Tell me about Toyota Soarers

[s_zigmond]

Just interested in PH's opinions of the Toyota Soarer. Im very tempted by the V8, due to being wary of older Turbo Jap cars.

So firstly what are Soarers like? Handling, reliability, living with as a daily? (I only do 9 miles a day).

Secondly is my fear of older Jap turbos wrong?

Thirdly would I be better looking at an N/A Supra or 300zx?

All opinions and comments welcome.

Thank you in advance

[curlie467]

s_zigmond said:

Secondly is my fear of older Jap turbos wrong?

Yep.

[jbi]

great cars...

air suspension can go wrong and be expensive to fix, but normal strut conversion kits are available

[s_zigmond]

curlie467 said:

Yep.

To the point. I like it

Is this the same for all or are some manufactures worse then others? Im sure its from looking at 3000GT's and 300zx's that I have got this idea.

[Baryonyx]

Probably a lovely, comfortable GT. But you'll get an atrocious mpg out of it if thats the mileage you do. Still, in total the petrol cost won't be that much! I saw a first generation Lexus SC the other day. Still quite looking smart, bloody huge for a coupe though!

[Marf]

s_zigmond said:

Secondly is my fear of older Jap turbos wrong?

Yes, they're generally very well built and reliable. Particularly the toyota sixes, they are incredibly hardy.

[shibby!]

Wouldnt worry about it.

Soarer turbo's are supposed to be super reliable, those are the engines they use for drifiting and huge power!

Mucher better than the 300zx for reliability......... as for Supra. Dunno!

[MissChief]

300ZX cambelt change is an engine out job!

[s_zigmond]

Marf said:

Yes, they're generally very well built and reliable. Particularly the toyota sixes, they are incredibly hardy.

Excellent, I may start looking at TT's as well as V8's in that case

[Steve Evil]

9 miles a day? It'll barely be warmed through when you go to turn it off again.

[SuperVM]

The 1JZ/2JZ-GTE engines are meant to be fantasically reliable and good for a lot of power with no internal engine mods.

[Marf]

s_zigmond said:

Marf said:

Yes, they're generally very well built and reliable. Particularly the toyota sixes, they are incredibly hardy.

Excellent, I may start looking at TT's as well as V8's in that case

They're very strong, the engines are IIRC good to over 500hp on stock internals and stock gearboxes are known to take around and over 1000hp.

[300bhp/ton]

Steve Evil said:

9 miles a day? It'll barely be warmed through when you go to turn it off again.

Which would still be the same even if they drove a 1.0 litre, so your point is???

[C.A.R.]

Aren't 300ZXs a little complex in the electrical department?

Neither are particularly amazing in the aesthetic department so I think that without the silly power a 2JZ-equipped Supra has the car loses its' appeal rather a lot.

I wouldn't take either on without doing a lot of research first though!

[300bhp/ton]

s_zigmond said:

Just interested in PH's opinions of the Toyota Soarer. Im very tempted by the V8, due to being wary of older Turbo Jap cars.

So firstly what are Soarers like? Handling, reliability, living with as a daily? (I only do 9 miles a day).

Secondly is my fear of older Jap turbos wrong?

Thirdly would I be better looking at an N/A Supra or 300zx?

All opinions and comments welcome.

Thank you in advance

I really like the look of the Soarer, but remember it's more of a Jap take on the American personal luxury car rather than a tyre tearing sports coupe. Big, comfy and luxury are the name of the game.

Sadly the 4.0 is only available as an auto, so if you want manual keep an eye out for the 2.5 six, although they tend to be rarer and the TT's especially and will cost you more than a V8.

The V8 is a lovely unit, and will take boost or nitrous well, but is somewhat more pricey to tune if you plan any n/a mods. A nice exhaust and induction kit will do wonders for the grin factor though.

Soarers have quite a bit in common with the LS400.

As for older turbo's, I don't think there's much to worry about. Just do your research first and know what you are getting into.

A 300ZX or 3000GT are maybe more aggressively setup machines and quicker. The 4.0 Soarer goes ok, but it's not as fast as you'd maybe think it should be.

[Riknos]

There's a reason why there's still lots of 'old' Japanese NA/Turbo cars around...

[Steve Evil]

300bhp/ton said:

Steve Evil said:

9 miles a day? It'll barely be warmed through when you go to turn it off again.

Which would still be the same even if they drove a 1.0 litre, so your point is???

My point is that it's not going to do the engine any good, with a little disposable 1 litre micra or similar it's of no real concern, but in something like a soarer where there's so much more to go wrong it's not something I'd want to be doing. I ran an MR2 Turbo for a couple of years doing mainly short journeys in it and it didn't do it much good, condensation was forming in the engine and it wasn't getting hot enough to burn it off. Plus as someone else has mentioned it will be drinking even more fuel than it would be if it got properly warmed up, so much so that I doubt it would regularly be in double figures in terms of MPG.

[300bhp/ton]

Steve Evil said:

300bhp/ton said:

Steve Evil said:

9 miles a day? It'll barely be warmed through when you go to turn it off again.

Which would still be the same even if they drove a 1.0 litre, so your point is???

My point is that it's not going to do the engine any good, with a little disposable 1 litre micra or similar it's of no real concern, but in something like a soarer where there's so much more to go wrong it's not something I'd want to be doing. I ran an MR2 Turbo for a couple of years doing mainly short journeys in it and it didn't do it much good, condensation was forming in the engine and it wasn't getting hot enough to burn it off. Plus as someone else has mentioned it will be drinking even more fuel than it would be if it got properly warmed up, so much so that I doubt it would regularly be in double figures in terms of MPG.

eh?

oh and

[Marf]

My MR2 Turbo did 3 years of 3 mile round trips to work. Hasn't done it any harm.

[s_zigmond]

300bhp/ton said:

I really like the look of the Soarer, but remember it's more of a Jap take on the American personal luxury car rather than a tyre tearing sports coupe. Big, comfy and luxury are the name of the game.

Sadly the 4.0 is only available as an auto, so if you want manual keep an eye out for the 2.5 six, although they tend to be rarer and the TT's especially and will cost you more than a V8.

The V8 is a lovely unit, and will take boost or nitrous well, but is somewhat more pricey to tune if you plan any n/a mods. A nice exhaust and induction kit will do wonders for the grin factor though.

Soarers have quite a bit in common with the LS400.

As for older turbo's, I don't think there's much to worry about. Just do your research first and know what you are getting into.

A 300ZX or 3000GT are maybe more aggressively setup machines and quicker. The 4.0 Soarer goes ok, but it's not as fast as you'd maybe think it should be.

To be honest im more interested in "waft" factor then out and out handling. They just seem a bit different from the norm. I think I need to test drive one to see what I think.