After watching a recent Vice special on NYC car life, I was motivated to take a closer look at the scene out here. Because New York breeds some really cool builds.
A lot of this can be put down to having an ‘off season’ in winter. Prior to the holidays, many people take their modified cars off the road for the next set of upgrades in preparation for the warmer and drier spring and summer weather. To show you what that can look like, late last year I stopped by PetrolWerks in the heart of Long Island.
As you can see, PetrolWerks has a rather large following when it comes to the Mk4 Toyota Supra and their 2JZ engines. This likely stems from PetrolWerks’ owner, Moe Khan, who has two JZA80s, one of which is the silver car above. Moe also owns a new A90 Supra, an R34 Skyline, two FC3S Mazda RX-7s, a fifth-gen Dodge Viper, and a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera.
I’m always drawn in by a set of RAYS Volk Racing TE37s, and this set just so happens to be attached to an immaculate original 6-speed, Anthracite, hardtop Supra.
PetrolWerks have made a name for themselves with their 2JZ swaps, and threedirty5 might be one of their most well known recipients.
Pick your poison, 2J or RB?
Or maybe like me, you’re more interested in the 1JZ? This is my personal 1JZ VVTi-swapped, 5-speed Lexus IS300 that I built with a little help from the PetrolWerks crew (shoutout to Ron for fixing my engine harness!). I’ve added a couple more photos of it at the end of this post.
Speaking of Ron, here’s his 2JZ-swapped Toyota Mark II. I’m sure you can tell it means business by the meaty semi-slicks wrapped around wide Desmond Regamaster Evo wheels.
Up on one of the lifts was a BMW E36 missing an engine, but usually a 1,000hp+ M52 resides in the bay. Previously ‘RedBull‘ suffered from traction issues (surprise, surprise), so an AWD conversion is on the cards.
There were a number of other interesting cars around the shop; more Supras, more BMWs, a Fox-body Saleen Mustang, and this unexpected Ford F100 build.
Yes, it’s serious.
Or perhaps this Tokyo Drift-inspired ’67 Ford Mustang with a 2JZ and Work Meister S1s is more to your liking?
I hope you enjoyed this quick shop tour of PetrolWerks. If you like what you see, maybe I can explore some more NYC car culture in the future too…
Henry Pitzer
Instagram: henry_jzx
How To join the IATS program: We have always welcomed readers to contact us with examples of their work and believe that the best Speedhunter is always the person closest to the culture itself, right there on the street or local parking lot. If you think you have what it takes and would like to share your work with us then you should apply to become part of the IAMTHESPEEDHUNTER program. Read how to get involved here.
