1995 Toyota Supra - Dark Reign

We’re brought up with the notion that the white knight fights for good, and the black knight fights for evil. Those medieval tales were right, because nothing sounds more evil than Andy Yu’s 1995 twin-turbo Toyota Supra JZA80’s (third generation Supra) rumbling exhaust notes. And no black knight’s armor can look as evil as the Wise Sports body kit matched to the Supra’s deep black paint. The only difference is that a medieval knights rides on a horse, and this Supra rides on 545 horses.

Andy Yu of Kyosho Racing is definitely not taking stabs in the dark when it comes to building bad-ass cars. Andy has owned a turbo MR-2, a twin-turbo 300ZX, a BMW 850, and the first 12-second S14 chassis 240SX in the States. Andy has had so many cars that we can’t even find room to list them. Why? Because he’s crazy; he also happens to be the owner of V-spec Performance in Baldwin Park, California (yes, it’s the same V-spec with the Silvias and the Top Fuel Hondas). That’s exactly why Andy took his JZA80 and went through a nuclear fusion with HKS and its performance parts.

The factory 2JZ motor is rated at 320 hp (256 hp at the rear wheels) and can take up to 750 hp before any reinforcement is needed, although that much power seems a bit impractical in a street car. With the HKS EVC’s low setting at 1.3BAR (19 psi), Andy’s car laid the smack down on the HKS dyno’s candy ass with 545 hp at the wheels, or 682 hp at the crank.

How would we build a 500-plus horsepower daily-driven JZA80? We’d contact HKS USA to order every part that they have in stock for the car. The HKS twin GT2835 turbo kit is a damn good start; two ball-bearing turbos sitting on two gleaming stainless-steel manifolds. These turbos were in need of more breathing room, so the restrictive factory airflow meter was switched out for an HKS VPC mated to twin Super Mega Flow air cleaners. Howard, chief engineer at HKS, tuned the VPC chip to handle the larger turbos and higher boost levels. The huge HKS front mount intercooler was installed, chilling the hot turbo charges, and the HKS Twin Power Type-DLI provided the amplified spark to ignite the crazy air/fuel mixture. It’s no wonder that Andy’s JZA80 makes grown men whimper.

An HKS titanium racing exhaust is bolted to the HKS off-road downpipe to give the exhaust gases uninterrupted flow. Sounds good enough, right? Wrong. Maybe that would have been fine for you or us, but not for Andy. We knew that being the owner of V-spec Performance, and drinking all that Arizona green tea would drive him over the edge. He made several five-dollar-a-minute cell phone calls to contact his Japanese friends at Top Fuel to airfreight some special order parts. A pair of HKS cams and cam gears were sent over, along with six 720cc injectors and an HKS high-flow fuel rail.

Another few sessions will max out the fuel controlling capabilities of the VPC. But Andy’s JZA80 should push over 600 hp at the rear wheels with the rom tuning expertise of SP Engineering. That’s daily driven, mind you. Although the 2JZ motor can handle the power with no problems, the factory clutch couldn’t hang with the abuse of street and track driving. Andy contacted Japan, yet again, to airship a triple plate OS Giken clutch and had it installed at SP.

An aggressive motor deserves an equally aggressive appearance. A Wise Sports body kit was painted, fitted, and mounted by 20/20 Autobody in the City of Industry, California. A unique kit, the Wise Sports front bumper has a large lower lip to direct air through the enormous mouth and into the intercooler. 20/20 wrapped the bare edges with Wise Sports side and rear skirts to drop the Supra’s body line even more. A Bomex rear wing tops things off with a hint of Japanese drifting style. A true JZA80 connoisseur would notice that the taillight arrangements are not in sequence on Andy’s car. That’s because those wacky folks at Toyota Europe decided to switch up the order of the OEM taillights.

On the street, Toyo rubbers are wrapped around a set of 18-inch gunmetal Advan Model 5 rims to help Andy keep traction on his long commutes to work. Using Blitz Type 01CX three-piece rims and Nitto NT555R drag radials, 12-second passes are made without breaking a sweat. With more traction, the results will be sickening. The Supra sits on fully adjustable HKS Hiper Damper coilovers, allowing Andy to raise or lower its stance and stiffen or soften its ride.

Andy figured that if he’s going to have to sit in horrible Los Angeles traffic everyday, he might as well make the best of it. So, he replaced the bulky factory leather seats with a pair of carbon Kevlar weave Recaro Tomcat racing seats, fully equipped with an air pump lumbar support. Now that’s what we call luxury. It would take a pretty bomb system to overtake the hypnotizing sounds of twin ball-bearing turbos spooling through 4-inch stainless-steel piping so, John Tanaka of Transonic made sure that Andy’s JZA80 would be a rolling entertainment system. A Japan-only Alpine monitor with built in TV tuner is mated with an Alpine head unit. Two Crystal subs and an ADS amplifier were mounted in a custom trunk box with minimal cutting and no neon.

With a buildup that costs as much as our yearly salaries all together, and disgustingly surpasses our financial reaches, Andy has built his JZA80 beyond anyone's wildest dreams. The sick part about it is that it only took him three months to build. What’s even more sick is that Andy still isn’t finished. With the help and support of HKS USA, Top Fuel Japan, SP Engineering, and his teammates in Kyosho Racing, he promises that the JZA80 will turn more heads and tear up even more tracks when it’s complete. We only have one thing to say to you, Andy. Don’t make promises unless you intend to keep them. And when you do, let us know so we can fantasize even more.

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