Feature: The 1,300HP Question

“Some people like speed, some people like looks, some people like the attention, while others just have too much fu**in' money.”—Andrew Ho

We are not endorsing breaking the laws of the road here, but if you're going to do it, you might as well have the right tool. Introducing Andrew Ho's 1300 horsepower Supra.

Andrew Ho, owner of Innovative Turbo Works (ITW), may not have proof from a dyno sheet that his 1993 Premier Edition Toyota Supra will hit 1,300 hp at full tilt via 45 lbs boost and 116 octane race fuel, but he's built these cars before and has a pretty confident butt-dyno.

The history behind the car started out as a project of an ex-business partner, and best friend of his. When the two parted ways, Andrew got the car, and his friend got to walk away from the business free and clear.

“The car sat for 3 years before my friend joined the business,” says Ho. “We parted out the motor which just turned 110k, sold the turbo, fuel system, and were going to start from scratch, but when he left I was stuck with the car.” Well, actually Andrew was stuck with a mediocre Supra body and a gutted out 3.0-liter shortblock.

He took the next several months, from April through October of 2010, and machined, honed, bored, painted, and reassembled the engine using all custom race parts. The end result was a mean street car capable of mopping up just about anything out there, including those nosy, pesky, cops.

“I have about 43 moving violations,” says Ho. “I've had as many as five tickets in one month. Some pretty severe, like 60 over the speed limit when I got clocked at 110mph.” Andrew has covered the gambit of tickets you can receive, having collected an assortment of speeding violations, ranging from 10, 15, 30, 40, on up to 60 mph over the posted speed limit. He has also been ticketed for a number of other moving violations, including hitting a mailbox.

“One of my friends dad is a lawyer,” says Ho, who admits his worst ticket only cost him around $1,000. Once Andrew purchased his first Supra in 2004 and began modifying it, he realized something; “At 600 horsepower, a cop cruiser is not going to be able to keep up,” says Ho. “Running from the cops was a spur of the moment decision—I had 20 tickets, I didn't want to get pulled over anymore, so I just took off.”

Openclutch: How did that work out for you, Andrew?

Cop Chase Story #1 (Cops 1, Andrew 0)
(Some names and events may (or may not) have been changed to protect the guilty!)
"I was up north, and lined up at a light against a Corvette Z06. The light turned green, and we took off. When I clicked second, I was going maybe 60 mph, and I saw a cop going the other way. This would have been my third time pulled over that week. He made a u-turn, and my first reaction was to downshift and take off. I Redlined every gear until I was going 140 mph down a 40 mph street. I was flying through the intersections and watching the cop car get smaller in the rearview."

"Whenever you run from cops you have to turn eventually, or they'll call other cops and block you, so I made a right turn and saw a dead end sign. I turned off my headlights. I was going 70 mph down a dark street, so I turned on my headlights only to see a group of trees straight ahead. I slammed on my brakes. I looked in my rearview and saw the cop flying down the street after me, but I had nowhere to go. He gave me a ticket for 30 over, even though he was pretty damn sure I was going a lot faster than that."

Cop Chase Story #2 (Cops 1, Andrew 1)
"I was coming back from a street race. I got on the highway and was lasered by a cop. I looked at my speedo and I was going over 80. I saw the cop and slowed down to 60. He came out, and was creeping up on me. I drove around a semi truck, and the cop came flying up with his lights on. I downshifted to third, and ripped it down the highway."

"I was weaving around traffic, and went through the i-pass at 150 mph. As I came out, I got radared by another cop. It was a sheriff standing next to a semi. I saw him grab his hat as I blew by him. I got off at the next exit, found a neighborhood, and parked my car in a random driveway. I waited several hours, then took the side streets home."

Cop Chase Story #3 (Cops 1, Andrew 2)
"It was about 1:30 in the morning, and I was 7 miles from my house and driving with a buddy. I punched it at a light, the car got sideways, and I saw an undercover cop driving the other way. He tapped his brakes and made a u-turn. Right as he started to turn, I shifted into second gear and put the throttle all the way down. I banged second, third, and fourth gears, letting it rip to 150, maybe 160 mph."

"I took the next right, punched it, and noticed a cop sitting at a grocery store. He came out. I took a hard left and blew through a red light going 90 mph. I took a right, and my house was maybe a mile and a half away from that point. I could see cops in my rear mirror. My friend was freaking out. I took a hard right, put the car in neutral, coasted another 200 feet and made a right turn into my culdesac. There was a car parallel parked just outside the street, and I was able to stop next to it. As soon as shut down the engine, the cops flew past, and I knew I had to get to my house."

"I had my foot on the clutch, and gave the garage door opener to my friend. I told him that as soon as I get into the garage, to close it. I fired up my car, and drove as quickly and quietly into my garage as I could. At that point my garage door kept going up and down. My friend was freaking out and pressing the button over and over again. I could just see a cop driving by at that moment, seeing me sitting there like an idiot. I climbed out of my window, reached the manual lever, and the garage came flying down. They never caught me, but I was paranoid to drive the car for the rest of the week."

Openclutch: What was the first car you ever owned?
Andrew Ho: "My first car was a Lexus. I had so many other pieces of sh** before that, but that was the first real car. I installed some subwoofers in it. I remember at one point I had a neon light or two, but I never showboat the outside of my cars."

OC: What was the most difficult part about the Supra build?
AH: "The engine compartment is where all the details are at. There are many custom parts put into this area, from custom engine internals to custom intercooler piping, water necks, exhaust, and oil lines. Fitment was probably one of the biggest tasks to overcome, even though Supra's have a good amount of room in their engine bay. The car had absolutely nothing in the engine bay before, and many of the bolts and nuts are all brand new. The engine bay is colored black and red to match the ITW shop colors."

OC: How Reliable is the Supra at 1300 horsepower?
AH: "It is fairly reliable for a race engine. A brand new Supra off the lot, you can beat the pi** out of and should be fine, but anytime you build an engine like this, the service life is much shorter. Generally, you have to refresh things every year, depending on how you race it. This particular car was definitely built to unload and go fast."

OC: What are your plans for the next season?
AH: "I didn't have the time to put all the safety in the car, like the cage, parachute, seats, and harnesses. Perhaps that will be the plan for next year, but by that time the car maybe undergoing another huge transformation. Who knows. I may sit on this one, get a different car, mod that car, mod this one, make it a full-on drag car... or I just might make it a street car for fu**ing people up. It's hard to sit in one spot with a car. Some people don't even finish their car, and they are already changing the set-up. Either they change their own mind, or friends influence them by talking sh**, You're car's going to be slow. So then you're thinking, Okay, now I'm going to need even more sh**. Then you have to sell all your parts and buy new ones. It's an addiction; a disease."

OC: Is there anything else you'd like to say?
AH: "I would like to thank my closest family, friends, and girlfriend for all their support. People need support in their life. That is the key to our survival." (Yes, and a good lawyer never hurts, either)

Good luck Andrew, but something tells me you don't need it!