Supra race car

[wee_skids]

Hello all, just wondering if anyone is aware of anyone in the UK who currently races a Supra - I mean ciruit racing, not drifting, VMAX, Drag racing etc.

I'm looking for a faster, more modern RWD race car project and for various reasons the Mk 4 supra has popped into my head. I've not been able to find anyone else doing this (maybe there is a reason!).

Any immediate thoughts, I'm pretty new to the Jap car world so maybe there isn't the interest in circuit racing - compared to drifting and VMAXing. I'd also be interested if anyone has ideas on companies linked to Supras who may be interested in providing support to a Supra race car project - particularly one driven by a Professionl licenced race instructor.

I'm going to try the Supra forums but I'm already registered to post here so this seemed a good quick start to my research.

Cheers all

Tony

[fidgits]

To be honest, the Supra isnt the best car to use for circuit racing.

Tom's ditched the 2JZ for the JTCC and went with the 3S-GTE instead - apparantly a much better engine for circuit racing.

[Turbo T]

there is one in the British GT Series

[dougc]

Turbo T said:

there is one in the British GT Series

Don't recall seeing it. Do you know who runs it?

[Turbo T]

dependant on the series I think a MKIV could do pretty well.

Edited by Turbo T on Thursday 12th October 15:53

[dougc]

Gazboy said:

dougc said:

Turbo T said:

there is one in the British GT Series

Don't recall seeing it. Do you know who runs it?

Maxspeed. Major teething problems, I don't think it's even finished a race yet.

Found it - Ta

[fidgits]

Gazboy said:

fidgits said:

To be honest, the Supra isnt the best car to use for circuit racing.

Tom's ditched the 2JZ for the JTCC and went with the 3S-GTE instead - apparantly a much better engine for circuit racing.

http://media.putfile.com/supra-lap-do

Tom's ditched it so they could mount the 3SGTE as far back as they could for better weight distribution.

To the OP: what are the regualtions for your series- what can you change from standard?

There was more to it than pure weight distribution.

The simple fact is, they lost a whole litre - they would only do that for sigificant benifits of the engine charactistics, especially considering the 2JZ can be tuned beyond 1000bhp..

[wee_skids]

I know of a championship that it will fit in quite nicely, and I'm not intending to try and get into British GT as I've not the budget at the moment. The regs allow a healthy amount of changes, and the main issue I see with the Supra is Weight which I will be able to do something about within the regs.
Wheel base, width, etc all look like it should make a decent race car if properly sorted.

[steve bowen]

I was going to get a supra as a trackday car but cost put me off, weight isn't the issue you might think, just pulling off the un-necessary stuff like interior & air con drops the weight to 1200KG ish

[fidgits]

Gazboy said:

fidgits said:

Gazboy said:

fidgits said:

To be honest, the Supra isnt the best car to use for circuit racing.

Tom's ditched the 2JZ for the JTCC and went with the 3S-GTE instead - apparantly a much better engine for circuit racing.

http://media.putfile.com/supra-lap-do

Tom's ditched it so they could mount the 3SGTE as far back as they could for better weight distribution.

To the OP: what are the regualtions for your series- what can you change from standard?

There was more to it than pure weight distribution.

The simple fact is, they lost a whole litre - they would only do that for sigificant benifits of the engine charactistics, especially considering the 2JZ can be tuned beyond 1000bhp..

The regs stated they were limited to around 500bhp- which given TOMs funds was an absolute piece of piss to achieve for the 3SGTE - it only had to last 1000km for the longest race, so why bother carting around a 200kg engine when you could have a 150kg engine mounted much further back for the same output? Remember they ditched the 3SGTE for the 4.3 V8....

hmmm, okay - that makes a lot of sense...

[wee_skids]

steve bowen said:

I was going to get a supra as a trackday car but cost put me off, weight isn't the issue you might think, just pulling off the un-necessary stuff like interior & air con drops the weight to 1200KG ish

Interesting Steve, what were the costs that put you off? The intial price of a car or for parts?

[Turbo T]

Tony I have been talking with Ian. think we have most of the info you need between a few of us.

[Turbo T]

Oh and an ideal starter car...

[steve bowen]

wee_skids said:

steve bowen said:

I was going to get a supra as a trackday car but cost put me off, weight isn't the issue you might think, just pulling off the un-necessary stuff like interior & air con drops the weight to 1200KG ish

Interesting Steve, what were the costs that put you off? The intial price of a car or for parts?

Cost of the car to be honest as I wanted a 6sp manual, then adding a few necessary trackday bits and I deemed it too much. Silly of me really as i've now spent the same on an mk1 mx5,.. about £10K

The supra I thought would be a great track car, double wishbones all round, good layout as much power as you want and supposed to be hugely reliable.

[wee_skids]

Cheers.

[lap_time]

This is just to clear up some of the facts surrounding the Japanese touring cars. Okay, here goes. To begin with, the Japanese Touring (previously JGTC, now Super GT) Supra's DID use a 2JZ, tuned to the restricted 500bhp limit. They then went to the 3S-GTE four pot, because it was lighter, could be mounted further back in the chassis, and could make the 500hp without creating excess lag. However, after a few years, with the 3S being long out of production, the decision was made to instead shoehorn in a 3UZ V8. This was done because it wasn't overly heavy and could make same power with more torque over a wider rev range. They tuned it massively, and then put on the regulation restrictors. As a result, they still met the 500bhp max, but had massive torque (not quite so much as the TT VQ's though). Also, they were actually enlarged to 5.3 liters in capacity, until changes in the 2005 regs meant they had to downsize to (I think) 4.5 liters, and also fit larger restrictors for parity. For this season, the Supra body was replaced with a Lexus SC430 silhouette, but it's basically the same car underneath.

Edited by lap_time on Friday 13th October 14:24