- One of the standout builds here at the 2022 SEMA Show is Ryan's Toyota Stout.
And I've watched this come to life on the likes of his Instagram over the last few months so
really nice to see it here in person.
We're here with Ryan to get a little bit more of a personal rundown on this build and what it is.
So Ryan, great job on this build first of all but let's start with the car, or the truck because in a
lot of markets I'm guessing these didn't exist.
What exactly is it, what year is it?
- So it's a 1966 Toyota Stout, definitely a limited run back in the day obviously when they first
came here, I think this was the first truck that was sold in the US by Toyota when it was still
I believe called Toyopet.
Double check the history on that but...
- We'll fact check it.
- Yeah it's a long time ago, before our time.
But yeah they're getting pretty rare and hard to find.
I found this down in San Diego and it looked like it was fully restored, bitchin', fresh paint job
but that was actually the problem is they mudded up all the holes in the body and
didn't do it properly so we got into it.
It actually took a lot longer than we expected to get this thing cleaned up.
- So it was previously a bit of a lipstick on a pig restoration?
- Your typical run of the mill, let's get this thing looking pretty and sell it out the door yeah.
- So you've got a fairly elaborate garage of exhibition drift cars including your Ferrari
engined Toyota GT86, you've of course got the Judd V10 powered Supra.
What was the inspiration in going with the Stout?
It doesn't lend itself on face value to be the most obvious choice for a drift exhibition car.
- Yeah I mean something different, I was approached by TRD and Toyota and Mobil 1 to do another project
in the middle of building the Formula Supra last year so Dominic and I, Dominic who built
the majority of the Formula Supra, came up with an idea, as he was researching some Toyota
vehicles he said what about the Stout as a pickup?
I was like, that thing looks pretty sick.
So that was pretty much it so then we decided to do that.
TRD and Mobil 1 were down, they were down with the project so we went ahead and just
started coming up with a build game plan and a strategy for what we were going to do.
- One of the standouts and most obvious features here is that it is a full tube chassis car.
Was that driven because of the problems you found with the Stout or was this always the way
you were going to go?
- It was from when I was approached halfway through the build on a Formula Supra, Dominic
couldn't build this vehicle as well so it had to be subbed out and I always wanted the Supra to
be a tube chassis as well, just not the way that went, so I wanted to do a tube chassis vehicle
in general so that's kind of the road I was going down so I hired Kibbetech to do the design
work for the tube chassis and then produce, do all the fabrication work on the chassis as well.
And they are a phenomenal higher end, pre runner off road shop based in California so it's kind of a
no brainer and I have a relationship with Ryan the owner already so just made sense to have all
this happen so Dominic and I could finish the Formula Super project together.
- Now one of the advantages I guess with a full tube chassis is you've got complete freedom
in where everything's going to mount, you're not confined by, or constrained by the existing
suspension design, suspension geometry which I can imagine on a '66 pickup, might not have been
the most ideal for drifting.
So with so much flexibility, does that give you problems in making decisions?
- Yes and no, so the only really design issue we had with the truck was designing enough
legroom to be comfortable behind the steering wheel because the cab is so short and you kind
of sit up into it factory wise and your legs are on the steering column and the dashboard so they
had to design, the one side of the vehicle under the hood has the frame very pushed out so you
have pedals in there and you can be comfortable in there.
That was the biggest design problem, to get around, besides that, everything else is just, what do you
want to run?
And I took a page out of Chris Forsberg's book with his Altimaniac where he ran double A arm
Corvette suspension front and rear, it's a simple, very awesome suspension design.
If I could have double A arm on all my cars I would so that's why I wanted to do that for
this car.
- So you weren't essentially starting with a clean sheet of paper, you were basing it around that
existing suspension design and building everything into the tube frame to suit it?
- Yeah exactly, I was going to use the Power By Max front and rear steering kits that are made
for drifting, just to keep things simple, keep that off of our design plate and Kibbetech
modelled that and put that into the CAD software to build the chassis around as well.
- Now in terms of that CAD software, that's the next thing I want to jump into.
Obviously we've seen the technology advance in the way that we design and build project
cars even at a grass roots level and certainly at the level you're working at.
So this was completely modelled in CAD before a single component was cut, bent or welded?
- Yeah I'd say probably 85% of everything was modelled on the truck before, in the computer
before we started getting to work on it and I wish that we were able to go the last percent
of that because then everything would have been a zero headache situation.
Not that there was a tonne but there's always going to be those little things if you don't follow
through with every single detail and the problem with that is we just couldn't get some of the parts
that we wanted in time to really push the project along so we weren't going to sit back and wait for
say just something simple for another month where the chassis needed to go get manufactured.
- Yeah particularly when you're building these things under a time crunch which obviously
you always are, that's a factor that needs to be considered so a little bit of compromise potentially
in terms of the full potential of doing all of that modelling.
In terms of the actual construction though, once they've got that 3D model of all of the tube frame,
is it then a case of manually cutting and bending the individual components or is that all CNC bent,
laser cut so it's just a kit set to weld together?
- Yeah I mean you could do it yourself and measure everything, you could bend it all manually and just
make sure everything was bent properly but what we did is had, since I have a relationship with Rob
Parsons, also known as Chairslayer, he has a new company called Bending Solutions and he has also
a CNC tubing bender and laser notching machine so we had everything finalised by Kibbetech and
they sent it off to Rob to just upload into his machine, obviously it's not that simple but for
simplicity's sake yeah he got everything manufactured on all his CNC machines so everything was within a
very tight spec when it came back for assembling.
- In terms of time saving, 'cause this is one we sort of have to weigh up, obviously you need
someone first of all capable of working with SolidWorks or Fusion 360 to do the modelling,
that's a given but even then there's the time involved in modelling everything and then playing
with the design, making iterations of changes and then when it comes to the actual construction,
when you're happy with that, obviously that goes relatively quickly with the CNC bending and
cutting etc.
In terms of the time to do it using 3D modelling vs the old fashioned way of some hand drawings
and then just feeling it out and throwing it all together and figuring out what doesn't work,
which is quicker, which is slower?
- Man...
- Or do we get a similar result in terms of time taken but a better result because it's modelled?
- I think you get a similar result.
If you're not winging it but you have a plan and you're doing everything manually, you're
working every day on this and that, kind of tackling it bit by bit but when you're doing
the modelling you have a way better plan, way better idea of how things are going to fit and
go together and hopefully the execution is better.
- I mean I think one of the advantages I'd said is if you modelled everything properly, you're
going to know through suspension, full travel, bump and droop, the steering movement,
you're not going to have it hit bodywork or hit other components and that is somewhat awkward
to find out if you're building it and then you find out once you've actually constructed everything.
- It's going to help you with the later process of getting the car on track and working through
any potential issues that you have yeah.
- Alright let's talk about what's actually powering it and the drivetrain, give us the rundown,
what's the engine for a start?
- So the engine is a 3S-GTE variation, so there's a block called a 5S-FE, it's the same family as a 3S
but it was made as a 2.2 litre so we're running that block because it's a stronger casting.
So we're running a 3S-GTE crank, it's not the stroker crank and it has an 87 mm bore so it's
probably like a 2.1 litre, 10:1 compression.
We're also running an NA generation 1 3S head which came on like an 86, 87 Toyota Celica.
Big ports, flows really well, all mechanical, no VVTi, good set of camshafts specced for drifting
so pretty mild on duration and lift and then we're going to run a GTX Garrett 770 and probably
make about 600 to 650 at the wheels.
- Because this is an exhibition or demo car you're not actually in competition with anyone, does that
take a little bit of the pressure off in terms of not trying to have to make 1000 horsepower to
be competitive?
- Yeah 100%, so the engine will be capable of 1000, the engine builder that I went to drag races
these engines and his programs rev to like 10,500 on the valve train and make over
1000 wheel horsepower so I told him, I was like just build it to your spec, I'm going to run it
at 600 and hopefully get 3 seasons out of it and be ready to rock.
- Should last forever right?
- Yeah i mean we're only going to be running a 275 size tyre on the back so there's no point
running 1000 horsepower, it's just going to blow the tyres off anyways.
- I'm assuming with the tube frame, other than the fact you've got the fuel cell right at the rear,
probably not a lot of weight on the rear of the chassis as well?
- We haven't weighed it yet but I want to say it's going to be pretty dang light yeah.
I don't think under 2000 pounds light but it should be pretty damn light.
- Alright let's talk about the rest of the drivetrain, gearbox.
- Ah your boys, Hollinger, RD6 6 speed sequential.
Transmission that I've run for years, love it and pumped to have it in this chassis as well.
- Pretty bulletproof and definitely at the sort of power level you're talking about.
Moving back to the rear, Winters Quick Change I assume?
- Pretty standard Winters Quick Change, yeah Driveshaft Shop axles, carbon Driveshaft Shop
driveshafts and that's kind of the winning formula for kind of a pro level drift car.
- Now it's finished but it's not quite finished, still a few little jobs to go which I understand
some of that's the electronics and wiring so tell us what's going to be actually running this engine.
- Yeah MoTeC M150 ECU, PDM30 and then a C one two one two or do you say 1212 display?
- I don't know, we're picking up what you're putting down.
- Yep and my crew chief Brian Hardsock's going to be doing all the wiring on it and then John Reed
will be doing all the tuning on the engine.
- So when do you actually envisage it to be shredding some tyres for the first time in anger?
- I'm hoping mid January we'll have it wrapped up and ready to go.
- Alright one last element we can't really not talk about which is the body kit and I watched
a really interesting video on your YouTube channel about how that was created but let's
go over that.
How did that process go?
- So I asked John Sibal to do the body kit or the design for the truck.
I had been a fan of his for years, looking at his Instagram posts and just the work that he does
is a very, along the lines of what I want a racecar to look like, or a drift truck or whatever the case is.
So I wanted him to do it, my first time working with him, he's super professional and very easy
to work with so what I did was just take a bunch of pictures I found on Google of cars that I am a
personal fan of and sent it to him as inspiration and I said I want these few specific things and
then you just do your thing.
So gave him a lot of freedom besides a couple of design aesthetics and he came back and this was
the design, I didn't change one thing, he hit it out of the park.
- I mean I must say it really does fit with the style of the original truck.
There's so many times you see a body kit clearly plastered on the top of the car and it just doesn't
quite gel with the original, this really does feel like it's meant to be.
Now we talked about the technology advances with the chassis design and fabrication, that sort
of really comes into John's work as well in that it's no longer glueing blocks of foam and sanding
so what does he actually do to create this?
It's all digital?
- So John, couldn't even tell you right now but John uses multiple different software to design
something like this and then those files need to get converted by somebody so that they can
go get built into CAD so they need to be sized properly and converted and then I was able
to have those sent off to ADV Fiberglass in Southern California and then they CNC'd the
moulds on their 5 axis router and made them perfect, I mean that's why the body kit is perfect
from the rendering that we got from John's design, just because everything was CNC'd
in the computer.
- I guess the advantage there as well, you've got moulds so if you damage anything, it's just a
case of making another product off that original mould?
- Yeah I have the moulds and I haven't made anything very complex as far as composites are concerned
so I'm hoping I keep it pretty decent for a while and give myself some time to learn to make some
spares.
- Yeah that'd probably be nice with a brand new build.
Look Ryan, great to get some insight into the car and great to see it here and least 99% finished and
we'll look forward to seeing it actually shredding on some videos in the not too distant future
I imagine.
- Absolutely yeah I'm looking forward to it, thank you.
- Thanks.
If you liked that video make sure you give it a thumbs up
and if you're not already a subscriber, make sure you're subscribed.
We release a new video every week.
And if you like free stuff, we've got a great deal for you.
Click the link in the description to claim your free spot to our next live lesson.