Dang! I'm really liking my MK3 Supra turbo.

I bought this '89 from the second owner last fall to flip.  It had been sitting for ten years because of a supposed water pump leak.  Paint is pretty burned on it, but it was complete with very little rust and it's a turbo targa with 5 speed.  I was able to turn the motor over by hand and the gas in it actually looked good!  So I took a chance and picked it up for a few hundred bucks.  A month of working on it resurrected it.  It was the " hose from hell" a 4" piece of cooling line behind the thermostat to block that was the culprit.  I had already changed out the water pump, but oh well, at least I know that is fresh,  Replaced the rad hoses, plugs, did a compression test.  Excellent!  Complete history of parts and work on the car from new.  Engine rebuilt about 60k ago along with a couple of head gaskets before that.  Clutch with about 3000 miles on it.  I put the original wheels and new tires on the car and presently I am getting the tired paint to look respectable.  I've been driving it and what a nice motor! So different than my NA miata, MGA and early sixties beetle.  The last time I had a straight six powered car was a 1970 240z forty years ago.   I really don't have the room for four fun cars and the complexity of this car scares me for future repairs. But it feels like a super car compared to everything else.  And because it's a little beat cosmetically there's a little freedom in exposing it to weather.

Anyone else on the board running one of these?

I've always admired those cars.

My brother has had one for a little over 20 years. Paid $2k from the original owner back then. Its quick with around 400hp. 

I don't like the MkIV Supra at all, but the MkIII, the MkIII I like.

The Mk III Supra is the best-looking Toyota ever made.

It is a good-looking car and can be fun on the street, unfortunately motorsports-wise the only thing they're good for is landspeed racing - it's extremely heavy so that gives it a disadvantage in all other forms of motorsport right off the bat, they don't have much steering lock so they can't drift well, and then to add insult the injury the suspension geometry is bad so you have to use the Colin Chapman theory of suspension design as a workaround. They seem to have been made just to cruise the wangan and look awesome doing it

The head gaskets were the main issue on those, incorrect head bolt torque listed in the manual so says the internet. Hopefully done right when the HGs were redone. Very RAD.

In reply to fatallightning :

That an the EGR that was routed between #5 and 6 cylinders. The EGR should be blocked right away. 

About 15 years ago I had a Mk2 Supra that I loved to death, and I knew some local guys with Mk3s, including a couple of turbos. They are big heavy cars but aside from that they're screwed together very well and can make tons of power.

I always kind of wanted a Mk3 turbo targa but even 15 years ago it was hard to find one that wasn't beat, and there was always something else that I seemed to want just a little bit more. Very hard to find a nice one these days.

They looked really cool as Group A touring cars.

In reply to pointofdeparture :

Missed out on getting a GrpA front bumper scoop for my brother. I always liked how it looked. 

I was trying to enable Coopertired into one of these.  It seems to the manuals are really uncommon unfortunately.

There's a manual targa for sale locally on the ironplanet.com auction site for $600. Looks originally NA, converted to turbo,. Then turbo removed and the car is BEAT. I always liked this body style.

https://www.ironplanet.com/for-sale/Automobiles-1987-Toyota-Supra-Coupe-Washington/4325689?h=5000%2Cq%7Csupra&rr=1&hitprm=&pnLink=yes

My father has a 88 turbo. 

At one point, fifteen years ago it was the fastest mk3 with the Toyota automatic transmission. High elevens in the quarter mile. 

He has put over two hundred thousand miles on it. Rebuilt the motor three times I can remember, once on a dirt floor in Oklahoma. Converted to a manual twice. Every three or four years he rebuilds the tranny. Rust fixed and painted twice. 

He loves it, and drives it hard. Arguably, fastest I’ve ever driven was in that car. Great car for its era. 

The Mk3 is the best looking Supra. Are 7M's reliable? Powerful? I know nothing about these cars other than that they look incredible. Saw one in ChimpCar up on the walls of Daytona looking sooooo good.

The MK3 Supra was my first car which I regretably sold. My brother still owns his though and he's turning it into a time attack machine eventually! (There's a build thread on here somewhere for it that I created)

I had a 1988 turbo 5-speed in between the GS-R integra I owned in college and the e36 m3 I bought once I got my first real job in 2000.  It was a wonderful car that I sold to my buddy.  He and I both still regret selling it to this day.

It was white with white wheels and a maroon interior...

Yes it is a heavy beast.  Which in some way is kind of fun compared to everything else I have ever owned.  I would love to take one of these on a trip if it could be made reliable.  The seats in this thing are fantastic.  And a very quiet car with the roof on.  Roof off it's pretty jiggly, but I don't care.  I'll put up with a lot just to have open air motoring.  It sure get a lot of attention.  The engine has about 100,000 kms on a rebuild.  By what I can figure out a head gasket  was done by the dealer before that.  Then engine done.  Probably overheated and shortened the engine's life.  Another head gasket later in its life.  The guy I bought it from re-torqued the head while he was in school.  Looks like stock head bolts so unfortunately not the uprated versions.

Anyway, this car was on my bucket list and i am very fortunate to get to try one for not much money.

In reply to brownb :

And if that's how you feel about it, its definitely the right car.

Fun story. 

Late 90s or early '00 I was going out on a date with my now wife and stole my brother's Supra out of my parents driveway. It was cooler with the top off than my GTI. 

I get on a main highway and as I get up to about 45mph the targa top flies right off!! My stupid brother had left it undone when he arrived home. 

Turned around, picked it up and it was a mangled aluminum mess. I straightened well enough so that it would fit in the trunk latches and left it off for the rest of the night. 

The next morning I got up at 6 before my brother did and went straight to the junkyard. Found a white targa top and bought it. He never found out   

Back then these were plentiful in junkyards. 

Slippery said:

My stupid brother had left it undone when he arrived home. 

Maybe stupid, or maybe trying to keep brothers from borrowing his car. Ha!

Good story.

Cool car, brownb!

All these comments about how heavy it is. Lol. So is the mk4. What now?   

they had a 1jz mk3 in Japan.

You can stuff a 2jz/1uzfe in them quite easily. 
 

thwy have luxury interior from the 80's so they can be made lighter. 
 

the geometry can be corrected

 They make awesome noises stock. 
 

the 7m engine makes good power (plenty enough to overcome its "heavy weight". 

In reply to brownb :

You stole that for a few hundred bucks! Looks great.

Yes, very lucky.  I still have a few things to work out like finding a replacement heater control valve and a few interior bits, and I need to figure out what's missing for the a/c as it would be great to finally have a classic car with a/c.

Pretty minor considering I bought it as a non runner.

Isn't that a clown car?

(old GRM reference)