1998 Toyota Quicksilver Supra - Texas Two-Step

Toyota Supra
1,200 WHP
868 LB-FT Of Torque
Tommy Banh has a need for speed unmatched by anyone-Maverick included. Tommy isn'tan F-16 jock. He's the king of the standing mile and he flies a Supra. His previous car, a six-speed '95 Anthracite, which appeared in Turbo, topped out at 201 mph at the famed Texas Mile in 2006. Tommy was up to his old tricks and up to stratospheric speeds in 2007 with an all-new dance partner.

"After I sold my record-breaking 201mph car in June 2006, I bought a very rare low-mileage '98 Quicksilver Supra turbo from a personal friend of mine, Peter Blach," Tommy says. Since Toyota only made 24 six-speed Quicksilvers in 1998, the Supra was a real find. Factor in that the car had a scant 11,000 miles on the odometer and it was a truly a rare gem. Some people, including us, wonder why such a pristine example was turned into a speed demon instead of a tired mule that would embrace a 10-point rollcage and 220-plus mph top speeds. But Tommy had a plan. "There were two goals for this car that I wanted to accomplish, 220-plus mph in a standing mile and 8s in the quarter-mile," he says.

The build began in October 2006, Tommy says when he pulled the stock motor and everything else out of the engine bay. He sent the carcass to Modena Autowerks in Houston for paint in the engine bay and a fresh clearcoat. The only additions were the RMM carbon-fiber wing and the Paisley lip spoiler. From the booth, the car was then sent to the chassis shop for a 10-point cage and removable parachute assembly to make it legal for NHRA (8.5 seconds). "I plan to keep this car as a street car so we installed swing outs as part of the cage on both sides for convenience," he says.

While the chassis was in Houston, Tommy hit full boost on the engine-building portion of the project. "The motor build started with a brand-new core from Toyota, and then I went with the trusted Titan Motorsports 3.4L stroker kit that consists of a 94mm stroke billet crankshaft, CP pistons, and Carrillo H-beam rods," he says. The centerpiece of the Titan kit is the full billet crank that ups the stroke from 86mm to 94mm.

Tommy enlisted G&G Performance for the critical machining of the block in preparation for big boost and 220-plus mph. G&G also performed its magic on the cylinder head. Tommy used Ferrea 2mm oversized valves, double valvesprings, and retainers. Sound Performance custom Crane camshafts with big lift and duration orchestrate valvetrain events.

The pressure player is a Garrett GT4718R turbo. A pristine Full-Race T6 Pro Street exhaust manifold secures the large-frame turbo. The turbo system is setup to move a large volume of air for long periods of time. Twin TiAL Sport 44mm wastegates direct flow to a mammoth 5-inch AutoBanh Motorsports (ABM) down pipe and a corresponding 5-inch exhaust.

"For the intake side I like the Virtual Works intake manifold," Tommy says. They put together a custom ABM fuel system with a Weldon 2345 external pump, a Weldon Dial-A-Flow, a six-pack of 165lph injectors, an ABM -10 AN fuel rail, and a Weldon fuel pressure regulator. "As for the drivetrain, we used the best of the best, a Tilton quad-disc clutch with TRD LSD for the rear end," he says. "As a Supra owner for about 10 years now, I went through so many clutches, and this clutch is the best. It can take so much power and torque. The engagement is very smooth and very streetable."

Tommy says the hardest part of this build was the fabrication and custom parts that had to be fabricated to get everything to fit around this substantially big turbo. "Everything around the turbo had to be custom-the upper and lower water neck, the downpipe, and the exhaust system," he says. "The intercooler was tricky as we fabricated end tanks on the biggest Garrett air-to-air intercooler that can fit and make it work with the GT47."