Toyota Cressida Hides the Internet's Most Famous Engine, Is a 10-Second Sleeper

And as much as I love widebody kits and flashy paint jobs, albeit those that are tastefully executed, you can't help but be excited when you come across a sleeper vehicle. And we've talked about sleeper vehicles before. You know the drill, you have to look and listen carefully, and you might be able to figure out what a car is packing, looking past its overall average look.

Take this 1990 Toyota Cressida, for example. The car doesn't even have to be fired up, and you can tell that it is more than meets the eye. First of all, the right-hand side headlight is missing, and there's a big opening meant for the Cold Air Intake. That can either mean the owner is very serious about keeping his engine temps low or that he has decided overkill is the way to go.

But then you see that the car rocks Volk Wheels on the front axle and Mickey Thompsons in the rear. And who on Earth would buy a set of Mickey Thompsons if they weren't into quarter-mile racing? Then there's the roll cage, the bucket seats, and the custom-built dashboard, and at the end of it all, the exhaust sound—because this car has ditched its original engine in favor of the internet's most famous powertrain.

The owner bought the car from his dad in 2008 and started working his way up from there. At first, a twin-turbo 1JZ unit was swapped in, and it powered the Japanese sedan for the following eight years. This was a daily driver with 300 horsepower, and I imagine a fun one, to say the least. But as with any extensive built, the road to being seriously fast was just about to begin.

The 1JZ left the building, and a more potent 2JZ engine was brought into play. The owner of the car, Natie, mentions he has been working on this setup for more than four years now, and anyone who has ever owned a project car can attest to how long these things take to reach a certain level. What's most interesting about this swap is the fact that this is a full billet engine!

Everything has been built from the ground up, and considering the size of the Borg-Warner turbo fitted to this engine, it wouldn't be surprising if this car churned out more than 600 horsepower to the rear wheels. Natie mentions that he's never taken this car to the dyno, so the exact power output is unknown. But he did note that the drivetrain is always a problem with this car, especially with all the launches and burnouts it has to deal with.

With the new setup mostly finalized, this car went into active racing duty for less than a year now. Back in October, it managed to do a quarter-mile run in 11.5 seconds. But since that moment, some upgrades and tweaks have been done so that its current best is 10.2 seconds with an exit speed of 142.29 mph (229 kph). Even though it's quite fast the way it is right now, Natie still pursues a sub-10 second run, which will most likely happen by the end of the year.