Before I get into my plans for this SC300, I think that I’ll give a little backstory. I’ve been around SC’s since I bought my first one in college around 2005. It was a 1992 SC300 Sandstone Beige 5-MT with about 189k miles on it – I think I paid $2k. This was my project car for a while and eventually it got a 1jz-GTE swap with some help from my buddies in Orlando. We got a whole front clip from Jarco and did the entire swap in one weekend, in an uncovered driveway in the rain. About two weeks later I plowed it straight into a concrete barrier after loosing traction on an on-ramp in a construction zone:

Here is a pic prior to the swap, installing Supra brakes. Thats my friend Scott from Orlando in the picture with his black SC300 in the background:





The 1JZ clip:



Sadly the actual swap pictures have disappeared from the internet.

I’ve gone through lots of other cars since then. I bought an IS300 after crashing the SC and kept it stock until I graduated. Then around 2008 I bought a low mileage red 1996 SC300 5-MT local to me in NC. It was CLEAN and I wanted to swap the motor, but because it was a OBD-2 car I had to comply with emissions and decided to try NA-T. Trying to go NA-T on a car when its your daily driver doesn’t work well and eventually I gave up that project and traded the car in towards a new F-150 truck. Somewhere out there is a 96 SC running around with a Supra TT auto diff, Supra seats/brakes/wheels, and a lowered compression headgasket and doesn’t even know it…







I’ve recently gone though some other fun cars.

Bought this 1999 SC300 for a side project car but it turned out to be a rust bucket and traded it in (towards BMW) And stay away from that dealership….Exotic Motors is bad people.



A brand new BMW M235i I had custom ordered. Fun car, very fast with a JB4 installed:





I had that about 4 months before it became a bit too ordinary and everyday and decided to sell it and finally get my NSX I always wanted, after my dad had one growing up.







I had the NSX for about two years before deciding to sell it. I just never got to drive it, it sat in the garage on a battery tender because I couldn’t drive it to work easily or pick up my son from school with no backseat. And then even when I could drive it, on a nice summer afternoon with good weather – I always skipped the NSX and rode my road bike.

I decided to sell the NSX when I found a cheap single-owner 1994 SC300 for sale in Maryland for $3,000. It needs some work but decided it was the perfect base to start a big project car with. Almost everything “wrong” will get replaced or repainted anyways. Heres a few pictures of how the car sits today. Nothing done except Supra seats and wheels right now









More to come soon but I have been accumulating lots of parts…Powerhouse Racing single turbo kit, OS Giken Clutch, AEM Infinity, Tomai camshafts, lits goes on and on.



Brand new R154 with 0 miles, and built with upgraded Martin Crawler internals




2JZ-GTE VVTi before I started tearing it down:



That’s all for now, more to come soon with parts list and teardown pictures of the motor.

 

uh-oh .. someone would be busy in the next 6 months

That looks to be a very clean car to start with for your boosted SC

And how much do they sell those new R154 now at least for those who still have them on stock ?

 

Transmission was $3,500 but they dont have any more brand new ones. That includes the rebuild with MC parts too. I decided earlier on that 700-750hp would be the limit for this car. Any more than that and I would need a V160 with a lot more cost upfront, and then spare parts/availability would be scarce. I plan on getting another R154 built within the next year just to keep it in the garage as a spare. Doing all that with a V160 would slow down my progress with the car significantly.

 

Looking forward to your current build. I remember reading your previous 1j and na-t builds back in the day. Lots of good info shared especially when clubna-t was still around.

 

Nice plans and progress so far seems you can't escape the SC ha ha. I miss mine, wouldn't mind a hardtop SC will see if I find one lol. What turbo you plan to use for the VVTI setup. My Supra is at shop (Freed Engineering) wrapping up a vvti 2jzgte swap, S366SXE, V160 etc....I like the power curve already they peaked 805@32psi on E88, mixture of E98 and pump gas. Could have gone more but I'm on stock bottom and big numbers wasn't my goal just a good setup making useable power. I'm fine with low 7XXHP. You will enjoy the curve on the vvti low to mid range power comes on a lot quicker than a non vvti setup. Looking forward to updates and pics.

 

I'll be running a Precision 6266 DBB turbo on the Powerhouse Racing Street Torque Turbo Kit. My goal with the selections is good response for the street and eventually on a road racing course.

 

That's a perfect setup you will love the low and mid range power. What are you tuning with?

 

AEM Infinity 8 is sitting in that pile of parts, it was over $500 cheaper on the black friday sales than the normal selling price....will have Tweak'd do the plug & play harness for me, but I have not located who will be the tuning yet.

 

Good choice, I'm running Infinity 6. Vlad at National Speed is probably the best option for tuning since they are in NC also.

 

Thanks! I have seen his name floating around from doing remote tunes for people but I didnt realize that he worked there.

 

One tuner in Raleigh seems to be good . Though I don't know him personally , he tuned the engine I built for a friend in that area. He was making around 600rwhp on pump 93 at around 21 psi.

 

Thank you for sharing some of your history with us! That NSX... love those cars. The current white SC 5-speed looks great! I'm impressed you were still able to find a brand new R154. Looking forward to seeing the progress!

 

do you have a name or any contact information?

 

His name is Robert Tighe ... do a simple search of his name on facebook and you will see his page with phone numbers of his racing motorshop. Used to tune cars for Phantasm in Raleigh. He is I believe an hour west of Raleigh now. I don't know him personally but based on the feedbacks given to me by a friend whose engine I built he had been tuning, he seems to know what he is doing.

If you can't find his number let me know, I believe I have it in one of the text messages sent to me by my buddy in NC.