the last 4/5 years lol. I don't know what a standard supra handles like, but with uprated suspension (mine has Tein and is lowered a lot and was like that when I got it) the handling is nothing short of excellent! Wow who has this 800 bhp monster lol

Oops posted in the wrong place... I was just re-directed here from another job post and thought i'd add what I do... I enjoy my job, i think that comes from working with a company that says that they like to put their employees first and actually mean it. I get sent on loads of training courses and i get to improve my skills. Having said that i still get those monday morning blues but i think i would get that with any job. The company is putting effort into progressing me to a systems architect which im thankful for. Not the best job in the world, but certainly not the worst.

I personally agree with you, manual offers advantages for several reasons, that being one of them That was an excellent video, I want to see more like that - especially where the Supra wins For anyone worried about the clutch, just get an uprated clutch - problem solved

Manual all the way but I totally agree that the driver is the biggest factor and I'm not claiming to be an expert driver with it yet but it sure is fun learning Either way they both deserve maximum BHP and brakes aside, I'm sure something like RLTC could actually make more of a significant difference than the old manual verses auto debate...

They are damn sexy gauges! Hmmm if I didn't have so many other things to get I'd probably be changing mine for those myself lol

lol well that says it all for quality then! Sorry I think maybe I didn't put my point across well though in my last post. Fair enough the car would waste your supra (and mine also no doubt) but what I was trying to say was the supra is capable of a lot in the right hands and if he knew anything about cars he would appreciate a car that is capable of a sub 10s 1/4 mile, 200+mph and extreme handling (Toms etc) is definitely a "real car" in every sense of the word... There are supras capable of handing him his ass on a plate - didn't suggest it was yours (or mine), but he wasn't to know that at the time, so in that respect he showed pure arrogance (or ignorance)! The supra is so popular with modders because it has so much latent potential. The TVR, lovely as it is, well your paying the price for something thats already had all (or most) of the potential extracted and I suspect has not much more to give (without spending rediculously large amouts of cash on it). As geoffvalenti put it, he should be able to respect all performance cars - especially one with so much potential as the supra has! I'm not saying I'd not own a TVR (even considered buying one at one point), but with a new one, anyone with the cash can go and buy one, in that respect they are not unique. The same could be said about any car, but when we each go to the trouble to make our cars better, they become unique, something you can't just buy from a showroom - the supra is a car just waiting to be made unique, if your a petrol head, its a dream come true I doubt he will be attempting to improve the 350C, just think of the devaluation and depreciation...

I do like TVRs but overall I do think they are a touch overrated. Often unreliable, poorly made, overpriced, straight line only performers with snobbish owners. I don't even like the look of some of them at all. Anyway arrogant arseholes like that usually think they are god-like and untouchable. This often leads to http://67.19.177.10/newphotos/exotics/98tvr_20050222_002.jpg Well just let him know that there are Supras who would hand his arrogant ass to him on a plate and that he is certainly not at the top of the food chain, so there is no need to act like he is already...

lol, I was looking originally for a uk spec 6 speed manual but rapidly gave up as I realised there are hardly any, it took me long enough to find a decent j-spec one. As it turns out I'm happy I got a j-spec, the single thing I would like is the better uk breaks, but that can be done as a cost effective upgrade at any time , so it's no big deal So dangerous_brain, are you saying there are only 2 uk spec manuals and you have one of them? Nice one lol Oh and awesome video! I can't wait to show that to people at work who have hinted in the past that the supra only goes fast in a straight line and doesn't handle, brake etc...

Clock

What? Your dipstick?!

Before you ask i was searching for pics of supras on google and.... What other things have you found going by the name of supra? There are supra modems on Ebay.

lol yeah this "ol' chestnut" one must come up time and time again! I guess for normal driving it mostly comes down to personal preference at the end of the day. I've also read that standard, the manual box is a touch stronger than the auto, handling another 50bhp or so before risking failures. I expect if you are building a racer both would need strengthening though anyway. Auto = excellent for a daily driver, easier to drive quickly with less effort. Good for drag racing (although not using the standard auto box/torque converter) Manual = might seem harder work initially, potentially quicker and more rewarding when you learn to get it right. Always potential for a "missed" gear change though. One thing that definitely is true, that manual box sure makes some strange noises lol. I've grown to love it though, it gives it some character (at least thats what I tell myself anyway). I don't know what the ratio is, but I think I'd be right in assuming that the majority of forum members have auto's. It took me a lot longer to find a decent manual 6 speed TT and I saw so many auto's whilst looking that I very nearly crumbled and went for an auto instead. I'm glad I stuck to my principles though now. At the end of the day, each to their own though, either way they are great cars

I'm in a similar position to you Bob (although my car boosts at 1 bar rather than 0.8 already with both cats in). I plan to remove both cats but use a restrictor ring to keep the boost below 1.2 bar. After than I'm upgrading the fuel pump and renewing the filter. Then I want to add a Greddy emanage (which is a piggy back ecu controller) and a fuel pressure regulator. This should allow max power to be extracted from a car on stock j-spec turbos and get it to a position where a turbo upgrade of one sort or another would be possible... Sort of incremental tuning where the car is always running The standard ecu will be able to cope at 1.2 bar but as was mentioned, you will probably (most likely) hit the ecu's safety feature of fuel cut, so a Thor VFCD is the recommended device for safely raising the point at which fuel cut occurs - small electronic box costing aroung £70 or so. Before you do any of this, don't forget to add a boost gauge if you haven't got one, you don't want to be working in the dark….

Qu: Would you have taken the money if you were in Eugene's position??

Are you saying that beyond 1.2 bar neither type of turbo is working efficiently? I guess that would make sense since they are not a million miles apart in terms of design. So at 1.2 bar then you have the choice of potentially more reliability but more lag with the uk spec verses less lag but possibly earlier failure with the j-spec.

Never said you couldn't lol, said you get better control in a manual and control is what it's about when cornering around a track...

I'd really like to experience a UK spec car and it's power delivery - anyone live local lol? All I can say is that the j-spec turbo spool up is almost instantaneous and often on the road (as opposed to a straight line / dyno test) this counts for a lot, possibly it's worth quite a few bhp but that would be almost impossible to quantify of course as it depends on the circumstances so much... Comparing to my old Lancia Delta Integrale, well at the time I was used to it so didn't think about it much, now after experiencing the j-spec turbos on the supra I realize it was extremely laggy indeed! Whatever I do to tune the car up, one of my priorities now will be to minimise lag where possible! I suppose to quickly summarise what was originally asked: are they bigger? J-Spec act as smaller, less laggy units. Uk spec offer slightly higher limits in terms of max boost, at the price of more lag. are they stronger? UK spec are stronger (handle higher boost), J-specs have a 1.2 bar abs max limit.