MenuCar tuning tips:Toyota Supra Tuning"
The Toyota Supra is to date the fastest production car produced by Toyota.
The R&D boys were told to come up with an interesting car and this they certainly did.
It was originally intended to have a power figure in the order of 600bhp, but Toyota bosses demanded that some sense be applied and the power figure was cut.
This does mean that the standard engine is over engineered and makes it just ripe for a bit of tuning. Due to the nature of the car there is a thriving Japanese aftermarket parts supply with a full spread of options from a stage 1 fast road car setup to a stage 3 track day and motorsport model. Many Supras end up on the drag strip at some point in their lives. So onto the Supra tuning tips:-
There are really just 2 engine options. A 3.0 Turbo and a 3.0 Nasp engine. The obvious choice for the tuner would be the turbo engine as this is easiest to modify. If you have a NASP version then you could do an engine swap to the turbo and get a truly massive power hike. Car Tuning Tips would focus on improving the handling and braking of these NASP Supras. This will create a fun car that is good in the corners. (Rear wheel drive does make for some interesting cornering action.)
The 3.0 Turbo engines were supreme, a veritable favourite of car tuning tips and typically for Toyota comes with bullet proof reliability. By using an afternarket ECU you can bypass the locked ECU and by altering the fuelling and boost parameters you can raise the power by another 40% or so. Fitting a larger turbo, is another option with a wide selection of Garret units and hybrid turbos on offer.
Alternatively you could get a twin turbo setup instead as this gives a much more steady power delivery. Either way get a progressive boost controller and this will help to reign in the wheelspin on launch. We would also uprate the front mounted intercooler. The 3.0 Turbo engine has been tuned to figures of between 700 and over 1000bhp but you have to be prepared to do some extensive internal engine work to get these gains.
As the engine was over engineered it can easily cope with 500bhp before you need to start worrying about strengthening the engine unelss the engine is particularly worn. Other modifications you should consider for your Supra engine. Fast road cams will add to the peak power, uprate and improve the air intake and fit a sports exhaust & the apply some port matching. Another option you may consider is adding nitrous injection kits, this alone can add 50bhp - 75bhp more power to your engine.
What other modifications? Brake upgrades are popular. In the case of the Supra you would be suicidal not to improve the brakes if you are uprating the engine. Get a big vented and grooved disk with 6 pot calipers and some nice heavy duty fast road pads.
Handling mods are also worth considering for your Supra, we would recommend that you get fully adjustable suspension kits so you can set this up to suit your driving style. By tweaking the camber, castor and toe you can help minimise the Supras propensity to oversteer.
Don't drop your Supra by more than 30mm though as it reportedly affects the handling. Further reading. We suggest that if you want a bit more information on Supra Tuning you consult the following sources. TorqueCars have a comprehensive Supra tuning article and also a very active, friendly and helpful Supra forum. If you have any tips to pass on please use our comments box below and we will update this article, after all we are all here to share knowledge. Please also let us know if we've missed out an engine or performance mod that you feel should be included in here.
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2 Responses to “Toyota Supra Tuning”
how can u remap the supra i thought the ecu is locked and needs to be changed .
You would indeed need to replace the ECU with an aftermarket one to allow the car to be remapped. Some have done chip changes but these are clunky in our opinion and piggy back ecu’s are generally also a compromise. We’ve amended the article to clarify this point though and thank you for the feedback. We have also recently heard rumors of a tuning firm that have cracked the Toyota ECU lockout protection and if this is the case we will add some details to this article reflecting this.