Silly horsepower on the street is one thing. Actually making it work is something quite different. Despite most owners' best efforts, it usually means a lot of wheelspin, a flexing chassis, hopelessly overwhelmed brakes, overheating, unbearably heavy clutches, driveability quirks and sometimes even odd farting sounds.
Screw all that. Let's skim the cream of the high-horsepower Supra community's vast know-how, throw out the nonsense and go racing. Not highway racing, but legitimate, honest-to-Garlits, legal, sanctioned racing, where all that power can be put to good use.
Last year, Chris Anderson of Suwanee, Ga., looked at the NDRA's Pro Street Tire Class and knew he could do it better. Intently familiar with Supras, Chris was well aware of the long list of modifications needed to turn a street car into a raceable entry.
So in May 2004, Chris, owner of AAP Motorsports, a performance shop specializing in Supras and assorted Hondas, picked up a caged rolling chassis from MVP/Powerhouse. The AAP crew thrashed on the car during off-hours and roughly six months later, an impressively short period of time, they had a purpose-built car-one that ran 9s at its first track outing.
In the meantime, AAP built a 2JZ-GTE engine that would withstand just about any boost its crew could throw at it. Though NDRA rules for the class allow up to 3.5 liters, AAP's experience with the 2JZ suggested that staying at 3.0 liters would help durability, keeping cylinder walls hefty and rotating mass down.
Amazingly, the 2JZ's stock crank was up to the task of supporting the massive loads induced by more than 9000 rpm, high boost and aggressive spark advance. Supporting the crank are Clevite 77 bearings, which are harder than the stock bearings and thus better able to withstand the brutality handed down from above. Rounding out the bottom end, stock pistons and rods were jettisoned for Crower forged rods and 8.5:1 compression forged pistons from CP.
AAP built a custom intake manifold similar to the proven Veilside manifold and fitted it with six 1600cc/min injectors. Don't call them copycats though; the head is all AAP, which sectioned several stock heads to determine where material could be removed and then flow-benched nearly a dozen port jobs before settling on one.
The valvetrain consists of Ferrea springs and 2mm oversized valves riding on custom-spec Crane cams. ARP hardware is liberally sprinkled throughout the entire engine, including rod bolts, main studs and oversized head studs.
A Powerhouse Racing-tuned Motec M48 engine controller manages both fuel delivery and an AEM CDI ignition box, while an Innovative Technologies boost controller regulates a TiAL 46mm wastegate. The car builds roughly 29 psi of boost on the line with a cocktail of equal parts trans brake, two-step rev limiter and a 125-shot of nitrous.
After launch, boost is controlled by a timer, ramping up gradually to about 32 psi near the end of the track to keep the BorgWarner 80mm inducer turbo running sweetly while staving off wheelspin. When the chute is popped and the throttle snapped shut, a Turbonetics Godzilla blow-off valve helps lighten the turbo's load.
There's more headroom for boost in the turbo, but making more power isn't currently a priority for the team. First they have to keep the ass end in the thing-broken axles have been a persistent issue.
This isn't a new problem. At first, the stock axles were shearing, so the team built custom oversized axles. However, even these upgraded axles can't keep up with the massive load they see during a launch.