Drift Tengoku — October 2013

The Trust bolt-on turbo for the 1JZ, previewed in the July issue, has finally made it to its shakedown. The test car is Kazama Auto’s demo vehicle, at Nikko. “Kawasaki—you’re the one driving it, right?” the president of Kazama told me, which made me nervous, but I had a great time at full boost. If it costs ¥300,000, that is a bargain! There are still three months until release, so Tourer V owners should start saving now!

This was supposed to be a shakedown and performance check of a turbo-swapped car, but when Kazama’s Chaser arrived at Nikko, I was surprised by the engine bay. Since the chassis check in the July issue, they had changed the cams, fitted a larger intercooler, and built new piping—the car had evolved quite a bit. I only wanted to know what the turbo swap alone would do. “I’m not aiming for 500 horsepower. I want at least 600-plus, which is why I’ve put in 850 cc injectors,” said Kazama’s president casually. On the test drive, the car did feel a little soft at low rpm with just the turbo swap, but once boost came in it was seriously fast—nothing like a simple boost-up; it hit with a big surge. Maybe the well-made manifold explains the wonderful sound, too: it has a unique explosive note, unlike a gate-style setup. Read the separate box for details. After the photo shoot, Shiro Ideura and Daisuke Nakamura reportedly drove it and gave it their seal of approval: “This is great! It can compete just fine in a legal setup!” “With a 4.1 final drive and 265 Revspec 2 tires, you can keep the throttle down through a high-speed corner and let it slide—that tells you it has power. It starts making boost from around 4,000 rpm, which is plenty for drifting. Some turbos aimed at 500-plus horsepower are dead below 5,000 rpm…” said Ideura after hearing Kawasaki’s comment that the low end was weak.