1990 TOYOTA MARK II (YX76)
NAME: LUKE HODGE // AGE: 27 LOCATION: AUCKLAND // OCCUPATION: REFRIGERATION ENGINEER
NZ Performance Car: Hey, Luke. She’s a pretty undercover wagon; what does it get used for?
Luke: Yo, what’s happening? Yep, it looks like Grandad is off to the grocery store for a few spuds; but, for me, it’s basically a weekend workhorse that gets abused — it sees limmy every time it gets driven [laughs] — that’s what we built it for. Doing skids is its favourite trick, but it pulls quick in a straight line, too, having done a 13-second flat pass at Meremere.
So, it’s clearly not running the factory 2Y motor anymore. You went with the 1JZ instead?
Yeah, it’s a simple package that me and my old boy, Hodgey, built in the garage at home. It was an unopened motor that we single-turbo converted with the MasterPower T70 with a custom 420 Fab manifold. We made the mounts to get it in there, along with a few extras, like modifying the throttle body and doing all the pipe work. It has all the other stuff, too, like injectors, wastegates, custom exhaust, Link ECU, etc.
What’s it got going on underneath?
Rolls on custom Bilstein coilovers with Toyshop top hats and a mixture of springs. I recently tightened up the rear, as the live axle was tramping a little bit, but now it hooks up solid when power goes down. Brakes have been done, too. Most of what you can’t see from the outside has been upgraded to make sure [that] it does what it’s meant to.
Has it been pretty reliable throughout all that abuse?
Pretty good, considering what I’ve given it over the years. I managed to blow third and fourth gear at Chrome racing Stephen Dean’s rotary Cortina — that cars faaarkin’ quick, and I was creeping up on him until I went to shift into fifth and managed to hook third instead [laughs]. But, even then, I drove the rest of the day with just first, second, and fifth, then drove it home, and then around for another month before the new box went in.
And it husses pretty good, then?
It husses haaaaard, G.
Cheers for the yarn, Luke.