It can be difficult to stand out from the crowd these days. We all know that familiar feeling of walking through a car show or meet and thinking to yourself that it seems like everywhere you turn, there's a car that looks like something you've seen a hundred times before. Where's the creativity?
Just when you're about to throw in the towel in frustration, all of a sudden it happens - you see the car you've been waiting for. A car that actually makes you stop and look to examine the details and build quality. Something so clean and well done that even though you've seen dozens of other examples of the same car that day, this one stands out. Jonathan Dawes' Supra is this car. In a sea of MKIV Supra monotony, it's a bight-blue, carbon-fiber-clad beacon of hope.
Jonathan knows firsthand how hard it can be to realize a vision in a scene like the Supra crowd. On one hand, you have the four-figure-horsepower street cars that usually look stock; then there are the full-on drag cars, the circuit racers, the show cars and the cars that kind of fall short on all of these categories. With this in mind, Jonathan set out on the path to create a Supra that instead of settling into one category, surpasses all expectations - and does well across the board.
"When I bought the car in October of 2008, it had some aftermarket wheels and a single turbo conversion kit on it," Jonathan says. "It was pretty much stock and I knew I wanted to rebuild the car from the ground up, so I didn't really care what color the car was when I bought it. I knew right off the bat I wanted to spray it my favorite color: Viper Blue."
And so it began. But don't think Jonathan made any hasty choices; he made sure to do his research before jumping into the build.
Exterior Top Secret carbon-fiber diffuser, front bumper, carbon hood, hood pins; Ridox rea
"I started looking through magazines and online forums, trying to figure out what kind of power I wanted to make, what I wanted it to look like and who I wanted to enlist to help put the car together," Jonathan says. "I decided that I wanted to have the car as just the best all-around car. I saw so many cars that were all overboard in one aspect. All show and no go, or strictly race built. I wanted something that is pleasing to the eye, comfortable to drive normally, but that you can also take to the strip and beat on people with."
A choice like this makes for a very involved (and expensive) build - after all, if it were easy to build a car that kicks ass in every category, we would see them all the time. So what makes Jonathan's Supra special? The net result of all the parts is more than just a good-looking car. It's a damn good-looking car, and it moves too.
"So many people buy the same 'power package' of parts, put it on and we [the Supra crowd] all know it works. I wanted to take that common knowledge and build upon it by putting something together that would take things to the next level. I wanted a range of products that would make the car really unique," Jonathan says. Turning to Joe Lamb and the respected tuners and engine-builders at Powerhouse Racing in Bridgeport, Texas, to handle the motor build, Jonathan knew he was in good hands. "I wanted something that could make good power, but had the quick spool time and driveability of a smaller turbo," he says.
The motor itself is a HKS-stroked 3.4-liter, built by Powerhouse. The addition of a Sound Performance quick spool valve and the use of a 70mm trim Turbonetics turbo help make the car quick off the line and extremely fun to drive, which is exactly what Jonathan is going for. Another addition, the Powerhouse Racing Stage 5 CNC race head is a pretty sweet upgrade over factory; this little number will cost you the better part of the initial purchase price of a clean MKIV Supra, in fact. All tuned and dialed in, the car puts down a nice 670 rwhp at 18 lbs of boost on a conservative tune. Not a crazy-high number, but Jonathan's car is not a dyno queen. He actually drives this thing on street tires.
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