At a show like the Tokyo Auto Salon populated with so many incredible builds, it’s rare to find a singular standout car. But this year at the Trust booth a Toyota Soarer was that extraordinary car. Not only was it a superb showcase of Trust/GReddy’s tuning prowess, but it was a throwback to one of the most iconic custom cars in Japan’s rich history of modified automobiles.
The car it referenced was known as the Okawa Soarer, a rather plain-looking luxury coupe built by Koichi Okawa, one of the founders of Trust. It was the early 80s, the dawn of the turbo age, and the nation’s top tuning houses were locked in a fierce battle to one-up each other. HKS, RE Amemiya, RS Yamamoto, Trial and others vied for the title of Japan’s fastest car.
The war unfolded on the pages of magazines like Option and Auto Maximum, where seemingly every other month a new speed record was broken. The mags breathlessly followed the tuners’ exploits, publishing articles each time a car reached a new top speed, was beaten, and re-modified to attain a new high score.
The Okawa Soarer, powered by a twin-turbo and intercooled 5M-G said to make 500 ps, was featured numerous times in various journals. Each appearance was marked by slight modifications like a new custom exhaust header or the latest tires. The Soarer’s crowning achievement was a 1986 speed run at Yatabe Test Circuit that culminated in a 316 kph top speed record. What’s perhaps most impressive about the Okawa Soarer is that it wasn’t some stripped-down race car. It still had a full interior with factory leather seats and air conditioning!
The Okawa Soarer was seared into the memories of Japanese gearheads who grew up in the 80s, so for the Auto Salon Trust created a new version of the legend. It’s not the original car, but a new one built as an homage to Okawa’s creation and tuned with modern technology.
One might expect that a JZ-family straight-six under the hood, but no. Impressively, Trust stuck with a 6M, which outwardly looks almost identical to a 5M. Inside, however, displacement has been increased to 3.1 liters with forged pistons and H-section reinforced connecting rods by OS Giken. The engine bay has been smoothed out to modern standards and the turbo plumbing heavily altered to show off the massive pair of GReddy TD05H-18G turbines.
The engine has also been modified with a contemporary engine control unit and electronic throttle, for ease of driving. A GReddy Power Extreme TR exhaust peeks out from beneath the rear bumper, and behind 17-inch Work Meister M1 wheels (9J in front, 10J at the rear) lie rear new-old-stock GREX 4-piston calipers and an air suspension.
Like the original, this Soarer comes with a full interior, but in black. Keen observers might note that black was never offered on the Z10 Soarer. Trust painstakingly reupholstered the entire cabin in a mix of black Alcantara and leather. The interior’s finishing touch on the interior was an Akina Nakamori (let’s see how long it takes for her to appear on every city pop playlist) cassette placed on the center console.
The exterior is finished in Trust’s yellow, blue and white livery instead of the original’s factory two-tone brown. It also provided the opportunity to load the car up with throwback stickers for discontinued products, like Teftune (Trust’s 1980s oil brand) and GRacer (Trust’s brand of body kits). Trust still makes oil and body kits, but they’re marketed under the GReddy name.
The was simply a phenomenal build with just the right amount of modernity, while keeping the important parts old school. We love that it took a page from its own history while invoking the thrilling era that spawned the beloved tuning culture of subsequent decades. For all these reasons and the fact that it just looks cool, Trust’s Okawa Soarer tribute was our favorite car of the 2025 Tokyo Auto Salon.
Very nice car, it is amazing to see a tuner taking a car to over 300 kph with a pretty much stock looking car! A bit lower, fatter tires but still something like 50- series, the optional front spoiler and a ducktail, some strong engine massaging and Boom! Top-speed monster!
I do not think we will see another race to the top speed, especially now that we see elec cars beating pretty much every performance spec, so I hope we will come back to carmakers and tuners making great driving cars, I know it is how I am trying to shape my nostalgic car.
And now I am off to discover Akina Nakamori, making her soar (see what I did there?) in the search trends, so she will appear on city pop playlists. I guess I am part of the problem…
First two gens of soarer are still talked about in japan, but elsewhere they are just a footnote.
But It was one of those important cars in the 80s top speed tuning scene.