We’ve all got ‘em – videos that sparked our love for cars or channelled our interests in a selected direction.
I could name just a few, but one which stands out is a 21-second clip of a vibrant yellow MkIV Toyota Supra built by JUN, power-sliding at Tsukuba Circuit. I’m unsure where I first saw it online, but in 2001 – 4 years before YouTube was a thing – you may bet I risked the prospect of 25 to life by downloading the bootlegged clip.
Thankfully, you don’t should.
So imagine my joy, when just a few years later, I caught a glimpse of what seemed to be that exact same automotive parked in a gravel lot across the road from JUN’s Iruma shop.
What I didn’t know on the time was that this was the identical Supra that had graced the covers of Max Power and Super Street magazines in late 2001, with a somewhat different outward appearance. A Supra that had reached the mind-numbing top speed of 401.20km/h (249.292mph) on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA.
How did I find yourself here? Back in 1999, I met JUN Auto Mechanic head Susumu ‘God Hand’ Koyama in Recent Zealand when he travelled here to compete within the Option Speed Trial with the JUN Super Impreza GC8 – a 580ps (572hp) beast that hit 309.1 km/h on a protracted and straight but bumpy and wet backroad. I knew I had to go to JUN, and in 2004, I got here to Japan and was in a position to make it occur.
Greater than 20 years later, I’m still humbled to have received personal tours of JUN’s Nerima shop in Tokyo and JUN Auto Works/Auto Mechanic in Saitama from the corporate’s founder, Junichi Tanaka.
I didn’t get to spend much time with the Supra – it was the tip of the day, and I had a train to catch back to Tokyo. But I used to be lucky enough to get the automotive moved into a bit open space within the parking zone for just a few photos.
JUN was founded in 1980, but its parent company’s history dates back to 1946. After World War II, Tanaka-san’s father founded Tanaka Industrial Co., repurposing machinery used for Japanese warplanes for automotive applications. For his entry into Japan’s performance automotive tuning industry, Tanaka-san hired Koyama-san, a talented young mechanic, to go up operations, and JUN as we understand it was born.
The newest turbocharger technology was the guts of JUN’s operations, and the corporate quickly built a reputation for itself by constructing a few of Japan’s fastest and strongest cars. Tuning automotive top-speed trials held on the now defunct Yatabe Test Track by Option magazine within the ’80s became an early focus for Koyama-san. Then, in 1990, he took JUN to the worldwide stage with multiple appearances at Bonneville in several cars. In 2001, JUN returned to the salt flats with its ‘Akira Supra’ – a demo automotive construct began three years earlier from a stock 1993 Toyota Supra RZ.
Unlike most cars in Bonneville’s 200mph Club, JUN’s Supra wasn’t a purpose-built, tube-framed race automotive. It was a modified street automotive with some extra go-fast bits added (and removed) to permit it to succeed in 400km/h – a number Koyama-san had seen on the salt with previous builds.
Around the identical time JUN was within the USA with the Akira Supra, the bootlegged clip of the automotive power-sliding at Tsukuba made its way online, now known to have been ripped from Video Option Vol. 76, which got here out in 2000. Pondering back, this might need been the very first ‘viral’ video to emerge from Japan’s tuning scene, which was still largely a mystery on the time.
Thankfully, Option officially uploaded the complete three-minute segment to YouTube just a few years ago, so you may watch that by pressing the play button above. Because it seems, the Akira Supra had been delivered to Tsukuba to see how briskly it could lap the circuit, and on a warm-down lap, Option test driver Eiji ‘Tarzan’ Yamada decided to have some fun…
Not long after I first saw the power-slide clip, a friend loaned me a Video Option VHS tape from, I’m guessing, around 2000 too. Within the grainy footage, the Akira Supra was filmed ripping through the gears along the Tokyo Aqualine at over 300km/h – the Wangan benchmark of the golden era. It just got higher.
Even before I knew of its Bonneville exploits, the Akira Supra embodied all the pieces amazing in regards to the Japanese tuning scene on the time. It was a street automotive that might hit 300 km/h with ease and drift. It had a 2JZ-GTE engine built as much as 3.2L with JUN prototype parts – forged crankshaft, forged rods and pistons, performance cams – and a T88 turbo. Gear shifts were made through a sequential gearbox, practically unheard of in street cars, and it was unmistakably a JUN creation with functional exterior mods and that signature yellow paint.
For the Bonneville attempt, the 2JZ engine was completely overhauled. Along with strengthening and modifying the engine base for more power, Koyama-san added twin Trust/GReddy SPL T78-29D-14cm turbos, a prototype JUN intake manifold, and a fuel system as much as the duty. That system included a 120L tank, five Bosch Motorsport fuel pumps, and a dozen JUN 890cc injectors. Tuned through an HKS F-CON V Pro engine management system, the setup made nearly 1,400ps (1,380hp).
The driveline retained the identical 6-speed Holinger sequential gearbox it had previously been fitted with, but a 2.238:1 final drive ratio was utilized in the rear end to make sure the Supra could mechanically hit 400 km/h. Combined with its aerodynamic modifications and a full flat steel underbody tray, the Supra averaged 240.192mph (386.55 km/h) over two runs within the E/BGCC class. Hitting 401.20km/h on one in every of the runs is what it’s remembered for though.
When it returned from Bonneville, the Akira Supra was converted back to its street automotive setup, with a single Trust/GReddy T88-34D-22cm turbo, a milder cylinder head specification, a pared-back fuel system, and a more road-friendly diff ratio. In this manner, the ability output was as much as 950ps (937hp), running around 1.7bar (25psi) of boost. That’s the spec you see here.
The road version of the Akira Supra – JUN’s original search for the automotive – perfectly reflected the late-’90s/early-’00s Japanese tuner style. The front bumper, vented and bulged hood, aero mirrors, and GT wing were all JUN parts, while the rear diffuser was a RE Amemiya piece. Completing the vision were gold 18-inch Advan Model 6 wheels – the identical ones used at Bonneville – wrapped in Yokohama Advan semi-slicks.
For the reason that Supra hadn’t been cut up in its transition from road automotive to salt flats racer, it was easy for JUN to return it to street-spec. Despite its race upgrades, like a welded Cusco 10-point roll cage and a Recaro SPG seat, it benefited from some comforts, akin to a full dash, front carpet, and door cards. Also kept in place was the originally-fitted suite of GReddy gauges, plus its then-state-of-the-art Stack 8100 digital dash display.
Within the years following my 2004 encounter with the Akira Supra, nothing much was heard in regards to the automotive, so I assume it spent more time parked up within the lot. Then, in 2011, JUN gave the Supra a full overhaul – repainting it silver with recent yellow and orange graphics and refreshing the powertrain for circuit use.
Two years later, in early 2013, JUN put the automotive on the market, however it took until late 2014 for a purchase order to be made. That looks as if a protracted time given the asking price, which it is advisable to sit down for: ¥6,000,000 before tax – that’s just US$40,000 in today’s money.
I’d like to know where the Supra ended up. There’s online chatter that mentions Australia, but I can’t confirm it. Hopefully someone on the market can shed some light on its location and current form.
One thing’s needless to say: of all of the tuner cars inbuilt Japan through the years, JUN’s Supra might just be the best. It was an all-rounder like no other.
Unfortunately, Tanaka-san passed away in 2019, aged 76, after an illness, and Koyama-san, who had battled illness for years, passed away in 2022, having gone on to found Koyama Racing Labo in 2009/2010. While these icons of Japanese performance tuning are sadly gone, JUN’s legacy will live to tell the tale eternally through cars just like the legendary Akira Supra.
Brad Lord
Instagram: speedhunters_brad
This Article First Appeared At www.speedhunters.com
