Today’s reader car spotlight comes to us from Keith Walker of Arberdeen, Scotland. Over the last 18 months Keith has been building his JZS161 Toyota Aristo into one hell of an impressive street car. The majority of Aristo and Lexus GS owners out there will typically leave their powertrain stock, instead focusing on body and suspension modifications in the traditional VIP sense.
Not so in this case.
Keith began by removing the twin turbines from the stock 2JZGTE and replacing them with a single Holset HC1 turbo. The goal was to make 500hp and keep the Aristo’s stock automatic transmission. Eventually, things “got out of hand” as Keith puts it. After talking to Paul Whiffin, he added a Whifbitz S366 turbo kit and swapped out the slushbox for a 6-speed manual from a Supra. The trans swap wasn’t easy and required a good bit of fabrication from Paul Cheshire at S-body automotive. A Syvecs ECU was fitted and mapped by Ryan Griffith of 2bar tuning
In its current form the Aristo makes an impressive 567bhp, but a new head is being built for the car with the goal to up that number to 700. The manual transmission just makes the car that much more special, considering the Aristo was never offered from the factory with a manual box.
Outside of the front spoiler, the exterior of the Aristo remains completely stock. Perfectly matching the exterior is a set of BBS LMs, 19×9.5 in the front and 19×10.5 in the rear. I’m not sure if you could call it a “sleeper” or not, but there’s not much there to give away the turbo muscle under the hood.
Lots of horsepower, a comfy interior, and a manual transmission. What could be better? A big thanks to Keith for sharing his project with us.
If you have a cool car or build story that you think is worthy of being featured on Speedhunters, drop us a line at featurethis@dev.speedhunters.com . Please make sure to include your name and location, as well as some basic details and specs, along with at least 5-10 photographs. Photos should be no less than 800 pixels wide.
-Mike Garrett
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I wanted to see the interior sooo bad!
Truly unique and sufficiently amazing! Great feature on this one, thats a good DD setup right there.
That thing is NASTY!!! I'd like to see how it fares against an M5 or RS6
Very sexy aristo, in my opinion i think it should be dropped a smidge more and delete the rear wing, although the fact that this car is from scotland explains the height that its at now, any lower in scoland or ireland and you run the danger of getting lost in a pothole
just great ,, very clean and can never go wrong with a 2 jizzy
what suspension was it dropped on?
is there a thread of this full build?
@davidh85 It's on HSD coilovers according to the info Keith sent over.
@LouisYio There no interior shots included in the email, but maybe Keith will post one when he sees this?
Wow. Just the thought of putting a manual transmission from a Supra alone has been on my mind for years. And then the crazy horsepower on top of that! This is one amazing Aristo/GS300
Wow. Just the thought of putting a manual transmission from a Supra into an Aristo/GS300 alone has been on my mind for years. And then the crazy horsepower on top of that! This is one amazing Aristo/GS300
Interior is totally standard apart from some carbon fibre door trim inserts,a custom built centre air vent gauge holder and a custom built A-pillar gauge pod.
The full build thread can be found on http://www.clubaristo.net for anyone that may be interested.
beautiful car, but cell phone pics are a big no-no
nice build Keith, you have done it perfectly
@seba_gala Needs must......It was either an SLR camera or a wheel refurbishment. Think I made the right decision. Thank you for the comment though. Any appreciation is always welcome.
Nice car. The manual conversion is really cool. What about the prices? And how much is it worth it?
MOAR PHOTOS!!
Keith, awesome project, glad to see some genuine idea and lots of work put in this Aristo.
To be honest, I don't like the choice of wheels, but still - one of the most interesting mods I came across. Congarts and keep up the good volk...eee, I meant work:]
Love this car...great example of sporty VIP!
@Mike Garrett Thanks Mike.
The HSD look like they are for competition and drifting. hardcore!
Keith, are you on clublexus?
mind if i share this page with folks over there?
My dream!
is that a type or is it really running 19's in the front and 18's in the rear?
Typo. It's 19s all around
Not really a fan of this car but love the uniqueness and fabrication it must have took.
i lvoe the BBS LM-S
there are a few cars that seems like BBS made the wheels for, they just work so well
BMW 3 and 5 series, Benz E class and the GS/Aristo
i like the sportiness of this build, it is what ive been wanting to do to my GS as well (ive got a 2001 GS300 with a rear spoiler also)
Not a member on club lexus.
Dont mind at all if you share the page David.
You spelled 'Aberdeen' wrong.
jizz. 5 times.