One of the race cars that cemented the Toyota Supra’s status as a giant slayer is headed to auction in Japan. Auction house Bingo is selling a 2000 Supra GT500 that competed in the All Japan Grand Touring Championship, the predecessor to the Super GT series—but some assembly is required.
Spotted by Japanese Nostalgic Car, the Supra GT500 that’s scheduled to cross the block has an impressive racing resume. It’s reported to be the No. 38 car that Japanese pilot Hironori Takeuchi, its current owner, drove with Yuji Tachikawa during the 2000 season. It wore the blue and yellow FK/Massimo livery at the time. The number 38 was later assigned to a new chassis, and this auction-bound Supra ended up with No. 33 and the cdmaOne CERUMO livery. It was put in storage for the first time after the 2000 season.
The Supra’s retirement was short-lived. It came out of storage in 2001 and was used as a spare car during a race held at the Mine Circuit. (Fun fact—today, Mine is a Mazda test track.) The car finished 13th, which wasn’t bad considering it competed against newer machinery, and it was later sold to Kraft Corporation. It retired for good a few years later.
Like most race cars, this GT500-spec Supra shares little more than a name with its production counterpart. Though it may loosely resemble Toyota’s sports car on the outside, its shell is totally special for competition, with prominent, integrated fender flares and a big front splitter. Inside, there’s a carbon fiber dashboard, roll cage, and digital instrument cluster. One of the few parts that looks like it might come from the Supra parts bin is the headlight switch. As for the drivetrain, well… that’s where it gets a bit tricky.
Peek under the vented hood and you’ll find a big hole where the engine and the transmission are supposed to be. Both were removed, and it doesn’t sound like either is included in the sale. What you’re supposed to see in the bay is a variation of Toyota’s 3S-GTE turbocharged, two-liter four-cylinder, called the 3S-GTE 171F. It’s related to the engine that powered the rally-bred Celica GT-Four, and TRD reportedly elected not to use the Supra’s typical 2JZ inline-six because it was too heavy.
“It was quite a difficult car to drive,” Takeuchi says in the video above. “It had so much power, everyone would spin out and the car would crash into walls. It was truly a challenging and wild car to drive.” He recalled the cabin getting “ridiculously hot” due to the front-mid-mounted engine.
The Supra GT500 will go to the highest bidder during the JDM Collectible Auction scheduled for November 16 and 17. Bingo hasn’t published a pre-auction estimate, and we don’t know whether there’s a reserve. “It would be amazing if this could be restored,” Takeuchi summed up. Our sentiments precisely.
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