First 24 hours...

[Foxx]

Hi all,

 

Really happy to have very recently purchased a great condition BPU J-Spec TT Manual.

 

Overpaid - probably, over the moon - definitely.

 

 

Fortunate to have enjoyed some breaks in Japan and I've always had big love for the Supra. Made up to have a piece of Japan at home, picking up a waving lucky cat for the dash in the morning.

 

 

First day has included:

 

Losing traction when pulling out on a pretty timid overtake

Re-reading RWD basics

Successfully crawling home on greasy roads (without snow mode)

Compliments from various strangers when stuck in traffic (unfortunately just on the car)

 

Weekend plans:

Changing the boost back to stock for the time being

Fixing the AFR gauge

Finding a radio that displays English

 

 

Hopefully see you around.

 

 

P.S. any other advice for a newbie appreciated.

[tintinmt]

Welcome

[Annabella]

Welcome! First check you have good tyres!! Second enjoy

[rider]

Losing traction on anything other than a wet road or loose stone chip with a dyno 330bhp at the road wheels has never happened to me which would suggest your rear tyres are a bit suspect. I wouldn't boost back as the driving experience standard to BPU is poles apart with usually no detriment to overall reliability. Enjoy each day with or without the Supra.

[Dnk]

My advice would be check what tyres are fitted, all 4, also check/set the tyre pressures.

 

I'd also look at getting the geometry checked, F1 autocenters used to do a free check

 

 

I just checked and they still do a free check and have places in the East Mids

 

https://www.f1autocentres.co.uk/wheel-alignment

Edited September 15, 2018 by Dnk (see edit history)

[Foxx]

Fronts are potenza 235/35/18

Rears are Potenza 275/35/18

 

All 4mm plus tread, thanks will check the pressures today.

[Marty]

Congrats on the purchase

pics please

[mwilkinson]

As Dunk suggests it's probably the geometry.

 

My first supra, regardless of the quality of the tyres, always had very exciting handling.

 

I eventually took it to Wheels in Motion for a geo check and was embarrassed as to how badly the car was setup.

 

Suffice to say, after some extensive changes to the geometry, the car was subsequently very well behaved.

[Spunkmeyer]

Up by your neck of the woods is a geo specialist called “Centre Gravity” who handle Porsche and Track/Race Cars - but do anything and everything the customer wishes to bring along

 

http://www.centregravity.co.uk

 

Note that this is an investment into your car type activity not the same as getting your alignment checked by a tyre fitter. They setup as you would like the car to feel and it takes them a day with test drives before and after etc etc. Just worth a mention as they are nr M6 Toll

 

 

 

 

 

[Dnk]

I had my car done at Centre Gravity, Chris is very good and knows his stuff but they are expensive

 

I'd find somewhere that does a free check first, if it needs adjusting you might well find

some of the eccentric adjusters could be seized and they can be very hard to undo and in a few

cases have to be cut off

Edited September 15, 2018 by Dnk (see edit history)

[Foxx]

So, my tyres were last replaced in 2003... ties in either the mileage now I think about it, oops.

 

Shopping trolley grip levels resolved

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Foxx]

 

 

 

[Mike2JZ]

Damn that looks suuuper clean. Nice buy! I'm sure that will be a blast

[blythmrk]

Damn that looks suuuper clean. Nice buy! I'm sure that will be a blast

 

That is the one at 35k from HJA looks amazing, look after it ok!

[Marty]

What a beauty! Congrats mate

[Foxx]

Up by your neck of the woods is a geo specialist called “Centre Gravity” who handle Porsche and Track/Race Cars - but do anything and everything the customer wishes to bring along

 

http://www.centregravity.co.uk

 

Note that this is an investment into your car type activity not the same as getting your alignment checked by a tyre fitter. They setup as you would like the car to feel and it takes them a day with test drives before and after etc etc. Just worth a mention as they are nr M6 Toll

 

 

 

 

/QUOTE]

 

Finally had everything looked at by these guys and really can’t recommend them highly enough.

 

Got the entire geometry of the car changed and it has transformed the handling. They are total perfectionists and although the price of their work reflects this the car drives like I imagine they did new (albeit they gave it a slightly sportier feel than the Toyota stock settings).

 

 

Thanks a lot for the info

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dnk]

Chris and co at Centre gravity know their stuff

 

What induction kit is on your car ? think i'd look at replacing it with Apexi or K & N or the OE airbox

if you can find one

[Foxx]

I suppose all the consumable under there are 15 years old, anything else (other than fluids general servicing bits) that would be high up the list to change

 

 

 

[Dnk]

Not so much the age but more down to the quality, too many cheap blingy filters on

the market that don't filter well enough.

 

It would be much better with the full OE airbox and cold feed intakes, fitted with

an Apexi or K& N panel filter, if you can't get an airbox the Apexi dual cone filter

or the K&N cone filter

 

Anything hose wise and maybe the coil pack connectors and clips as

they go brittle and fall apart, if the coil pack connectors go you usually

get a miss fire

 

Worth a look at the rad cap when its cold, they fail and fall apart then you get

cooling issues, think i'd fit a new one for what they cost

 

Dont forget the brake fluid, if its not been changed i'd be doing that as its one

thing that gets overlooked, even if it looks good in the mc res

Edited October 31, 2018 by Dnk (see edit history)

[RedBullGuy]

Gorgeous car! It’s never overpaying to get exactly what you want!

[Foxx]

Am I still allowed noob questions hope so...

 

I was wondering what catalytic converters were likely left (from what you can see here) on this?

 

My noob guess is the second one is removed with that exhaust installed. I just wanted to try and save some time taking it all apart if others can easily see some are missing/there.

 

Wanting to buy decat stuff in the summer.

 

Thanks

 

 

.

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

 

[Mike2JZ]

This is your second cat.

 

[Foxx]

Thanks both, really appreciate those comments.

 

Had to laugh that you circled such a large area of the picture We all start somewhere? Is that the right thing to say now...

 

So it’s currently with boost controller @1.1 bar, could there be any build up of heat issues with the cats left in at that level?

 

I’m guessing (second time lucky) still a decent gain to be had going decat?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Frank Bullitt]

Back on the handling issue, I know it was a tyre issue you had, but the one thing i would highly recommend is upgrading the antiroll/swaybars. The ones in the pic look OEM in color and size. (although its is hard to be certain with some brands.)

 

I swapped over to much stronger and adjustable front and rear sway bars. Comparatively speaking they went that expensive and incredibly easy to install, with an amazing handling improvement.

 

Stiffer bars can give a very bad ride over single wheel bumps. Adding roll stiffness via bars will make single pothole bumps much harsher and stiffer bars will make handling more twitchy.

 

For road usage you would be best sticking with the stock ARB or at the very most go for the softer TRD bars which are tubular so they aren't as heavy. For a pure track car you would need the stiffest along with different springs and shocks but the car would be dreadful to drive on normal roads.

 

To improve handling you want to consider wheels sizes no bigger than 18" (ideally 17") with as close to stock offset as possible. Good road tyres with a sensible profile, especially on the rear. Correct tyre pressures, suspension with progressively wound springs (lowering no more than 15mm - 18 mm at the front and 10 mm at the rear followed by geometry then look at adding anti-rollbars and a decent LSD like the OS Giken.

Edited February 15, 2019 by Frank Bullitt
Spelling. (see edit history)

[Frank Bullitt]

Thanks both, really appreciate those comments.

 

Had to laugh that you circled such a large area of the picture We all start somewhere? Is that the right thing to say now...

 

So it’s currently with boost controller @1.1 bar, could there be any build up of heat issues with the cats left in at that level?

 

I’m guessing (second time lucky) still a decent gain to be had going decat?

 

Tim currently the best decat pipe on the market (has the flex pipe) and you might as well grab his midpipe too as the build quality isn't too shabby on this either - http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?331224-Tempted-to-make-my-own-range-of-exhausts

 

If you click on --> BPU it will take you to a page where everything is explained

Edited February 15, 2019 by Frank Bullitt
Link added. (see edit history)