When the world first saw the new Toyota Supra, the world wept that there was no Toyota-designed engine under the hood. Rather than some new 3JZ, there was a BMW B58 straight six. Well, everyone may dry their tears, as tuning legend Steph Papadakis got that stock Supra engine to the four-figure mark.
Let me begin by saying that the 2JZ was not the greatest engine ever made. When Toyota raced the Mk4 Supra, even, it yanked out the heavy iron-block 2JZ and put in a four-cylinder instead.
Still, the whole reason for being for the Supra was that you could boost the overbuilt Bubble Era engine to the moon and make six or seven hundred horsepower on stock components, double that with support from a healthy aftermarket. If you wanted a dyno queen, you got a Supra. If you wanted a highway racer, you got a Supra.
That’s been the fundamental crisis of the Mk5 Supra. Without the big-power capability of the 2JZ, wasn’t it just some other GT car? Where was the identity?
Well, the B58 can make big power, at least with the giant brain of Papadakis behind the build and about 42 or 43 pounds of boost on an engine dyno. He thinks it even sounds like a 2JZ.