Toyota Supra

The Supra started in 1978 as a longer, six-cylinder version of the Celica. It became its own model with the A70 in 1986, which later gained turbocharged engines.

The A80 arrived in 1993. Toyota cut weight where it could and fitted the 3.0-litre 2JZ-GTE with sequential twin turbochargers. The car stayed on sale in Japan until 2002, by which time it had already left most export markets.

The name returned in 2019 on a car developed with BMW. That car is covered in the history here but is outside this page's detailed specs.

The 2JZ-GTE's reputation comes from how much power its standard bottom end is reported to hold. This section sorts the documented from the repeated: what the engine takes as standard, what changes first, and what the gearbox and the rest of the car need to keep up.

Most of what follows comes from tuners, parts makers and magazines rather than the carmakers, and several of those sources sell the parts they describe. Each point names its source. Power is given in the unit the source uses, and figures "at the wheels" are lower than figures at the engine.

• How much the bottom end takes. The sources disagree. HP Academy calls 600 hp easy on stock internals and a sensible limit for an engine that is driven hard, with 800 hp possible once the main bearing caps, the first internal part to fail, are replaced. NZ Performance, a parts seller, is more cautious: 370 to 450 kW (about 500 to 600 hp) for a healthy stock engine with a proper tune. It adds that pump fuel runs out of octane before the engine runs out of strength, and that knock damages the rods and ring lands. (sources 1, 2)
• Japanese and export engines differ. Japanese cars have CT20 turbos with ceramic turbine wheels, which dislike high boost and ignition-cut limiters; US cars have CT12B turbos with steel wheels. Japanese cars also measure air with a MAP sensor and use 440 cc injectors, US cars an airflow meter and 550 cc injectors. (source 1)
• The ECU. The factory ECU cannot be reflashed, so tuning means a standalone or piggyback unit; a piggyback suits automatic cars. VVT-i, from mid-1997, limits how far the camshafts can be changed. (source 1)
• The sequential system, and going single. The handover from the first turbo to the second is the weak spot of the standard set-up, and its vacuum lines and actuators are prone to faults. The small turbos run out of breath at high power. A single turbo trades some low-rpm response for a much stronger top end, and needs a standalone ECU, larger injectors and usually a bigger fuel pump. (sources 1, 3)
• Wear items. Valve stem seals wear early and coil packs fail. (source 1)

The A80's shape was already dramatic, so kits for it go one of two ways: quiet parts that sharpen the factory lines, or complete wide-body rebuilds that leave little of them.

Documented builds, each credited and linked to where it was first shown. We describe them; the photos and the full story stay with the people who made them.

The ones that don't fit anywhere else. Engine swaps nobody asked for, body conversions, and ideas that should not have worked.