FAO Joshy, Toyota Soarers

Frozennova

Frozennova

Frozennova

Man of Honour
Joined
13 Nov 2009
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Northampton
After doing a little research after seeing you mention yours quite a few times in the past I'm thinking on replacing the golf with one and have a few questions I've just got in from the pub so will keep the list short

servicing costs etc
MPGzzzzz
are they Japan or euro Turbo, do they go boom with BPU or not
manual conversion cost

anythinge else you can think of that is worth mentioning.

oh and it seems android auto correct work after getting the misses to make sure I don't look stupid.
 
Good man :).

Servicing costs are reasonable. If you can hold a spanner you're laughing because most bits can be sourced quite cheaply if you use your head. Lots of parts are shared with other big Toyota/Lexus cars so you don't quite have the issues of getting parts that are associated with imports, and if you do have to source a Soarer specific part there are always a few cars being broken up so parts are easy enough to come by. Speaking of second hand parts its worth noting that Toyota dealers are expensive and I tend to avoid them for pretty much anything other than oil filters :p.

If you can't do the work yourself, this is the man to talk to:
http://www.smiffies-soarer-sanctuary.com/service.html

The godfather of Soarers in this country.

MPG wise. Mid to High 20s are achievable on a run in a TT. Mine does lots of town journeies so I bang out low teens :eek:

The turbos do/did have a habit of dying. I do say did as it doesn't seem to be quite as much as a problem as it was a few years back. Maybe its because many of the cars on sell today have already had a replacement/rebuilt set in its lifetime. If you do get one with a dodgy turbo you're not in a good place. I wouldn't trust a second hand set and a standard rebuild comes to about £600 or a few hundred quid more if you want them to be fettled and upgraded to steel wheels.

Some people say that fitting a big exhaust to go 'BPU' accerlates the turbo failure rate, but mine has had the silly exhaust on it since November last year and I've not noticed any smoke whatsoever.

Speaking of BPU, if I could do everything again I'd do the exhaust, air filter and boost controller in one hit. Get a controller with a fuel cut defender and whack it up to 15psi-ish. That's should be a solid 320bhp for £400 worth of mods (second hand) on a sub £1500 car. Mine doesn't have a boost controller but hits fuel cut (14.7PSI) on colder nights so I'm around about that figure and its not bad. Its not mega, mega fast but if you currently drive a 1.3 Golf the novelty won't wear off for a while ;)

Manual conversion. To do it 'properly' using the same box that was actually used in the handful of factory manual soarers is going to set you back at least a grand in parts (more likely £1500) and maybe another £500 on labour. The interesting thing is that you WILL get that money back when it comes to selling. A manual soarer is a £3k+ car all day long. In fact tidy ones can go for over £4k so it makes a bit of sense.

The autobox is good. Nice and smooth but if you're giving it some it is far too willing to kickdown which is annoying because despite the engine revving to 7,500RPM all of the horses have packed up for the day at about 6.5k so you've got the PAINFULLY annoying task of waiting for the gearbox to get to around that limiter whilst the engine is as flat as a pancake before it changes up to 4th, gets back its powerband and then woosh, you're going again.

Anyway, I'm going to stop banging on because I can go on for days. If you do decide to go for one and have anymore questions just ask.

God. I really do wish that I put the same sort of effort I did researching Soarers into my school work :p
 
NathWraith said:
Frozennova don't buy a soared get a supra, you can get them in manual without messing around and they have the superior 2nd engine :p
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Have to agree with this. The Soarer is less desireable for a reason - it looks crap. The Supra still has it, it still looks iconic and it still looks special even 15-20 years after its introduction. Supra prices have come down enough that the saving made by getting a Soarer just isn't worth it.

Get the Supra, the Soarer is the car time should forget.
 
I see you're using your once a month Soarer bashing token wisely ;).

Its all subjective at the end of the day. I utterly hate the looks and the interior of the MKIV Supra. Really, I detest it. But I really like the Soarer.

I'm being completely honest with you when I say that I've had absolutely nothing but positive comments from people who have spoken to me about it. Everything from 'That's a private plate isn't it? There's no way its old enough to be on a K' to 'Looks like a Jag' which is one I liked :).

Like I said. All subjective. They've still got a massive following in the states so I'm not alone in liking them.

A tidy manual TT Supra? is what? £6k+?. Like I mentioned above, you can have a tidy TT manual Soarer put together for half that, and that's if you don't want to get your hands dirty so the price differences aren't that close, especially if you genuinely prefer the Soarer which some people do :cool:.
 
[TW]Fox;19498915 said:
Supra prices have come down enough that the saving made by getting a Soarer just isn't worth it.
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A quick blast on AutoTrader shows many Manual TT's @ ~£10k!

What am I missing here? That's double E36 M3 Money. Or the same ball park as an E46 M3. Or if your chosen steed simply has to come from Japan, it's Evo 9/WR1 money, similar power, but 10 years newer!

What exactly is so special about Supra's?
 
Got a bit of a cult following has a Supra, i suppose that keeps the prices floating nicely.
 
Kingy said:
A quick blast on AutoTrader shows many Manual TT's @ ~£10k!

What am I missing here? That's double E36 M3 Money. Or the same ball park as an E46 M3. Or if your chosen steed simply has to come from Japan, it's Evo 9/WR1 money, similar power, but 10 years newer!

What exactly is so special about Supra's?
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The point is, With some over night parts from Japan you got yourself a 10 second car....
 
My post was tongue in cheek joshy. You can get a nice TT sparer for the price of an NA supra so the soarer is better value for money in that aspect
 
ZG002 said:
Or you could throw a total curve ball and get an Aristo, Just for laughs
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Now that would be a head mess.

The scene I've always imagined. Standard looking aristo sitting at the lights and a poser in a M3 cab pulls up filled with his mates, giving it revs and then the lights turn green and he plants it and shoots off, he's absolutely untouchable... Until a non descript 1990s Toyota saloon tears by wooshing, popping and banging and completely and utterly burns him off :D.

There is a lot of potential of embarrassing people in one of those.

(Before anyone goes off to google it, they're a Lexus GS300 with the same engine found in the Supra)
 
I couldnt imagine buying a Soarer with the Mk4 Supra exists. I still love the look of the Mk4 Supra. I still want one too but I know it will never happen. A titanium VVT engined TT one. The 2JZ engine with an HKS Super Dragger exhaust is one of my favourite automotive noises :p
 
panthro said:
I couldnt imagine buying a Soarer with the Mk4 Supra exists. I still love the look of the Mk4 Supra. I still want one too but I know it will never happen. A titanium VVT engined TT one. The 2JZ engine with an HKS Super Dragger exhaust is one of my favourite automotive noises :p
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Why would you want VVTI? Less tuneable goes against the Ethos of the 2jz!
 
thanks for the info, spannering I can do myself. I'm a little confused, do they use the larger waste gate meaning a BPU isn't catastrophic failure without a restrictor ring


to the others supras command a premium in purchase price and insurance hence going for a soared.
 
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