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| ANDI BARITCHI |
| 1998 TOYOTA SUPRA TURBO |
| 6 SPEED |
| QUICKSILVER FX/BLACK LEATHER |
| DALLAS, TX. USA |
 EMAIL ANDI |
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GENERAL:
I've always liked the Supra, even in the MKIII days, yet never considered one for my own until 1999. Before the Supra, I had an obsession with fast four-door sedans, and seriously enjoyed my '97 Maxima SE 5-speed. Then one day I got to ride in a friend's twin turbo 300ZX and I became a Boostaholic for life.
Not long afterwards, I started thinking more and more about the Japanese turbo cars and researching them. Of the 3 choices (RX7, Supra, and 300ZX), I fell in love with the Supra. Its clean lines, great engineering, and potential for awesome power levels had me hooked. The decision was made in the summer of 1999, and I searched nationally for seven months for a mint condition 97/98 TT 6-speed in either Royal Sapphire Pearl or Quicksilver FX. I never did make up my mind which of these two colors I like more - I just decided I love them both and I'd buy the first one of the two I found that I liked. Then one day in early December, this beautiful, mint Quicksilver FX '98 TT 6sp showed up at Toyota of Richardson. Somebody posted about it to the TxMKIV email list, and I was there that evening to buy it. Sean Santiago beat me to it and test drove it, but luckily they lowballed him on the trade-in '94 Supra so he didn't buy it... heh. Thanks Sean.. ;)
The Supra is my first RWD car, so for all intents and purposes I guess you could say I learned to drive with this car. It's really interesting that when I was buying the Supra I didn't know that much about handling dynamics and the like, and mainly got it because I fell in love with the car and wanted a high horsepower beast... yet I lucked out and ended up with one of (IMHO) the best handling cars ever made.
In mid 2000, I heard about this high performance driving event hosted by John Eagle Honda at Texas World Speedway. I decided to join and see what it'd be like. For $250, I got two and a half hours of track time on TWS's famed 2.9 mile road course, with an instructor. I realized that weekend that road racing was THE most fun you can have with your car, and I became a road racer for life. Since then, I've been going to such "open track" events at Texas World Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Motorsport Ranch, and Grand Sport Speedway every chance I got. Not only are open track events extremely exhilirating and fun, they're also educational -- learning the limits of your car, how it handles, and how to drive it fast makes you a better driver in my opinion.
The open track events I mentioned beore were all "non-competitive," where you're just going out on the track and driving around it as fast as you can, to make yourself a smoother and better driver. Fast forward to February 2001, I entered the 2nd annual Texas Motorsport Triathlon -- an event to see "who has, and can drive, the baddest street car in Texas." This event consisted of time trials at Texas Motor Speedway's 1.x mile infield road coruse, then autocross time trials in the TMS parking lot, and finally drag racing at the Texas Motorplex. With the rained out drags, this somewhat halfway decently driven Supra on street tires came out top dog in the SSGT1 class, and a not too shabby 3rd place overall behind a couple of well driven C5's on race tires. It was in the Triathlon that I realized what a great track car the Supra really is, and decided to continue making it better and more competitive in the next Triathlon. What's needed? More tire, more brakes, and more power of course... ;)
In early 2002, I finally bit the bullet and did the upgrades. With the help of CTC Motorsports in Dallas, TX, I built a single turbo kit around a Turbonetics T-64 ball bearing turbo. We used my favorite sounding manifold, the HKS SS tubular header, along with an HKS GT 60mm wastegate (vented to atmosphere for that wicked/loud sound on boost), and all custom done by CTC piping/etc. We used the standard formula for a high-hp fuel system -- dual-feed rail with 720's, and a 2nd pump and -6 line to feed the 2nd end of the rail.
As for the brakes, I started by ordering Stillen's AP Racing 13.5" 6-piston brake upgrade. The kit comes with cross-drilled and slotted rotors, which we all know crack under hard track use, but that's okay as I plan to order non-drilled replacements from AP England when these die. Once I got these brakes on the car, I realized these brakes are just too damn good. The brake bias went to hell as the fronts were doing all the work, and the rears weren't doing any of it. Not to worry -- we remedied this by adding a Wilwood brake bias proportioning valve inline with the brake line going to the front brakes, between the master cylinder and the ABS box. With some fine tuning, we got the bias under control and got full braking power back. I also got Performance Friction 93-compound pads for both the AP front brakes and the stock rears, and am very impressed with these pads. They dust a lot, but they refuse to fade at the track, which was my main concern w/ selecting pads.
While I thought I was doing all these upgrades for the Triathlon, this year there was no Texas Triathlon (yet?). Then one day a buddy and I were chatting about road racing and the idea of doing the Car & Driver Cannonball One Lap of America came up. One Lap is a grueling road ralling across the USA where you drive your street/race car overnight from track to track, do time trials (w/ no practice laps) at each track, then move on to the next one. As they say on the One Lap website, what does it take to run the Cannonball One Lap of America? The $2100 entry fee, a car, some track experience, and the willingness to confirm your parents' suspicion that there was always something wrong with you.
So it was decided -- a co-driver (Clint Pohler of TurboImports.com) and I would compete in One Lap this year in my Supra. It's only 5,200 miles of street driving and 17 track events in 8 days -- how hard could that be? ;) Despite one minor snag the weekend before the race (blowing my motor), we managed to make it to Rochester, New York starting line just in time -- using a borrowed 100,000 mile 2JZ from TurboImports' garage. One Lap put is in competition with all sorts of badass cars, from factory sponsored;) Vipers, to insane Vettes and some tube frame replicas, and so forth. There were also a few other turbo imports there, including the guys we battled with the most in the Porsche 996TT. They were slightly ahead of us in the points until under the extreme pressure of this race, they slipped up at Road Atlanta and went off track. Their DNF moved us up one place in the points, and try as they did to regain their position, they only caught back up to just behind us. ;-)
I joined the race just for fun, and I have to say it's the craziest and most exhilirating thing I've ever done. That having been said, once we got to the first race venue (IRP) and I realized we were actually pretty competitive and started off in the top five, the pressure was on for me to hold on to the placing. The competition was stiff and I lost a lot of time with different problems especially at the Oklahoma tracks, dropping down to as low as 7th overall in the points after Hallett. I had to work very hard to work my way back up to 5th and eventually 4th at the latter tracks -- which was interesting as you're doing your best to make a fast lap and any slip-up can screw it up, and there is no reset button.
I'm delighted to report that we held on to the 4th place overall position to the finish, bringing home two trophies (4th place overall and 3rd in the SSGT1 class). This is even better than I could have hoped -- going into One Lap for the first year as "lap puppies," I thought we'd be lucky to get a top 10 placing. Yet despite all the competition, not to mention the various parts that broke, we managed to be the highest placing Import. Like I said, I'm delighted with this finish. I would like to thank everybody in the Supra community that helped us during One Lap -- we couldn't've done it without you.
After having done this race, I cannot put into words what fun it is. Clint and I had a blast and can't wait to do One Lap again next year. Read all about our insane One Lap adventures at OneLapSupra.com. | ENGINE:
CTC Motorsports Single Turbo Kit, consisting of an HKS header & wastegate, Turbonetics T64BB .7 turbocharger, 4" SS downpipe, HKS Super Drager exhaust, etc..
Future plans: T66-sized turbocharger, ported head, maybe a 264 exhaust cam, etc... and maybe some nitrous oxide? | FUEL:
Dual Toyota/Denso fuel pumps, HKS fuel rail, Greddy/Denso 720cc injectors, stock line with fppd bypass to one side of rail and -6 line from 2nd pump to other side of rail. Aeromotive FPR.
| ELECTRONICS:
Stock ECU, VPC, SFC, DSBC, BCC, FJO WBo2. | BRAKES/CHASSIS:
Suspension: Tein HA coil-over suspension with standard 760lbs/in front springs and optional (stiffest) 560lbs/in rear springs. Phil Panas' Group Buy "Bigass" swaybars front and back. TRD front strut-tower brace. This suspension setup provides VERY neutral and precise, taut handling. The car behaves like one half its weight.
Stillen/AP 13.5" 6-piston brakes up front, and stock brakes in back. Performance Friction 93 pads all around. Wilwood brake bias proportioning valve to eliminate the bias from the huge front brakes. | WHEELS/TIRES:
Complete Custom Wheel 17x10 fronts with 275/40-17 BFG g-Force TA KD's, and 17x11.5 rears with 315/35-17 BFG g-Force TA KD's. I chose this setup for road racing, and I love it.
In the future I'm considering going with 18x10.5 and 18x13 CCW's with 295/30-18 and 335/30-18 PZero Asimmetricos, but obviously this would require rear fender flares so this is a far off dream. | EXTERIOR:
Stock.... I haven't seen a body kit yet that I think looks better than Toyota's own body work.... well, maybe the TRD but it's ridiculously priced. I do think I like that new Ridox kit I saw on the forums a few days ago but hey, for the same money I could gain performance right? =) | PERFORMANCE:
646rwhp @ 28psi of boost. SAE | THANKS:
Thanks also go to clint for some great photography. |
PARTS LIST:
| ENGINE:
Turbonetics T64BB 0.7 Turbo
HKS tubular Manifold
HKS GT Wastegate
HKS SSQV, HKS Racing Type 2, Blitz DD
Greddy 3-row FMIC
K&N 4"x12" Filter
Unorthodox Cam gears
NGK 3330 BCPR7ES Sparkplugs
Fluidyne Radiator
CTC 4" SS DP & HKS Super Drager Exhaust | FUEL:
720cc Greddy/Denso Injectors
HKS Fuel Rail
Stock and -6 Custom Lines
Dual Stock/Denso Pumps
Aeromotive Regulator | ELECTRONICS:
Stock ECU, VPC, SFC, DSBC, BCC, FJO WBo2 | DRIVETRAIN:
ACT HDR6 6-puck all metal race clutch | BRAKES/CHASSIS:
Tein HA Coil/Overs with custom rates, 14K front / 10K rear
TRD front strut brace
"Bigass" Swaybars
Stillen/AP 13.5" 6-piston front brakes...
PF93s Brake Pads | WHEELS/TIRES:
CCW 17x10 (44.45mm) and 17x11.5 (50.8mm)
BFGoodrich g-Force TA KD 275/40-18 and 315/35-18 | INTERIOR:
Greddy 60mm peak hold boost, EGT, and water temp | EXTERIOR:
completely stock |
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turbo: T64BB
pistons: oem
rods: oem
head: oem
cams:
boost: 28psi
injectors: 720cc
pumps: oem x2
fmic: GReddy 3-row
clutch: ACT single met
nitrous:
rwhp: 646 (dynojet)
circa 760hp at the flywheel
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