Toyota Supra SZ-R (slightly modded)

[LasseV]

Hello gentlemans!

Firstly sorry about my bad english This is my car.


I bought it over year ago and i thought that i would share my ownership experience with you guys. I love driving and i love older sport cars so thats why i got the n/a model. Performance of the TT models are little bit overkill for me i think. I love to drive in the twisties and this is my daily driver. I was quite sure that i would get either Porsche 911 Carrera (996) or 968 because they make sense, but somehow i ended to buying my childhood dream car. My car is SZ-R so it is n/a with manual transmission, LSD, better TT-model suspension (and stock turbo model 17" wheels) and ABS-brakes. It is slightly modded to suit my taste better than stock one.

When i got this car it was in quite bad shape. Rear bumber was in bad condition (small collision or somethink like that), air con was broken, it was equipped with horrible exhaust, bad tyres, cambelt etc service was coming and so on. It was really tatty and stty overall.

Important thing first: Major service in local indy garage. They did make superb job, so now i can drive this thing 5 years without stress. Then i did fix air con, small part but big job. When air con was working i did clean exterior/interior completely. Paint was quite bad condition, but interior was fine. I put aluminium pedal covers, re-trimmed front seat with leather, installed new 2 din head unit, and i painted steering wheel with leather paint. I'm happy now how the car looks inside.








After that i did loose my lisence and car was sitting in our driveway for few months.

When i got my license back it was winter:




I did drive whole winter and there was a few brown moments tbh. I did go to drive in ice track and after that i did have to re-spray the front bumber. It was hard to drive Supra in ice track... Our beemer is much more easier to drive sideways in ice, maybe cos it has more senile weight distribution and less traction at the back...

Eventually spring came so the modding started. It was time to install new exhaust+intake (HKS) and new Mine's tuned ECU. What a difference they make! Throttle response is good now, it has a good mid range torque and it revs much smoother. It is much easier to drive fast. I love it! Very nice engine at the moment.

After that it was time to get good paint refresh:



Now car looks like this:









Even our dog loves it:



I'm thinking that this is a long project, so everything happens quite slowly. I have a lot of plans for the future:
- Suspension refresh (in this summer)
- Brake refresh (next winter)
- New front seats (a lot of €€€€€€)
- New wheels (and refresh these stock ones and keep them in good condition for the future)
- More mods for the engine
- A lot of small things....
- Drive it as much as possible!!!

I like this car a lot!
Drive tastefully,
Lasse

Oh, and few pictures of the dog:

Edited by LasseV on Monday 6th July 04:10

[LasseV]

cat with a hat said:

Love the OEM look.. And the dog

So how did you lose your licence?

I was 2fast and 2furious i think.... Supra have a good legs, ie they accelerate/go rather well when speed is faster than 60 mph. Totally useless attribute in real life tho

ManicMunky said:
"You correctly used "bought" instead of "brought" so I'd say your English is pretty fantastic!"

Thanks mate.

Edited by LasseV on Monday 6th July 04:16

[LasseV]

Little update.

My mission to refresh suspension is going as planned, my bilstein shocks has been serviced and i did get some lowering springs to my car to replace those old stock ones. (They should lower this car just a little bit and they should be a good quality products). I'm not sure when i can install this new setup but needles to say i'm very eager to have it done so i could go to the proper summer evening hoon.

I did measure how much this thing weights and it was surprisingly light: 1370 kilos without driver and with empty tank. I'm very pleased because i haven't done anything major weight reduction yet.


One new and crappy ipotato photo




Drive safely!
LV

[LasseV]

Me and my friend installed my serviced Bilsteins and H&R-springs combo to my car. Works brilliantly! It is smooth and has a lot of grip. And i mean a lot of grip. Damn. Almost scary fast car in twisty road. Actually it is scary! Goes like modern performance car but it doesn't have safety features.. I'm glad that i have at least ABS-brakes

[LasseV]

Sometimes your own car just feels good, you know? Last night i was coming home and the drive was one of the best of my life. Car felt good, air was superb (crisp and cold) and our dog was sitting in passenger seat. I didn't drive fast or nothing like that. I just enjoyed the noise, the feel and the driving itself. These are the moments why i love cars and driving them!

Drive tastefully,
Lasse

[LasseV]

Winter is coming!

And no, it is not just a line from game of thrones, but winter is actually coming to Finland and Supra is going to hibernate in some point. I actually try to drive it as long as possible because my winter beater is going to be a van so bye bye driving enjoyment..

I did cock up tho, i did reversed my car to stone:

|http://thumbsnap.com/fuUDLzSR[/url]



My HKS exhaust silencer did get that hit and now i have to find a new exhaust in winter. I could try to fix my exhaust, but the damage is quite bad and the whole cat back is badly bend. Damn. Luckily i just bought a house so i have a lot of cash in my pockets! Actually i'm broke

Drive tastefully
LasseV

Edited by LasseV on Tuesday 13th October 14:32

Edited by LasseV on Tuesday 13th October 14:39

[LasseV]

I was in last autumn hooning before my car goes hibernating. Weather was just right and the road is my favorite local and real drivers road. It was a perfect way to spend little bit time by myself Sorry about crap ipotato photos but i didn't have a good camera with me.










Drive safely
LV

[LasseV]

Drums said:

Looks great! Nice to see one without a massive body kit on it. How do you find living with RHD in Finland?

Thanks mate!

Driving a RHD car in finland is not a problem. I don't eat in McDonalds and i don't usually park in parking garage in city centrum. Driving itself is not affected at all. Besides, almost all of the most interesting cars are RHD, like most Lotuses/other british marques and Toyota sports cars and so on...

Now i have to drive Camry v6 wagon for the whole winter

Drive tastefully
LV

Edited by LasseV on Friday 20th November 22:12

[LasseV]

Hello again!

I have ordered few bit's and pieces for the summer, but i still need few parts more before the car is ready to drive. I need at least TRD brake pads, new cat back and exhaust manifold. It sucks to drive fwd wagon so i eagerly wait for summertime and open roads

Now it is like this:



I forget to tell that Supra was our wedding car:





Haha, she tried to be a pretty and civilized wedding car but .. oh well. She is a quite loud car tbh

I'm thinking that i should change my Camry for somekind of Alfa Romeo. Does it sound a good idea?

Drive safely
LV

[LasseV]

Little update.

I have driven this car as my daily driver this summer and it hasn't been totally reliable. It did have one problem which emerged when starting a car. I searched quite a long time why it does that and reason is that aftermarket ecu. I made small modification for fuel pump and now everything is OK. Car starts normally and runs very well. Other problem was tire related, i did have to buy new rear tires. They lasted like 1,5 summer or so

Odometer shows 150+k miles at the moment. She's a fighter for sure

Drive safely,
LV

[LasseV]

Hi again.

Now my baby is hibernating and i made decision that it will need an complete overhaul. Engine out and full service+more power, clean the interior and exterior paint job refresh, new seats, new headlights, change suspension bushes and so on. One thing is unsure, do i change those OEM wheels for aftermarket ones or not? I want to shed some weight out of it, so changing wheels could be a one thing to do. OEM sets is fairly light, so i have to find as light wheels as possible. Thinking Enkei rpf1 or something like that. Or do you guys have some good idea?

It is going to be a quite expensive overhaul, but you know... You live only once or something like that Besides, i have already bought some bit's and pieces: stand alone ecu, new exhaust, exhaust manifold, braided brake lines and few other small pieces.

I need to save some money, so i did change my beautiful Alfa Romeo to old and stty Prius. It has over 200 thousand miles on it. But it is cheap motoring i can tell you that. Ugly as hell

Drive safely
LV

[LasseV]

chillbill said:

Have read your thread over & over again (some pics on the first pg are dead btw) and got the idea that an mk4 Supra could be a fun weekend car. There was a similar n/a rhd one for sale in Tallinn, Estonia that I lusted after but unfortunately I couldn't sell my daily fast enough. It was first advertised for 10k eur but in the end sold for around 5k eur at an auction (seems cheap): http://fin.auto24.ee/used/2255101?id=2255101. Those OZ alloys would also suit yours. But all the best and hopefully your Supra continues to provide many smiles per km.

That car for 5k? Yup, it was cheap... And was such a nice looking car. One dude did import basic spec n/a Supra from japan in last autumn and it did cost north of 10 thousand. And it still needs a new headlights and doesn't have a LSD, ABS etc etc. So when you find a good one, buy it. Those cheapest ones are actually quite expensive to tidy up. Everything is so expensive, namely headlights wheels, seats etc etc. But i can sincerely recommend this car for you if you are looking a car for weekend blasts.

And thanks mates for your kind words! Nice to hear that some people are actually reading my thread

I'm doing this overhaul in two parts, this year engine and headlights/interior and in next year chassis/seats/brakes/wheels. Firstly we have to do compression test to engine and dyno this car in this condition. After that we know how big maintenance we have to do to the engine before we can start to modify it. Yup, i hope that we don't fk this thing up

Actually i already have some parts for engine but i'm not sure what to do with camshafts. Do i re-grind stock ones or do i get a new ones? I'm maybe going to get new and more aggressive ones, i think they are worth it. I found dyno sheet from internet that with this kind of mods (although with smaller injectors and piggyback ecu) you can have about 250whp. Not much but enough for me and i think that is my goal and i would be happy to achieve it. It could be a quite nice sweet spot for extra ooomph with good street manners/MPG/reliability for longer trips.

And that Prius.... Hell yeah, it's ugly but it is CHEAP to drive and very reliable. My calculated average MPG is 49mpg which is very good in finnish winter. So, more money for my poopra project.

Drive safely
LV

[LasseV]

I ordered used but almost perfect euro spec headlights for my car. They were quite expensive but what you can do? Their availability is limited and my own headlight are worn out. My head is still spinning cos of buyers remorse but anyway.. They should look like this



And car should look little bit of like this one:



I'm also thinking that maybe i should paint that front lip with black like in this car.

Edited by LasseV on Tuesday 17th January 14:14

[LasseV]

Bdevo3 said:

I like the black lip. I know it's not your car but the blitz wheels look fantastic on supra

Yeah, i agree. That kind of wheels looks superb. There are few other great looking options so we will see what happens.

[LasseV]

Bradley1500 said:

Great looking car - almost looks identical to mine!

LasseV said:

I'm also thinking that maybe i should paint that front lip with black like in this car.

Rather than painting your OEM lip black, you might want to look at the TRD lips. It's hard to tell from the photo, but that looks like a TRD V1 lip to me.

Yes, i know. I love your thread Have you already sorted your car running problems?

I live in country side, so i need a decent ground clearance. Quite often aftermarket lips go little bit too low.

[LasseV]

TheLordJohn said:

Nice car and thread OP.
I love how you apologised for your 'bad English' then typed perfect English!

Thanks mate! I appreciate your words. It is always little bit of nerving when i'm typing or speaking in english.

[LasseV]

Tomorrow is the day when i'm going to start that lovely 2jz engine after long winter. It has been over 6 months since last ride! Finnish winter is indeed quite long... Need to do quite a lot of work before MOT and before it is back in the road. First i need to take interior out, clean the carpet, change the seatbelt and turn the instrument panel from MPH to KMH, add little bit if more sound insulation and so on. Quite a lot of work but i have all the parts already.

I washed my Prius few days ago. Still ugly. It did have one annoying rattle but luckily i was able to fix it. I have to say tho that it has been a very good winter beater. Cheap and reliable.



I was little bit of off roading

Yeah, winter is almost over....

Drive safely
L.V

Edited by LasseV on Monday 8th May 18:53

[LasseV]

Yes, Works are nice wheels and personally i like them a lot. Need to think about it.

First start today. Did start very badly, squeels like a pig and bummm! It started and runs very well, but.....



This little fker literally walked away from engine room. Crank pulleys in 2jz usually last 20 years or so, but this was changed like 3 years ago. My car was in local indy for cambelt change +other stuff. He called me that " crank pulley is in bad shape, i have better one for you, should i change?" Well, it wasn't THAT good i can tell you that. fkkkkkkkkk. That is the only expensive maintenance part in 1/2jz engine, costs like 400 euros or so. Overall not that bad, but it messed my plan little bit.

I forget to add that we have a second dog. She is one year old:



Sleepy bds

[LasseV]

TheLordJohn said:

Both dogs beautiful

Thanks mate! I have no idea why those pictures are sideways

[LasseV]

Mid refresh update.

I did change that blown crank pulley and bad valve cover gaskets. Then i re-painted few parts by myself and send all injectors for full service and rebuild. After that i did clean and polish the whole intake. Side mirrors were painted by professional and i did take out old headlights and put the new ones on. I also cleaned door cards but they are still in bad condition. Better what they used to be tho... Lastly is did re-spray intake kit and i cleaned engine bay little bit. She runs well now and i have driven it like 30 miles or so.

Tomorrow i will change engine oils+filter and in tuesday she is going to MOT test. After that i need to change cat back, exhaust manifold and install AEM Uego Air to Fuel-gauge+wideband lambda sensor and AEM v2 ecu. When all of these things are made we can go to dyno and tune this car. Everything goes quite slowly because everything is new to me and i'm doing this project in my yard. However, i'm going to make all the exhaust things in my mates garage, there is a proper lift and so on.

Few pictures:

Removing the old crank pulley.


Old and worn headlight.


Dirty intake

Goodies from Opie oils and RHD japan





Now she looks like this:



Sorry about bad lightning, those two photos were taken in midnight. More pics to follow when i have more time, this was just a fast recap.