Supras are known horsepower freaks, with four-digit power at the end of the rainbow for those with the magic touch. The '92-02 JZA80 Supra and its venerable 2JZ-GTE powerplant usually deliver this big-league output, so when we heard about Duane and Marilyn Stephens' '89 MKIII MA70 Supra and its 1,000+hp antics, the words "engine swap" naturally flashed though our cerebral cortex. We were more than a bit taken aback and duly impressed when we discovered this old-school Supra rolling its original 7M-GTE engine.
Duane, who hails from Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, is one of those fast-forward thinkers who can see beyond a car's limitations. "I look at a car and I instantly see what I would do to it if I owned it," says Duane. "I give advice to others if they want to listen, but more often I get a lot of heckling for sticking with the 7M engine. The fact is the 7M can hang with any other engine in built-versus-built trim."
In typical enthusiast fashion, the project took on a familiar snowball scenario where at every turn Duane wanted more out of the Toyota. "At first I just wanted a 13-second car. Then I wanted it to run 12s, then 11s, then 10s. Now I'm in the nines, looking for eights. Once you get used to the power, you want more. It's a kind of instinct."
Adding the proverbial icing on the cake, the engine bay blasts retinas possibly faster than the engine does egos. Duane filled more than 100 holes and removed the battery tray before spraying it in glossy white hues. Clean and gleaming, the 7M features a gaggle of custom creations, a disadvantage of it living in the shadow of its upstart younger brother, but one Duane used to his benefit. We love the CNC valve cover, which Duane says is one of 10 sets milled by ARZ, as are the 7M's one-off CNC water neck that Duane helped design, the CNC cam pick-up wheel mounted on the intake gear, the custom titanium rifle-drilled rods that Duane has abused for three years, and the custom hidden dual-pass dual-top-feed radiator from C&R. Duane's good friend Ron Ramirez gets high marks for fabricating the custom large-plenum intake manifold and sweet long-tube turbo header; like the 2JZ, a big-power 7M really benefits from a big barrel-type intake manifold not readily available on the market. Ron's work here is top-notch. The header secures a Garrett GT4202 turbo and the combination is tuned via MoTeC gear. Duane is also proud of his custom cams from TED Component Cams in Canada. "They're custom one-off billet steel units that I had made for my particular setup."
John Reed, of John Reed Racing, tuned the MoTeC M600 computer to churn out 853 horsepower, and Duane took the 'Yota to the track knowing he had to tread carefully-while the car had a rollbar, neither it nor Duane were licensed for single-digit E.T.'s. His inner urges got the better of him, and despite a granny-like 1.68-second 60-foot and rolling in and out of the throttle as much as Lindsay Lohan does rehab, he still posted a 9.90 at 147 mph. "It was a shakedown, not even trying," laments Duane. "The car 60-foots a 1.52 all day long; a 1.68 was turtle-like. But running that nine, I knew I was gonna get booted."
The Supra went in for its required safety mandates, and during the downtime Duane swapped the GM three-speed automatic transmission he'd previously been running for an R154 manual and Tilton triple-carbon clutch. "The auto tranny was a downer on the road. Three-speeds were not attuned to freeway cruising," says Duane. "It was also a black hole for power-we figure it sucked up at least 100 whp."