Sublime custom wide-body, over 700bhp at the rear wheels and an interior worthy of The Ritz. We’re starting to think Ibrar’s Supra could be the finest all-round example in the UK right now…
Becoming an expert in your field never comes easy. You can’t expect to just walk into the boxing ring for the first time and flatten the likes of Mr McGregor without putting in a little training first, and the same rule can certainly be applied to tuning cars – it often takes years of Bruce Lee-style discipline to fully learn the little ins-and-outs of successfully modifying a particular model.
Our man Ibrar Jabbar here is living proof of this formula in action. As you can see, he currently owns what is easily one of the very best Supras in the country and most likely far beyond, but it didn’t all happen overnight. His Supra story is a decade-and-a-half of fettling with every square inch of countless examples of Toyota’s GT coupe until he felt like he’d got the formula bang-on…
Ibrar’s name may ring some very distant bells in your head as his first Supra feature in FC was actually over 15 years ago. “That one was re-sprayed in a Kawasaki blue colour – which was quite unusual in itself for Supras at the time,” he remembers. You see, pushing the boundaries was something Ibrar was keen to experiment with soon after this model was launched, not just in the last few years now they’re becoming increasingly well respected in the mainstream car scene.
Many, many different variants of Supra followed, all of which received various states of modification as he honed his style, until Ibrar stumbled upon this particular targa top a few years back. “It was an auto car, and was completely standard when I got it,” he recalls – about a million miles from where it is now, then, but one thing and a time and all that…
Ibrar continues to explain how the work on the car escalated from here: starting with some basic restoration jobs and evolving into a full-blown no-expense-spared transformation. “I did simple stuff like powercoating the subframes, but kept thinking ‘I can’t keep that bit looking bad now’ until I’d done something to almost every part of the bodywork!” he laughs, left with one of the tidiest targas in the land and a great base to add his personal touch to.
Restoration complete, the first of the modifications came in the form of that masterful wide-body that now shrouds the car. Because it’s been performed so seamlessly, it may take a while to appreciate just what’s going on here, but Ibrar’s managed to get the Supra’s curves sitting several inches wider on every corner in a smooth and subtle way with more than a bit of trial and error. “I designed the kit from scratch which took practice on a lot of my old cars,” he explains.
A mix of blended TRD, BN Sports, Veilside and Trial components, the project clearly took a lot of thought to put together but now beautifully represents some of Ibrar’s favourite pieces from his previous cars while heightening those squat dimensions in a way that no other kit out there even comes close to. The exclusive new lines were then topped off with a vented carbon fibre bonnet, some face-lifted HID lights and a few extra spoilers here and there before the whole thing was given a coat of that endlessly deep red paint.
“At around the same time, I found a breaker Supra with a VVTi 2JZ engine and manual gearbox,” Ibrar continues the epic tale. For those that know, this is the holy grail spec of Supras when it comes to their drivetrains, meaning Ibrar thought it would be rude not to snap the whole car up before someone else did. Stripping this donor car down revealed the legendary motor had already received some big-power upgrades like a hefty single-turbo conversion and forged internals, which confirmed to him that it needed to be transferred over to his targa immediately.
With an even bigger turbo and trick exhaust and fuelling systems thrown into the mix, the engine and gearbox were wedged in the wide-bodied beast before Ibrar began mapping the car to suit the road. “We were aiming for around 650bhp at the wheels before we started,” he modestly tells us. “But have ended up with 727bhp which is nice!” But this is no pig to drive, with various trick maps worked into the Syvecs ECU keeping the car fully driveable on the road and even allowing Ibrar to do the school run in it if the weather’s playing ball! “It does spin up in third in the dry if you’re not careful, though…” he grins.
To help the car tackle the godly amount of force now on tap from that motor, the underside was spruced up with suitably impressive components like HSD coilovers and a whole catalogue’s worth of bracing goodies to suit. Some KSport anchors improve stopping power, which are normally found wrapped in some very special rims (see the boxout for the full story on those incredible wheels).
By this stage, Ibrar was fairly certain he had something pretty special on his hands, so when it came to tackling the interior, he was only going to settle for the very best. 90s Japanese cars have often been criticised for being full of cheap black plastic inside, so his first job was to re-trim the entire innards in a custom red leather and black Alcantara theme, instantly bringing the cockpit bang up-to-date, before some wing-backed Recaro buckets from an Audi RS4 were bolted in (once they’d been retrimmed to match, of course). Now classy enough to match any Italian supercar, the inside of this car looks like THE place to be whether the roof happens to be open or closed at the time.
While reflecting on how he came to be the proud owner of this seriously impressive sports car, Ibrar explains to us what made him fall in love with Supras in the first place. “It’s always been Supras for me; I think it’s about the potential of them. Back when they first came out, they offered the most bang-for-buck out there, and in a lot of ways they still do!” Sticking to what he knows and loves even after all this time means he’s left with a versatile machine which looks as at home cruising around town on a summer’s evening with the roof of as it is pushing 200mph on a runway, making it undoubtedly one of the most complete examples we’ve ever seen. We’ll drop back in on this hero in another 15 years…
TECH SPEC TOYOTA SUPRA
STYLING
Full custom wide-body kit (TRD front bumper with custom splitter; widened TRD front wings with Veilside arches; widened BN Sports rear quarters; Trial rear bumper blended with BN Sports upper section; custom side skirts); custom side vent grilles; Seibon carbon fibre bonnet; Speedwells Ridox-style rear lip spoiler; clear side repeaters; facelift headlights; custom LED facelift tail lights with carbon surround; 6000K fog and dipped beam HID conversion.
TUNING
Fully built 3.0-litre 2JZ-GTE VVTi turbocharged, straight-six engine; ARP head studs, rod bolts and main bolts; Clevite bearings; forged Wiseco pistons; forged eagle con rods; 1.2mm HKS head gasket; chrome plated alternator; Titan crank damper pulley; Unorthodox Racing pulleys; HKS 246-degree race camshafts; Titan camshaft pulleys; Hypertune inlet manifold; Corvette LS7 90mm drive-by-wire throttle body; BorgWarner S300 91-97 turbocharger; Turbosmart 50mm wastegate; TiAL blow-off valve; custom 4-inch turbo downpipe with flexi-joint; custom 4-inch exhaust system; Blitz air filter; TRD thermostat; custom water neck; custom polished top radiator pipe; Speedwells powdercoated cam covers; custom brake fluid cap; custom power steering cap; Blitz oil cap; -12AN catch can setup in driver’s side wing; -10AN remote oil filter in passenger’s side wing; custom braided oil/return lines; torque damper on custom bracket; 5-inch ETS front-mount intercooler with 4-inch inlet/outlet and custom pipework; 25-row HKS oil cooler with custom bumper ducting and -10AN lines; AAP dual electric fans with polished fan shroud; AAP aluminium radiator; Syvecs S16 management; AEM wide-band with gauge; AEM boost control solenoid; Bosch 3-bar map sensor; Boostlogic billet 3-pump fuel hanger with twin Walbro GSS 341 pumps; Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator; Aeromotive 100-micron race fuel filter; Injector Dynamics 1000cc fuel injectors; Hypertune fuel rail in custom anodised red.
TRANSMISSION
Getrag V161 six-speed manual gearbox; RPS billet carbon twin-plate clutch.
CHASSIS
HSD adjustable coilovers; Carbing front strut brace with brake stopper; Titan front and rear adjustable anti-roll bars; refurbished subframes and arms with complete Superpro bush replacement; new Toyota diff bushes; KSport 8-pot (front) and 4-pot (rear) brake calipers with 356mm discs; stainless steel braided brake lines; ATE Racing Blue brake and clutch fluid; 10.5×19-inch (front) and 13×19-inch (rear) custom Avant Garde 3-piece split rims; 10.5×19-inch (front) and 13×19-inch (rear) Weds Kranze LXZ 3-piece split rims; polarised wheel bolts; 275/30/19 Goodyear F1 asymmetric tyres (front); 315/25/19 Pirelli P-Zero Rosso tyres (rear).
INTERIOR
Complete facelift interior conversion; Audi RS4 Recaro front seats re-trimmed in red leather and black Alcantara; custom re-trimmed rear seat and arm-rest; dashboard re-trimmed in red leather and black Alcantara; re-trimmed facelift steering wheel; 4x 60mm Defi gauges; twin A-pillar pod; Pivot engine start button; Do-Luck rear Tension Set brace bars; Pioneer double DIN head unit; Diamond 6.5-inch speakers (front) and three-way 6.5-inch speakers (rear); twin 10-inch JBL sub woofers; JBL amplifier; Optima REDTOP battery in boot.
Words Sam Preston Photos Chris Wallbank
