My Current Car...

Is a 1995 Japanese import 6-speed Toyota Supra RZ (Twin Turbo) in the fastest colour. Black!

I spent a great deal of time trying to decide what my next car would be and had narrowed it down to Mitsubishi GTO/3000, Mazda RX7, Toyota Supra, Nissan 300ZX, or a Skyline. I'd seen a few nice looking ZX's but I'm not really too keen on the look of the newer ones, I preferred the older model with popup lights. The Mazda RX7 I like a lot but was put off by reliability worries (although apparently the later models are much more reliable) and the fact that they are quite cramped inside. For the amount of money I had to spend (or should I say the loan amount I could afford the repayments on) I couldn't really afford a decent R33 Skyline GTR. I don't really like the look of the R32 and the R34's are still too expensive for me. I could have gotten an R33 GTS but I just knew that in the back of my mind I'd always be wishing I'd saved more and got a GTR. I'd still love to own a Skyline, and maybe one day I will have an R34 Skyline GTR in bayside blue! That left the GTO and the Supra. I have always loved the look of the GTO and in my opinion they 'look' more like a true supercar than any of the others. I'd looked in autotrader at quite a few and there were some really nice ones to be picked up for a reasonably cheap price. I spent a great deal of time looking up information on the GTO and had read of a few reliability problems and that maintenance costs were pretty high (I believe that to replace the turbos requires taking the whole engine out!). I had also read that there wasn't much headroom in the car (I'm 6'1"), although to this day I've still never actually sat in one.

So that just left the Supra. Reading up on the internet revealed no real reliability problems, the cars were cheap to modify, and the engine very strong and capable running a lot of power. Only trouble was that for the amount of money I had planned on spending I would be looking at a 1993 automatic model with sky high mileage. I toyed with the idea of buying a normally aspirated car but again there would always be that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I'd be wishing I'd bought a twin turbo. I have always driven manual cars, I think that an auto takes away some of the fun of driving but by all accounts the Supra's auto box was very good. The solution was obvious. Borrow more money!

With my new budget in mind (and loan application approved) I could now start the search for my Supra. I wanted a twin turbo, 6 speed manual gear box, preferably in black or red, and a J-Spec! There are a number of difference between the UK and J-Spec Supra's but the main one in my mind is that the UK spec is cheaper to insure with most insurers (go figure). The UK spec's however go for more than their J-Spec equivalent and finding a UK manual with low(ish) mileage is getting quite rare. After about 3 months of looking around dealers and the autotrader website I eventually saw this...

First ever picture I saw of my car

It was at a dealer down south (JIC in Surrey), was within my price range (just), and was a J-Spec 6 speed twin turbo in black with good mileage for its age. I actually thought those black alloys looked quite cool but close up they looked cheap and small (16" I think). When I went to actually view the car at JIC, Steve had put some nice 18" alloys on to show another customer and I decided that I wanted those instead (after Steve pointed out several times that he could put the black ones back on if I wanted. I really don't think he wanted me to have the 18" ones).

The following pictures are from the day I went to view and test drive the car. Ever so slightly more powerful than my previous car (the pug in the background!)...

Front Quarter

Rear Quarter

Head On

Notice it's on trade plates as I then had to wait a couple of weeks for it to be registered (that was a long two weeks!). Two weeks later and I took the train down to Surrey... and drove my new car the 4 hour or so journey back up the motorway, grinning all the way. I love it.

A few more photo's of my car

There was no way I was driving in this. I'm Cold

Looking clean outside my old flat. Just washed freshness

Boost gauge mounted where the clock used to be. In the dark

A Photoshopped image of my car. My Car