Using a bigger turbo, cams, and a sequential gearbox, this three-cylinder can party hard.
The pint-sized powerhouse is owned by the founder of Rode Microphones, Peter Freedman, and built by Australian tuning shop Powertune. It uses a host of aftermarket parts, including a larger Garrett G25-550 turbocharger, an X-Shift six-speed sequential transmission, Kelford cams and valvetrain, as well as dozens of supporting mods that make sure enough air and fuel get to the cylinders. Most importantly, it’s still on the stock engine block.
740 horsepower on a stock bottom end is serious 2JZ energy from the little 1.6-liter three-cylinder. But there’s a reason why it can support so much power: Toyota overbuilt the hell out of the engine. It has extraordinarily thick cylinder walls, an extremely rigid bedplate-style block design that keeps the forged crankshaft and connecting rods in place, and huge intake runners that feed plenty of air to the trio of cylinders. It’s built more stout than most engines, likely because it was built specifically for the GR hot hatch duo.
It isn’t always run on the full-kill 740 hp, which likely takes some form of race fuel or E85 ethanol. According to a video by DriftSquid on YouTube, the car makes 400 horsepower on pump gas. If that sounds like a huge difference, it is. The pump gas tune might be extremely conservative to save the engine, while it can only support the full power number on a better fuel. When an engine is that small, there’s no way around it.
Either way, it can take serious power. For how long, I’m not sure, but even if it pulls 740 hp out of 1.6 liters once, I’d be impressed.
