Let's not act surprised by an aftermarket kit to put a 2JZ engine into the 2020 Toyota Supra. The new Supra's chief engineer, Tetsuya Tada, already advised anyone planning such a swap to " please buy the four-cylinder. It will be cheaper." What's surprising is that the kit is being advertised before the Supra's even gone on sale, and it's coming from CX Racing. The tuning firm offers a long list of equipment, but it might be most known for selling turbochargers and plumbing on eBay.
The company might also have been surprised by response to the 2JZ swap kit announcement. When CX Racing posted a render of a blue Supra with a blue-hued 2JZ dropped perfectly in the forward bay, naysayers streamed down from the hills. The primary gripe was that the B58, an engine only in production since 2015, hasn't been tuned to its limits, so why "swap in a heavier less efficient engine for the sake of nostalgia?" No one knew the B58 had so many defenders. We won't get the four-cylinder Supra in the U.S., so swaps will put more B58s on the market for those who covet their potential.
True, the B58 is a strong engine, with an aluminum block, closed deck, and forged rods, piston and cranks. But it's a modular engine designed with compromises that could make extreme tunes more difficult and expensive, like having its air-to-water intercooler integrated into the intake manifold. Meanwhile, the iron-block, closed-deck, twin-turbo 2JZ-GTE was so thoroughly over-engineered from its 321 hp that 600-hp tunes didn't phase it. Some say Toyota planned to give the MkIV 600 hp from the factory. Even if that's not true, teardowns show the carmaker made the engine stout enough to handle 900 hp without opening the block or cratering reliability. Shigeki Tomoyama, president of Toyota's Gazoo Racing division, drives a 600-hp carbon-bodied MkIV Supra to work.
Never mind all that, though. Logic doesn't guide engine swaps. Dreams, nostalgia, budgets, and time do. And everyone knows this swap is going to happen sooner rather than later. CX Racing says it's taking pre-orders now. In their rendering, we see they added a MkIV wing to the 2020 Supra. Perhaps they've also sorted out the changes and equipment necessary to install the MkIV's R154 six-speed manual gearbox, too.
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The company might also have been surprised by response to the 2JZ swap kit announcement. When CX Racing posted a render of a blue Supra with a blue-hued 2JZ dropped perfectly in the forward bay, naysayers streamed down from the hills. The primary gripe was that the B58, an engine only in production since 2015, hasn't been tuned to its limits, so why "swap in a heavier less efficient engine for the sake of nostalgia?" No one knew the B58 had so many defenders. We won't get the four-cylinder Supra in the U.S., so swaps will put more B58s on the market for those who covet their potential.
True, the B58 is a strong engine, with an aluminum block, closed deck, and forged rods, piston and cranks. But it's a modular engine designed with compromises that could make extreme tunes more difficult and expensive, like having its air-to-water intercooler integrated into the intake manifold. Meanwhile, the iron-block, closed-deck, twin-turbo 2JZ-GTE was so thoroughly over-engineered from its 321 hp that 600-hp tunes didn't phase it. Some say Toyota planned to give the MkIV 600 hp from the factory. Even if that's not true, teardowns show the carmaker made the engine stout enough to handle 900 hp without opening the block or cratering reliability. Shigeki Tomoyama, president of Toyota's Gazoo Racing division, drives a 600-hp carbon-bodied MkIV Supra to work.
Never mind all that, though. Logic doesn't guide engine swaps. Dreams, nostalgia, budgets, and time do. And everyone knows this swap is going to happen sooner rather than later. CX Racing says it's taking pre-orders now. In their rendering, we see they added a MkIV wing to the 2020 Supra. Perhaps they've also sorted out the changes and equipment necessary to install the MkIV's R154 six-speed manual gearbox, too.
Related Video:
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