With the many Supras in attendance at the annual Supras Invade Las Vegas event, this chrome beauty really stood out. Aside from the fact that we got a tan standing next to the custom paint reflecting the desert sun, it really caught our attention because it epitomizes the ultimate street car. This daily driver not only is a commuter (70 miles a day) but it has the awards of a show car (15 trophies, count 'em) and the track slips of a race car (two-time consecutive winner of Hawaii's fastest import street car shootout). Not to mention we give props to any enthusiast willing to ship his car out from Hawaii and then make the four-hour drive to the show. That is love.
Cedric, not The Entertainer but yet still entertaining, Smith has a long history with Supras. Having previously built, raced and owned a 1993; 1994; and 1997 676-rwhp, six-speed Supra, he was not new to the scene when he picked up this 1997 automatic Supra from a friend in New Mexico (a surprise find on eBay no less).
Cedric has been racing in Hawaii over six years and over the last five his cars have consistently been winning car shows. Other than his Supra he terrorizes Oahu with his 1997 BMW 540 and 2000 Suzuki Vitara. No other Supra in Hawaii has won as many car shows or fastest street car shootouts. This car, which took one year to build and a whopping $45,000, truly is to be feared on the island. Although Cedric shows the car, he maintains that it "was purpose-built to be a very fast and capable street car." On this Supra you notice the many custom items that reflects Cedric's approach of trying "to be the first to do and try new things" with his vehicles.
Now, putting down 10.92-second e.t.s at 131 mph requires a lot of engine oomph, even for a turbo Supra. Stopping off at his local McCully 76 Station in Honolulu, Hawaii, Cedric wanted to ensure the 2JZ powerplant would withstand the rigors of extreme boosted duty. For this he called upon Snyders in Honolulu to perform the precision machine work on the bottom end. Cedric felt that the factory crankshaft was stout enough to handle the 700-plus horsepower he planned on generating but before it would make its way into the bottom end it received some massaging via micro-polishing and high-speed balancing. Once all the machine work was completed, Heath Kobatake at McCully assembled the engine using forged 8.0:1 Wiseco pistons mounted on factory connecting rods.
Once the bottom end was buttoned up, Cedric concentrated on improving the flow into the combustion chambers. The head was left unported but the upgraded valve train from Crower (springs and titanium retainers) help keep the factory tightly shut for better compression. Orchestrating the valve train movements are a pair of HKS 264-degree bumpsticks. The largest gain in performance came from a Sound Performance single-turbo upgrade he uprooted from his previously owned six-speed. A stainless steel RPS tubular manifold collects the spent gases and directs them into an SP67 turbocharger. Once the spent gases are done spinning the Q-trim turbine wheel a 3.5-inch RPS downpipe expedites the exhaust through a custom fabricated 3.5-inch exhaust system that gets muffled through a Blitz canister before exiting out of the rear.