Watch And Listen To Over 200 1JZ-Powered Cars Going Sideways In Australia

Toyota’s JZ series of straight-sixes are some of the best-known engines in the world, icons of the 1990s Japanese car scene and famed for being durable and capable of delivering lightly insane power outputs when tweaked. The 3.0-litre 2JZ is the one everyone really remembers - after all, it’s the one that powered the now-legendary fourth-generation Supra in both naturally aspirated and twin-turbo forms.

Its smaller relative, however, the 2.5-litre 1JZ, is still a force to be reckoned with. Like the 2JZ, it came in both N/A and twin-turbo variants and was produced for 17 years straight between 1990 and 2007. As helpfully demonstrated by YouTuber Alexi Smith, better known as Noriyaro, it can take a hammering and dish out serious numbers just as well as its big brother. While he lives in Japan, Alexi recently popped back over to his home country of Australia for 1JZ Meeting - a drift event dedicated to cars powered by the smaller of the JZ engines.

Over 200 cars fitted with the venerable engines descended on the paperclip-shaped Queensland Raceway for a day of shredded tyres and singing six-pots under the Aussie sun. It’s a real treat if ‘90s and ‘00s Toyotas are your thing. Present are examples of pretty much everything that originally came with a 1JZ - Chasers, Soarers, Crowns, Supras - and quite a bit that didn’t, including a couple of interloping Nissans with the Toyota six dropped in.

This is not, in fact, the first 1JZ Meeting. It had been held annually in Japan for years, but its organisers announced that 2022’s would be the last. A group of Australian enthusiasts saw an opportunity, and December 2023 saw the inaugural running of a reborn, Aussie-fied version of the event. Even with some overseas visitors struggling with Queensland’s harsh summer heat, it looks - and sounds - like a fun time. All those 1JZs make for quite a racket.