What’s better than having one six-second racecar in the garage? How about two.

Texas native Duy Bui is well known in drag racing circles for his “White Rice” Nissan 240SX, a once street-driven, street-raced machine that was later transformed into a thoroughbred racecar for X275 drag radial competition. But Bui has another car in his stable that’s even more potent than his Nissan — a Toyota Supra with a turbocharged Hemi under the hood, known as “Wasabi.”

Bui’s Supra has followed a trajectory that virtually mirrors that of his Nissan: converted from the street to the strip, the car was eventually pushed beyond its functional or safety capabilities, leading to a complete makeover. Just a couple of seasons ago, it went into the 6.20s in the 1/4-mile with a back-half, stock front end chassis. It was around that time that Bui was introduced to veteran Northeast racer Eric LaFerriere, who was tasked with helping Bui and company iron out — and drive — their discontented racecar. 

“When Duy first built it, it was a 2JZ Supra, but they made some changes and stuck a Hemi in it and tried to no-prep race with it. They had different issues, and that’s when I first got involved with them, LaFerriere says. “We raced it a little bit. We went to World Cup and had constant valvetrain issues, but it went 6.23 at 234 mph. But the engine was not reliable at all. I put it in 1/8-mile trim and we ran Limited Drag Radial (LDR) at Duck’s race the following spring and it went 4.09, but had the same exact situation with the engine. And it was just a miserable car to work on, because it was still a stock-strut Supra…stock from the firewall forward. The engine was just shoe-horned in there, so it was unbearable to work on. So we made the decision to go with a different engine program, and we cut the car up and made it a better car.”

LaFerriere adds, “A lot of people, they race, they evolve and keep evolving and keep working at the same vehicle that they’ve got, but they never have a goal in mind. They keep band-aiding it over the years, but it’s never a good, purpose-built car. So that’s what we tried to do — stop, get a gameplan, follow through, and try to perform really good with it.”

The car already had a 25.2-spec cage in it, so LaFerriere re-worked the Funny Car cage, cut the chassis apart from the firewall forward to redo it, and made some changes in the rear suspension configuration. 

The foundation of the powerplant is a Brad Anderson (BAE) short-deck billet Hemi built by Joe Hornick in North Carolina, topped with BAE heads featuring a camshaft and valvetrain all spec’d by Hornick, and a Noonan intake. A MoTec M150 ECU serves as the control center for the car, partnering with a FuelTech FTSpark and CDI coils to deliver ignition to the Hemi’s cylinders. Titanium from Ticon was used to fabricate the exhaust system. A 118mm Precision turbo delivers the boost. An M&M three-speed Turbo 400, Boninfante titanium bellhousing, and a ProTorque EV1 converter transfer the power out back. There, a 10-inch gear third-member from Strange Engineering (soon to be upgraded to a full floater) sends the power and torque to the Weld wheels and Mickey Thompson rubber. The car rides on Menscer struts up front and four-way adjustable shocks in the rear, with Strange carbon-fiber brakes all the way around.

LaFerriere estimates some 90-percent of the car is fresh — he’s also removed “a tremendous amount of weight,” which should only add to the competitiveness and tune-ability of the chassis over what existed previously. LaFerriere and Bui built the car this time around specifiably for the LDR class, but add they may occasionally no-time race it where allowed. PRI was the grand debut of the new and improved “Wasabi” to the public — the car will be tested in Florida in the coming weeks and will debut in LDR at the U.S. Street Nationals in January.

LaFerriere credits he and Bui’s many supporters, including fabricator Victor Texiera, David Aiwase Wiring, Carmen Damiani, who performed body work and paint, and sponsors including Lindale Healthcare, BMRS, Stainless Bros., PST Driveshafts, Mecer Motorsports, JHE Enterprises, Optic Armor, NGK, Fuel Injector Development, Prospeed Autosports, and Pimar Fiberglass. “We all worked together to make it happen,” he adds in closing.