Approximately
2 years ago one of your club members (CCT) asked
me if I can convert his IS200. After
some research, I decided that I can do it, so
I told him how much it will cost and after some
time he
decided not to go ahead. So we turbo charged
his engine instead and I sold the 2JZ-GTE engine
and
running gear.
Meantime
I thought that fitting a 3.0 litre twin turbo in
a IS200 was a great idea and decided
to do it myself.
Some
time later a friend that was dismantling some cars
of mine in Japan came
across a slightly
damaged
Toyota Aristo that had a lot of gear on it,
big brakes, intercooler, Sard aluminium radiator,
modified ecu,
air pod, twin apexi mufflers etc, so I bought
it to use it for my conversion.
Shortly
after that I found a damaged 2000
model IS200 at a Melbourne
auction. It needed a
radiator support
and radiator, bonnet, front
bumper and the engine was badly damaged, great
I thought,
and I bought
it.
After
it was repaired, which took the panel shop
2 months to do so,
I started
to fabricate
and
modify bits and pieces
and about
3 weeks later I had finished
the installation of the
2jz-gte, 700x300x85mm intercooler
and piping, 50mm core alloy
radiator, Supra 32mm
sway bar, 2,5" twin
exhaust in to 3" hi
flow cat and 3" tail
pipe and s/steel sports
muffler, I tried to
get a carbon
bonnet but with
a price tag of $1250
I gave it a miss. I bought
a C-West
body
kit
and that
solved the bumper
problem and made the
car to
look beautiful. Fitting
the brakes was a bit
of a challenge because
I had
to replace
the lower
arms with the Aristo
ones and then I had to
find some wheels that will fit
the brakes, I settled
for some HR
racing 8JJ x 18",
225/40 on front, 255/35
at the back.
Next step, try to find some
electrician that knows
how to link the two ECU's was
bit of
a challenge,
4 months later and tree
electricians is finally running and pumps
out 190Kw @ 8,000rpm
and
510Nm @ 4,800rpm
on 12psi boost.
The car is not exceptional
quick but it has lots
of grunt and is fun to drive and all
my
mates are drooling
over it.
What
is next? God knows, or on second thought,
I always liked to have a AC Cobra
and fit a 2JZ-GTE with
Trust T88
single turbo
and 6 speed box in it.
|
