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1988 Supra Turbo

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I always liked Mark 3s but could not afford one new. Drove one when they were brand new and was hooked. I really liked the looks of the car and thought they were aggressive styled. In 1998 I decided I wanted one that was a stripper car to race since I could afford it and started looking. I wanted an 87-88 turbo hardtop 5speed car in blue pearl with cloth interior. I looked everywhere on line and all kinds of wanted ads but came up empty and wasted a lot of time and energy. I wanted ABS and a supermonitor(rare option) as only options if possible. In 2000 of November I found this car near Pikesville MD which was very close to me! It didn't have the monitor or ABS but that was regardless. It was in okay shape for the most part and seemed perfect to mod. The prior owners who I still keep in touch with were great people and honest about the car and its shape.

It had about 90,000 miles on it and was priced at $2500 so purchased it. It needed a middle console cover, leather surfaces were cracked and peeling, driver's side door handle broken, power antenna broken, TEMS switch was peeling, climate controller was peeling, both seat belt guides were broken, exhaust was shot, no owners manual, didn't make much boost, steering rack leaked and blew smoke on start up and at WOT. I expected things like this to be wrong and knew I could fix it all easily with help from some friends. 2 months later everything was fixed for the most part. I was still blowing smoke a tad and figured it was the valve seals so I was not concerned. Had a mishap with a busted coolant hose and then again with another hose as only mishaps that gave me trouble. My egr plate on the back of my cylinder head was leaking as well.

Found an ad from a guy in Columbia MD who was restoring his 1990 Turbo Supra back to back to stock so I got the Superdragger, HKS pipe and a K&N filter charger kit and gave him my stock stuff in trade. Car really picked up power with these small mods. I was impressed how the car responded by this and figured more mods would be good if chosen wisely.

I then decided to take the car off the road, totally restore it and give it power to run in the low 12s on pump gas since I was having little issues with reliablity. Not the car's fault but age and lack of underhood ventilation were the culprits. I figured the car would nickle and dime to me to death so I attacked it all at one time. I was pretty sure my stock shortblock could take it if I made the car run rich. I was aiming for low 12s on pump gas on drag radials at the track. This was unheard of for a 7M powered car and people said I would be lucky to hit high 12s without nitrous and not gutting the car. I researched and using my experience with other cars I raced, owned and worked on, I went to work with some help from a lot of people and sources.

8 months later it debuted. Inside was restored to 89 specs, Super monitor added (combination of n/a one and turbo one) and car sported a new look thanks to the new wheels. With a 57 trim turbo, hks everything, headwork, aem cam gears, no tuning, 3923 plug with smaller gap, it went a best of 12.4 at 118 mph at Cecil County Drag way on drag radials. My new turbo thanks to Turbonectics needed a rebuild after a little use so I upgraded it to a 60 trim and with some octane boost went a best of 12.0 at 121 MPH at 75/80 on drag radials. During this time I had a few set backs and considering getting rid of the car. My stock engine harness was giving me fits so I replaced all the coil packs with new ones ($$$$), fouling plugs because of a POS turbo and I was eating manual transmissions to due my agressive driving style and abuse. After taking a break I decided to keep the car and change some things. I like the rear look of the newer 89 and up Supras so I decided I would duplicate the outside rear look,side mirrors and trim. I like the older front end so its being retained. Again my turbo needed rebuilding thanks to a horrible rebuild from ITS so I had the housing upgraded. I let two people have access to my car and the car was returned to me missing one body side molding (stolen and ripped out of the car-not even unbolted) and having a cracked ringland in number one cylinder (plugs were fouled from bad turbo and someone ran it hard after being told not too). Damon Saul convinced me to keep at it and helped me map a plan to really have a killer 7MGE MK3 (despite him hating these cars).

Got a low mile 7MGTE/tranny from Eric Novotny(adding a new oil pump for insurance), new wiring harness, the Witch bought me an AFPR, bought a elbow, cold start injector removed with some other emmission equipement, swapped to HKS cam gears (thanks to Mike Elliott for finding them),switched from an HKS EVC4 to an EZ (thanks Andy), Shortshifter(thanks Witch again!!) and a 1 piece carbon driveshaft added. Added the 89 freshly painted pieces,89 trunk (repainted blue-thanks Damon), mirrors and trim. These pieces helped the car knock its weight down to 3500 pounds which is very light for this kind of car. Other upgrades done recently were an 89 and up brake master cylinder(its not steel but aluminum-see pics),89 rear differential bars,new cps and ABS aluminum hubs.

My car still looks stock and OEM,is comfortable, still quiet and can be driven anywhere in total comfort. But it still packs enough punch to kill dyno queen cars, stripped out ricer cars that think they are fast "drag" cars,BPU Mark 4s (have killed about 9 of them) and ricers who have wings bigger than their car. Car is really deadly at high speeds and can reach speeds that throw you in jail very quickly. Aiming for mid 11s next time out. Big thanks to Jon Clark, Eric Novotny, Mike Elliott, Kirk Amico, the witch(puts up with the car and has bought many things for it), Damon Saul (who has been invaluable with this car), Dr JONEZ (he still is not as fast as me;) ),Chuck formely of Alamo & Lightning, Eric Kang (helped me with mods when I first got the car),Jeff M. and Jeff Watson at Champion Toyota.

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