Kagetsu Buic's 1997 Supra
SZ-R hardtop
Kagetsu comes to us by way of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia...and is a man on a mission. He's attempting something that has clearly not been done before...and has skipped completely over the "V8 swap" fad and right into the ultimate engine swap...the V12 swap!
Biography/Mission
It's a 1997 model SZ-R Supra,
purchased in 2001. It's the standard red colour, with generally minor work done
to it. A basic set of lip and skirts has been put on giving it a nice squat
look.
Anyway, the concept was to convert this car to the V12. This was something I
decided before I bought the car. I was almost ready to buy a TT when I
discovered the SZ-R 96.5+ model. Back then nobody knew the SZ-R 6 speed existed,
and I doubt anybody really cared. I was pretty lucky to find it in any case, and
after picking it up, knew I made the right choice. Sadly, it's taken from
then until now to actually get my hands on the V12 (1GZ-FE). Which I'm pleased
to say, I did, only a month or so ago. It was a bit of a fluke, I was at the
stage of giving it all up, and buying a new Evo, for the simplicity of having
something to drive around with others in the back. But I'm hardly sorry,
at last I get to build my car to what I wanted.
I don't know exactly how everything will go at this stage... It's all a matter
of waiting for it to come and decide from there. The container holding my engine
departed last week, so it's about 5 weeks away realistically. I'm pretty patient
though, I can wait for a bit, because it'll be chewing my wallet when it finally
does arrive (not that I can complain). I'm missing the set of throttle
bodies, so I've also purchased myself two sets of GTR ITB's, and will see if
they can be mated to the head with injectors, but in any case, we'll see how it
goes afterwards.


The mysterious V12 swap candidate:

Current Modifications
GReddy/Grex 6 Pot & 355mm brakes on the front
(fours for the back soon)
Tein fully adjustable coilovers all around.
TT 6 Speed Differential (US ratio) painted red.
Red plush pile throughout.
Honda S2000 Seats (leather with fabric insert)
Crap exhaust (made up of too many parts to be worth mentioning).
Short shifter and a few other basics