A little bit different than the previous nostalgic posts is todays post. At the festival I found two Lexus IS200s where the engine was swapped in favor of some other engine. The (sorry to day this) lesser one was this IS200 with genuine JDM Altezza grille:
It has been imported to the Netherlands less than a year ago as an IS200 but on papers it already had a 2.5 litre engine. I think you can already guess what engine it had…
Indeed! A second generation 1JZ-GTE:
Good for a lot of ooph in this chassis!
Unfortunately it was overshadowed by Groundspeed’s IS200 with a 1GZ-FE swap!
Yes indeed: that’s the Toyota V12 that can be found in the Toyota Century! This engine officially creates 280hp (less official states 310hp) but because the electronics can’t find its automatic gearbox nor its gauge cluster it is in emergency mode where it idles around 1000 rpm (instead of the normal 400 rpm) and does not function to its full potential. Nevertheless it is capable of spinning its rear wheels in third gear and outruns many beefy sports cars. Can you imagine what this engine would be capable of when it runs in normal mode?
The engine is a tight fit, but there is still about four centimeters left to lower the engine and make more room for other mods. The owner (also owner of Groundspeed) is planning on replacing the intake manifolds with ITBs and hopes to double the output. As a sidenote: Top Secret already swapped this engine into a Supra and created an incredible 950hp!
awesome awesome cars. as much as I would love a v12, I would take the Toyota powerplant for ease of tuning.