Our client, Brian, brought his 1993 Toyota Sera to us for some custom modifications. The Toyota Sera is pretty rare. It is a right-hand drive car that was marketed in Japan from 1990 to 1995 and never came to the U.S. market.
This Toyota Sera needed a new motor. It was impossible to find a factory replacement but Joe, our master craft technician, was able to come up with a solution which added performance and also kept it as close to factory as possible by installing a Toyota Starlett Turbo motor. Since the vehicle has gullwing doors, we had a hood scoop custom fit for the turbo intercooler on the new motor. We also had to build a custom engine wiring harness and do all sorts of ridiculous stuff to make it work. But it works!
Let us know if you need some custom work.
We love jobs like these.
Brian was pleased. Here’s what he said:
Hey Japanese Auto team!
It’s been almost a year since you guys finished up my 1993 Toyota Sera and I’ve had a blast with the car ever since.
I’ve been continually replacing and upgrading parts this past year and it’s in a better spot now than ever.
It’s even won a few awards and was featured in a video with The Fast Lane Car on YouTube.
More about the Toyota Sera

- Inspiration for McLaren F1 Doors: The unique glass doors on the Toyota Sera were the inspiration for the iconic butterfly doors on the McLaren F1.
- Lightweight and Efficient: The Sera weights only 1,984 lbs (900 kg) and has a 1.5-liter 108 horsepower (110 PS) four-cylinder engine with 97 lb-ft (131 Nm) of torque. This one, however, has much more power now after the engine swap!
- Limited Production: The Sera was only in production between 1990 and 1995 – only around 16,000 cars came off the assembly line. It has only been legal to import these cars in the past few year so you won’t see many of these here in the States.