We often receive letters from various students across the country who complain about their teachers, who have taken away their copies of Super Street. We've been told that we're a distraction. There are too many girls in the magazine. We're risqu. Studying is more important. Whatever. Our goal is to corrupt the minds of the youth, and what good are we if we're stashed away somewhere in the principal's office along with the confiscated pagers, baggy pants, and banned NWA cassettes and not in the hands of some young boy who's just starting to grow funny hairs in those funny areas? You need cooler teachers. You need Joe Galante.
"Yes, I am a teacher. I teach high school Spanish," says Joe, as we get into a conversation about the whos, whats, whys, wheres, and whens of his '94 Supra. "I took a year off to finish this car, but they've completely flipped out. A lot of my students really dig the car, so much that I went and started an enthusiast club at school, geared specifically towards cars. I wanted them to learn about cars, such as safe driving tips and the dangers of street racing." Not only does this push Joe onto the level of coolness that only substitute teachers can achieve, it also makes him that much more respectable as a tuner as well. In fact, his second job is building cars along with his business partners at Mospeed Productions and RYTEK Motorsports. Joe's Supra is their first big project and they've done an outstanding job of converting it into the widebodied piece of machinery that it has become today.
Purchased back in 1997, Joe admits that his goals for the car today are much greater than what he had originally intended. "I didn't even know that boost controllers existed, let alone what a turbo was," he laughs. When he discovered that he could use aftermarket parts to make the car even faster, he placed himself right into the mouth of madness and hasn't looked back since. The evidence is clear, and now, on its third stage of modification, the car has gone from wack to fully stacked. It's serious business here-custom widebody fenders have extended the front end 2.5 inches and the back a good 3.5 inches. There's a lot of custom bodywork; in fact, all of the body pieces have been molded onto the car, which includes a Bomex front lip and VeilSide's C-1 side and rear skirts. The trunk lid supports a custom-mounted C-West carbon-fiber wing and the rear turn signals have been altered by Clearcorners.com to light up red instead of amber. The driving lights are now powered by a set of Xenon Depot HIDs and extra light is provided with a set of PIAA 2100-X foglamps. Factor in the custom gunmetal metallic paint (with the blue and green pearl mixed in) and you're not only going to impress the girl's volleyball squad-you're going to upset the balance of the entire student body. They never warned us about this in sex ed-better use condoms!
Joe states that he is a firm believer in "subtle craziness." While he wanted the car to stand out like a zit on senior portrait day, he also wanted to keep it mellow. Well, I can certainly tell you that underneath the hood, it's hardly that. It's really crazy-crazy like a fox! The inline-six, 2JZ-GTE has been fortified with all kinds of chin-stroking, member-grabbing goodness. A mammoth T-78 single turbo upgrade comes from GReddy, as does the Type R external wastegate, 2mm head gasket, and four-row intercooler. The cylinder head has been ported and polished, and has also been given a three-angle valve job. Even a pair of HKS 272-degree camshafts and a set of AEM adjustable cam gears are being utilized to maximize power. In case there's a desire to get a little extra punch, Joe has a 100-shot single-fogger wet nitrous system from NX on tap-there's even a spray bar from NX that injects ice-cold air onto the intercooler, which helps to lower the intake temperature of the air going into the engine.