Group A Supra race car

[spiller]

Hey spiller ,that photo of your car looks like its at Mallala .Do you compete there? Everything in the car is solid mounted and braced. the chassis is also seam welded.

Hi John, sorry only saw this post now. Yeah that pic is at Mallala, completely missing the apex of the final turn haha. I havent competed there as such yet but have done a couple of track days. The car is currently in the middle of some large upgrades for time attack and club sprints but we are starved of actual door to door racing here in SA so its not likely ill be doing any "racing" as such. What sort of times have you put down at Mallala in the MA70? Be interesting to know.

I went to the Australian F1 GP in Melbourne last weekend and was lucky enough to catch the Group A/C races and had a good look at some of the cars in the paddock, namely the GIO Skyline GTR and VL and the ANZ Sierras amongst others. The JPS 6 series and 3 series BMWs were about also. The field was huge but it was definitely missing the MA70! Great to see that these cars are properly getting used again though.

 

[gats]

Ditto

So both Ian & Dan are keen for MCM this year, any more other interest from the Aussie contingent here? Simon?!

I'll be living in Sydney by September, so will definitely be keen to attend!
Looking forward too seeing your car in person too John

 

[spiller]

I would love to come over for a look, depends on whether or not I can recruit some others for the journey!

 

[Another MkIII]

Thats pretty sweet! welcome. the guys around here will want pictures, so your gonna need to learn how to upload pics fast. are else your gonna get this a lot.:ttiwwp:
Is this her?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eytl/2846631907/

http://www.turbosupras.com/pages/pages/specifications/MA70GA/ma70ga.htm

Enough pics here? In my opinion, this is now my favorite car on this forum not only for its performance, but the history behind it!
-AM3

 

[supra34]

Welcome and yes need to get lots of pics uploaded sometime

 

[Supra56]

Gidday John,
I run a Z20 soarer soon to be A70 Supra 7m powered sports sedan. I am near Sydney.
My car has around 400rwkw, and its runs a Cusco 2 way diff 3.7 ratio. The diff is very tight
however it dosn't cause understeer. I would recommend Cusco LSD
to anyone for racing use. I ran at Wakefield Park raceway late last year and the car
had very good turn in.

 

[spiller]

Supra56: how does the 3.7 ratio go around wakefield park? Thats pretty tall gearing for a tight little circuit like that...

 

[Supra56]

Its just O.K, because the car has a Giken close ratio R154, so its mostly 2nd, 3rd,
and a touch of 4th before the straight and down the straight. But you are right,
that gearing is good for 310+ at 7000rpm. If I didn't have the close ratio I would put in
4.4 or lower and it would be O.K.

 

[LordDigital]

Just saw this posted on the GroupA facebook board ,John's Supra appears to be ready for the 2012 Muscle Masters! I know for sure that the lap times will be faster this year ,Nemo Evo set a new lap record yesterday on SemiSlicks (essentially beating the Formula 3 car lap times_ - I would guess Eastern Creek track resurface or config change of some sort?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhwd1YypSaM&hd=1&t=2m17s

 

[Dub537h]

That Supra screamed by the camera in comparison to the corolla before it haha

 

[LordDigital]

2012 Australian Muscle Car Masters Race results are now posted (http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?02/09/2012.SMPL) but unfortunately Johm Smith MA70 is not on them.

Initial report from David Towe indicates that John melted piston again and ventilated the block at practice day...

 

[Moy]

OS Giken close-ratio gearset? Holy crap that's rare as can be, I think I've only seen one other set popup for sale and it was $8k+ USD

 

[LordDigital]

Needles to say OS Gilken R154 is nothing more than a Joke compared to what John has in his supra. His gearbox is HewLand (incorrectly reported by Terry as Holinger on turbosupras.com) , it has magnesium housing and dogBox internals that are good for 2000+ race miles. Original cost as over 35 000 GBP when new in 1988 which in today's money is more than $100 000!

Interesting fact ,that very few people know, is that when the original batch of 10 transmissions was gone ,Toyota factory racing team (TRD and TTT) went true the trouble of filing for VO with FIA homologation for a Getrag transmission that they used one of their last Enduro races on SPA in 1990. Interestingly enough Bemani (private EU team) ran Getrag(s) for many years prior in their 7M-GE powered cars. Even more interesting Toyota switch to Getrag could not change their destiny - the factory turbo cars were yet again SLOWER than the European private naturally aspirated MA70!

 

[john smith]

Hi guys , yeah I"m really gutted, my wife has even locked up all the sharp knives for the next couple of weeks. We had a test day early last week and all was going well , the car was very fast, in fact heaps faster than the race winners times. Then out of the blue it threw a con rod out the side of the block. there was no real warning . We wont know what failed until we pull the engine out and strip it down. However it looks as if it was a component failure . I am really disappointed for the guys in the team , they have busted there asses over the last 6 months only to have it come undone at the last hurdle .. Anyway we are regrouping and are very determined to get on top of this engine . I am very lucky to have such an enthusiastic bunch of people around me and we know that we have a very quick race car . All we need is some reliability,and I know that will come. Thanks for all of your support . WE WILL BE BACK Smithy

 

[Dylan JZ]

John, I wish you the best in getting the car back on the track.

I think it is both amazing and nostalgic to see such cars going at each other once again after 20+ years have passed. please continue to show that the A70 Supra is something worthy of great merit..

 

[spiller]

John, any plans to run this in the Group A class at the 2013 Australian F1 GP? I had hoped to catch you there this yr but will be back again in March next yr. Need a Supra in there to break up all the Nissan and BMW in that class

 

[SeeUSmile]

[video=youtube;PLWUoo2JTCw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLWUoo2JTCw[/video]


John smith's supra @Muscle Car Masters

















Came across this as well anyone else familiar with 'Des Wall's Chevy V8 supra'?

 

[daledoe]

Nice video. I like how he get a little squirrelly at 1:01 and the pass at 3:38

 

[LordDigital]

Some fine car control from John Smith on the corner exit Note how down to earth this car really is - so many OEM parts in the engine bay including the Factory Accordion hose and OEM BOV (these parts were not OEM in the MIL MA70 Supras BTCC or R.A.S. cars in ETCC ,wonder if this was CAMS and JAF regulation only).

The 'Des Wall's Chevy V8 supra' is another purposely build race car ,but under very different regulations (John's car was GroupA ,the V8 supra was Group 2D). As such I do not believe that it was related to the Supra Chassis at all ,it was raced in a very different body and then converted in 1989 to Supra Skin - you can see this on the wall just behind the car ,original owner was Bob Jane and it was Chevy Monza before it was rebodied as Toyota Supra in 1989.

In 1989 when the private teams realized that there is absolutely no way on earth that the Supra can ever be competitive in Group A some cars were converted to race in Thundersaloon races in UK ,IIRC they all ran V8 engines but used the original magnesium suspension developed for RAS ,MIL and Bemani by SPECFAB. Interestingly enough they all looked quite similar to the Des Wall Chevy Supra:

 

[SeeUSmile]

ahh lord-digital you're the best person when it comes to finding history with our cars. Cheers!