Ask 10 compact car enthusiasts what the perfect sleeper car is, and you'll get 10 different answers. All the cars named, however, will be light, powerful and unassuming. You know, like a B-powered CRX or a turbo-rotary 510.
Then there are guys like So. Cal. resident Jensen Oda, who thinks of the perfect sleeper in entirely different terms. His black 1995 Lexus SC300 is big, heavy and more gaudy than unassuming. It even still wears its chromed factory Lexus wheels, which add just the right amount of bling to sucker unassuming WRX pilots into contests of speed.
As an R&D engineer at A'PEX Integration in Orange, Calif., Oda knows a thing or two about building fast cars. Not only does he know how to build them, he knows how to pick them, and one big advantage the SC300 had over its more powerful brother, the V8 SC400, was its normally aspirated 3.0-liter straight six. Although rated at a measly 225 hp from the factory, it's a 2JZ-GE, the same engine from oil pan to valve cover found in the naturally aspirated Toyota Supra. In other words, Oda knew the SC's powerplant was crammed with unrealized power potential. He just needed to tap it.
His first modifications, however, were to the suspension. The coupe's 3,700-pound heft demanded more control than the stock suspension tuning could offer, so Oda installed a full set of A'PEXi N1 coil-overs to lower the car and improve its handling dynamics. And he stopped right there. This SC still relies on a factory braking system, factory stabilizer bars, those beautiful 16-inch chrome Lexo wheels, and aset of Michelin snow tires, if you can believe that shit.
"I looked for a car with a five-speed transmission for about four months," Oda says. "When I finally found one, it was an East Coast car equipped with snow tires. So I just kept them. They may not be sticky, but they're great for doing burnouts."
With the chassis dynamics dialed in to his liking, Oda turned to the engine bay. Since the car had logged about 90,000 miles, Jensen pulled the engine and transmission and gave each a thorough checkup. He pulled the head, replaced dubious components like the valve guides with new factory equipment, checked over the block internals and surveyed all seals, changing them when necessary. Then, over the course of several months, he installed a complete F-Max turbo kit, designed specifically for the naturally aspirated JZ engine.
The F-Max kit is designed around a high-carbon cast-steel exhaust manifold and Garrett/Turbonetics T04E-60 turbocharger. It includes a 28x6.5x3.5-inch front-mount intercooler core and complete bead-rolled custom piping, an open-element intake with K&N filter, and a 3-inch mandrel-bent downpipe, which feeds spent gases into an A'PEX GT exhaust system. F-Max even included such niceties as a turbine heat shield and oil cooler to help deal with rising underhood temperatures. The shiny metal box in the front driver's corner of the engine bay is a custom oil-catch can Oda made and installed himself.
F-Max provided fuel enrichment parameters with a pair of additional injectors and a MS2 additional injector controller, but Oda found this system impossible to fine-tune. After a few frustrating attempts, Oda pulled the F-Max enrichment setup and replaced it with his own concoction of parts. He replaced the OE injectors with a set of six 500cc Venom injectors, as well as adding an A'PEXi N1 fuel pump and adjustable fuel pressure regulator, both of which he adapted from a Japanese-market Skyline.
At first, he installed A'PEX's S-AFC to control the fuel curves, but he has since picked up sponsorship from AEM and installed that company's EMS stand-alone management unit. The AEM EMS setup incorporates the company's wideband UEGO controller for even greater AFR tuning capability. Turbo boost is masterminded by an A'PEX AVC-R boost controller mounted flush in a carbon-fiber panel in the middle of the dash.
On the chassis dyno, Oda says the car laid 360 hp and 290 lb-ft of torque, which is way too much power for those winter tires.
Transferring that power is the factory stock five-speed, a heavy-duty ACT clutch and a KAAZ limited-slip differential. The majority of the winged Honda crowd doesn't realize Lexus made a limited number of six-cylinder SCs with manual transmissions, so it's the car's five-speed manual that really freaks people out. "A lot of people think I converted it," Oda says.
Body treatments are, in fact, nonexistent, aside from a pair of updated Bellof HID headlamps and the AEM sticker. The paint is fading factory black, and profoundly amplifies Oda's collection of door dings and gravel chips.