Japanese Muscle

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear Crown is that it's exactly the type of car a mafia kingpin would buy if they were affected by Bangladesh's tax structure. It's comfortable, unassuming and quiet, but it would make for a great sleeper if people realized the potential in them. Mr. Salman Farsy has, and the featured car today is the result.

In the flesh it's extremely large and white. The exterior is very neat with 18" Vossen wheels wrapped around Yokohama tires, sitting pretty on lowering springs. Some would say its boring, docile even. What lies underneath the hood makes up for the demure exterior in ways that you would never expect.It's a sleeper to the extent that I actually had to hunker down and look for the Greddy front mount intercooler hiding behind the bumper.

The 2JZ-GTE is derived from the last generation Supra, which itself is considered by many to be the crown jewel of Japanese sports cars. This epic straight 6 cylinder combines generous displacement, twin turbos, and valve-timing trickery to deliver gobs of power while sounding like an industrial shredder with more bass. From the factory, the Yamaha designed 3.0 liter VVT-i beast puts out a little more than 300bhp, with the bulletproof stock internals capable of handling a lot more.

It's a wild attack dog on a very short leash when cruising: sure it can be tamed, but when Salman floors it, all hell breaks loose. The rear end squats as 300+ horses are unleashed onto the tarmac, the negative G-forces makes you sink into the seat as the turbos reach full boost. I've never felt an Automatic transmission go this fast with four people onboard. The acceleration is just mind boggling. The engine sings the tune of speed in perfect harmony, the exhaust note is better than Skillet, I could listen to it all day long and still smile like an idiot. Braking from 160 km/h-ish speeds, it doesn't stop in the boring fashion most cars do these days, the tires screech and the car wants to go sideways. But you'd expect that when the brakes were designed for a purring 1G-FE packing half of the punch of the 2JZ. If you ask me, this just adds to the "soul" factor of the car, it feels alive and kicking.

The smaller turbo spools at lower rpm and when there is enough exhaust pressure, the larger turbo takes over to propel this rocket-ship into the moon and back before it's time for lunch. It's just THAT quick. Coming to the exhaust, it's a triple wastegate setup with twin high-flow catalytic converters and resonators on the downpipe ending at an HKS muffler, which makes it sound like nothing on this planet. In fact, the car makes the sound that I figure a planet would make if it had exhausts.

Why this engine and chassis? "We had this car in my family for 8 years now, and I always wanted to do a JZ project, so when I saw people are finally doing 1JZ swaps here, I took the leap. 1JZs are becoming common these days, which is why I opted for the more powerful 2JZ-GTE instead" says Salman Farsy.

When asked how it compares to his other cars, like his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, he says "Well, it's fun. It doesn't handle like the Evo, but it's way more fun". A walk around his parking lot reveals another gem hiding in a corner: a turbocharged Axio GT. Salman is truly a turbo guy through and through, having a total of four turbochargers in three cars.

This project was not easy however. The engine was bought and stored for 4 months before Salman could get started. The swap required lots of custom work that saw him turning to unlikely sources for bits and pieces, as evidenced by the Evo X intercooler piping. This chassis was never designed to take this motor, the highest spec Crown had the 2JZ-GE naturally aspirated engine, but the twin turbo is a whole new ball-game. The ones not in the "know" would scratch their heads and wonder what the source of this sheer grunt is.

The owner plans to upgrade the brakes, handling and move to a single turbo setup in the future.

After that ride-along, my Premio feels like a highly sedated, fully domesticated dog. Next to the Doberman that is the Crown.