When your nickname is Bombka and you own a custom body shop, your signature vehicle better be the bomb.
When Tomasz Stasiuk was growing up in Poland, trundling about on a Czech-made motorcycle, he acquired a nickname. "It sort of means like MacGyver," explained Bombka in his thick Polish accent. "One day my friend started calling me that after I installed power windows in my house."
While Bombka may have had a decent house with windows that turned alfresco at the push of a button his 150cc set of wheels remained far short of his desire. Since then though, he's moved to America and is currently having a Supra time.
As you can see, Bombka's come a long way from that little motorbike and his former city of Biala Podlaska. He and his transformed Toyota now reside in Philadelphia where he and his cousin Ralph own a body shop, R&B Custom Autobody. Both of them came here from Poland in '97. They started to learn bodywork when they arrived . Judging from the stately shape of the Supra's custom exterior they paid close attention to whoever taught them.
The body tuning strategy for the Toyota consists of a few wisely chosen VeilSide parts. Bombka molded in the sideskirts and added some shape to the front bumper. Their relation to the VeilSide name ends there. The rest of the body, including the rear bumper, rear wing, fenders and quarter panels, were custom made by Bombka. He spent countless hours after work perfecting the widebody kit. Six inches are added out back and three inches up front. "The widebody kit took an incredible amount of time," said Bombka. "Because I had to make sure that each side was exactly the same length."
Widebody doors with shaved handles open up to more custom work. So does the reverse latching hood and trunk. Other finishing touches include the eye-popping candy orange paint job, taillights from a '98 Supra and front turn signals and headlights with their interiors painted white. It appears that our Eastern-block buddies can be as creative as they are calculating. Just take a look at the hole in the passenger-side headlight. This makes the Supra look like it's winking at you but allows cold air to go directly to the turbo.
Now, about that turbo. Before Bombka ever got started on the eccentric exterior, he wanted to sort out the engine. Although this was to be a show car, none of us (at least not Turbo readers) want the show without the go. The 2JZ-GTE has been called a 500hp engine detuned to 350. So, it was off to CAR V2 in Wilmington, Del., to free those extra ponies from the stable. They got the nod for the engine work due to their extensive repertoire of highly tuned turbo vehicles. James Cusack, one of the main technicians at CAR V2 was there when the Supra rolled through the bay doors. "When it came in, the number six piston was melted," James said. "There was some damage to the cylinder wall so we had to send the block out to get an overbore."
To get rid of the minor scoring on the cylinder wall, the machine shop steam cleaned and magnafluxed the block. They also gave it a full blueprint and mock up assembly before chewing up and spitting out enough cast iron to give the block a .020 overbore. Of course, the JE forged pistons had to be .020-over to match the new bore. Beefed-up rods come from Crower while ARP supplied the main studs. CAR V2 then assembled the engine to ARP/Crower spec with ARP fasteners. The valves and retainers remain stock as do the cams on the 2JZ-GTE while the head has been race ported with a three-angle valve job with OEM guides and seals.
All this extra strength does have a purpose. With the slew of additional bolt-ons such as a fuel pump and intake from HKS and a three-row, front-mount intercooler and wastegate from GReddy, the 2JZ-GTE is ready to unleash more than a few extra horses from the corral with the help of the massive GReddy turbo.Bombka and team opted for the T78 rather than the T76 because, well, it's bigger; and bigger is better.
At the end of the day, this formerly dilapidated '95 Supra is churning out 656 whp at 27 psi. "I felt that more power could have been made," said James. "But the boost kept falling off past 6500 rpm." With an engine as impressive as this, the interior might be considered an afterthought. Here, it's just the icing on the cake, and very sweet icing at that.
When Turbo first came across Bombka at Extreme Autofest it was partly because of the large crowd gathered around watching a dirty DVD playing on one of the many screens in the cabin and trunk. Just as "inspiring" as the DVD was the fiberglass job encompassing all of the electronics. Painted in candy orange and white to match the exterior, the cabin is nothing if not immaculate, almost as erotic as the DVD.
Aggressive rims and tires compliment Bombka's bomber almost as much as the interior. There's nothing like three-piece 19-inch O*Z Superlegerras to fill out the arches of this widebody, especially when they're 10-inches wide up front and a crazy 13-inches out back. They ride on are Tanabe coil-overs while Eibach sway bars stiffen things up front and rear. Of course, with all this power a compatible set of stoppers is required. A set of cross-drilled rotors with color-matched calipers bring the Supra to a stop when so desired.
Bombka and his Supra are on the dyno regularly tweaking that horsepower figure. Future dyno runs could easily see 800 hp. In the meantime, Bombka can't complain, he's got another project Supra that promises to be justas evil as this one. And they're both a long way from thatlittle Czechoslovakianmotorbike.