Page 68 - Fast Car (March 2020)

HOT RIDE

factory-stock part underneath is the front lower subframe,
everything else has been upgraded for track-biased thrills.
The wheels are a story in themselves, as Riko worked closely
with JC Pepino at WORK Wheels to build up a set of Equip
40 Smoky Black Edition four-spokes – only twenty-ive sets
had ever been made, all of which were sold, but Riko was
able to convince WORK to produce just one more set using
the last drip of paint they had left, set number 26-of-25.
The brakes that sit behind them are proper because-
race-car stuff too, the Brembo ‘Baby Daddy’ BBK at the
in the process is more managemental: “I have the idea front precision-engineered to it behind smaller wheels,
and vision, I choose the parts, I pick the paint, I schedule, I and the rear being Ford-itment because, naturally, Riko’s
budget, I manage emotions,” he says. “I am the contractor decided to run a Ford 8.8 LSD rear axle. But of course. Peek
and I sub out the work. I’m extremely involved with the build through those lightweight polycarbonate windows and
process – it’s like having a child and raising them the way you’ll see that it’s all built for the track in there; it may be
you want to; ignore them and you will have lots of trouble so clean you could genuinely eat your dinner off it without
ahead!” So the build took place at the hands of Marcus getting any nasty infections (but seriously, don’t – Riko
Fry Racing in Redwood City, California, with the paintwork puts a lot of effort into keeping it this clean), but there’s no
carried out by Juan Ayala at 24/7 Auto Body. Grant denying how function is on a level pegging with form. The
Hendricks at Battle Garage Racing Service was on hand to AiM Strada digi-dash, that incredible rollcage, the Bride
supply all the parts on Riko’s detailed wishlist, and with all of Zeta 3 seats (mounted lower in custom loor cut-outs for
these experts working in harmony, the build came together optimal driver position), the low-down Radium fuel cell…
impressively quickly. “The main hurdle was waiting for the
Custom Garage Speed N3 bodykit to arrive from Japan, we
had to wait three months,” says Riko. “It was hard to recover
from that lost time, and the car ended up coming out of
the bodyshop two weeks before SEMA! We took a freshly
painted body, assembled it and had it running by 5am on
the Sunday before the show… I’ve learned that every step
matters, even if it’s in the beginning of the game with four
quarters left to play! You have to manage every piece as if
there’s no overtime.”

GET TUCKED

The level of customisation throughout the build really is
astonishing. That slick shaved and wire-tucked bay houses a
Gen-5 BEAMS engine, the ITBs packing massive trumpets
as a siren song to every Toyota fan out there, and despite
being unashamedly a full-on show car, it’s been built from
irst principles to fulil that race-car brief Riko was so insistent
upon. The suspension has been totally reworked, the rear
end wearing a ‘true’ coilover setup (whereby the OEM
spring-on-axle arrangement is wholly replaced by proper
coilovers), and the entire Techno Toy Tuning catalogue has
been pillaged to make everything possible under there fully
adjustable and dialled in for pure function. Indeed, the only

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