This LS3, manual-swapped Japanese icon wouldn’t look out of place at SEMA
Japanese car owners and enthusiasts aren’t traditionally concerned with originality – though with the increasing collectability of Japan’s sporting icons, market demand is shifting from highly-modified monsters, to clean oem cars.
The MKIV Toyota Supra is one of Japan’s most desired modern sports cars, lauded for its powerful 3.0lt inline-six 2JZ motor, and rear wheel drive layout.
The MKIV Supra arrived in 1993, and was available in both naturally-aspirated and twin-turbo configuration, with the naturally-aspirated models making do with a five-speed manual and a new six-speed Getrag gearbox swapping the cogs of the twin-turbo halo model. Both naturally aspirated and twin turbo models were also available with a four-speed auto.
Eagle eyed Supra fans will know that the aerotop model, offering a removable targa top for open-air thrills, was only available with the automatic models.
This Supra here then, is all sorts of wrong (…or right, that’s up to you).
While the car is built off one of the auto-only aerotop bodies, the car has since been retrofitted with a T56 Tremec gearbox, with the venerable 2J-six replaced with a burly LS3 crate engine.
If you’re after an all-original numbers matching Supra, you best move along now.
If you like the sound of a manual-swapped, LS3-powered Supra that lets you feel the wind in your hair – you’d be hard-pressed to find another.
The build list is far too long to list out here, but it is clearly a well thought-out and very well-executed swap. We know – we’ve seen this car in person.
The staggering thing however, is the price. Listed for $35,000 – you couldn’t dream of building this car for that much. With MKIV Supra prices steadily heading north (with some examples verging on six-figures!), disregarding the amount of work put into this car, it’s cheap for a Supra.
Though that may indicate a shift in market trend, as the demand for clean oem examples is now far greater than a decade past when fully-built monsters were all the rage.
You can check out the full listing here!
Muscle Car Value Guide home page
Japanese Classic Car Value Guide home page