Most people remember the third-generation Toyota Soarer as a quiet, luxurious grand tourer, the Japanese twin of the Lexus SC300. Then you walk through the paddock at a Japanese time attack day and find this: a Soarer in bare dry carbon, a wing on tall uprights and a diffuser that wouldn't look out of place on a prototype. It's the sickest Soarer in time attack, and it looks like it should be lining up in Super GT's GT500 class.
Who built it
The car is driven by Kunihiko Bando and built by Racing Factory AutoBahn, which took the project on in 2009. The body panels are autoclaved dry carbon by Sight Hound, so the shell keeps the JZZ30's shape while losing most of its weight.
The engine
The engine is a 3.0-litre 2JZ block topped with a 1JZ cylinder head, with HKS internals, forged pistons and a Garrett turbo, making over 900 PS. Drive goes through an Albins sequential gearbox. Our Instagram caption called it 1,200 hp, which is how the car is talked about in the paddock today; the last published figure we can source is 900 PS+.
Weight and the clock
Documented at 1,180 kg, this one carries far more power than any road Soarer with far less mass. On the clock, it went from a 56.7-second Tsukuba best in 2014 to a personal best of 54.470 by 2017, with the 53s as the next target.
Sources: The Narita Dogfight, 2014 and The Narita Dogfight, 2017.
Why it matters
Time attack is where Japanese tuning shows its engineering, and builds like this keep the 2JZ legend alive in a world of newer platforms. A Soarer, of all cars, at the sharp end of a time attack paddock is exactly why we cover this scene. For more Japanese motorsport, see D1GP at Ebisu 2025, and for another one-off engine story, the Judd V8 E36 M3.
Video stills: One Breath Pictures.
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