My Toyota Aristo

yemgi · January 25, 2009

I finally bought an Aristo yesterday, I have been looking at them for a while and they really grew on me. So here it is a black Mk2 that came in the UK in June 1999 and it has GS300 Sport wheels on.

It really is a pleasure to drive and it is already quick when you floor the throttle so I can't imagine how it is with BPU

Here it is at home with the little sister

some outside shots

the inside:

and the engine

I did not take much pictures, I will do more when I am back in France

aaronabbott · January 25, 2009

lovely motor yemgi,i so badly want one

Rob's Lexx · January 25, 2009

looks great yemgi. i'm not too clued upon the aristo's.....is this a V300 vertex??? what engine, bhp etc do they have?

got many plans for this then mate??

aido · January 25, 2009

Congratulations mate, you won't regret it as these cars are very nice to cruise with the milage you do, but also have the power on tap when you need it :)

Did they give you many details of the hybrid turbos that were put in as that will affect how much boost you can safely run through them - in your case for the better :)

The standard JDM turbos are safe to run at 1.2 bar, whereas with those you may get even more power out of them!

@ Rob - yes V300 Vertex, powerwise, these are the 2JZ-GTE in the exact same configuration as the JDM Supra, same turbos, injectors and so on. Due to the gentleman's agreement they had over there you're looking at an official figure of 276bhp and 333ft/lb of torque standard! Unofficially the Jap cars tend to run between 300 - 320bhp depending on where you look!

Few tweaks and that soon shoots up - most common figures are 350bhp upwards :D

All the specs are here:

http://carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=85943

aaronabbott · January 25, 2009

Congratulations mate, you won't regret it as these cars are very nice to cruise with the milage you do, but also have the power on tap when you need it :)
Did they give you many details of the hybrid turbos that were put in as that will affect how much boost you can safely run through them - in your case for the better :)

The standard JDM turbos are safe to run at 1.2 bar, whereas with those you may get even more power out of them!

@ Rob - yes V300 Vertex, powerwise, these are the 2JZ-GTE in the exact same configuration as the JDM Supra, same turbos, injectors and so on. Due to the gentleman's agreement they had over there you're looking at an official figure of 276bhp and 333ft/lb of torque standard!

Few tweaks and that soon shoots up - most common figures are 350bhp upwards :D

All the specs are here:

http://carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=85943

what sort of tweeks

Rob's Lexx · January 25, 2009

cheers aido - some good power to be had then yemgi!!

so all aristos are V300 vertex's?? they didn't do a 'base model' so to speak - or was that seen as the GS??

aido · January 25, 2009

so all aristos are V300 vertex's?? they didn't do a 'base model' so to speak - or was that seen as the GS??

No mate, they were offered in two variants - the S300 and the V300.

The S300 is the same as what we call the Lexus GS300 - a normally aspirated 2JZ-GE engine, whereas the V300 is the twin turbo 2JZ-GTE engine - in fact the Supra uses the Aristo engine as we had it first

The Vertex Edition refers to the trim level, ie leather and so on.

I uploaded the Japanese sales brochure for these a while back:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DNP29J94

@ Aaron, basically mate just a decat, free flowing exhaust, free flowing panel filter, colder spark plugs and a restrictor ring in the exhaust to prevent it boosting past say 1.0bar (the JDM turbos have weak wastegates and without the back pressure will overboost up to 1.6bar+ and destroy the turbos). You can then use a boost controller or bleed valve to up boost above that - 1.2bar is seen as the safe limit for these turbos where they'll still last good milage. Fuelling you can upgrade via a faster flowing pump, and there's something else that I'm forgetting right now - oh a fuel cut defender as the cars will cut fuel as standard at about a bar - not sure of the exact figure though After that it starts to get expensive with aftermarket ECUs, injectors, and then it's time to rip out the twin turbos and put a nice single in there instead :D

I can't wait to see what Yemgi has planned for this one though :D

Anees · January 25, 2009

Well Done mate - looks a nice car!

Congratulations! :D :D

spikes · January 25, 2009

nice looking car, B)

yemgi · January 25, 2009

I can't wait to see what Yemgi has planned for this one though :D

I have lots of ideas but it will have to wait until I have it French registered which can take monthes.

Once it is registered, it would like it to have a big brake kit, coilovers, anti roll bars, chassis braces and all that is needed to get around the 400bhp mark.

Exterior will stay almost standard: window tints, TTE front lip and maybe TTE grill

sparkystav · January 25, 2009

Looks great mate,

What you doing with the IS then?

Stav

yemgi · January 25, 2009

keeping it, the bodykit will go and it will have a respray probably Granite Sky as it is its original colour

aztecbandit1 · January 25, 2009

nice motor matey, was that the one thats been on the Auto trader site for a couple of weeks? was looking at the add a few days ago if it is? :D

yemgi · January 25, 2009

It had been on autotrader for more than 2 monthes, it comes from JEM

aztecbandit1 · January 25, 2009

It had been on autotrader for more than 2 monthes, it comes from JEM

Yeh it was the one i'd seen matey, nice looking motor that :D

Gord · January 26, 2009

Very nice looking car mate :D been driving Anees's aristo about for over a week now :D very nice cars mate i tell you :D

Anees · January 26, 2009

Very nice looking car mate :D been driving Anees's aristo about for over a week now :D very nice cars mate i tell you :D

Got to say, I am missing the Turbo kick!

Yemgi - personally I think the Aristo as standard is not really a very quick car (well certainly doesn't feel it until you enter illegal speeds). The transition from Turbo 1 to Turbo 2 is almost seamless and it almost feels as if turbo 2 doesn't work. Once you unlock the car with the items Aido mentioned and the car is running 1.2bar the car is MUCH MUCH better and Turbo 2 really kicks in hard :winky:

The other good thing I found with the Aristo is if you drive it off boost and tickle it gently you can get pretty good economy out of it. As soon as you start using the turbos however..................... watch the fuel go (well you can map it to make it more economical and produce more power but that needs a piggy back ECU.)

I wouldn't call the Aristo a drivers car (which your IS200 is!), but its a very good motorway cruiser / top-end monster ;)

yemgi · January 26, 2009

Yes it is not a sports car as such but it still feel powerful when the throttle is pushed hard. Chassis wise that has nothing to do with my IS but I did lots of improvements on the chassis of this one :)

For the fuel I know what you mean, it goes quicly when you have fun :)

Anyway, I don't regret my buy, I just hope I will manage to register it in France

johnboy · January 26, 2009

Very nice yemgi, looks a great buy. :)

Miss-informer · January 27, 2009

so all aristos are V300 vertex's?? they didn't do a 'base model' so to speak - or was that seen as the GS??

No mate, they were offered in two variants - the S300 and the V300.

The S300 is the same as what we call the Lexus GS300 - a normally aspirated 2JZ-GE engine, whereas the V300 is the twin turbo 2JZ-GTE engine - in fact the Supra uses the Aristo engine as we had it first

They also done the Zi-Four in the MK1, with the 4 litre 1UZ-FE V8 lump, was also 4WD

Nice car Yemgi :)