JDM JZA80 in the Alps

[decryphe]

Sorry for the very late actual post about this project!

The car arrived as expected that Friday in late October. It's just... it was the wrong car. It was better than it should have been.



Here's the long story: I'm planning on building/getting a car for track use only. It should be plenty fast, go around corners well and look cool while doing so. Preferrably JDM as well. First I was contemplating an MR2 AW11, possibly K-swapped, but that's a pretty dangerous machine when lacking any serious track experience. So I kept looking and stumbled across an auto, non-turbo RHD Supra Mk4 in Germany for a really good price. Well, perfect, it's described as slightly run-down, dented and abused but in working order. Best material for building a track car out of and having a blast. After a few weeks of trying to figure out how to get it into Switzerland during Corona and doing the paperworks it finally arrived on October 30 on a sunny Friday afternoon.

But I got the wrong car. It's all original, no missing pieces, just a set of wheels and side skirts. It hasn't been tuned or otherwise modded. It's obviously been garage-kept too, the chassis is, apart from the small scratches on the exterior, totally rust-free. The engine's just about broken in at 120k kilometers and runs like clockwork. Even the original spare wheel and toolbox are still where they should be.
Then I drove the car for an entire week-end with the temporary license plates I can get here in Switzerland. Drives like new, fresh off the lot. Only two minor things that I could make out: The typical O/D-lamp-blinks problem stemming from a manufacturing defect of the speed sensor in the auto box, and a Xenon lamp that blew during a night ride. The former is an easy fix and the latter is a wear item anyways.

This threw me a bit off the path I wanted to go down. It's not the right car to butcher, strip and abuse. Frankly, I would have paid more for less, if it'd been a bit broken and more worn, just to not feel bad about butchering it...
So what do I do now with this car? I don't know yet. If I can, I'll just register it and drive it as it is, it's a great GT car the way it was originally intended. If I have to go through all the hoops for emissions cycle testing, I may manual swap it and have it tested/registered that way.

Will I turbo it? Unlikely. If anything, a small supercharger and watercooled intercooler for an N/A-like experience and smooth response, maybe ITBs as well. Any mods done as professinally as possible to make it look like it was intended that way from the factory.











First going to confirm what I can and have to do with the local authorities. Let the ride begin!