What goes around, comes around.

When I was about 13-14 years old, my Dad went car shopping. He was all set to buy this breathtakingly gorgeous 1985 Toyota Supra. It was jet black with a grey interior. I think I was more excited than he was, because I thought it was the sleekest looking machine I'd ever seen.

So when GEICO told him they would not insure it, I assumed he'd shop for new insurance. Apparently in the mid-80's, GEICO had a stick up their collective arses. They classified the Supra- all 145 horsepower of it- as a sports car. And they had a "no sports car" policy. But instead of waving goodbye to GEICO, he relented and we welcomed a 1985 Toyota Celica GT-S into the driveway in place of the Supra.

Mind you, while I was heartbroken when he sold that Celica- I had been hoping I might get the keys for high school graduation, or as I headed off to college- I still felt jealous when I saw a Supra on the road. I've had this illness ever since.

Some guys don't get cars at all. Some are into muscle cars with big V-8 engines and a menacing, throaty grumble. Some pine over exotic Italian or German supercars they'll never own. I happen to love Japanese sports cars. Z-cars, Mazda RX's, ad Supras, most of all. Especially Supras.

That 1985 Supra was the second generation, or "MKII" model. It was only a hint at what Toyota would eventually do with the car. While I was in high school, the 3rd generation (MKIII) Supras came out, and they were now turbocharged. I was 15-16 years old, and I had no idea what "turbocharged" meant, except that it was an exotic concept that meant it was fast!!! And the new, beefier lines of the car were not as graceful as the MKII had been, but they hinted at a more aggressive attitude. I swore to myself that I would one day drive a Supra.

By the time I entered the workforce and had money of my own to spend on a car, the fourth generation (MKIV) Supras had been born. They were a radical upgrade from the MKIII. They were every bit as beefy in styling, but also incorporated the sleekness of the MKII design, together in a package that is truly iconic in Japanese car design. You can debate the merits of the "shopping cart" spoiler, but that aside, the MKIV was a stunningly gorgeous car with loads of horsepower now coming from a twin turbo.

But it was also very expensive. At a time when a fairly nice new car was selling for $20k or so, the Supra was now priced in the high $30k range. There was no way I'd be able to afford one of the new ones.

In 1995, I got a great job with my local telephone company. Good benefits, and much better pay than I had made previously. But still not good enough to buy a Supra. Well... not a MKIV Supra. In 1996, I stumbled across a 1990 Supra Turbo on a local car dealer's lot. I think it had 60-80k miles on it. It was white with a blue cloth interior and a power sunroof, 5-speed transmission, and TEMS (Toyota Electronically Modulated Suspension).

Now, I finally had a Supra. Not the MKIV, but hey, I still had a beautiful turbocharged chunk of Japanese ingenuity. I adored that car. I was always tinkering; putting in a new stereo, adding a turbo timer, making little upgrades and minor repairs.

Then I blew the head gasket on the stock 7M-GTE engine. Toyota wanted $2k or so to fix it. I barely knew where the head ended and the engine block began, but I decided to repair it myself. The short story- I pulled it all apart, "bagging and tagging" every part as I went, with the help of the official Toyota factory service manual. Used the only gasket set my local auto parts store had available, from Fel-Pro. Took the head to a machine shop for resurfacing, had the turbo rebuilt for good measure, added a set of ARP head studs, and couldn't finish putting it all together. LOL

Towed the 98% complete car to a local mechanic, who got the rest of it together and got it running. YAY!

And then I blew another head gasket. BOO!

Decided to be "smart" and have a pro take care of it this time. Took it to a local speed shop. Got a quote, estimated 3-4 weeks, and I'd be back on the road. Short version- block & head resurfaced, o-ringed the block, solid copper head gasket (at the mechanic's recommendation... may have been a mistake), .10 over, new JE pistons, turbo upgraded to T04E specs, and new everything. (I'm omitting a lot of details & upgrades)

But it took the guy 9 months. I only owner 1 vehicle. I was borrowing a car when I could, but mostly renting cars, because every time I asked him "how long," the response was "another week or two." If I had known how long it would be, I would have bought a beater car.

Well, after my 9-month odyssey, I finally got my baby back. And, oh boy, was it nice. Loads of power, purred like a kitten and roared like a lion.

And less than a year later, idling in morning commute traffic on the way to work, I blew the head gasket. Again. GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

So I let the Supra go. If a professional race car builder could not galvanize that engine, I was out of options.

I moved on to a VW Golf 1.8 Turbo, then 2 MINI Cooper S's, and a Mazdaspeed3, which I currently drive. Loved all of those cars. They're all peppy and nimble, and the MINIs, especially came with a wonderful community of enthusiasts. But they weren't Supras.

In 1996, when I bought my Supra, the internet was still basically AOL. Lame. By the time I got rid of it in 2000, the internet was becoming useful. And I frequently looked at prices on used Supras. To my dismay, used MKIV Supras (which don;t have the head gasket issues of the MKIII models) barely lost any value at all. In fact, a nice one could cost MORE than the original MSRP!!! WTF?

So I more or less shelved the idea of owning a Supra for a while, but kept browsing, and kept reading about the cars to learn more. A while back, I saw that people were successfully transplanting the engine from the MKIV Supra (a 2JZ-GTE) into the MKIII chassis. Interesting, but costly.

I later learned about the 1JZ-GTE engine. Toyota designed the 1JZ-GTE engine with the MKIII Supra in mind. So it bolts right in, in place of the 7M-GTE engine that was in my MKIII Supra. But for some reason, the 1JZ-GTE engine was never used in American Supras. It was used in Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) Supras, as well as several other Toyota models, from the early 90's right thru the turn of the millennium. And they were being imported left & right by MKIII Supra owners to replace their questionable 7M-GTE engines.

The 1JZ engine was cheaper to acquire than the 2JZ, and easier to transplant into the MKIII chassis, so it meant a cheaper upgrade. It's not as beefy as the 2JZ, but it's easily capable of 500hp without having to upgrade the engine internals. That's more than enough for me.

So I turned my attention to learning more about the 1JZ engine swap process- costs involved, technical issues, etc., etc. And I started looking for a car... for the car, the one that could be my last significant automotive purchase ever. Details to follow...