How to fulfill a Lifetime Dream – twice: Supras in Vegas 2017 (Part 2)

The Dyno Run Event is being held on the premises of the Las Vegas local tuner Virtual Works Racing. That’s the best location for such an event, being a little bit outside of Vegas in an industrial area. Hence, 800hp Supras, that make the dyno rumble with their 4″ straight pipes, are no cause for complaints by any irritated residents. The flair is unique, imagine a scenery with a street full of highly modded vehicles, hundreds of power junkies, everything surrounded by beats by a DJ…might sound like borrowed from a certain movie franchise.
Hollywood, 2001? Nope, Las Vegas, 2017. The Kick-Off Party was all part of the atmosphere, too.

Usually this is the most relaxing out of all the Event Days: You chill out, watch a couple of dyno runs,

enjoy a marvellous BBQ, discuss everything car-related

and scrutinize every single car.

You get to see everything a Supra Enthusiast’s heart longs for…literally E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G: A MK2 Supra still owned by it’s first owner, a 85-year old gentleman, who frequently visits SIV for years? Sure! A 1JZ- or 2JZ-converted MK2 or MK3? Yes Sir!

MKIV Supras with gigantic single turbos or naturally aspirated with ITB’s? Absolutely!

Also for OEM enthusiasts there’s a lot to see: A MK3 owned by it’s second owner with all the original manufacturing documents from the factory? Yep, it’s been there. An immaculate 6-Speed MKIV with 20.000mls? Of course it’s there!

And the best thing about all the cars: 90% of them are in showcar condition, on the outside, the inside and in the engine bay.

So, usually this is the most chilled out of all days you are saying? Typically, yes. But this should change once dusk kicked in, when a friend, whome I met the day before during a party trip on the Las Vegas Strip, asked us whether we’d like to drive both of his 1JZ MK3s to the event (a track tool with a rollcage and a showcar with Single Turbo, that later won the event for the best modded MK3 in SIV17). Have I ever been driving a MK3 or something 1JZ-powered before? No! Was it awesome? Hellyeah!

Lost-my-innocence-counter: 2

Later, when you are being offered the keys to a car with the words “You wanna drive my car?”, it became clear quite fast that “Do a 2-step” wouldn’t calm the situation in any way. The car? A 650hp MKIV.
Have I ever been driving a Single Turbo Supra? No!…in night-time Vegas? Double-No! I couldn’t realize the situation. Plus: The car was equipped with a straight pipe we could fully appreciate driving with the targa top down.

Lost-my-innocence-counter: 3

And if that wasn’t enough highlights, I was also allowed to drive one of the most renown N/A Supras with ITBs owned by a buddy, which also was a hell of an honour, as almost no one else is allowed to drive this particular car.
For this reason this became my highlight out of the highlights, if you can say so at all after all of these impressions.

Lost-my-innocence-counter: 4

In this moment I felt like I had reached everything I could dream of in life. Did all of this happen? As a matter of fact, the sum of all impressions in this situation was way more than one person could handle. Vegas had finished me off, in a totally different way any other tourist would experience it.

The last day of the event was held traditionally at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was a collaboration with the Street Driven Tour for the second year in a row in order to gain more attraction to this event. Thus, everything was available on these premises a car-fanatic would reach for: Supra Show and Shine,

Autocross and, thanks to the Street Driven Tour, eye candy from Formula D. Matt Powers,

Forrest Wang

and Supra Enthusiast Dan Burkett

gave respect to their audience and showed them their talent in terms of controlling their cars way beyond the limit.
But also the Grassroots Scene was at place.

Usually the traditional 1/4 Mile drag race event on the prepared track is also part of this event. This year drag racing was a little bit displaced, because the actual Supra event was relocated short-term from the actual drag strip, which made access to the drag races a bit complicated this year.

Again, time was too short this year to appreciate all impressions in detail. Before the actual awards for Best MK II/III/IV, modified, unmodified, etc. were handed over to the lucky contestants, a heavy thunderstorm came over Vegas: The 2-Step competition.

Last, but not least I’d like to give a huge shoutout in the name of our group to the US community and once again be grateful for all you guys did for us in the last two years: gave us a warm-hearted welcome, let us be part of the great community and gave us the chance to experience some of the most memorable impressions of our lifes, consequently fulfilling our life time goals (Twice!).
We became protagonists in the very scenario we already dreamed of when still being teenagers dreaming of the Redline videos. Supras in Vegas would be all nice just for all the Supras, because you get to see the cleanest, best, most beautiful and plentiful Supras, especially coming from Europe.
But you can never get the full picture without becoming friends with their warm-hearted awesome owners.
I became friends with hundreds of people from all over North America.
The price for this journey in Euro? Pretty high. The value of these two journeys for myself? Priceless.
It should be pretty obvious now, that fulfilling this lifetime goal a 3rd time is a must. We came for some 20 year old Toyotas. We stay for the people.