In doing so, Katayama-san set the precedent for uleashing the potential that he had engineered in to the XE10. It is a tuner’s dream chassis which can handle a serious increase in power all wrapped up in non-fussy bodywork that makes the second generation Lexus IS (XE20) appear bloated and cumbersome.
Kayed Al-Mansoori and Mohammed Al-Hammadi set out to build a daily-use, fast street car with the target of embarrassing some exotic machinery. What better platform then than a 2002 Lexus IS 300? Although it has lost some of its sleeper-car credentials – something that has always appealed to me about the IS – it could still easily slip by under the radar. No wild bodykit or massive rear wing. No silly sized rims. Nothing overtly shouty. Nothing that would immediately make the driver of an Italian supercar sit up and show any respect for – and that would be a very big mistake.
For the initiated, the custom bonnet and headlight breather hole kinda give the game away that things are far from stock and the Mickey Thompson street radials out back hammer that point home. What you are looking at here is a fully built Supra in a pretty IS dress with a 2JZ-GTE running a massive Garrett GTX4202 Turbo.
The modifications have been carried out by RPM Speed Invention Workshop (Dubai) and the spec sheet reads like a who’s who of top-end aftermarket performance manufacturers. HKS fuel rail, JE Pistons, Carillo connecting rods, Titan Motorsport cam gears, Brian Crower 280º cams, Ferrea racing springs, valves and retainers and a whole host of other trick bits. Good thing that the XE10 was also engineered with room for modifications. Yes, Katayama-san was a visionary.
The massive Garrett turbo is helped on its quest for more boost by a twin nozzle, AEM water/methanol injection kit which in turn requires more juice so the fuel system has been completely upgraded. A custom fuel cell with dual Bosch fuel pumps and a SARD in-tank pump feed the need while RC Engineering 1000cc fuel injectors squirt the money shot.
Control comes via a Motec M600, which has been tuned by Mansour Al-Suwadi, and the magic number is 850hp @8800 rpm which sounds pretty healthy to me.
I think Nobuaki Katayama would also approve.
– FULL GALLERY OF SHOTS AVAILABLE HERE – Shots courtesy of Mohammed Al-Yassi
