Some people may balk at the idea of modifying such a new vehicle. But you are one of us! An enthusiast who wants to modify something without affecting the integrity and balance of such a great platform.
Luckily the Mk5 Supra has already been shown to have the ingredients to make a legendary chassis like its big brother, the A80 Supra.
So where do you start? This entirely depends on your plans for the vehicle.
For our customer here, he wanted something that was a fun and daily drivable vehicle. But something that demanded respect when called upon. Keeping it low key as well as to not attract too much attention outside of the people who “know”.
The basis of our mod path started with the Pure800 turbo upgrade. This is an OEM turbo that Pure Turbos takes and modifies. They modify the internals and install a much larger impeller and turbine wheel which greatly increases the output of the turbo.
Internal combustion engines are essentially a fancy air pump. So when you increase the flow in one end, you have to open up the other end to reduce bottle necks in flow. So next we went with an AMS Performance downpipe paired with a Milltek Sport catback exhaust. This system opens up the piping diameter, allowing the turbo to expel its extra gasses without having to work too hard. Just so happens to make an amazing sound while doing it as well. The stock exhaust certainly sounds good, but this thing sounds MEAN. Full 304 stainless steel with carbon fiber tips means you can rock this for a long time without worrying about corrosion.
On the intake side, we wanted something that was OEM+. Not overly aftermarket looking. So naturally, we went to aFe Power. Their Takeda by aFe Power Momentum intake looks like it belongs on a factory car, while increasing flow by 22% over the factory intake. It has a reusable filter as well which saves you money down the road, not having to replace the factory paper filter.
Next for the sake of reliability, we did the aFe Power Blade Runner hot charge pipe. This is finished in a beautiful wrinkle red colour, and is made of aluminum. BMW’s are famous for having charge pipes fail as the plastic becomes brittle over time and eventually decides it identifies more as a grenade than it does an automotive part. This also comes with a pre-tapped 1/8” NPT port making the addition of water/meth kits much easier.
For cooling we went with the CSF heat exchanger. CSF is the name in the game when it comes to performance cooling and they came to the table with another beautiful product that simply performs. These cars from factory have a water to air intercooler. Water is a vastly superior conductor which allows you to suck more heat from the charge air while having a much smaller core compared to a traditional air to air intercooler to do the same amount of cooling. Since we shot this, CSF has come out with an upgraded intake manifold which has a water to air intercooler integrated similar to the factory intake manifold. The CSF heat exchanger takes the hot coolant coming from the intercooler and cools it, the same as a radiator, and then cycles cooler water back into the intercooler. They even include a nice little rock screen to help protect the unit from debris which could damage the heat exchanger.
Tuning is next. This is what ties all of your new modifications together to make you the extra power that you have been chasing. We decided to go to some of the best out there in the Mk5 tuning world, Titan Motorsports. Titan is a Florida based company who has been playing with Supras for a long time. The Supra has been a bit of an enigma when it comes to tuning. The early Supras were figured out fairly quickly. A lot of people struggled with throttle closure under WOT but that was eventually ironed out. Then the A91’s came out and the ECU needed to be physically hacked before you could tune it. And the newer A91’s weren’t able to be tuned at all. It sounds like these have recently been cracked as well, but the path has not been an easy one.
The vehicle in this state would be making in the high 500whp range. It was already quite quick as it was, but the customer decided that they wanted a little more.
So we decided to do a simple Titan Motorsport water/meth kit to add some extra cooling and power. The Titan kit uses the Snow Performance water/meth kit, but Titan produces a mounting solution which is specific to the Mk5 to keep it low key and serviceable. This kit uses a throttle body spacer plate which has the jet installed in it to keep things simple. No drilling holes in charge pipes. The mounting solution provided allows you to mount everything inside the passenger side shock tower cubby which when the lid is installed, you would have no idea it is there. The only thing you see in the interior is the controller which is small and can be tucked up out of the way as to not draw too much attention when people are trying to figure out why this car is so damn fast! The water part of water/meth helps cool the charge air, which allows for a denser charge which means you can pack more air into the engine. The methanol part of water/meth is fuel. So adding more fuel means you can be more aggressive with the tuning as it has more fuel to support it.
At this point the vehicle is at the limit of its fuel system. This would be in the low-to-mid 600whp range. It is an absolute monster and a blast to drive. Hellcats watch out!
What is next? When increasing the power so drastically, we always recommend touching brakes, suspension and tires at minimum. This allows you to have a balanced approach when increasing capability. So a nice set of brake pads and some high temp fluid would allow you to haul down this missile when at speed. And do so repeatedly. A nice set of coilovers would allow you to keep body movements in check. Something with better valving and a bit of damping control will allow you to fine tune everything to your liking and maximize grip. Tires are the next big upgrade. The stock tires are decent, but still struggle when driven hard with the factory power level. At this power level, they simply cannot keep up. So upgrading to a stickier tire will allow you to drive with more confidence and allow you to exploit its performance much easier.
If you are looking to modify your car and have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out and we can help you put together a proper mod path for your vehicle while keeping it reliable and balanced. We can help direct you to a performance specialist shop in your area who can really help extract all that you can from your given platform.
Why do we mod? Because stock is boring!
