2003 was the year that the first generation Scion xB made its debut in the States. Japan had the advantage of releasing the Toyota bB, the xB’s predecessor, in 2000. The xB was released congruently with the xA and targeted at “Generation Y” in the United States. Although Toyota expected the xA to sell better than the xB, the reverse proved to be true, with the xB outselling its brother 2 to 1.
It can be argued that the the xB was a ground breaking design. The bold look has a certain “it” factor well received by the eccentric Japanese consumer. All of us have seen the 1st generation xB on the road and may have laughed about its boxy looks. However, the target marketing worked as the public eventually embraced the “box.” The xB was a tuner-friendly car in Japan, and Toyota used this as a means to attract a consumer who was interested in personalizing their vehicle. Jim felt the same way when he first saw the bB in an Option Magazine leaflet. Soon after he saw Topline’s bB with it’s slightly extended bumpers layed out on deep dish rims, his attitude changed drastically.
When Jim attended his first Hot Import Nights in San Diego, CA in 2000, he was hooked and had to find a way to become a part of the tuning scene. Jim was stationed for two years in Yokosuka, Japan while serving time in the Navy. This was the nail in the coffin for his newly discovered interest in the tuner scene. Jim was wondering why guys were so attracted to the the wagon and van style vehicles. In 2003, Jim and his wife attended the Tokyo Auto Gallery and noticed a majority of their time was spent in the Wagon/VIP car section. He now understood what the draw was to them. Shockingly enough, the same vehicle can be designed and built to have VIP styling or look like a simple Volkswagen Bus. The diversity and creativity displayed at the Tokyo Auto Gallery was absolutely incredible.
Once the Scion xB made it’s debut in the U.S., Jim thought “hmmmm Toyota wants to sell the bB stateside?” This was the exact point when he knew he had to have that xB. Soon after, Jim purchased his Scion xB with a mere 5 miles on the odometer. It was his priority to make it like the Topline car. Within 3 short years of having the xB (or bB as it’s known in Japan), he had his Work Euroline DH wheels with 17×8/17×9 staggered offsets set inside Falken ST115 tires, followed by a 9pc W-Blood H.E.S. VIP kit including foglights to match (Just a side note: H.E.S. means Heavy Effect Selection—doesn’t get anymore JDM/VIP than that!). And the rest is history. An Airlift air suspension came shortly after to ensure that he could achieve the stance he was looking for. This unique styling gained him an invitation to the exclusive Scion United ad campaign and festivities near Las Vegas, NV on May 15th, 2008. At the event he met hundreds of Scion owners and even got to have a picture of the elusive JDM Jim ride on a poster!
Future plans for the xB include: freshening up the car overall, touching up the paint on the front bumper, fenders, hood and grille. At some point in time, leather seats will happen, but the state of the economy has squashed some of those plans for me. Jim plans to continue work on the car once he completes school. But to be completely honest, Jim is not disappointed at the stage of his car right now. The xB is built for him and by him, he did 95% of the work on it and he is quite proud of that. In the end, his car is built to resemble a theme and it holds its’ tradition.
Below is a list of modifications:
9pc W-Blood H.E.S. VIP kit including foglights
Work Euroline DH wheels 17×8/17×9 staggered offsets inside Falken ST115 tires.
Airlift air suspension
-5 gallon chrome airtank with two Blitzluft compressors & a 6 valve system
Progress rear swaybar
Cusco Type 40D front strut bar
Cusco camber plates
KGWorks rear wiper plug
Chrome inner door handles
Chrome lock plungers
Chrome speedometer trim ring
Garson Oak speedometer trim (until he gets the rest of the parts for my car cut and bought)
Painted trim panels in Buckskin (to bring out that Luxury feel)
Scion LED lighting in cupholder
CustomxBgauges.com orange LED shifter bezel
Kenwood CD player and Amp
Polk Audio bi-amped SR6500 comps and Momo sub and custom sub box in rear floor area.
Seiko Sangyo (more trinkets) door lock caps
Giant flower shift knob and chrome extender
Chrome door handles
Tail lights wrapped in red vinyl
Andrew started to get into cars when he was a teenager. He started out like most of us going to races, attending cars shows, and buying a car magazine every now and then. Andrew has been through many different cars and has built some crazy beasts. In 2004, he was left with a pocket full of cash and no car to drive around town.
Well to say the least, he fixed that problem fairly quickly. After some extensive searching, Andrew found what he though might be the perfect car for him sitting in Arizona. From the first time he saw this beauty, he knew he had to have it. The transaction was completed almost immediately, and 1800 miles later it was home.
The Supra was fast at purchase, but has evolved into something almost unnatural. Everything from the big turbo under the hood down to the behemoth 5 inch exhaust running out the back means business. What you are looking at is not a show car. Andrews supra has never seen under 30 pounds of boost for 3 years! The supra’s résumé looks a little like this: 2 blown race engines, 1 snapped drive shaft, a few cracked rims, blown drag radials, two blown 900 hp race clutches, and three blown turbos! This car has quite the wrap sheet and reputation.
Andrew’s supra has gone through a couple different setups. Andrew’s car initially came with a 67mm turbo from PTE, yet for some reason it was not enough for him. He sold the old turbo setup, and upgraded to a new 74 mm turbo which was good for about 700- 800 horespower. This setup was fun for a while, yet Andrew still yearned for more. After extracting every last morsel of horsepower from this setup, Andrew’s supra went back under the knife. While he was at it, he also installed a couple of new things such as an Oil Cooler, Valve Stem Seals, 6 Speed Leather Shift Knob, Instrument Cluster Panel, Brake Lines, and other overdue maintenance items. He then sold his 74 mm turbo setup and opted for the next biggest option a gt47-80 mm turbo setup. This setup helped Andrews supra to reach somewhere around 1000 horsepower. Unfortunately this setup blew two motors. After the supra’s second blown engine, Andrew decided to put the car up for sale. For some reason it never sold.
So instead of letting the car sit, Andrew decided to up the anti by selling the old turbo and picking himself up a new gt47-88 mm turbo. This helped him reach an estimated 1200 horsepower and 1000 rwtq. This monster turbo is bolted up to a Virtual works T6 manifold, and out the back is attached to a Virtual works 4.5 inch downpipe to a Strictly Modified full custom straight 5 inch exhaust! Just hearing his supra at idle will get your blood pumping.
If you really want to succeed in creating a monstor, building the motor is a necessary evil. The head was built from the ground up starting with a trip to Apex over in Bensenville, IL so they could work their magic. They performed a full port and polish with a three angle valve job, and shaved the head raising compression to 9.0:1. After which they installed a set of Super tech 1 mm oversized valves, valve springs, and titanium retainers with spring locators. Apex then installed a set of Hks’s 280 degree camshafts, Titan cam gears, and topped it off with a Cosmetic fuzion mls head gasket.
The block was sent out to Apex as well where it was bored .20 over. They also opened up the oil galleries and added one of their full custom oil pumps to make sure the engine was fed with a healthy amount of oil at all times. After which; they installed a set of CP .20 pistons mated to Carillo H beam rods, Arp main studs, and a Boost logic sfi crank pulley. As you can see, no expense was spared.
What gives this supra its heart and sound is the monster gt47-88 turbo from precision/garret. The turbo is so huge you can fit a small child inside of it literally. The turbo feeds compressed air into a modified greddy 4 row intercooler. The Accufab throttle body is fastened to a Sound Performance racing intake manifold which takes care of dividing the air into the individual cylinders. Pressure is released via a Tial 44mm wastegate and a Tail 50 mm blow off valve.
Now that the supra has the added ability to force huge amount of air into the cylinders, it would all be useless without the proper amount of fuel to accomplish proper combustion. Starting with a Titan motorsports fuel rail accompanied by their1600 cc injectors, Andrew picked up some other goodies while he was at it. Some of these items include a Weldon fuel pressure regulator, Aeroquip stainless steel braided lines, fitting higs, Titan Motor Sport’s billet triple fuel pump hanger, and finally a triple Walbro 255 fuel pump. The real nifty aspect of this setup is that the third fuel pump is programmed to kick in when the engine is under boost.
The getrag six speed transmission that came with the Toyota supra from the factory is good for about 2000 hp so there was no need to modify it. The only modifications to the drivetrain is a Tilton triple disc carbon clutch. The suspension setup only has one purpose on this car, and that is to keep all four wheels planted to the ground via Kyb adjustable shocks and Tein springs. The supra’s sporting set of ultra rare Bogart D-10 racing wheels with a 15×4 set up in front and a 15×10 for the rear. The tires are meant for only one thing: grip! With Mickey Tompson drag skinnies in front measuring 26×4.5 x15 and 325×50×15 et street radials attached to the rear you can bet this car gets some grip. To bolt these bad boys on Andrew needed to install a set of Arp extended wheel studs. In order to get those sick burnouts at the track a Titan motorsports line lock was installed so the front brakes stay active and the rear brakes are shut off. This car is a fully built beast!
The interior of Andrew’s car smells like one thing and one thing only, RACE GAS! Though most of the interior is stock there are a few exceptions such as the chromoly 4 point roll cage, a set of sparco turino seats, sparco 4 point harnesses, sparco brace’s, a pioneer cd player, and a set of 10″ infinity kappa subs. If you look at the gauges you will see the infamous Trd 10,000 rpm tach a Greddy 60 mm electronic fuel pressure gauge.
Andrew opted for Aem’s engine management system with their 5 bar map sensor, intake air temperature sensor, and injector driver. To make sure the spark plugs are getting enough power, Andrew installed a Hks dli and a Fjo wideband o2 ntk sensor to monitor his air fuel ratio. Some of the polished parts in the engine bay include the intake manifold, throttle body, valve covers, power steering reservoir, intercooler piping, intake pipe, and fuel rail.
Andrew will drive the car in just about any weather condition, at anytime of the day or night, and in any way shape or form. His car will only run race gas and at quantities of 5 gallons (hey race gas is expensive!) He has ran out of gas before with his car which as he explained it to me “sucked”. Andrew has raced everything in his car from his cousin’s turbo charged Sc300 to 1000 cc motorcycles! crazy!
Andrew’s engine will see over 40 pounds of boost with the crank spinning upwards of 9000 rpm! Let’s face it how often is it that you will see a 1000 plus horsepower supra on the street let alone get to cruise with it. Just driving next to this car is an adrenaline rush. When you first hear this beast belching out 3 ft. flames, you do not know what’s going on. All you know is that the car is loud and fast. There is a story of Andrew burning someone’s front bumper with his fire breathing “toy”. when asked why he would drive such an outrageous thing on the street Andrew simply replied” It is an adrenaline rush”. This pretty much sums up who Andrew is.
Well as the situation sits now Andrew has sold the supra. Yes it long gone, and now it resides in Staten Island, NY. The new owner (who’s name is Brandon) has already dynoed the car on Q16 and saw 1014 whp with conservative timing and some tire spin! Brandon has some big plans for the car starting with removing the old tired six speed transmission and replacing it with a th400. He will also be adding a new 10 point roll cage and a few other goodies. Brandon’s goal for the car is to eventually see low 8’s at the quarter mile. Keep a look out because this cars rein of terror is far from over!
The Honda Civic in all its forms is possibly the most modified import. But this means that is comes in many forms from the poorly done ricer mobile to the well thought out and tastefully done care that will turn heads as it passes by. Luckily for us, Jason Su, the president of Suja 1 Motoring and 1988 CRX is one of the latter and not the former.
The first and most obvious question is why build a CRX, a car that has not been in production, not including the Del Sol, since 1991. Jason’s answer to that question is that he wanted to build a car that would be so difficult to build that if anyone tried to copy him chances are they would give up before being able to complete the project. It also helped that he loves the shape of the car. To fulfill the goal of this project, he wanted to build a car that was a fun car to drive, but that could also be entered in car shows and be competitive, fast with class as he puts it. The first step was to find a suitable car to work on. Even this proved difficult due to the car’s age, but eventually in 2005 an ’88 HF model was sourced. The first impression was that it looked in good shape, minus the paint. Once the car was back in the shop and the tear down began, it became obvious that their car was not in good of shape as it seemed from the outside. Even still, scrapping the project was not considered.
The CRX was stripped down of its sheet metal body to see what needed to be repaired or replaced, which happened to be most of the car. After all the rust had been repaired and body panels replaced, an eight point roll cage was welded in place, and then the car was sent off to the body shop. Unfortunately, it took more than one trip for the body shop to get it right. Jason was not going to settle for anything less than perfection for his project. The color that was chosen was a Numbus grey pearl paint. To go along with the new paint, a JDM front end conversion was done, along with the JDM rear bumper and JDM tail lights.
On the business end of things, the stock 1.5L D15 B2 motor, which was rated at a whopping 92 horse power, was dumped in favor of a K20A3 from a 2002 Civic Si. This particular motor was a junk motor that a friend had hydro locked and was taking up space inside Suja 1. It was given new life with an RSX Type-S crankshaft from a K20A2, connected to a set of Crower rods, with a set of Toda pistons doing the compression. The entire assembly rides on a set of ACL bearings. Under the motor a SONEM (Suja ONE Motoring) baffled oil pan holds the lubrication and is pumped through the motor by an S2K oil pump. On top of the motor is a K20A2 head with dual IPS K2 camshafts, Supertech valves and retainers with a set of Eibach EVS valve springs providing the force on the valves.
Air is supplied to the motor via a set of Clockwise 51mm individual throttle bodies with carbon fiber intake cones. To make room for the cones, the carbon fiber hood on the CRX was modified by SONEM with a custom hood scoop making this one of the first things that is noticed about the car. After the air is mixed with fuel, compressed, and exploded in a controlled fashion, the resulting gas mixture is routed through a DTR 4-2-1 stainless steel header, and into a custom made 3 inch diameter exhaust, which includes a stainless Borla muffler and runs straight down the center of the car and out the rear bumper which has a cut-out to accommodate the tip. Holding the potential energy to move the car is a ten gallon RCI fuel cell with a SARD fuel collector with an in tank pump. Fuel is sent to the front of the car by a Walboro inline feed pump through SONEM fuel line. A Fuelab filter and pressure regulator keep the fuel clean and under the correct pressure while a Marshall pressure gauge lets Jason keep an eye on the pressure himself. The go-juice is injected into the compression chamber by four RC 550cc fuel injectors mounted in a BDL fuel rail. Keeping the motor properly hydrated, and keeping all of its other functions running properly for that matter, is a Hondata KPRO EMS.
Now that Jason had the power, he needed a way to get it to the ground. For this he again turned to the RSX Type-S, using its 6-speed transmission. Inside the box, the gears were mikronite treated with custom cross cut synchros. Connecting the motor to the gearbox is a Carbonetics clutch. On the output shaft, is a Carbonetics LSD which splits the power to a set of Gator stage 3 axles. Replacing the stock wheel hubs is a set of JDM Integra Type-R hubs. Fitting the drive train into the car ended up requiring a lot of custom fabrication work. The guys at Suja tried a set of prototype motor mounts, but after having some issue with them, they decided to fabricate their own. A custom radiator and coolant overflow container keep the engine cool and catch can collects any excess oil. The engine bay was also treated to a shave and wire tuck to keep the engine bay looking clean.
On the suspension side, a set of PIC coilovers lower the car and some ETD front stabilizer bars tighten up the front. Suja hard rubber bushings can be found through out as well. In order to increase traction on hard launches is a modified AVID pro-series traction bar kit was used. Bringing the car back down to a stop are Endless rotors and pads at all four corners. On the street the CRX wears a set of 16” SSR type V rims with Falken Azenis giving the car traction. For the strip, Borgarts with M and H slicks and skinnies are used. Increasing the steering is a Quaife quicksteer steering rack.
Inside the cabin, there isn’t much to look at as it has been stripped of all unnecessary components to make an already light car, ridiculously light. What is left of the interior was converted to full black in color and keeping the driver informed of the car’s vitals is the dash from an S2000. Keeping the driver safe and strapped in are Kirkey racing seats with Simpson harnesses holding him in place. The only sound system in the car is the wonderful sound of the motor singing its way to the redline.
All this work took time. The first time the car even started after the build began in 2005 was three years later in 2008. Soon after the car was completed the CRX was taken to the track where it ran a 13.2 @ 113 MPH, but had traction issues. After some tinkering, and another trip to the track, resulted in consistent times of 11.8 @ 117 MPH, but some traction issues still lingered, so more work needs to be done to solve the problem completely. While the car could have been faster, it was fast enough to take first place at the INDYHP Streetcar shootout in Indianapolis in the naturally aspirated class. According to Jason, work on the car still hasn’t been completed. The ITBs are planned to be replaced with larger ones, and there is a possibility that the whole engine setup may be changed, but then what ever motor goes back in, it will still be a 2.0L motor. The fuel system may also be modified as Jason is not satisfied with the current setup.
Even its current form, Jason is very happy with the car. When the gas pedal is stomped on, the result is an almost immediate activation of VTEC, making the car fly. The lack of a flashy body kit, which are commonly found on most Hondas, has not done anything to detract any attention from the car. But like most modifiers, he still has the desire to make more power and go faster. Until then he has a car that can be driven on a daily basis, get 35 MPG, and still be able to beat up on the competition at the track. Jason would also like to extend his thanks to Wei and Janellle, Jeremy, Brandon, Zach, Alex, Rommel, and Suja 1 Motoring.
Discuss this event and see more pics in the forums by clicking here!
Photos: Jeremy Cliff, Ginash George, Brad Sillars Video: Jeremy Cliff
The D1 Grand Prix (D1GP), is a production car drifting series from Japan. After several years of hosting amateur drifting contests, Option Magazine & Tokyo Auto Salon founder Daijiro Inada, and drifting legend Keiichi Tsuchiya hosted a professional level drifting contest in 1999 and 2000 to feed on the ever increasing skills of drifting drivers who were dominating drifting contests in various parts of Japan. In October 2000 Inada and Tsuchiya reformed the contest as a five round series. At the following year for the following round, it was the introduction of the two car tsuiou battle, run in a single-elimination tournament format, a common tradition for touge races which would become popular with car enthusiasts.
Since the beginning, the series has spread from the United States to United Kingdom and Malaysia to New Zealand with an ever increasing fan base all over the world. The series has since become a benchmark for all drifting series as its tsuisou format became widely adopted in drifting events throughout the world and is the most highly regarded of all series. The series also helped to turn not just its personnel, it also helped to turn many of its drivers into celebrities with appearances in TV shows and car magazines all over the world along with scale models and video game appearances for their cars. Also, it would be credited for the increase several-fold in tuning businesses specializing in drift set-ups.
D1GP made it’s debut in Chicago on Saturday August 1, 2009. Overall it was a good event and competition. The event featured a car show and of course the drifting. Results are as follows:
1st- Ken Nomura (R34 Nissan Skyline) 2nd- Forrest Wang (S14 240sx)
3rd- Harri Hokkanen (S14 240sx)
D1GP gave JDM Chicago rights to be the exclusive Pace Car for this weekend’s event! Read more about it here.
The official video:
Gallery I by Brad Sillars (click thumb to expand):
For a while now a few of the Team Echo members have had the idea to host a parking garage car show/meet & greet. We were bored with the typical car show and wanted to do something this area hadn’t seen in a while. We feel like Chicago is missing out on the import scene and we need to bring it back to our area.
I have been hosting Scion only shows at the dealership I work for, Arlington Toyota Scion, for 3 years. They have gone from 40 people per show to 120, with great success, but still everyone sees the same cars each year. Each year I try to do something to differentiate from the rest of the dealership shows and this year I wanted to make our show known. In order to do this, I needed the help of my club, Team Echo and my friends club 935 Wiked Draggers.
935 has put on shows at McCormick Place as large as HIN before, so I figured they would be a great addition to achieving success at this show. Both teams got ideas together on what to do and we figured out what we would need for this show. We all agreed that this would hopefully be the start of many shows to come that would help bring the import scene back.
It took a ton of work and countless hours planning this event, but from what we saw, it was a complete success. Ofcourse there were minor glitches, but what show doesn’t have those. We learn from them and build for the next show. Members from both teams have gotten numerous compliments on how well the show was hosted and how incredible the outcome was. It seems that just about everyone wants us to do this again next year and to keep this alive.
Hopefully with the support of our teams, Scion, my dealership, vendors, and our local car community, we can put Chicago back on the map. We hope that everyone makes it out next year for a bigger and better show!
When Jim attended his first Hot Import Nights in San Diego, CA in 2000, he was hooked and had to find a way to become a part of the tuning scene. Jim was stationed for two years in Yokosuka, Japan while serving time in the Navy. This was the nail in the coffin for his newly discovered interest in the tuner scene. Jim was wondering why guys were so attracted to the the wagon and van style vehicles. In 2003, Jim and his wife attended the Tokyo Auto Gallery and noticed a majority of their time was spent in the Wagon/VIP car section. He now understood what the draw was to them. Shockingly enough, the same vehicle can be designed and built to have VIP styling or look like a simple Volkswagen Bus. The diversity and creativity displayed at the Tokyo Auto Gallery was absolutely incredible.
Well to say the least, he fixed that problem fairly quickly. After some extensive searching, Andrew found what he though might be the perfect car for him sitting in Arizona. From the first time he saw this beauty, he knew he had to have it. The transaction was completed almost immediately, and 1800 miles later it was home.
So instead of letting the car sit, Andrew decided to up the anti by selling the old turbo and picking himself up a new gt47-88 mm turbo. This helped him reach an estimated 1200 horsepower and 1000 rwtq. This monster turbo is bolted up to a Virtual works T6 manifold, and out the back is attached to a Virtual works 4.5 inch downpipe to a Strictly Modified full custom straight 5 inch exhaust! Just hearing his supra at idle will get your blood pumping.
Andrew opted for Aem’s engine management system with their 5 bar map sensor, intake air temperature sensor, and injector driver. To make sure the spark plugs are getting enough power, Andrew installed a Hks dli and a Fjo wideband o2 ntk sensor to monitor his air fuel ratio. Some of the polished parts in the engine bay include the intake manifold, throttle body, valve covers, power steering reservoir, intercooler piping, intake pipe, and fuel rail.
The CRX was stripped down of its sheet metal body to see what needed to be repaired or replaced, which happened to be most of the car. After all the rust had been repaired and body panels replaced, an eight point roll cage was welded in place, and then the car was sent off to the body shop. Unfortunately, it took more than one trip for the body shop to get it right. Jason was not going to settle for anything less than perfection for his project. The color that was chosen was a Numbus grey pearl paint. To go along with the new paint, a JDM front end conversion was done, along with the JDM rear bumper and JDM tail lights.
Inside the cabin, there isn’t much to look at as it has been stripped of all unnecessary components to make an already light car, ridiculously light. What is left of the interior was converted to full black in color and keeping the driver informed of the car’s vitals is the dash from an S2000. Keeping the driver safe and strapped in are Kirkey racing seats with Simpson harnesses holding him in place. The only sound system in the car is the wonderful sound of the motor singing its way to the redline.
