Wiggins 400BHP 2JZ ZF8HP Toyota Supra And The Sad Story
Posted by Matthew Marks on 30th Jan 2025
Today, we have come down to see Wiggins' mad Toyota Supra. We've got loads of shots of the car to show you, and we'll get Wiggins to talk a bit about it and the story behind why he decided to convert it to ZF8HP.
I think you guys are going to love it, and if you would like to see the full video, click the link below and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube for more car content!
How did the car project start?
So, it originally started as a non-turbo manual. Obviously, it's not quite like that anymore. Wiggins has been a part of our YouTube channel for a while, and he's helped with the AWD project Civic loads.
I've personally known Wiggins for a very long time, about 10 years, and his dad has had the Supra for a long time, and he's just been building it bit by bit.
his is mine and my dad's build of a 400bhp ZF8HP Toyota Supra. The reason it's zf8hp is that my dad has had a leg amputated, but we won't go into that yet; I made sure we could both drive this thing.
Currently, we are sitting at 400bhp and on a standard engine with just ARP head studs and a thicker head gasket. We have a G35-900 turbo on there as well.
Currently, the engine is a little bit poorly, but this year, we'll have a forged motor in there, bigger injectors, and we'll be able to turn it up.
Tell us a bit more about the engine specs.
Currently, we have 650cc injectors, but we're going to go up to 1000cc; we have the ECU Master black engine management, we've got a Walton exhaust manifold, custom 3" exhaust, HKS high power, Mishimoto radiator, yeah, it's everything you want.
It's got all the right bits, but it just does not have enough power!
We've got a Turbosmart 45mm wastegate, the Turbosmart blow-off valve, an Exoracing carbon turbo blanket, and an AEM fuel pressure regulator; that's about it, really, engine spec-wise.
What about the ECU and gearbox side?
So, we've used a Turbolamik TCU for the gearbox, which is a standalone gearbox control unit. It handles the gearbox well and drives just like it does in a BMW, It's faultless, really; you can't beat it.
So, for the ECU, we went with ECU Master black because, at the time, it was the cheapest Standalone on the market , and it had every function I could have needed to make this thing work.
It did everything I needed; it did everything that every other Standalone system could have done for a mild build; it's not crazy; I don't need millions of additional sensors or digital dashes or anything like that; I just needed something that would control the engine.
That, plus the Turbolamik, is perfect for this, isn't it?
It is, yeah, a perfect setup. So we've got CAN integration, which is already set up on Turbolamik, so you import all the files, and they talk to each other.
Tell us about the start of the build.
stage one of the car. So initially, it was manual, and originally, it had a GT30 turbo on there, your old GT30, Matthew! So, the first time, we went for a basic build.
We're aiming for 400 horsepower, so we had a fairly small turbo as we didn't want it laggy; we wanted it responsive, which made 400. it actually made 460! We were quite impressed. They were not big numbers for a supra, but what we were aiming for was it was on the dot.
So Wiggins went to the dyno and had a heat sleeve that was touching the exhaust manifold (a big no-no!). We had a fire sleeve turn into a fire sleeve. What did we do after that? After it caught fire, I replaced the line and the turbo drain pipe as it burnt right through.
it's a shame I don't have the pipe, it was so lucky the whole car could have gone up in flames. It was so close to the manifold that it just caught fire, and then what did you do after that?
We didn't redo the line; Jack from HPWorx got a bit of welding wire, hooked it around the line, and cable-tied it somewhere so it pulled the line away from the manifold so we could proceed to tune.
ike I said, Dad was due to get his leg cut off, and I was desperate to get this car done, so it was like, do whatever we can do to get it tuned that day.
So, we pulled the return line away from the manifold to proceed with tuning. We're starting to make good power, and then all of a sudden, we're getting a bit of an oil leak, and we're like crap.
I'm like, keep tuning. It's only a little leak, but it'll be all right, so we keep tuning and making more power.
All of a sudden, this leak's getting bad now, so we better have a look. It pushed the crank seal out on the dyno. So we're like, let's get a crank seal. So we get a crank seal, fit it on the dyno, and tune. We got it all finished, which was one day.
What suspension and tyre setup are you running?
So we've got Work VWS-1s on there, 19x9.5 on the front, 19x10.5 on the rear, and Pilot Sport cup twos on there, which are a good tyre for the dry but not so good in the wet. In any gear, we spin, and the fourth gear lights it up.
They're terrible tyres in the wet, but they're really good for the dry.
Suspension-wise, we've got HSD Monopro coilovers, twin-turbo four-piston callipers on the front and the twin-turbo twin pots on the back.
Again, we've got HEL Performance braided brake lines and PBS Protrack brake pads supplied by Exoracing. We've got an OEM brake disc and a full Superpro bush kit underneath, which was Exoracing supplied.
Guys, just in case you didn't know, Matt supplies car parts, and he probably supplied 75% of the things for this thing.
What about the exterior?
It's had a full bare metal respray in 2019 with the glass out and everything. We have a Ridox front bumper, brand-new OEM facelift headlights, Ridox side skirts, Ridox rear spats, and a TRD spoiler.
We had the facelift side lights cut into the rear quarters. We put the facelift rear lights on it, and it has a very special one-of-a-kind custom rear bumper. You will not find this bumper on another Supra!
What have you done to the interior?
So we've got carbon, carbon, more carbon, and more carbon.
We got the BMW M4 shifter, obviously for the ZF8HP gearbox. This is just a factory BMW shifter, and we've got a night pager flappy paddle kit.
We've got an AEM boost gauge, AEM AFR gauge, oil pressure gauge, and Recaros, and we dyed the carpet black. We also have a TRD cluster, which is quite a rare piece and worth quite a lot of money.
It's time for the backstory of the Toyota Supra.
Right, it's story time! This isn't my car; this is my dad's car; this is just a build between us; I've just done all the work for him. Like I said, ever since I was about 15 or 16, this was his dream car, so he gets to a point in his life where he can afford a Supra, and I'm like, Dad, do it, let's do it.
I was like, let's do it. Get a supra dad. You got to do it; you'll never do it if you don't do it now. So he gets a Supra, but unfortunately, it was non-turbo. Nobody wants non-turbo, but it was manual!
Further down the line we decide we're going to turbo it and I'm like Dad nobody wants some non turbo supra we got turbo it we got turbo it we got turbo it.
So we turbo it, and we aim for 400 bhp. The non-turbo gearbox is no good at 400bhp. That's its safe limit. Once you go over 400, it's goodbye gearbox. So we changed the gearbox, put in a stronger gearbox, and made some
power. We made 460, and then the day we got MOT'd, Dad ended up having his leg amputated.
Brilliant, we just finished the build, now he can't drive it, so he's like, what's the point of me having a car if I can't drive it and I'm like, that's a good point. So I'm like, Dad, don't worry, I'm going to sort that, so we decided to fit the ZF8HP, and now he can drive it with one leg.
Then the engine decides that it's going to go, so we fit the gearbox, we fit a new turbo, we go back to the dyno, the engine starts smoking, and then this is where we're at: time for a forged motor!
What are your future plans for the Supra?
So, the future plans: I would like there to be no future plans, so I could actually work on my own car once (haha).
We're going to forge the spare block we've got and put it into here because this one's low on compression on one cylinder.
We'll put some bigger injectors in to turn the boost up, and then I need to sort out a final drive so that gearing is right for the 8HP. Hopefully, that should be it, really. Then we can do another video!