The Sunday News
Lovert Mafukure
This just crossed my mind at one time as I was going about my everyday car business. There are people out there with serious power-plants in cars you wouldn’t expect to have serious power-plants — I hope that makes sense.
What I’m trying to say is that there are people that drive their normal everyday cars not knowing that they have some of the world’s best engines like driving a car that has a Toyota Supra engine. Just in case you don’t know what a Supra is, it is a 2JZ-GTE monster that creeps out all super cars! That is the only way I know how to describe it.
There are many of these JDM cars that have some of these power plants and we will look at some of them. By the way JDM stands for Japan domestic market and refers to all these cars we import from Japan that were meant for the Japanese Domestic market but they find their way here through the backdoor.
Topping the list of the most iconic JDM engines of all time definitely is the JZ motor. There are two of them on the line up namely the 1JZ and the 2JZ. There are many variations of these engines. The 1jz has a ge version, a GTE version and an FSE version which we are not going to dwell much on because it was never that popular. The 1JZ-GTE is the 280hp motor found on the Toyota Chaser Tourer V — it is the baby Supra engine which is found in the mark 3 Supra as well. The same goes for the 2JZ, it has the GE, the GTE and the FSE. The 2JZ GTE finds itself on top of the list of the best ever engines to come out of Japan. It is the engine that can easily handle 1 000 horsepower with mostly stock internals.
You may be wondering what the difference is between a GE and an FE in Toyota engines. Well, FE heads are designed for fuel economy high torque and power at lower rpm and a notable difference from the ge is that the timing belt/chain only drives one camshaft while the other is driven by a gear. The GE heads have more power but at higher rpms and both camshafts are driven by the timing belt or chain.
Having said that, the main difference between the 2JZ-GE and FSE was that the latter was made for fuel economy and less emissions and it was confirmed to use 20% less fuel when compared to its GE counterpart. The GE was made for performance with no concern whatsoever for fuel economy. You have to respect it though because it’s the straight six-cylinder engine that can outpace a V10s and can even par Buggatti veyron power outputs.
There is a good reason why this engine tops the list; it’s a 3-litre straight six engine that makes a lot of power with little modifications and even over 20 years later, it’s the engine of choice for most motoring enthusiasts. The JZ engine can produce and handle over 800Hp with a few modifications. There are very few production engines that can handle so much power without blowing up. So literally, this means that this engine is bulletproof. Most cars built for racing or drifting world over have 2JZ engines whether from factory or transplanted from other Toyota cars. The main reason they choose this engine is because of its high tolerance to abuse. You can imagine what the engine can do for you if you just use it for everyday business like going to work. It should last forever. The other strength of a straight six is that it is naturally balanced and runs smoother than any other engine configuration.
The simple looking car that has an iconic engine for this week is the Toyota Progres, which is French simply meaning progress. It does not look all that cute from the outside but its packing some goodies inside and under the hood.
You could say it’s a luxury car because it comes with leather interior, real wood panelling, dual zone climate control, voice activated GPS (but I bet you would have to speak Japanese for that) and last but not least it comes with either a 1JZ or a 2JZ engine and nothing else! Cool as that may sound, they only come with GE naturally aspirated engines and the models produced after 2001 have the FSE engines, these were the D4 direct injection engines but hey they still are JZ engines.
When all is said and done, the 2JZ is not about miles per gallon but smiles per gallon. It makes up some of the best engineering pieces to come out of the 90s and up to today the 2JZ still rules on the streets and on the racing circuits simply because it was engineered to endure all the abuse you can expose it to. Some spinners in South Africa are swopping 1JZ-GTEs into their Gusheshe BMW for the same reasons mentioned hereon — that should paint a clearer picture.
Till next time. JDM
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