1997 Toyota Supra JZA80 Performance Factory - Performance Factory NYC Outlaw Supra

8.70 @ 145 mph 903 HP @ Wheels
You may get a splash a dj vu when looking at Vinny 's vicious Supra. It was on the cover of our January 1998 issue but sported different graphics and a mere 10.30-second timeslip. The car has long since been back-halved and is now an impressive 1.6 seconds quicker.

Vinny Ten was the first to take a JZA80 Supra to full drag race specs. This car was campaigned in late 1997 but the build up was begun earlier in the year. Vinny came across the Supra shell at Metro Auto Salvage in Queens, New York in January '97 while looking parts for a customer. At the time the shell had a partial motor in it but since Vinny had just moved his shop, Performance Factory, into Queens he made a deal for only the shell. He later acquired an engine and soon took the first steps toward eight-second e.t.s. It is key to remember that in 1997 the JZA80 was still in full production and these high-tech screamers sold for upward of $40,000. At that time, to tear down and build up a Supra solely for the strip was sheer madness.

Undaunted, Vinny wrenched away and the results speak for themselves. He was the first JZA80 in the 11s, 10s and nines and the Supra is currently the quickest JZA80 in the world with an 8.70 under its belt. The scary part of it is this e.t. was racked up on a partial pass. As the car's 145-mph trap speeds testify to, Vinny had to back off the throttle on his record setting pass. Wow, imagine what this blue bomber would do with a full "hammer down" blast?

In a departure from many of the other Supras in our collection Vinny's sports a built bottom end and stand-alone engine management. The 2JZ-GTE engine is fortified with hardcore internals. A Crower billet crankshaft plays host to Crower connecting rods which swing JE 9.0:1 pistons. The cylinder head has been honed and fitted with one millimeter over stainless-steel valves for improved flow. Heavy-duty Titanium retainers are used to achieve and sustain high engine speeds. The car has been converted back to twin turbo format since its 10-second days. Pressurization is now provided by twin Turbonetics TS04 turbos with .50 A/R housings and Q-trim wheels on the hot side. Maximum boost is 30 psi and manifold pressure is regulated by a Turbonetics Racegate and a Turbonetics manual boost controller. The Supra used to take the familiar ROM-tuned ECU and HKS VPC/GCC route to tuning but Vinny has gone stand alone, employing an Accel DFI engine management system to control all aspects of spark timing and fuel injection. Fuel is introduced to the combustion chambers via by 72 lb/hr injectors and a high-flow Weldon pump. The fuel system uses -8 lines and a custom Performance Factory fuel rail. On the spark side an MSD 7AL-2 ignition box is in charge of lighting off the fuel. The 7AL-2 relies on MSD wires and an MSD coil to energize NGK plugs. The use of the DFI unit on the 2JZ-GTE engine piqued our interest. Since the Supra runs an individual coil per cylinder ignition and the DFI requires a distributor to set timing via a magnetic trigger, we wondered how Vinny melded the two together. Vinny experimented for nearly a year, trying things like a timing wheel and belt set-up and the like before coming up with a solution-a solution he prefers to keep secret at this time. When you look at Vinny's dyno sheet you can see why he wants to keep things under cover. The Supra puts a mind-boggling 903 horsepower to the ground without the assistance of a nitrous oxide system.

One of the big reasons the Supra has dropped its e.t.s like a bad habit is in the power transfer department. The Toyota has gone from the stock six-speed manual gearbox to a Powerglide two-speed automatic. The Powerglide is actuated by a billet lightweight flywheel, Pro Torque torque converter combination. Once through the gearbox, power is transmitted to the tarmac by an ACPT carbon fiber driveshaft, a Ford 9-inch rearend with Strange 40-spline axles and 31x14 Goodyear gumballs. The slicks are mounted to 15-inch Cragar Super Lights. Further aiding in the traction department are coilover shocks. Up front are Advance Designed shocks and Ground Control springs while the rear is made up of Konis and Ground Control springs. Vinny is quick to pointed out that his front suspension is entirely stock from A to Z.

Vinny's car is a conventional back-half chassis with a funny car style roll cage in charge of driver protection. The chassis work was performed by C&F Racecars. Vinny has retained the factory dash which is home to SPI and Auto Meter gauges with a ToraSport carbon fiber trim package adding a bit of style to the still-near-factory interior. Like before, an Erebuni body kit adds to the Supra's style points total but the car is running a different graphics set-up than it did for the last couple of seasons.

As one would expect, Vinny has built up quite a portfolio with his eight-second calling card. We have recently sent a photographer to NYC and he shot some other Performance Factory iron, including its seductive ghost-flamed JZA80 drag racer which we plan to cover in a future issue. Just as Abel Ibarra is known as the guru of rotary performance with his R100 and RX-7, Vinny's Performance Factory has become synonymous with Supra power. As this section so vividly illustrates the JZA80 should be a prime-time player for years to come making the Performance Factory a common stop on any Supra's power trip.

As you can see from Vinny's timeslip his 145-mph terminal velocity is way off pace which means he lifted and still lit up an 8.70. We can't wait to see Vinny go full throttle for the full 1320.

Performance Factory Crew Members
J.C. Fermin / Mike Amico / Job Spetter / Eric Grim / Frankie Parlay