Ben Neal from Benny’s Custom Works has run his seven-second, Barra-powered Toyota Cresta (SM, Jan ’21) hard and fast at drag-and-drive events in both the USA and Australia. However, for his latest project, a JDM Toyota GX81 Mark II family cruiser, he’s chosen a very different style of donk.

First published in the November 2025 issue of Street Machine

“This project is pretty convoluted, because it started with two different cars and a plan to build a sister car to my Cresta, which was in the USA at the time doing drag-and-drive events,” Benny says. “Originally, this was going to be a 1000hp turbo combo with an auto, but the costs and timelines were blowing out, so we changed plans to build a naturally aspirated combo. I was never really in love with the GBS12-series Crown platform, so when this super-clean Toyota GX81 Mark II came up for sale locally, I jumped on it.”

Benny chose the GX81 because of its close family ties to his ’87 GX71 Cresta, and while some may think a bloke used to four-digit turbo Barras would find an aspirated six-pot car a bit underwhelming, this was always the goal for the new build. “I wanted this car to be N/A and pretty perky, but also something I could put my family in and cruise around on weekends without it being offensive,” he says.

Powering the Toyota is a 3.0-litre 2JZ-GE that Benny pulled from a 2005 Lexus GS300 someone had left sitting in their garden. The factory VVTi donk isn’t normally what people choose for big-banger turbo builds due to its weaker rods, but Benny’s naturally aspirated goals wouldn’t trouble the factory bottom end.

“We went through the top end and tidied up the cylinder head ports,” he says. “The Yamaha head has been decked 25thou to bring the static compression up to approximately 10.8:1, and we got ARP head studs from Goleby’s Parts. We’ve also installed Kelford V202 cams that give 274°/272° duration and 108° lobe separation angle, and matching Kelford KVS02 valve springs, while the Hypertune billet rocker covers top the engine off.”

Goleby’s Parts supplied the Kelford products, along with Goleby’s own SLS head gasket and seals, plus a vernier-adjustable cam wheel for the exhaust bumpstick. Benny retained the standard Toyota VVTi cam wheel on the intake, but limited timing advance to 20° to maintain piston-to-valve clearance with the high-lift cams now in place.

Fuel is supplied by E85-safe 440cc injectors, controlled by a Turbosmart Kompact pressure regulator and plumbed with Raceworks fittings and hose. Haltech R35 GT-R coil-on-plug ignition and a Ross Performance Gold Series harmonic dampener and billet timing belt tensioner bracket tidy up the engine and will work better than the OE hardware that came with this 2J.

The engine spun up 203rwhp on the Haltech dyno, and Benny fettled the GX81’s driveline to take the extra power. “We modified the rear cradle to take a Toyota 86 diff, and with the six-speed manual, the short rear gear makes the engine feel like it’s got an extra 50kW at the wheels.”

Installed in the car using a Tuff Mounts universal 2JZ mount kit, the 3.0-litre Toyota six is already clocking up kilometres in Benny’s clean JDM sled, and he’s loving the warbling intake noise.

TRUMPET SECTION

The big party pieces hang off either side of the 3.0L 2J: a custom, 45mm EFI individual-throttlebody set-up by Benny, and bespoke six-into-two-into-one headers from Schembri’s Custom Shop to evacuate spent gases. The ITB intake uses a BMW e-throttle actuator paired to the Haltech Nexus R3 VCU to give Benny cruise control for long highway runs.

Benny’s Custom Works
Mittagong, NSW
www.bennyscustomworks.com