Ater finishing a very close second in last year's Ultimate Street Car Challenge, Mani Jayasinghe and his MK IV Supra turbo are back. But Mani's been busy for the last 12 months. You know what they say, if at first you don't succeed, add more boost, bigger brakes, nitrous, a body kit, Hoosiers and a really big wing.
Starting with a brand-new short block from Toyota, Mani procured 9.0:1 forged pistons from Arias and connected them to the crank with stock rods using ARP rod bolts. Though the 2JZ's stock ports flow like the Lincoln Tunnel, Mani employed the services of FMAX for a port and polish. Ferrea fitted 2mm larger stainless intake valves with dual valve springs and titanium retainers to cope with the larger flow rate and more aggressive cams. Additionally, 264-degree cams from HKS were selected and fitted with adjustable cam gears from the same maker.
Mani is still running the same RPS single turbo kit as last year. It's using an equal-length, stainless-steel manifold and an Innovative Turbo Systems external racing wastegate and T66 turbo. The kit also employs a RPS downpipe and mid-pipe, which passes gas through a 3-inch Random Technologies catalytic converter and 3.5-inch HKS Super Dragger exhaust. Ingress of fresh air is accomplished via a 4-inch diameter custom aluminum intake pipe and custom airbox. Welded onto the intake piping are two HKS Super Sequential blow-off valves.
Power adder number two consists of a NOS direct-port wet kit, good for a purported 120 hp. It's fired off with a button in the cockpit and supplied by two big, trunk-mounted bottles.
Dual stock fuel pumps feed through a Paxton fuel pressure regulator and into a modified HKS fuel rail via two -6 lines. From there, 720cc injectors from RC Engineering pour fuel into the polished combustion chamber.
While everything was apart and the engine out of the car, Mani had the valve covers, throttle body, charge pipes and intake manifold polished, as well as a gaggle of custom items made. An oil catch can, intake air box, midpipe, compressor housing and firewall heatshield were all fabricated for function and fashion.
An AEM stand-alone Engine Management System controls spark, fueling, nitrous and boost was tuned on Mani's car at AEM. To assist with tuning, Mani installed a FJO wideband 02 sensor and display unit along with a Techtom MDM100 multi-display engine monitor.
Mani's Supra rides on the same custom valved KYB four-way adjustable coil-overs as last year, a suspension setup proven to produce big numbers and fast road course times. With an obvious eye toward winning the braking competition, Mani fitted StopTech 14-inch brake kits to both the front and rear, consisting of proprietary two-piece rotors and four-piston calipers.
This year the Supra wears 18x10.5 and 18x9.5-inch three-piece Forgelines with 305/30ZR-18 Hoosiers in the rear and 275/35ZR-18 Hoosiers in the front.
To secure himself in the Supra Mani installed MOMO race buckets and Sparco harnesses. A modified S&W anti-roll bar ties the heavy chassis together.
Refusing to lose any contest of boom, two Kicker 10-inch subs were mounted in a custom Stitchcraft sub box and are powered by a Kicker six-channel, 600 Watt amp. The extra four channels serve Polk audio speakers front and rear, and tunes are delivered via a Clarion head unit. And there's a full assortment of GReddy gauges.
The exterior received a thorough freshening as well, wearing a complete C-West body kit, C-West carbon-fiber GT wing, and custom carbon-fiber hood that mimics his old custom-ventilated hood's design.
Because of his USCC experience, Mani knows how to best prepare his car for both the rigors of the contest and its particular points structure, we're thinking this just may be the Supra's year.
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