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[h=1]Wild Hybrid: Jacey Grant’s 2JZ-Powered Porsche 924 Drag Car[/h]
By Brian Wagner May 03, 2018
The automotive hobby is packed with purist fans that bleed the colors of their favorite manufacturer and defend that company’s honor until the bitter end. These die-hard enthusiasts scoff at the idea of cross-breeding their beloved brands with anything else, but Jacey Grant doesn’t follow this belief system. Grant is taking his 1977 Porsche 924 to a whole new level of engine-swapping insanity by adding a boosted Toyota 2JZ into the mix so he can try and tickle the six-second zone in the quarter-mile.
London, England native Grant has owned his 924 for the better part of 27 years since it was a totally stock car. During this time period, the Porsche has evolved through several different combinations that have gotten progressively wilder. The new route to include a full chassis and big boosted power from a Japanese engine is just another stop along this journey for Grant.

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Porsche isn’t exactly the first name that comes to mind when you are thinking about building a car for drag racing, but for Grant, it was all he had to work with when he began his racing career.
“I have had this as a road car since I was 17 years old and most of my family have been avid drag racing fans, never into circuit racing. For me, as the years went by and the funds allowed it, I slowly built the car more and more into a drag-orientated machine. My family has mostly owned American cars, so for me, I felt this car was outside the box in drag racing terms. In its street form it won an event here at Santa Pod called the Ultimate Street Car, as well as various car shows in London, including Hot Import Nights where it won four categories in one night. The car has even won many 0-to-60 challenge events, as well.”

Before making the switch to an inline six-cylinder engine for the newest incarnation of his Porsche, Grant enjoyed the deep rumble of a V8 engine under the hood. The car has seen numerous V8-based engines, including a nasty 355 cubic-inch Chevrolet powerplant with an F1-R ProCharger. That fully-forged monster featured a set of CNC AFR heads and all the trimmings to make over 950 horsepower at just 22 psi of boost on pump gas.

For three years Grant would drive the 924 on the streets with this setup running deep into the 10-second range and winning a lot of races … but all good things come to an end.
“The car at the time just had a basic four-link rear suspension and roll cage but did well with the Tremec TKO 600 I was using. When I snapped the crankshaft in the 355 I was convinced to go over to the dark side of import motors, so the 2JZ was selected as a proven import motor platform. I decided to start a full rebuild of the car with the help of Cotsweld Race Cars and that’s kind of how we ended up where we are with the car,” Grant explains.

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With six-second dreams in his eyes, Grant needed to have the chassis and suspension of his Porsche improved. To get the job done the car was delivered to Jim Smith at Cotsweld Race Cars to allow him to work his magic. The car was gutted to make room for a full 25.1 chrome moly double frame rail chassis. A custom suspension that is accented by VariShocks in the front and Penske Racing Shocks were added to the rear. A fabricated 9-inch will be the home of a Strange Engineering Ultra Case, spool, and axles.
The three-liter 2JZ GTE engine is filled with PSI Racing custom connecting rods, pistons, and racing cams. An MXE ported head will support the Hypertune intake manifold and 102mm throttle body while a Nortech header will expel the exhaust gasses. A single 91mm Precision Gen 2 Pro Mod turbo will provide all the boost the Toyota-based engine can handle. Gary Gooding will take care of the tuning on the MoTec M800 ECU and data acquisition system.

This heavyweight build will be seeing a lot of time at Santa Pod Raceway when it has been completed. Grant has designed this build to still be able to see some street action in the Street Eliminator class, but since he added the Liberty transmission the car won’t be legal. Instead, Grant will be running the car in Competition Eliminator where he hopes to get plenty of heads-up racing in.

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This build has been a major undertaking for Grant and he has received a lot of support along the way.
“I’m just happy to have sponsors like Hypertune, PSI Racing, Vibrant Performance, and Gravituned Power behind me on this adventure. We are expecting the car to run deep into the six-second zone at over 200 mph while making around 1,700 horsepower.”
Jacey Grant’s Porsche 924 is the kind of car that you could create in your mind daydreaming about racing as a kid. This car disrupts the norm in drag racing with the choice of chassis and powerplant, but that won’t matter one bit when Grant starts making wicked-fast passes.