We’ve all bought ‘em – movies that sparked our love for automobiles or channelled our pursuits in a specific course.
I might identify just a few, however one which stands out is a 21-second clip of a vivid yellow MkIV Toyota Supra constructed by JUN, power-sliding at Tsukuba Circuit. I’m undecided the place I first noticed it on-line, however in 2001 – 4 years earlier than YouTube was a factor – you possibly can guess I risked the prospect of 25 to life by downloading the bootlegged clip.
Fortunately, you don’t need to.
So think about my pleasure, when just a few years later, I caught a glimpse of what gave the impression to be that exact same automobile parked in a gravel lot throughout the street from JUN’s Iruma store.
What I didn’t know on the time was that this was the identical Supra that had graced the covers of Max Energy and Tremendous Road magazines in late 2001, with a considerably completely different outward look. A Supra that had reached the mind-numbing prime pace of 401.20km/h (249.292mph) on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA.
How did I find yourself right here? Again in 1999, I met JUN Auto Mechanic head Susumu ‘God Hand’ Koyama in New Zealand when he travelled right here to compete within the Possibility Velocity Trial with the JUN Tremendous Impreza GC8 – a 580ps (572hp) beast that hit 309.1 km/h on a protracted and straight however bumpy and moist backroad. I knew I needed to go to JUN, and in 2004, I got here to Japan and was in a position to make it occur.
Greater than 20 years later, I’m nonetheless humbled to have acquired private excursions of JUN’s Nerima store in Tokyo and JUN Auto Works/Auto Mechanic in Saitama from the corporate’s founder, Junichi Tanaka.
I didn’t get to spend a lot time with the Supra – it was the top of the day, and I had a prepare to catch again to Tokyo. However I used to be fortunate sufficient to get the automobile moved into a little bit open house within the car parking zone for just a few pictures.
JUN was based in 1980, however its mother or father firm’s historical past dates again to 1946. After World Struggle II, Tanaka-san’s father based Tanaka Industrial Co., repurposing equipment used for Japanese warplanes for automotive purposes. For his entry into Japan’s efficiency automobile tuning trade, Tanaka-san employed Koyama-san, a proficient younger mechanic, to move up operations, and JUN as we all know it was born.
The newest turbocharger know-how was the center of JUN’s operations, and the corporate shortly constructed a reputation for itself by constructing a few of Japan’s quickest and strongest automobiles. Tuning automobile top-speed trials held on the now defunct Yatabe Take a look at Observe by Possibility journal within the ’80s turned an early focus for Koyama-san. Then, in 1990, he took JUN to the worldwide stage with a number of appearances at Bonneville in several automobiles. In 2001, JUN returned to the salt flats with its ‘Akira Supra’ – a demo automobile construct began three years earlier from a inventory 1993 Toyota Supra RZ.
In contrast to most automobiles in Bonneville’s 200mph Membership, JUN’s Supra wasn’t a purpose-built, tube-framed race automobile. It was a modified road automobile with some additional go-fast bits added (and eliminated) to permit it to achieve 400km/h – a quantity Koyama-san had seen on the salt with earlier builds.
Across the similar time JUN was within the USA with the Akira Supra, the bootlegged clip of the automobile power-sliding at Tsukuba made its means on-line, now recognized to have been ripped from Video Possibility Vol. 76, which got here out in 2000. Pondering again, this may need been the very first ‘viral’ video to emerge from Japan’s tuning scene, which was nonetheless largely a thriller on the time.
Fortunately, Possibility formally uploaded the complete three-minute phase to YouTube just a few years in the past, so you possibly can watch that by urgent the play button above. Because it seems, the Akira Supra had been delivered to Tsukuba to see how briskly it might lap the circuit, and on a warm-down lap, Possibility take a look at driver Eiji ‘Tarzan’ Yamada determined to have some enjoyable…
Not lengthy after I first noticed the power-slide clip, a pal loaned me a Video Possibility VHS tape from, I’m guessing, round 2000 too. Within the grainy footage, the Akira Supra was filmed ripping by way of the gears alongside the Tokyo Aqualine at over 300km/h – the Wangan benchmark of the golden period. It simply bought higher.
Even earlier than I knew of its Bonneville exploits, the Akira Supra embodied all the pieces superb concerning the Japanese tuning scene on the time. It was a road automobile that would hit 300 km/h with ease and drift. It had a 2JZ-GTE engine constructed as much as 3.2L with JUN prototype elements – cast crankshaft, cast rods and pistons, efficiency cams – and a T88 turbo. Gear shifts had been made by way of a sequential gearbox, virtually unprecedented in road automobiles, and it was unmistakably a JUN creation with purposeful exterior mods and that signature yellow paint.
For the Bonneville try, the 2JZ engine was utterly overhauled. Along with strengthening and modifying the engine base for extra energy, Koyama-san added twin Belief/GReddy SPL T78-29D-14cm turbos, a prototype JUN consumption manifold, and a gas system as much as the duty. That system included a 120L tank, 5 Bosch Motorsport gas pumps, and a dozen JUN 890cc injectors. Tuned by way of an HKS F-CON V Professional engine administration system, the setup made almost 1,400ps (1,380hp).
The driveline retained the identical 6-speed Holinger sequential gearbox it had beforehand been fitted with, however a 2.238:1 ultimate drive ratio was used within the rear finish to make sure the Supra might mechanically hit 400 km/h. Mixed with its aerodynamic modifications and a full flat metal underbody tray, the Supra averaged 240.192mph (386.55 km/h) over two runs within the E/BGCC class. Hitting 401.20km/h on one of many runs is what it’s remembered for although.
When it returned from Bonneville, the Akira Supra was transformed again to its road automobile setup, with a single Belief/GReddy T88-34D-22cm turbo, a milder cylinder head specification, a pared-back gas system, and a extra road-friendly diff ratio. On this type, the facility output was as much as 950ps (937hp), operating round 1.7bar (25psi) of increase. That’s the spec you see right here.
The road model of the Akira Supra – JUN’s authentic search for the automobile – completely mirrored the late-’90s/early-’00s Japanese tuner type. The entrance bumper, vented and bulged hood, aero mirrors, and GT wing had been all JUN elements, whereas the rear diffuser was a RE Amemiya piece. Finishing the imaginative and prescient had been gold 18-inch Advan Mannequin 6 wheels – the identical ones used at Bonneville – wrapped in Yokohama Advan semi-slicks.
For the reason that Supra hadn’t been minimize up in its transition from street automobile to salt flats racer, it was straightforward for JUN to return it to street-spec. Regardless of its race upgrades, like a welded Cusco 10-point roll cage and a Recaro SPG seat, it benefited from some comforts, similar to a full sprint, entrance carpet, and door playing cards. Additionally saved in place was the originally-fitted suite of GReddy gauges, plus its then-state-of-the-art Stack 8100 digital sprint show.
Within the years following my 2004 encounter with the Akira Supra, nothing a lot was heard concerning the automobile, so I assume it spent extra time parked up within the lot. Then, in 2011, JUN gave the Supra a full overhaul – repainting it silver with new yellow and orange graphics and refreshing the powertrain for circuit use.
Two years later, in early 2013, JUN put the automobile on the market, however it took till late 2014 for a purchase order to be made. That looks like a very long time given the asking value, which you would possibly need to sit down for: ¥6,000,000 earlier than tax – that’s simply US$40,000 in at the moment’s cash.
I’d like to know the place the Supra ended up. There’s on-line chatter that mentions Australia, however I can’t verify it. Hopefully somebody on the market can shed some gentle on its location and present type.
One factor’s for positive: of all of the tuner automobiles inbuilt Japan over time, JUN’s Supra would possibly simply be the best. It was an all-rounder like no different.
Sadly, Tanaka-san handed away in 2019, aged 76, after an sickness, and Koyama-san, who had battled sickness for years, handed away in 2022, having gone on to discovered Koyama Racing Labo in 2009/2010. Whereas these icons of Japanese efficiency tuning are sadly gone, JUN’s legacy will stay on endlessly by way of automobiles just like the legendary Akira Supra.
Brad Lord
Instagram: speedhunters_brad