FoxCars

In mid January I took delivery of the new CT200h (just hit dealers in March) for a challenge - Supercharged a Hybrid, make power, and increase the gas mileage. I had to make some calls to put my team together but that was easier then I thought actually.



February
Here is a look at the 1.8L motor with the mock up of the Supercharger system. The whole month of February to figure out electrical side of it. What is tricky and sucks is the the ECU tells the motor to shut off and turn back on during start up. Once you hit the gas though, it comes to life and then ECU timing, etc. changes.



March
Goals for the month - Make a custom rear defuser and get the custom widebody kit on the car and ready for paint the first week of April.

Goal 1:
My boy Kenny Vinces came down NJ to hand make me his rear defuser. He swears by making it out of a light wood because of its strength. We will then flat black it and put on the car when complete in the future. Here is a look at how he had made it.

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Goal 2:
On March 8 I bring the car up to my boys Ryan's shop in Palmyra, PA. Ryan is VERY talented at making anything I want him to pretty much. We looked at some renderings and started to source some parts we needed to get the job done with a short time frame. THIS IS NOT CHEAP but I want unique and you get what you pay for in the long run as I have learned over my 14 years doing this.

Jason is cutting the inside of the flares to fit up to the CT. Not like anyone makes a kit for this car yet so it has to be hand made.

The first step we did was create flares for the car to get the look we are going for. I want to run a 20x10 all the way around so I need at least a 3 inch flare to accommodate this. Jason is in the front pluming so we can measure for custom iForged wheels for the perfect offset.



I had a set of 20x9.5 Forgestar wheels for a 350Z that would give me the perfect offset I wanted in the front and rear. The correct way to do a custom widebody kit is to build it around your wheel and tire package.

The next step was to mock up the front lip spoiler for the car. This was a completely hand made part.

What is important to me is the angle. The tape line is something my eye play close attention to as it must look like my design I was going for.


Once the front end was completed it was time to sand down with our Norton products. What I like about Ryan's shop is the Goff's Curtain he uses to keep all the fiberglass dust from going everywhere! It really keeps all your dust in one spot and not messing up the rest of your garage.



Once most of the sanding was done it was time to really look at the final parts before priming and sanding again before the painting process.


This is the first time I get some of my vision getting close to the end here. The lip, front bumper and flares really give this car an aggressive look!



Next step was to add our BASF primer to the car and let the guys finishing blocking the parts for paint the first week of April

QuentinB

I thought the CT wasn't available until next month sometime?!

flipside909

It's not available until March, but Fox Marketing will be building a new CT project for Lexus.

fleishelja

iTrader: (1)

Lucky! your definitely won the race to have the first build thread on a ct200h haha. I bet the next one wont be for another 6 or 7 years

LexFather

So looking forward to this. PLEASE do it right, like the previous Lexus you have done!

jadu

iTrader: (42)

i gotta see this.. in for pics

Mr.W

i'd like to see that rear diffuser(?) with a black insert (like the 3-series or new ford focus)...

windex

iTrader: (1)

And please dont do what you did with the IS350 supercharger making promises to produce parts/kits and disappear. If you guys do something really badass I might consider getting a CT200h.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. This just may be my next car. I'm starting to really get serious about getting a normal looking hybrid.

xfirechief

That is how I feel too. Now if it will get the MPG promised.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

Sweet! You're the man.

Can't wait to see the final result. How much Yonaka stuff are you gonna be using on this one?

IAMJAVEDG

iTrader: (5)

I've seen what it's gonna look like and all I have to say is - It's going to be WICKED!

FoxCars

LMS makes the bracket. Buy the ProCharger unit. Then, get a chop saw for $100 and order some piping from Yonaka and intercooler. If a marketing guy who doesn't work on cars can fab a system and gain 84hp at the wheels with no tune or check engine you can too. Seriously, how hard is it haha??

windex

iTrader: (1)

It wasn't the fact that you didn't want to make the kit public, it was that you boasted that you were going to put the kit into production and split without a word after it was completed. This left a lot of people scratching their heads.

As for you being a "marketing guy who doesn't work on cars", I can tell you that I dont have this http://www.foxmarketing.net/project_cars/ under my belt.

With all of what you were talking about doing and how you guys didnt want to be like the rest of the companies that tried to make FI economically available for the 2is, with better gains, you had a lot of people excited about what you were saying you would do. That being said I would love for you to tell the 2is community what you just told me above.
Seriously, How hard would that be?


All of this doesn't sway my opinion on your capabilities at all, so please don't take it that way. If you do something awesome with the CT200h if it were to go into production I wouldn't hesitate to jump at the opportunity to get my hands on your product.

FoxCars

I see your point and your side 100 percent. Let me just tell you some facts from my side on the whole supercharger kit for the IS350/IS250.

First of all, Javad from Jashaan Autosports brought up the bracket he bought on Ebay with a pulley so we could bolt on the supercharger to the block. He only had one of those. We put on the lift right before SEMA 2009 and did the kit in a matter of hours with me mounting the intercooler, and doing all the piping which was pretty simple. Once we fired it up, it left that next day for SEMA. Once I got the car back I put on the dyno and got some really good number. BUT, the kit ONLY had 5 miles on it and that isn't enough testing to put my name behind it. If you bring something to market it better work or you could get sued. I wanted to put a couple thousand miles on it, make sure we had no check engine light and gauge while doing it. To be honest with you only 2 people contacted me about the blower on the car and to cut a bracket (have to make a minimum of 10 to place an order), and rip the whole kit off the car to do it there was just no time. Lexus took the IS C all over the US to Auto Shows and once I got around to driving the car I wanted to put R&D miles on the kit. Here are my thoughts and results today. I drove the car all summer and put around 5000 miles on the kit. I hammed every gear, checked air/fuel in each gear and everything is surprising perfect. No check engine lights, good gas mileage and it rips. It beats my IS F off the line with no question. What I found out during the summer was LMS had the bracket and stuff for sale and people just wanted to piece a kit together like I did. What I figured out is that LMS intercooler was so small that the flow rate of the blower and small intercooler chokes the power. That is why I got the right size intercooler from Yonaka to match the CFM flow of the ProCharger. One guy called me from WA state and I told him where to buy everything and how to do that. I DO NOT manufacture parts, I just find people who say they are going too. At first Jashaan Autosport was going to then no one wanted to buy one. Talk is one thing, and money where you mouth is another.

But, I 'm going to work with TRD on this supercharger for the CT which I think it going to be sick. Now if TRD helps me with this, I see that coming to market in the future. I mean why not if there is a demand.