If there’s one iconic race car from Japan that everyone knows of, one of them has got to be the TOM’s Castrol Toyota Supra from the All Japan Gran Touring Championship (JGTC) days. Also made famous to gamers by Gran Turismo, this Supra was also the star of the GT500 class as it won the championship in 1997.
For a car with such a history, unfortunately it did not get the retirement it deserved. Weirdly enough for a Supra in such a status, it was somehow ended up being passed to an unknown person, who then locked it away in a warehouse. No one seemed to have a clue on who was responsible, or even how long the Supra had been there for.
And it seemed that anyone who had kept this car in the warehouse had very little concern in preserving it as it was littered with scratches and 20 years of moisture have resulted in a lot of rust on major components. And just to make things worse, the heart of the Supra – a four-cyl 3SGTE – was nowhere to be found.
Fortunately for the Supra, it is about to receive a new lease of life as TOM’s would like to restore the car back to its glory days. But this ambitious aim does come with a snag. The cost to revive the Supra is not going to be cheap, so TOM’s has listed the revival project on the Makuake crowdfunding platform, looking to raise 50,000,000 Yen or USD $470,000.
There are multiple packages to choose from, starting from a 5,000 Yen ($47) contribution that gets you a certificate and your name on the official site, all the way up to 9,999,999 Yen ($94,000) which even allows you to borrow the completed Supra for a day.
If there’s one iconic race car from Japan that everyone knows of, one of them has got to be the TOM’s Castrol Toyota Supra from the All Japan Gran Touring Championship (JGTC) days. Also made famous to gamers by Gran Turismo, this Supra was also the star of the GT500 class as it won the championship in 1997.
For a car with such a history, unfortunately it did not get the retirement it deserved. Weirdly enough for a Supra in such a status, it was somehow ended up being passed to an unknown person, who then locked it away in a warehouse. No one seemed to have a clue on who was responsible, or even how long the Supra had been there for.
And it seemed that anyone who had kept this car in the warehouse had very little concern in preserving it as it was littered with scratches and 20 years of moisture have resulted in a lot of rust on major components. And just to make things worse, the heart of the Supra – a four-cyl 3SGTE – was nowhere to be found.
Fortunately for the Supra, it is about to receive a new lease of life as TOM’s would like to restore the car back to its glory days. But this ambitious aim does come with a snag. The cost to revive the Supra is not going to be cheap, so TOM’s has listed the revival project on the Makuake crowdfunding platform, looking to raise 50,000,000 Yen or USD $470,000.
There are multiple packages to choose from, starting from a 5,000 Yen ($47) contribution that gets you a certificate and your name on the official site, all the way up to 9,999,999 Yen ($94,000) which even allows you to borrow the completed Supra for a day.
