Remember when you were a little kid and received something that you
thought was the most badass thing ever? You could not wait for the next
school day to walk around campus strutting your new gear. You wanted to
be the coolest kid on campus --at least for a day. A new season is
starting throughout the motorsport world, and the guys at a certain
shop could not wait to show the world their masterpiece. So, here it
is. The lighter, wider, meaner, faster, and completely revamped Twins
Turbo Motorsports Supra for the 2009 season.
I don't want to bore you with a bunch of numbers all at once, so I will
straight out tell you the numbers that do really matter: this Supra
weighs in at 2750 pounds, and produces around 750 horse power to the wheels.
How's that for showing off your new backpack to your school mates?
At
the heart of the beast lies a 3.0 liter 2JZ-GTE monstrosity built by
Marc Koz at Twins Turbo and features custom Arias pistons, Brian Crower
camshafts, HyperTune intake Manifold, and a turbine from Bullseye.
The car is kept on
the track with a set of Penske 8100 series shocks and Eibach springs,
which have been setup by Erik Messley from EMI Racing. An APR rear GT wing keeps the rear end of the car from
slipping.
To keep that monster at bay is an extensive network of front and back
chassis stiffening modifications. The whole front clip has been cut and
in its place is a lighter and stronger tube frame. The driver is kept
safe with a Steen Chassis eight point cage.
A TRD limited slip differential transfers all that horsepower to a pair
18x13 CCW C14s in the rear. The car's steering and front grip is
governed by a pair of 18x12s.
One of the most badass features on this completely badass car is the
"exhaust." The turbo dumps out to a 6 inch wide pipe on the passenger
side fender. The sound that is produced by this car is pure racing
bliss.
The interior is all business. There's no need to glamorize what racing
is. It is raw, it is loud, and it is dirty. A dashboard? Who needs such
things when you're doing 160+ MPH down the front straight of the main
track at Willow Springs! The Supra will be racing this season wheel to
wheel at NASA events as part of the Super Unlimited class and Time
Attacks. So, to keep this gas guzzler out on the track, an ATL
twenty-two gallon fuel cell has been employed.
When I went to shoot this car out at Willow Springs International
Raceway, it was the very first weekend that the newly revamped car
tasted the tarmac. Eric at Twins Turbo and his team worked very hard to
get the car ready for it's first shakedown that weekend. The Twins
Turbo Supra qualified 3rd for the race. All their work was put to the
test when the pace car pulled into the pits and the let the pack of
hungry V8 stock cars and heavily modified street cars loose.
The Twins Turbo Supra kept up with the v8 stock cars until the 3rd lap.
The front driver side tire corded which ended the race for Twins Turbo
and thus, their weekend. The car definitely pulled its weight and showed
everyone what it is capable of. But this is racing, and things like
that happen all the time. This Supra had badass goods to show off, which it did wonderfully. It was definitely the most badass new kid on campus and not only for a day, but for a whole weekend!
A lot of us are into racing because
of a few key factors; the speed, the cars, the camaraderie, and most
importantly the drama. We may not enjoy watching General Hospital or
The Notebook, but we more than enjoy watching the drama that unfolds on
the race track --any race track. There's the magic of absolute uncertainty which keeps us on our toes. And that uncertainty is what
keeps people like Eric, from Twins Turbo Motorsports, to keep getting
up in the morning. The drama awaits him, and his team, and so does
standing on top of the podium.
A corded tire? No worries. There's always next weekend.
-Linhbergh Nguyen
Marc, Eric, owner and driver, Steven Aslanian, at Twins Turbo, would
like to extend a special thanks to these people and their sponsors:
- Erik Messley from EMI Racing
- Shane Tecklenburg of ST Consulting
- Greg Pyles of GP Motorsports
- Jamie and Jerry at Brembo Race Technologies
- Gary and Jayson Steen at Steen chassis in Signal Hill CA for the cage work
- Dan and Dave from Bullseye Power turbochargers
- Matt Giles at Penske Racing Shocks
- Scott and John from DynaPack USA
- Twins Turbo shop guys; Carlos and Kevin
www.twinsturbo.com
www.emiracing.com
www.steenchassis.com
www.brembo.com
www.bullseyepower.com
www.penskeshocks.com
www.dynapackusa.com