One of the most memorable quotes from The Fast and The Furious sparked millions of car-minded adolescents into absolutely needing the Toyota Supra that beat Toretto's Charger: "You know you owe me a ten second car, right?" Now, you too can drive the car of your dreams thanks to car-sharing service, Turo.
For just $750, this 1100 horsepower monster can be yours to drive for an entire day thanks to a Turo user named Pernell. The car can be picked up in Houston at no additional charge, or Pernell will deliver it to you for an extra $100, as long as you're within 50 miles of him. Supras are power-hungry, even from the factory they are set up to make gobs of power. But just why did Toyota set up their sports car to make so little power if more was possible?
The fourth generation Toyota Supra is in the running for one of the most iconic cars of its generation. Developed out of the Celica and meant to be a direct competitor to other Japanese manufacturer's front-engine, rear-wheel-drive configurations. Because of this, it needed to adhere (or at least be close to the advertised amount) to the 276-horsepower gentleman's agreement that all manufacturers had, at least in Japan. But it wouldn't have a magic spinning triangle like the Mazda RX-7, and it certainly wasn't going to need all-wheel-drive like the top-tier Nissan Skyline. Instead it was going to take the best of both worlds and implement an inline-6 that would hold its weight in the name alone: the infamous 2JE-GTE.
The motor was paired exquisitely with two turbochargers, arranged sequentially for minimized turbo lag. Coupled with a six-speed gearbox (though unfortunately sometimes an automatic), this powerhouse made out even better in America, putting out a whopping 320 horsepower and 315 ft/lb of torque from factory as opposed to its 276 horsepower Japanese counterpart. Thankfully, due to the cast iron block and mass amount of aftermarket parts, doubling the horsepower of the Supra was as simple as baking a cake, just with a bit more elbow grease. One could scrap the factory twin-turbos for a large single turbo setup with a front-mount intercooler, higher flowing injectors, and have a reputable turner take a swing at the fuel delivery and easily find themselves at the high end of 600 ponies at the push of a pedal.
A lot more needed to go into this car to reach 1,100 horsepower. Though a build list isn't made available, it's probably fair to assume the motor is full of forged parts and meant to withstand a decent beating. But based on what we can see in the photos, a feeling of nostalgia falls into our laps as parts from VeilSide, HKS, Sparco, and other period-correct aftermarket parts manufacturers appear.
So how does this magic ride sharing work? Turo is a service that acts as an agent between someone with a car, and someone looking to rent a car. Think of it like Enterprise meets Airbnb, but with extra steps and much cooler cars that don't just come with base model options. Any qualified individual can earn some extra cash by renting out their car and Turo takes a cut of the funds since they're acting as the intermediate.
That being said, this owner has a lot more cojones than most - especially to let any person off the streets with $750 blast his car around for the night. It only takes one person to ham-foot the gas pedal a big too much and go complete Mustang. I'm not sure that's a risk I would be willing to take, but fortunately for you - Pernell is! Just don't turn it into an urban legend and you should be golden.