Drag Racing
The Supra has a history of professional drag racing, mainly in Japan and the United States. The HKS team have used both the Mk III and Mk IV to showcase its products, known as the HKS Drag Supra. This Supra was driven by Charlie Goncalves Catanho. It was mainly built on a custom chassis with a carbon fiber body, the Mk III version housed a de-stroked 2.89-liter twin-turbo 7M-GTE, good for 800 bhp (600 kW) at over 9000 rpm, giving a best quarter mile time of 8.09 seconds.
One of the first Pro Mod driver in import drag racing, Vinny Ten used a Supra to hold national records for drag racing in the United States between 1997 to 2000 as well as being the first in the US to build a 1,000 bhp (700 kW) Japanese engine without the need of nitrous or alcohol fuel. Ten also achieved the first for the Supra to break into the 12 to 8 second barriers as well as achieving a speed of over 120 to 160 mph (260 km/h). Ten has since taken his Supra into the six second barrier.
Craig Paisley, another pioneer of sport compact drag racing, also used a nitrous-assisted Supra, his first sport compact, to compete in the same category. He achieved a best of 8.2-second e.t.s at more than 160 mph (260 km/h) and would switch to the factory supported Tacoma by 2002. Paisley was also the first sport compact racer to receive factory sponsorship and support. Toyota became the first Japanese car company to ever get involved with drag racing.
After years of competing in other cars, in 2002, HKS returned with the Mk IV version of the HKS Drag Supra, driven by Tetsuya "Dryhopp" Kawasaki, its 4.0 liter 1UZ-FE V-8, equipped with two prototype HKS GT3540 turbos, HKS rods and billet crank and stock valves, producing in total of 1,479 bhp (1,103 kW).
In 2003, the Supra was to compete in the NHRA Sport Compact Series, but the car became ineligible when the category it was to enter in, Pro V8, was axed at the beginning of the year, therefore it was permitted to perform demonstration runs throughout the season, where at a round at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Englishtown, the Supra took the car's record time of 6.893 ET at 193.13 mph (310.81 km/h), eclipsing its best in Japan of 7.277 posted at Sendai Hi-Land Raceway.
In 2002, at NHRA's Street Tire Class, the unibodied Titan Motorsport Supra of Mark Mazurowski broke the all-season record breaking dominance of Ari Yallon's Rotary Performance RX-7 to take the title and became the fastest uni-body Supra in the world with a time of 9.42 second and 157.56 mph (253.57 km/h) at Maple Grove Raceway, Pennsylvania, despite a quicker time at Houston Raceway Park of 9.002 at 160.40 which was unrecorded.
The Supra won all but the first round, losing at a final to Yallon. With the cancellation of the Street Tire Class, Titan would move to the Pro RWD class with a 2JZ-GTE powered Celica The Supra was used by BF Goodrich to advertise its Drag Radials tires which it was equipped with.
Many cars that appeared in the series would appear in the NDRA (NOPI Drag Racing Association) BF Goodrich Tires Pro Street Tire series.
In the United Kingdom, Steve Whittaker used a 900 bhp (671 kW) Mk III built around a Pro style chassis to achieve a best of 8.207@169.89 mph.
Sriyantha Weerasuria (SW) and Boost Logic were able to achieve a 246 mph (396 km/h) pass at The Texas Mile and a 7.91@189.9 quarter mile pass with the stock Getrag V160 transmission.
At TX2K10 (a national Supra meet that takes place annually in Texas), Boost Logic made a quarter-mile pass with their drag car with a time of 7.59@189 mph. The car was driven by Kean Wang.
The record is now held by Ebrahim Kanoo of Bahrain with driver, Gary White. His 10.5 Supra (10.5" wide tire) ran 6.23@227 mph in the quarter mile. He also holds the IRS (Independent Rear Suspension) record with his IRS Supra that ran 7.18@200 mph in the quarter mile. Both cars were built and tuned by Titan Motorsports.
Read more about this topic: Toyota Supra In Motorsport
Famous quotes containing the words drag and/or racing:
“Our own theological Church, as we know, has scorned and vilified the body till it has seemed almost a reproach and a shame to have one, yet at the same time has credited it with power to drag the soul to perdition.”
—Eliza Farnham (1815–1864)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)