Twin-turbo V12 Toyota Quantum! Is this the world's Maddest Minibus Taxi

Coz on the diner when we did 600 horsepower , we did 201 kilometers an hour in second gear .

So technically in a vacuum , this quantum can do 300 ks an hour .

But you need big balls .

I think to go over 200 in this vehicle .

If you drive this vehicle , it's actually it's not bumpy , it's not noisy .

We've got two big mufflers at the back muffles just enough that you still get a really nice view to it .

My name is James Ridling behind me is my crazy Lamborghini inspired V 12 twin turbo taxi .

The reason this taxi came about five years ago , we were buying Toyota quantum panel vans , which we then could legally get converted and we could then sell them as taxis .

And at that point , we decided let's do something for marketing purposes , but also something creative .

I came upon a , a company s ad customs Japan that actually took a Lamborghini vented door and they took some inspiration from that both the front and the back and I had this really good video of this thing driving .

And I said , well , this for me is one of the coolest cars that I've ever seen .

And so the journey started of actually deciding to buy the body kit from Japan .

The body kit cost 96,000 .

So that was an expensive part .

We bought a 12 2002.5 petrol quantum .

And then we found a fabric crater that could actually build the quantum for us .

It's a V 12 1 Z U engine from Japan .

Not a lot of car nuts know that Toyota made a V 12 .

It's actually an engine that comes from a century which is a limousine something limousine is almost exclusively sold in Japan .

It does about 225 kilowatts from the factory uh 410 Newton meters of torque , but torque is delivered at about 1000 500 R PM .

So it's a really toy engine .

We've put two twin scroll turbos T three T four .

So it's nice big Turbos which pulls up to about 3.5 1000 .

Then they start to boost running boost at 10000.5 because we've got a high compression engine engine is 10.5 to 1 compression which is very high for a turbocharged engine .

It's not a good engine to turbocharge .

The original injectors which were 254 CCS , it couldn't deliver the fuel .

So we put in Porsche 9973.8 Carrera , a 351 cc Bosch injectors in running at a duty cycle of about 90% which is on the limits , but that's still within um , the specs .

Then we had a custom plenum designed with 12 trumpets to get the air flow equally into the plenum .

On the E C U side , we run a max eu U .

We've got this C I three speed gearbox limited slip diff 750 horsepower .

It's rated to , we've got a bespoke coil overs in the front in the , we had to unfortunately take out the double triangulated suspension .

So we're running the regional leaf springs .

We are running the standard brakes in the front just because the quantum is designed to carry load .

So it's got really big brakes in the front .

We also had to remove the intercooler which was situated behind the diff with two charged coolers and that actually gets cooled by two radiators that sits in the front .

It cools the intake temperature from about 80 to about 45 degrees , which is really , really good for a turbocharged engine .

And then we have to install a couple of fans just to get to dissipate the heat build up as the engine is sitting quite high and it's sitting in a tub .

I wanted something with a lot of torque uh so that it can drive without the turbo spooling up .

And so you drive , working back turbos is not on , you drive normally aspirated 400 Newton meters of torque , which is fine to get the vehicle moving along .

The auto box work .

Fantastic .

So it's really smooth .

The gear changes .

What's nice about this box ?

It's called the T C I .

It's the company , the model is a street fighter .

It's a box that they use for street track racing in America .

So it's three speed .

But what makes it unique if you pull the pistol shifter from third to second ?

It actually changes instantly .

It's interesting when the power comes in , I think because the torque curve is so linear , there is no drama .

So you go from normally aspirated , you hit 3000 R PM .

You can hear the turbos boost in .

It almost feel like if the quantum is lifting up a little bit , which is a great feeling .

I won't dice a G T I , it is a brick , it doesn't have good aerodynamics .

But once I'm going and I'm in second gear and I'm at 80 and you throw that thing , I tell you a fast car might beat you , but it's gonna go .

What the , you know that this quantum is actually keeping up with me .

This vehicle for me is about a sizzle by achieving that .

It , it , it achieved my goal .

We had to go through a whole process of R and D .

We could have gone a very simple route .

We could have put a Toyota Super One or two Jay Z engine in five parts from the shelf , put it in it's all proven technology .

But because we decided to go for the V 12 engine , we had to pay a price for R and D .

We are on engine number three , we have done two turbo set ups .

The suspension was done three times .

We have done two E C us .

It felt like I'm stuck in this nightmare because it would just drag on and drag on every time something broke or we had to make a change .

That was a month or two that went by .

At that point , you just say this is a nightmare .

I want to turn around and walk away from this .

I did , I got in my car and I left and then the weekend goes by and you , and you say to yourself , I need to pick up .

I can't just let this thing go .

If you are maybe 6 , 700,000 into a bolt and you blow an engine , you can't just say I give up .

But I must say the last year when we started getting the outside done getting the inside done , then I could see results .

And then when we decided on the red with the gold wheels , I actually saw it for the first time .

I said now everything is coming together and I was so delighted and overcome with emotions when I saw that .

So the last year has really , really been not so frustrating .

It's been a pleasure for that .

I'm thankful because now that the taxi is done .

I can actually enjoy it while I'm driving it and it is really a fun , a fun vehicle to drive everything in this van .

I would say we've taken it to , to the next , the next level , the amount of compliments you get , just make it absolutely worth the while .

In my opinion , at least in South Africa there's nothing like this and in the world you might find something which has got the same body kit , but mechanically having a twin turbo V 12 with a bespoke suspension .

I don't think there's something that comes close close to this .

So for me it's a , it's a world unique , uh , uh , vehicle .

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It's a good idea for a bunch of reasons which I actually don't have really a lot of time to go into .

But , uh , it's good .

It's a good idea .

Excellent .

Thanks for watching .

I said that already .

Dream search drive cars dot Coz .