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The Story of my JZA80 Supra Turbo

By: Christopher Wick

I first started messing with cars about nine years ago. Picked up an '85 Toyota Celica Supra (P-Type) because I wanted a RWD sports car to work on. The Supra (being the cream of the Toyota crop) was the logical choice since I have always been a huge Toyota fan. The '85 was picked since it was an affordable, manual, rear-drive sports car.

That Supra gave me the opportunity to learn about RWD cars, and about everything that it takes to work on vehicles. Suspension replacement, brakes, electronics, valvetrain work, etc. You name it, and I learned it on that car. Owning it was what created my passion for cars. At first it was just chirping the tires and doing burnouts, then it was powersliding around turns. The more I played with the car the more my interest grew in suspension, engines, and in what it would take for me to become a skilled driver.

Then, early in 2001, I started searching for the finest car that Toyota made — the JZA80 Supra Turbo.

When I purchased my 94 Supra Turbo in 2001, it was with the intent of getting it onto the road course. It took until 2003 to make it happen, but it was well worth the wait. When setup properly the Supra makes an excellent weapon on the track.
 

The first mods I sourced for the car were wheels (Kinesis K27) to enable some wider rubber. Since the Supra is somewhat front-heavy it requires additional grip to avoid overheating the front tires.  On top of this I added the Racelogic traction control for a 'safety net'. The last thing I wanted to do was loop my car into the trees coming out of turn 3 at Pacific Raceways in the rain. 99% of the time it doesn’t come into play, but there have been a couple of occasions when it was helpful.

Next, I added Tein RA coilovers. The stock suspension of the Supra is not acceptable for anything other than beginner track duty, and the combination that I had previously (consisting of Eibach springs and stock shocks) resulted in a bad 'pogo' effect due to poor rebound damping. The Teins fixed that problem nicely, and a corner balance and proper alignment (based on Lance Wolrab's specs and Derek Wang's guidance) helped with turn-in and tire wear. The Supra's stock alignment is setup with enough toe-in to cause some premature tire wear and this new alignment addressed the issue nicely.

I also added a Sparco Evo 2 race shell with a custom bracket in order to address some clearance issues. When you're 6'6" you need help fitting in a street car, not to mention a sports car with a helmet on.

Additional smaller modifications include a TRD front strut tower bar to help reduce the chassis flex associated with the Supra's Targa top, and Russell stainless lines to ensure a firm brake pedal. I also added a GReddy boost cut controller along with a 1st-gen TRD stainless exhaust. The exhaust provides a nice sound to the car (which is near silent without it) and the BCC removes the irritating boost cut on cold days. I've chosen to avoid a boost controller for now and instead focus on becoming a fast driver rather than just having a fast car.

In fact, my interest in cars is around driving them, not showing them or focusing on modifications for the sake of it. I've tried to focus on the mods to the Supra that provide the most bang for the buck, and are the most important on a circuit.

Sidestory: My Other Cars

My favorite cars are the AE86 Corolla GT-S (the legendary hachiroku). I picked mine up in 2004 on a whim after I decided to source a momentum car for the track. The excellent balance and driving dynamics that the car offers are a blast, and it served me well for ~7 track days. When driven properly, the AE86 is capable of holding off and passing cars that have 100+ whp more than it. Unfortunately the stock 1.6L 4A-GE spun a rod bearing at Pacific Raceways in late 2005 and the car has been in hibernation since. That is about to change.

I've really enjoyed my daily driver Volvo V50 as well. With AWD, a 2.5L turbocharged motor, and a 6spd manual transmission it was very fun to take out on a wet day at the track. It's fun to come back into the paddock after a session and have folks asking "Whoa! That's a Volvo?!" Passing Skylines and STIs in a stock Volvo wagon is a kick in the pants.

// Next: A second opinion on the Supra Turbo... //