HKS Bring Nostalgic Style To The New Supra
Bringing The JDM

Show me a car that doesn’t look good in the iconic ‘90s HKS livery and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

I’m joking, of course – you’re entitled to your wrong opinion.

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And while opinion in general on the new A90 Toyota Supra is pretty divided, and discussions at times heated, I defy anyone to say that this particular example doesn’t look damn good.

When I heard that HKS was set to debut their new A90 Supra – complete with the HKS livery – at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed, it was one of the first things that I rushed to see upon arrival.

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The uber-rare vintage Porsches can wait, the throngs of Aston Martins are here all weekend, and the F1 cars are ten a penny – give me 700hp of widened black, green and purple JDMness and I’m happy.

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The Duke of Richmond’s – fairly recent – infatuation with the sport of drifting has seen it take an increasingly prominent position at the Festival of Speed. Mad Mike Whiddett can be thanked for this in large, having introduced His Grace to the drama of thrashing a drift car up the hill sideways in 2014.

Since then, a handful of big names in European and US drifting have done their part in promoting the sport, but there had been one thing missing from the Festival of Speed: Japanese representation.

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After all, drifting was born in Japan, and Japanese drift culture can be credited for everything from the sport itself to the cars chosen and the styling cues used all around the world. So, HKS bringing their new Supra – along with Nobuteru ‘Nob’ Taniguchi to pilot it – to this year’s FoS was a welcome sight.

He’s kind of a big deal in drifting, you know.

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Nob firmly in place, let’s turn our attention to the car. The most notable change to the HKS A90 over the stock car is obviously the 2JZ-GTE swap. Actual engine swap aside, this is largely a catalogue-parts engine, which makes sense given the name down the sides of the car. There’s a HKS stroker kit increasing capacity to 3.4 litres, HKS camshafts, and a HKS GTIII-4R turbocharger providing the boost.

It’s always worth noting just how at home the 2JZ looks in the A90 engine bay; hardly surprising I guess given you’re swapping inline six for inline six, but still. Power is 690hp and there’s 651lb-ft torque.

HKS didn’t hang about in developing parts for the new Supra when it was first unleashed. Suspension is HKS’s own Hipermax system, with Advan wheels encompassing an Endless brake setup. So far, so JDM. (Waits for someone to explode in fury all over their keyboard at the rear spacer size)

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What interested me most when nosing around the Supra in the paddock was that HKS seems to have looked to the rest of the world for some guidance and/or inspiration in the way that it’s been built, and the parts used – something that I can’t recall seeing much of at all in other Japanese drift builds.

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For example, underneath the car sits a Lithuania-built Samsonas sequential transmission in lieu of HKS’s own (albeit discontinued) sequential gearbox. The Samsonas gearbox is incredibly popular and proven in European drifting, and I’m guessing that’s exactly why HKS opted to use one. That’s an all-American ASD Motorsports hydraulic handbrake too, you might have spotted.

Delve further into the widened Pandem over-fenders and you can see the recognisable blue of Wisefab suspension and steering components scattered around the car. Based in Estonia, Wisefab’s knowledge in drift suspension and geometry is unrivalled, and while they adorn pretty much every pro-level drift car in competition these days, it’s great to see their products being recognised and utilised by Taniguchi and HKS.

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Those of you that attended FoS or watched the livestream will have noted that the HKS A90 isn’t quite there yet in terms of drifting performance. Taniguchi seemed to struggle to keep it sideways on the tricky hillclimb.

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The car seemed to be running a massive amount of front camber, even for a pro-level drift car. Whether this was done for impact, clearance, or was fully intentional, I’m not sure.

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To be honest, given just how narrow and unforgiving the Goodwood driveway is, and with the eyes of the automotive industry upon him, I suspect that Nob was told to take it easy and bring the car home in one piece.

Even when driving straight, I have to say the car has a ridiculous amount of presence sitting as low as it does, and with that wide Pandem bodykit. Speaking of the kit – I’m not a fan of these over-fender kits in general, but it works for me here. And as good as the HKS livery is, I can’t help but wonder how good this would look in an OEM colour, minus the huge rear wing…

Jordan Butters
Instagram: jordanbutters
jordan@speedhunters.com

Cutting Room Floor
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19 comments

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1

Still No One Better

2

love the car, however in my opinion this years Toyo livery on Kawabata's car is the best yet. but whats with the annotations like "Waits for someone to explode in fury all over their keyboard at the rear spacer size" this made it feel like im reading some teenagers blog, or some creepy nice guy meme. just doesn't seem to live up to the standard of speedhunters articles, however short of that good coverage

3

I really enjoyed this Jordan, thanks for the feature. It’s a great looking car - barring the wing

4

I'm not a fan of the swap - I think that if they're trying to promote the A90 for the sake of popular acceptance they should have kept the B58 in and built that to show its potential - but the car does look fantastic.

Author5
Jordan Butters

You've got to remember that HKS didn't build it to promote the A90 – that's Toyota's job. They built it to showcase HKS products, of which there are inevitably lots more suited to the 2JZ than B58. I'm sure once (if) HKS start developing B58 tuning packages then you'll start to see more of these cars with the OEM engine, albeit in a tuned form.

Think about it – what's going to grab more attention in a car that looks as 'racecar' as this – a 800hp 2JZ or a mildly fettled but largely stock B58?

6

But Toyota handed one over to HKS before the car even launched. That had to have been their marketing strategy. Of course, they might have guessed a 2J would have been swapped in, but still.

"B58 650hp with a bigger turbo, bolt-ons, tune, and E50 mix on STOCK INTERNALS"
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BpZVkC2gceP/

I just really hope the A90's spot in enthusiast culture history doesn't revolve around 2J swaps, and people realize now that what they're given is already a damn good engine that doesn't at all need to be swapped out.

7

As much as i know they choose the 2jz for its customizablity and aftermarket support as it is quiet less for b58 as compared to 2jz.maybe iam not completly sure but i read it in The first article on this car

8

Easily my favourite car of FOS. Absolutely loved it.

9

"Nob firmly in place" *cough, cough* Is this a drifting version of 'Bawdy 1970s Hospital'?
https://youtu.be/i6bOr5VWo5Y

Author10
Jordan Butters

I was aiming more for an 'Open All Hours'/Two Ronnies vibe, but maybe that's me showing my age.

11

Love this car and the updated livery looks so sick!

12

I am in favor of the swap. Now if you can find a way to keep the electronics and everything from the new car operational I would do it.

13

*Toyota invests millions in development with BMW to make the new GR Supra*
Tuners: *Put 2jz engine in it anyways*
Toyota: "Am I a joke to you?"

*Nissan laughs in VR*

14

It's great to see Taniguchi-san still out there shredding tires. He's been a beacon of consistency in a sport that has seen so many changes since it's introduction.

15

The new 2020 Toyota Supra is a great sports car, Stock has proven to put down near 400 to the wheels and does 0-60 in 3.8 seconds beating many sports cars. The 50/50 weight distribution makes it even better. The new Supra smoked the Z4 recently in a youtube video by carwow and is clearly the better choice. The aftermarket for this car is already great and is only going to get better. The new Supra is better than the mk4 in every possible way in stock form and it won't be long before the mk5 will be at the same level with some upgrades not including the 2jz. The mk4 was only dominant in one thing a straight line, other than that it was garbage.

16

the only time a cars weight distribution is ever 50:50 is when its stationary.

its marketing sales-speak

Author17

This is very true, but good weight distribution at a standstill is always better than unbalanced weight distribution at a standstill. It all carries forth for when you're moving too.

18

The HKS livery even made the Opel/Vauxhal Vectra look cool in the 90s :P

19

I tought that was awesome to have Mr. Nob representing the drift culture in the event. I would like to see more "classic" drift cars also, as the 2004 S15 top secret supra, and the apexi white RX7. Those boys are making 15 years old and were the business cards of drifting in the ocident.

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