Most of us in our 20’s and 30’s can say that the Fast and the Furious played a big part in our lives in the early 2000’s. The mix of Imports and American Muscle gave us a look into the world of aftermarket modifications and racing and if you’d like to admit it or not, pushed the car scene in a good direction.
For Oklahoma native Jared Holt, seeing those cars on the big screen ignited his love for Imports. “It was the first time I had seen a Toyota Supra or any of those cars. So, obviously it was just natural to fall in love with them,” says Holt. “My dad told me that if I got a full ride to college to play golf, he would buy me any car within reason. That was around the same time the Fast and the Furious came out and I thought imports were the coolest thing in the world. Owning a Supra has always been kind of a dream to me, but I knew at the time it was out of the question price wise, so we found a bright yellow 1995 Mitsubishi 3000GT. From that point on, it was downhill after that.”
After College, Holt moved to Florida to pursue a golf career in late 2006. Looking for an upgrade, he came across the twin turbo version of the 3000GT, known as a VR4, and had to have it. All-wheel drive, 4-wheel steering and over 300-horsepower, the VR4 was a car that was way ahead of its time.
Twelve years later and Holt still has that same exact car in his garage, along with a few others: 1999 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4, 1994 Mazda RX-7, 2002 twin turbo Dodge Viper, and a 1997 twin turbo Toyota Supra. To say Holt has a love for imports is an understatement. “Once I started making more money in my career in the car business, buying my dream cars came more feasible,” says Holt. “I picked up the Supra about five years ago. It was a pristine factory twin turbo car, the only modifications it had was an intercooler, factory TRD exhaust, and an air filter. The original plan when I got the car was to keep it at like 600-horsepower and a stock engine/auto transmission so my wife could drive it. But once I started adding modifications, the build spiraled out of control quickly.”
Going from a stock bolt-on car to making decent power led Holt to want even more. The first time the car was built, he sent it to Antonio Calvo of Calvo Motorsports. He started with a stock motor, built stock auto, upgraded to a 6766 single turbo and tuned it on E-85. “This is actually how I was introduced to Real Street Performance because Jay Meagher actually tuned the car remotely,” says Holt. “Once I decided to go bigger on the build, I knew I needed to deal directly with the shop that would do the tuning. That’s when I reached out to Real Street and that’s when the relationship started between them and I.”
Once Real Street started working their magic building the Supra, Holt knew that the car was about to get really serious, really fast. Once the build was complete, the guys at Real Street decided to make an appearance at the Haltech World Cup Finals in 2015. “I was unable to attend the first event with the car, so Jay piloted the car that weekend,” says Holt. “They ended up going 7.90 in the quarter mile with a 76mm turbo. At that point, we realized that we may be on to something with this car, being that it was so heavy and still a street car and we broke into the 7’s with just a 76mm turbo. After the event, they took the car back to Orlando and at that time, Precision was coming out with this new turbo that no one knew about, it was the 8385 with a T4 Frame. We decided to put that turbo on the car, didn’t change anything else and we went a 7.57 in the quarter mile, which was insane.”
In 2016, Holt finally had the chance to get some seat time in the car when he competed in Outlaw Armageddon in his home state of Oklahoma. “That was the first real race that I got to pilot the new setup in the Supra,” says Holt. “We had barely any time to test, but I still ended up making it to the semi-finals which I was really pleased with. The car felt amazing and did what I wanted it to.”
After Outlaw Armageddon, a decision was made to bring the Supra on Hot Rod Drag Week to see what it could do. Unfortunately, due to work, Holt had to miss the event but had Jay pilot the car once again. All was going well until they blew the head during a pass and sent the car sliding all over the track from the dumped fluids. Jay kept cool, pulled the chute, and kept the car from hitting the wall. The car suffered minor fire damage in the engine bay and melted a cylinder head. Even with a melted cylinder head, they managed to finish drag week and average an 8.10 and became one of the first Imports to place on Drag Week.
With the car now back at Real Street, a few upgrades were needed in order to get the Supra ready for its next challenge, the Haltech World Cup Finals 2016. Headgames Motorworks hooked up Holt with a full on drag head that they built for the car to replace the torched one from Drag Week. They got the car in working order and headed to Maryland International Raceway. Holt and the Real Street crew battled wiring and harness issues all weekend long but still managed to qualify. “I think we qualified 11th or 12th, but I can’t remember for sure. All I remember is driving the car on the last qualifying attempt and I left the line wheels up, I had to pedal it and then it wheelied again so I just kept in it and ended up running a 7.60 at 180-miles per hour. What was so cool about that pass was I went my fastest personal pass on my birthday. I’ll always remember that.”
The car went back to Real Street for the winter to get all of the bugs worked out and ready for the race season this year. After two long years of testing and upgrades, the beast has finally made its way home to Oklahoma. Holt took delivery of the Supra this past weekend right in time for Street Car Takeover Oklahoma City. “The cool thing about the setup on this car is anyone can call Real Street and order the same build I have. You can literally buy every single part straight from them and have a 7-second street car. They call it the RS1600 which includes all of the following: Built 3.0-Liter with a billet crank and aluminum rods, GSC Cams, T4 Manifold from ETS, Precision 8385 T4 Turbo, ProTorque Converter, RPM TH400, Driveshaft Shop 9-inch Rear Differential, and a MOTEC M150 with a Cody Phillips Racing Harness.”
Holt decided to strut his stuff and dominate both of the classes he entered at Street Car Takeover. Earlier in the day, Holt signed up for the RWD Roll Racing class to get some seat time and get used to the car. He didn’t even have to turn it up or hit the nitrous and he walked away with a class win with a top speed of 165-miles per hour. “We really didn’t want to stress the car out so we didn’t feel the need to turn it up early in the day, plus the air and density altitude sucked because it was so hot out,” says Holt.
As the day went on, the temperature started to drop and drag racing eliminations had begun. Holt knew that he had to turn it a notch from the roll racing, his class was stacked with some fast street cars.
“I knew we had to run the car hard and I knew we had a chance to make for some good racing from the data we gathered early in the day,” Says Holt. “I have to say though; the race of the weekend was against Duane Biddle and his Dragnfly Fox Body. I went 8.015 to his 8.022, I mean the margin of victory was 7 thousandths of a second, which was insane. Duane’s Dragnfly car is no joke and it’s a proven setup, he wins all the time in small tire and no prep, it’s a bad bitch. Best of all, Duane is one stand-up guy. We were having problems with the bump box on the brand new setup and he agreed to let me go in first and get on the brake before he came in. He didn’t have to do that, but major props to him for doing so because it allowed us to actually have a race. Luckily, I barely squeaked out the win and headed to the finals where I ran my fastest pass of the weekend, a 7.80 at 180-miles per hour and took home another win!”
“The guys at Real Street have been outstanding this entire time, I couldn’t have asked for a better team to build this amazing car,” says Holt. “They always kept to the plan with this car and kept it a capable street car. Sure, there are Supras out there that are faster, but not many. I wanted to retain as much of a real Supra as we can. I didn’t want to do carbon fiber body panels or Lexan glass and we didn’t want to put some massive t6 pro mod turbo on it, all of this stuff that makes it a racecar. The only reason we did a 25.5 cage is because we had to do it to go as fast as the car goes safely. The car still has all original glass, original VIN number, all original body panels, the car is as street as it gets. The only thing it doesn’t have power steering and A/C. Other than that, it has everything the supra came with.”
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