JZX100 – A Perfect Car For Distance (Part 1)

This well-balanced JZX100 is a perfect example of going far, but not too far.

It seems that in recent times more and more of the cars in our scene are going to one of two extremes – either very minimally modified, or all out, over-the-top, barely-legal race cars for the road or simply trailer-only race cars, as is becoming more and more common these days. A valley in between those two extremes has been slowly widening, and though it used to be filled with a huge number of hard-core street cars, these days there seem to be fewer populating the gap, as people split one of those two ways: street-legal aesthetics or race-only performance.

Aucklander Philip Hyunh shows that not only are there still cars in that gap, but it remains a viable option in a world where laws are getting tougher, and anything performance related is getting more and more expensive. Philip’s 1998 Toyota Chaser Tourer V strikes the perfect balance – it looks good, it’s alarmingly quick, yet it’s still completely streetable, not to mention comfortable – it’s a true all-rounder.

“I had an S15 200SX [Nissan Silvia] prior to getting the JZX100, and it was actually an excellent car,” Philip tells us. “At the time I had just proposed to my now wife and decided to sell the Nissan for something a little larger with four doors – I guess you can see where it’s going from here. My intention was to own a practical car with enough power to keep it fun. I had always wanted a JZX100 and it was the perfect time – and excuse – to get one.”

Unlike finding a decent Silvia, however, finding the right JZX proved a little harder for Philip who, having owned a long list of heavily modified vehicles in the past, knew exactly what he wanted. Philips says, “It would have been nice if I had more of a choice! They’re so rare, and it’s not often you see one for sale that isn’t butchered or is compliable for New Zealand roads. Beggars can’t be choosers with these cars in New Zealand, unfortunately, so I was very lucky to find mine.” By ‘very lucky’, Philip is referring to finding exactly what he was after – a genuine, immaculate Tourer V specced with a factory-fitted five-speed R154 manual gearbox, as opposed to the far more common automatic. Being a Tourer V meant it was also factory 1JZ-GTE VVTi-powered – with 2.5 liters of straight-six-cylinder turbo grunt.

When Philip picked the car up it was in near stock condition, simply sitting on a set of aftermarket rims and some HKS lowering springs, and that was how he had planned to keep it. “I promised everyone I wouldn’t modify it further, as I thought the days of spending money on cars were behind me. The boys placed a bet on how long that would last … it lasted a day before it was on a hoist getting the first modifications.” Giving in to the notion that messing around with cars was looking to be a lifelong affliction, he began slowly doing bits and pieces to the car as he went, until one fateful day when he noticed his beautiful JZX smoking a little more than it should – something that’s fairly unusual for anything in the near-indestructible JZ family of motors. “It was the valve stem seals,” Philip explains. “When the head came off for the repair at Racing Innovations, I figured it would have been silly not to replace and refresh everything else while it was apart. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, parts were arriving left, right, and center from Japan and the USA.”