2002 Lexus SC430

Go ahead and laugh. When we first saw this Lexus rolling on its big, chrome 20s, we laughed too. Then we saw its dyno numbers, and those dubs didn't seem so funny anymore.

This ride is serious. With 400 hp at the rear wheels thanks to a Garrett GT-series turbo, this SC430 can utterly flay its tires, but it also rolls comfortably through the worst of L.A. traffic like a Lexus should.

Laguna Beach, Calif., resident Larry Dentice bought the two-seater because he needed reliable daily transportation, and he was sick of the sky-high prices of aftermarket goods for his three M3s. Dentice wanted something he could build and beat the German sports cars on their own turf.

The first to go were the Lexus' flat-faced stock chrome wheels. "I wanted 20s with a big lip that would fill up the car's giant wheel wells," he says. "There isn't much choice on aftermarket 20s that'll accommodate a big brake kit, so I had to go custom."

He decided on a custom set of DTM-style Kruz Model 10s, three-piece wheels constructed with an offset that would readily fit over the planned brake upgrades. These dishes are sized a massive 20x9.5 inches fore and 20x11 aft, wearing substantial 275/30-20 Pirelli P Zero tires on the drive wheels. Up front, the wheels cage massive Brembo Gran Turismo big brakes with 14-inch rotors and gigantic eight-piston calipers-equipment serious enough to bring the planet to a grinding halt. The rears have yet to be upgraded, but Dentice has a pair of slightly smaller GT assemblies, with 13-inch rotors and four-piston calipers, sitting in the garage ready to go on.

With the rotating mass dialed in to his liking, Dentice set about dropping the chassis into a more appealing profile. "The car was designed for the 50-ish crowd to take to the country club," he admits. "That's why it handles like a 1962 Buick."

At this point he'd been consulting with XS Engineering in Huntington Beach to plan for the eventual engine upgrades. Eric Hsu and the XS staff know a few things about suspensions too, and suggested he use a Tom's adjustable coil-overs and a Tom's front strut tower brace. While the drop in height isn't extreme, it's sufficient to allow the Kruz dubs to eliminate any dead space between the sheet metal and rubber. Dentice says the ride is a bit stiffer, with much of the "boatiness" taken out of it.

When it came to the motor, Dentice was concerned that in order to increase the Lexus' power, he would have to sacrifice reliability. XS convinced him otherwise.

"Eric started by asking me about 700 questions," Dentice recalls. "I told him I intended to beat the hell out of the car and wanted something that was bulletproof on the street." Hsu consented to the plan, relishing the opportunity to cut into the SC's untapped engine and hack into its virginal ECU.

Hsu and XS mapped out a list of upgrades that would be applied to the car in clearly defined stages. As it sits in the pictures the SC 430 is at stage one, with its mild suspension upgrades and basic turbocharged motor. The 4.3-liter V8 has been enhanced with a hybrid GT-series turbocharger (XS calls it a GT3540) that sits on a custom merged collector where the exhaust manifolds meet. Because the turbo sits so low in the engine bay, a scavenging pump had to be installed to direct oil back into the crankcase. The manifolds are cast aftermarket units adapted from a Land Cruiser application XS markets overseas, and the remainder of the exhaust system is custom 3.5-inch piping with a prototype high-flow cat, and dual A'PEXi N1 canisters that give the car the aural demeanor of a competition speedboat.

At this stage, engine management is masterminded by a simple computer relay that rides piggyback on the ECU, allowing adjustments in ignition timing and tweaking signals to the stock injectors and an additional injector mounted at the throttle body. Boost is maintained by the turbo's internal wastegate at a modest 7 psi. For increased system efficiency, a big front-mount XS intercooler core was ingested into the front bumper. To get it to fit, the XS staff extensively modified and reshaped the bumper using pieces cut from the front of a GS400. The rest of the body and the leather and wood interior are stone stock.

Note that virtually none of the parts on this car are available for public sale at this point. Ninety percent of the work is custom and unique to this vehicle. Custom work like this isn't cheap by any stretch, but the amount of money dropped into the custom work on the SC is still less than the cost of an off-the-shelf turbo kit for a BMW M3.

Currently, stage two is underway and the car is in pieces again. The second tier of upgrades will include a completely rebuilt engine (forged rods and pistons, blueprinted bottom end) and further computer work, as well as an upgraded transmission and rebuilt rear end. Dentice tells us a lot of attention is also being paid to stiffening the chassis, which still suffers from pervasive flex despite Lexus' best efforts, and custom cross members fabricated at XS. Though this work will push the SC's curb weight well past two tons, he's confident the stage two power upgrades will be more than enough to compensate for the car's considerable mass.

"Stage one's torque went through the rear Pirellis in 2,000 miles. Stage two should take me to approximately 550-rear-wheel hp and more than 500 lb-ft of torque," Dentise says, and smiles. "Look out, GT2."