Being an automotive journalist for the past 11 years has given me the opportunity to set foot in about 35 of the 50 states. Most of the time, trips to other states make me appreciate living in Southern California that much more. Of course, there is an exception. Since my first visit to Hawaii in 1995, I've always tried to make an excuse to get there again. On my last visit, a 960-plus horsepower Supra provided me a solid alibi.

Oh What a Feeling

Brian Okawa has worked at the local Toyota/Lexus dealer for the past 16 years. Of all the Toyotas that passed through the dealership's doors, no car caught Brian's attention more than the '93 to '98 Toyota Supra Turbo. After all, this generation of Supra is arguably the best Japanese Supercar ever sold in the states. In August of 2003, one of Brian's friends found a low-mileage Supra and a few days later Brian had a pink slip. While the vehicle had low-mileage, it had also not been driven for an extended amount of time. This had taken a toll on the car and a number of items were in need of repair and replacement.

Once the Supra was back on the road, it wasn't long before smoke from the exhaust and high oil consumption pointed to a serious issue. A compression test confirmed that one cylinder had very low compression and that the valve seals were in need of replacement. On top of this, one of the turbos was also making a great deal of noise.

The Intense Rescue

Brian previously had a good experience dealing with Intense Motorsports of Gilbert, Arizona when he owned his IS300. Since Intense Motorsports had a good amount of experience modifying Supras and the 2JZ-GTE engine, they were Brian's first choice for his Supra. To be sure that all the work was up to spec, Brian shipped his Supra to Intense Motorsports for the overhaul.

The original plan was just to replace the engine and tune the factory turbos until the power maxed out. Just a little coaxing from Kent Kim of Intense Motorsports convinced Brian that a swap to a single-turbo setup made much more sense. Of course, this was just the start of more things to come.

An ITS74 single-turbo kit was installed along with a fresh factory short block. Unfortunately, the stock short block failed on the fourth dyno pull when over 700 rear-wheel horsepower was generated. Since Brian experienced some bad luck trying to take a budget approach, the decision was made to cut no corners. Brian always had a dream of owning a vehicle that made over 1000 horsepower at the flywheel. Soon his dream would be a reality.

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