Auto Couture Toyota Soarer

The heat has been searing here in Japan recently and that means two things. One, the rainy season of non-stop downpours has pretty much finished and two, summer holidays are coming up very shortly. I haven’t been out of Japan recently so I’m getting very excited about traveling back and have already bought a few goodies to bring back with me. I’m not talking about the usual Omiyage (Souvenirs) or Shiroi Koibitochocolates either, but rather some new handling parts for my JZZ30 Soarer.

You see, living in the Land of Japan grants you access to rare and hard to get parts as well as the widest variety of top quality tuning components on offer. One easy way to access these parts is through Yahoo Auctions, where many interesting pieces sometimes crop up. Looking through some of these auctions, I was reminded of a very special car that was built by Auto Couture. It is the UZZ31 Soarer above. Aut0 Couture make some of the most stylish high end body kits and wheels for anything from Lamborghini, Bentley, Mercedes Benz to even parts for a humble Toyota Soarer, aka Lexus SC300/SC400 in the States.

Being a huge fan of the JZZ3x/UZZ3x Soarer base, upon seeing the kit for the first time many many years ago I instantly fell in love. I don’t think I can fault this kit. Unlike some other companies kits with wild over the top front bumpers and ‘side steps’ the lines of this aero package do nothing but add to the beauty of the car. The fit of the kit is of course to OEM level and the Auto Couture original 19 inch wheels really set the whole car off.

The kit, a 3 piece set, includes a fully remade front bumper, original side skirts and full rear bumper too. For owners of the ‘Zenki’ and ‘Chuuki’ (first and second generation) JZZ/UZZ3x Soarers, the front turning lights and grill from the Kouki (last generation) model were required. At recommended retails price, the whole front, side and rear kit went for around 220,000 yen.  Definitely not a price to be sneezed at. Auto Couture however did not only redesigned aero parts for the Soarer, they also went one step further and redesigned the whole car, minus the hardtop roof! Considering the age of this car finding more information was a little difficult, but from what I had found and gathered, Auto Couture built up to 3 soft top JZZ/UZZ Soarers.

The job was not a simple one, yet Auto Couture took no short cuts in insuring everything was up to scratch with what was essentially a high class coupe. The bodies of the cars were strengthened to a level where they could pass safety tests in Japan and technical drawings were made to prove this. This allowed the cars to pass shaken (road worthy inspection) and be registered for driving on Japanese roads. This work was rumored to have been done in America, but was possibly completed in Japan. The drop top roof was modeled on a Mercedes system and was automatic, operated by a button inside the cabin.

Engine wise, this was not your average SC. The base car being a UZZ31, the engine was not the popular 1JZ which is common in tuning circles but the super smooth 4.0L V8. Not being satisfied with the power, C’s, a popular tuner in Japan, bored the engine out to 5l and an Eaton MP 112 supercharger was placed on top for extra grunt. The pressurized air was intercooled before heading back into the intake manifold and all together was apparently good enough to raise the power to 460ps. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any more information about torque or other modifications.

The suspension was also changed from the standard airbags to a ‘Skippy’ set of adjustable bags. This allows for quick individual height adjustment of each corner or combined front/rear adjustment from within the cabin. Rolling stock was also by Auto Couture and came in the form of 19″ ‘Supreme’ 9Js with +36 Offset on the front and 19″ 10Js with matching offset on the rear. Remember, this was still in the 90s so wheels this big would have cost a small fortune.

The interior was also redone with a full leather retrim front and rear. The back was also heavily modified to allow for the large collapsible roof to slot in and hide away behind the rear seats. If you’ve ever sat in the rear of a Soarer you may know how cramped it is, but after the conversion to soft top, there seems to be even less space to sit in the rear.

The car was custom badged as an SC500, a very deserving name but there were also a whole host of other modifications I’m sure. I’m still trying to find more photos and information on this build, so if you know anything more about this car, or possibly own it, please get in contact with me! I’d love to know more about it!

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http://www.auto-couture.com/

Words: Peter Horniak
Images: Auto Couture.com