LOOKS FINISHED.
ISN’T EVEN CLOSE.
A 7M-GTE 3.0-litre straight-six turbo, a wild purple finish and one very complicated history underneath. Before we can enjoy this Supra, we need to undo years of questionable decisions.
A GOOD CAR WITH A BAD HISTORY.
From the outside, the Supra already has serious presence. But once we started looking underneath the surface, it became obvious that the real project was going to be electrical and mechanical rather than cosmetic.
The car has an aftermarket ECU that is no longer usable, and the engine-bay wiring has been heavily modified to suit it. The engine itself has also been modified and partially stripped. We have never heard it running, so there is no point guessing what works and what doesn’t.
Our plan is to take the engine management back to a known starting point: return to a stock ECU, rebuild the wiring properly and test the car logically from there. Once the electrical side is trustworthy, the mechanical recommissioning can move forward properly.
THE INTERIOR NEEDS SAVING TOO.
When the car came to us the interior had already been stripped and parts of it had been covered in the sort of patterned cloth that belongs in a very questionable 1970s bedroom. That will be put right as the project develops.
This is not about throwing parts at the Supra until something happens. The aim is to work through it in a sensible order, understand what has been changed and build it back into a car we can actually trust.
KNOWN BASELINE FIRST.
Undo the shortcuts before adding anything else.
There is no value in throwing parts at a car whose engine management and wiring cannot yet be trusted. The first win will be a known electrical baseline and, after that, finally hearing the engine run.
RECOMMISSIONING UNDERWAY.
The next milestone is simple to describe and much harder to achieve: correct the wiring, get the ECU side right and hear the car run.