If you’ve never had the unpleasant circumstance of visiting North Dakota most of the year, allow us to describe it for you:
All that white space? That’s supposed to represent snow, because for most of the year (except, of course, for the two months of searing summer heat), freezing, cold snow spans as far as the eye can see in one of the country’s northernmost continental states—one with a landscape almost as flat as a sheet of plain, white paper, too. It’s average year-round temperature is only 40 degrees F. It’s cold. Imagine trying to build and enjoy cars in that climate.
Now imagine doing the same in a climate about 400 miles farther north, in an area where summer temperatures last only about two weeks and rarely eclipse 80 degrees. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Edmonton is sort of an enigma in the tuning community. Because of its very Northern climate (cold starting conditions, pothole-ridden roadways), sports cars are usually seen as impractical and unnecessary. And yet, this Supra—with its twin HKS GT2835 turbos pushing near 600 whp, Hipermax suspension, endlessly clean Top Secret exterior styling, and giant 19-inch Work Meisters—blends quite nicely into the Edmonton tuning landscape. We could practically see its owner smiling in disbelief over the phone the first time we talked about a feature. “Are you sure you want it? There are a ton of good cars up here,” he asked.
A little history: Rob Blackmore cut his tuning teeth at an early age, modifying older Toyota MR2s (also popular in the Canadian north). After a few stints at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, where he received a certificate in both business and digital/interactive media design, he decided the idea of sitting in front of a desk 9 to 5 wasn’t for him. This led him in 2006 to open a tuning shop called Project Omega. “I just wanted to get back to working on cars,” he says.
Rob also felt that the area’s shops were behind the times on offering the more popular JDM goods so many enthusiasts were looking for. He’d made those connections with his past projects, but something was missing—something to let his future customers know just how in the loop he was. “Every great tuning shop has a great car to showcase what they can do,” he says. “I didn’t have that when I started Project Omega, so I decided to build the Supra.”
OK, so maybe the Supra “blending into” the Edmonton scene is kind of a stretch—they are quite rare. Canada’s importation laws allow vehicles 15 years or older to be brought into the country and licensed for road use, but back in 2007, the latest model Supras coming in were MKIIIs; MKIVs were hard to come by.
But Rob got lucky. A friend of his had purchased a naturally aspirated five-speed MKIV Supra from the States a few years back, but due to some cash problems the car sat in an empty field for over a year. Bad for Rob’s friend; good for Rob. He picked up the car for a steal, along with a 2JZ-GTE engine from an imported Toyota Aristo that had been neglected nearly as long.
As soon as Rob got the car to his shop, he started stripping it down. The engine bay was shaved and prepped to have all the wiring hidden and the fuse box relocated to the trunk. He added a Top Secret Aero kit and a carbon diffuser and hood. He decided on Lexus IS350 green for the interior, engine bay, and exterior. Then, he stuffed a set of 19-inch gold Work Meisters (the style of wheel he’d fallen in love with back in his MR2 days) aggressively under the car’s fenders—not a move most Supra owners make, especially not those who traverse frigid Northern roadways.