Ever since the over-the-top The Fast and the Furious movie hit theaters, rookie import enthusiasts believe the twin-turbo Supra is the holy grail of Toyota engines. You know drink water from it, obtain eternal life, blah blah. David Huang of Irvine, Calif., and his 2001 Lexus IS 300 have something to say about that. Inline-six engine, check. Force-fed, check. Big power, check. Automatic transmission. Wait a second. What? What the f**k? Yes, this IS 300 is sporting a supercharged 3.1-liter inline-six with an automatic shifting the gears. Something a little different.
When 2NR caught Huang for our illustrious pages, he crashed his computer three times trying to download our for-sure virus-laden tech sheets. Huang filled out the sheet, attached a couple pages of modifications, and stayed up late into the night producing four more pages of personal background for the story. He is so meticulous-no wonder his car is so complete.
After purchasing his car, Huang drove factory stock for a whole year before a hit and run by a Ford Bronco provided an opportunity to fix some body pieces. A canyon run, gone horribly wrong, further damaged the Lexus and Huang lost his girl (not to a horrible death, sickos). Two horrible events at roughly the same time meant Huang had nowhere to go but up. He decided to build an all-out show car from the wreck and hooked up with Team Hybrid and the now-defunct shop, Area 51 Fabrications.
Boost Me Up ScottyHuang and Area 51 wanted to assemble an engine that could withstand any amount of boost, damned the cost. The 3.0-liter was knocked-up with a JUN custom stroker kit to end up at a cool 3.1-liter displacement. Inside rests forged pistons, connecting rods, and a custom 2mm head gasket all compliments of JUN, and a port and polish job. The head received a custom VVTi camshaft spacer and an upgraded HKS exhaust camshaft. Ready and willing, the engine then found itself crammed full by a Vortech V5 supercharger, fitted with custom polished piping and a HKS intercooler. Breathing through a HKS metal flow intake system, gases finally see the light of day again through a Toyomoto header and a HKS carbon-Ti exhaust system with silencer. A HKS Twin Power Ignition system and a set of RC Engineering 650cc injectors were added, all controlled by a GReddy E-Manage computer unit.
Although there are no recorded power numbers, based on a quarter-mile run at 13.599 sec, Huang's IS 300 should be producing well north of the 300-hp mark, blowing away its soft, luxury reputation.