This being my last feature for this year, I decided that I needed to make bit a bit of a special one. Today’s feature is about Jackie Ding and his A90 time attack Supra nicknamed TA90.
About the driver:
Jackie is an Asian male who moved to the US at a young age. He is a former junior formula driver and shifted his focus to time attack at around 16. He’s always been into cars and he claims that from the moment he got into cars, he just always loved driving as fast as possible. He stated, “Winning or losing, sure, but I really enjoyed driving to the imit. So time attack was a perfect fit for me especially coming from junior formula cars.”
We all may know him from his S2000 days. He did really well with the S2000 but then he shifted platforms in 2019. He says the reason behind the change was that even though he loved the S2000 very much, the A90 Supra fixed many of the issues he had with the S2000. Plus, for his business at PhD Racing Lab, the Supra was a great platform to launch and start with. So far, he thinks it’s paying off. Instead of retreading the same old steps, they’re (the PhD Racing Lab Team) out here on uncharted territories and it’s always exciting to work with different companies.
About the car:
According to Jackie, the B58 has been flawless all season until Buttonwillow, where they had a small issue that meant they had to run with an open wastegate, basically running without any boost. It’s a torquey motor, very smart, the tuning procedure is completely different to older cars, it’s not boost-based but more torque-demand-based. They’ve been on a full factory engine for the last year, just different fuel and turbos and tunes, and it current makes 610whp on that factory fuel system. He’s pretty impressed and so am I.
I asked Jackie about how he plans on maximizing and getting the best out of his aero, given the restrictions in Street Mod class and he responded by saying that he thinks that the phrase “maximizing aero” in Street Mod is not really something that’s ever been used, but over the winter they’re (PhD Racing Labs Team) planning some aero updates, primarily on the side skirt and diffuser area. He’s going to hold some of their plans close to his chest for now, it’s going to be a surprise, and I respect the secrecy in his line of work.
Jackie has been using Nankang CR1s on his car for this season and he says that they performed very well. He had a lot of success on them this year and he’s really excited for more people to try them in 2021. “Everyone who’s tried them has told us great things about it. Really happy to be part of this project.”
In terms of brakes, Jackie is still currently running the factory brakes but is waiting on development to finish by brake manufacturers so he can actually get rid of the factory brakes.
The Build List:
Unlike the other cars I’ve featured this year, this one hasn’t had much done to it.
Engine
- Factory engine
- Factory fuel system
- Race gas
- “Pure 800” turbo upgrade (modified stock turbo)
Drivetrain
- Stock drivetrain
Brakes
- Stock but in the dire need of upgrading
Aero
- Spague Sports Front splitter
- Off the shelf rear wing (forgot to ask which one)
Wheels/Tires
- Nankang CR1 275/35R18
- Titan7 Wheels SR5 18 x 10.7 +35mm