Finally brought my Supra home!, '97 TT 6 speed Options

[richee3]

As much as we all dream of picking up a twin turbo Supra, Brigette and I were able to make it happen this weekend. Things started falling into place a few months ago so we sold our 350Z to make room to bring home my dream car. I still miss the 350Z on a daily basis, don't get me wrong. I loved that car and I plan on picking another one up in a few years, but I'm not in a place where I can have two RWD sports cars so I had to let it go. But I believe this is worth it. HUGE thanks to Dustin and Stef for going to check this car out for me before I flew up to Boston to pick it up! They were VERY thorough with the car.

It's a bone stock 1997 (so 15th anniversary limited edition), twin turbo, six speed, Targa top, 77k miles on the clock, Deep Jewel Green. It has some minor imperfections, but it's exactly what I wanted. It's a car that I'm not afraid to get out of the garage 7 days a week, rain or shine, and daily drive. So without further ado, PIKCHARS!














Of course, I wasted no time in yanking the stock radio out and putting a Pioneer touch screen in. Hey, it's a long drive home from Boston. Gotta listen to the music on my phone somehow, plus the stock radio is lame. Truth be told, I ordered the radio, soldered the harness together, then shipped the radio up to Dustin and Stef and installed it right before the CSP meet. Then we got home a little earlier today, and I put some LED's from Diode Dynamics in the license plate lights. I've had a 7th gen steering wheel sitting around for a few months waiting to go in this car. I was going to do the same project as my Celica and make the E shift buttons work as volume control for the radio, but I may end up selling this wheel and buying one without the buttons. I'm undecided.




Along with the car, I got an insane amount of documentation. Stef printed off the Carfax and the Toyota dealership records for the car, which is pretty comprehensive. Targa seals recently replaced, tail shaft seal replaced, pretty new clutch and rear brakes. What I didn't know is that the seller had receipts and invoices for all of this, as well as the original window sticker, wallet key, a Carfax from a few years ago, the brochure for the car bra that came with the car, and loads of other goodies. So, with everything set in place, Brigette and I bought some plane tickets and flew up to Boston to pick the car up, just in time ti catch the CSP meet. All in all it was a great trip, the car drove fantastic, and I couldn't be any happier.

So with all of that said, I'll go ahead and answer the inevitable questions in advance.

How much did you pay for it?
Enough to bring it home.

Is it fast?
Oh yeah, it hauls. It won't blow your mind, thanks to a 3,400 lb curb weight and 320 hp stock. But a few basics free up a decent amount of power, which totally transforms the car.

Are you going to build it to a trillion horsepower?
Highly unlikely. I'm leaning towards leaving it stock. If I do anything to it, it'll be BPU so I can easily return it to stock.

So now that you own a Supra, are you going to become an a**hole?
Not at all. It's just a car, no reason to think it's better than anyone else's car.

Can I have/buy your Celica?
GTFO with that talk. The Celica is still my baby, and is still going under the knife for some more improvements soon.

So, there's my new toy. Enjoy!

[richee3]

Everyone loves the Supra because of the power potencial, but Toyota over-engineered the thing so much that the brakes are just as if not more impressive. They basically put F1 tech into the braking system and abs computer, so that 70-0 stood as a WORLD RECORD for a production car until the Mercedes SLR with its flaming carbon ceramics. Nowadays obviously most high end sports cars and super cars use ceramics but it took 10+ years and a new compound to break the Supra's record.

Love the car, and hopefully there will be more updates as the weather warms.

Edit: Minor correction it was unseated by the Carrera GT... Not the SLR. Still amazing when you think of all the supercars around before then (Porsche GT2, GT3, Lotus Exige, and many other cars that were basically street legal race cars).

Precisely the reason I am comfortable shelling out damn near $500 for all OEM components. The thought of spending that much on parking brake shoes, pads, and rotors would normally give me a heart attack but I know what the OEM brakes are capable of, and I feel much more comfortable putting OEM parts on my car than some of the other stuff.

Man I wish I had your job to be able to afford one haha. This 14$ an hour life is rather depressing. Even know I'm only 24 my butt is gonna go back to college and finish up and maybe one day I'll have one.. Or at least I hope lol.

You'd be surprised. Truthfully I don't make a whole lot more than you. It's all about how you spend it, plus I caught a lucky break. Definitely go back to college though! I'm only 25 myself but if I keep doing the job I'm doing, I'll be lucky to still be able to walk around comfortably when I'm 50. I fully intend to finish school myself, but it's not in the cards right now. But I digress: you can afford one. Save up a few thousand, and make sure you have a good credit score. Then go talk to your local credit unions. Most of them will finance older cars. You can find decent condition shells for $10-12k, or complete, running, clean NA 5 speeds for $15-20k. Put a few thousand down, finance a clean NA, and slowly build it up to anything you want it to be! Financing a car this old isn't the wisest decision you can make, but the NA 2JZ is bulletproof so you shouldn't have an issue with it breaking down while you are making payments. Plus you wouldn't be alone, I see Supras being financed frequently on SupraForums. Everything from 18 year olds just starting college are financing cheaper Supras and older guys are financing the more expensive ones, so their bank account doesn't take a huge hit and they are snagging them while interest rates are still low. Myself, I chose not to finance mine. Interest rates are low, yes, but I don't want to pay interest if I can avoid it and I really don't want to owe money month to month. You never know what the future holds, and banks are t forgiving on missed payments. /poor financial advice.