JZ group meet up

As usual off and on we do write-ups away from our usual continental related ones. I did do a write-up some time ago on a Toyota Supra MkIV and just last week there was a gathering of Supras. The group was known as the JZ group so basically anyone with a JZ engine inside regardless of the car was invited. I was there courtesy of two of my friends who happen to own Supras. There was a good 25-30 cars at the end of the day which included of course Supras, Soarers, Chasers, Aristos and so on which had hearts of the 1JZ and the 2JZ.

 The one that caught my eye. Simple mods yet gorgeous.

The meet up was at a Nasi Kandar shop in Glenmarie, Selangor. For our foreign readers, Nasi Kandar is a local Malaysian delicacy which you should try sometime. It was a good gathering of people with ideas being shared as well as views and not forgetting the sight of those cars. Naturally, there were some who were well kept by the owners and some were just there, their heart being the reason.

Well, here are some shots of the gathering for your enjoyment. The pictures are a little dark as they were taken at night and of course we only had amateur cameras with us.. hehehe…

Private Treaty Sales 2014 #2

About 2 months back, I did a write up on the 1^st Private Treaty Sales organised by Historic Motoring Ventures. Now, the 2^nd Private Treaty Sales for the year was held about two weeks back and of course my friend Jon and I decided to pay a visit to Bangsar Shopping Centre on what was a pleasant Sunday. When we reached there, we realised an orange Volkswagen Beetle parked at the entrance to the shopping centre. And so we made our way inside and there she stood, the Mercedes-Benz 500K (pic above). It was quite a surprise as this car was not included in the line-up initially but of course it got us all excited as the last I saw this car was at least 4 years back.

With a different line-up of cars this time compared to the earlier one in March, the cars on sale this time were no less eye-catchers compared to the earlier sale. Notable cars this time other than the Mercedes-Benz 500K were a very rare 1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SE Cabriolet, a 1980 Morgan Plus 8, another Mercedes-Benz 190SL roadster (a different car compared to the earlier sale), a rare 1956 Ford Thunderbird which happens to belong to a friend of mine and a 1982 Ferrari 308 of which I’ve done a write up on a similar car earlier in the year. The only Jaguar this time was a Jaguar XJS V12 Cabriolet of which I too have a similar model for sale (check out the ‘Cars for sale’ section) and the only Japanese car was a 80s Toyota Celica.

But this time around my favourite car had to be the Mercedes-Benz 500K with it’s sheer style and elegance. Some of the prices on the cars seemed reasonable with regards to its condition but some I thought were just a little too expensive. We will catch up on the Mercedes-Benz 500K soon as there’s already an article in the pipeline. All in all, it was a very excitement filled day especially with the presence of the Mercedes-Benz 500K... Well, here I’ll leave you with shots of some of the interesting cars taken by my ‘official’ photographer, Jon...

Toyota Supra MkIV

This is probably my first write up on a Japanese car here. Well, today I’m going to be writing about a 90s Japanese sports car called the Toyota Supra MkIV. Toyota started building Toyota Supras right from 1978 beginning with the Celica Supra MkI and ending with my favourite, the Toyota Supra MkIV, codenamed the JZA80.

The MkIV always attracted me with it’s sleek looks that were definitely ahead of it’s time. Even if you were to look at it, it’s not easy to believe that the first model of the MkIV came out more than 20 years ago. Toyota began manufacturing the MkIVs in late 1992 up to 2002. It came with the famous 2JZ 3.0 litre inline 6 engine and they had 2 variants, the twin-turbo models as well as the non-turbo models. I never got too much into Japanese sports cars until a friend of mine actually bought a twin-turbo model (pic below, white car) several years back and the first time I drove it almost immediately after he got it, I was amazed by the power and response of the car even though this particular car still had some issues to be sorted out.

And of course as he did it up and souped it further and it just became more and more powerful. Basically it was such a versatile car that you could soup it up quite a bit without even doing engine modifications. With him buying it, another friend (pic below, orange car, the white car is the same car as above but with standard bumpers and rims) decided to get one as well a few years ago and now I think quite a number of us in the group are looking for a MkIV... even me! Haha...

The videos below shows the car’s potential. Sit back and be amazed by this car:

 

Can't wait to get one....? What are you waiting for....? Go get one !!