JUST A LITTLE BOOST; And a little help from his friends.(News)(Charles Park's turbo boosted Lexus IS 300)

Byline: RICHARD CHANG

When you start (turbo) boosting cars it becomes very addictive,'' Charles Park said as we sat on a cold concrete bench inside the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York, where his Lexus IS 300 was entered in an import car show. "It's very easy to dial up the boost control. The rush of boost gives you a natural shot of adrenaline.''

No one needs to sell us on the many splendors of boost, but Park takes it to another level. He claims his turbocharged Lexus (feeding on 117-octane, C16 race fuel) has pulled more than 700 hp at the wheels, but his goal is to crank it up to 1000 hp. Inconceivable? Not according to Swift Racing Technologies, a Lexus tuning specialist in Beltsville, Maryland. If boost is Park's fix, then SRT is his pusher.

Not many tuners have tried to reach that kind of power on the IS 300 (or any Lexus, for that matter), and those who have have cheated, accomplishing the feat by rocking a turbo Supra short- block (and its six-speed gearbox) with a big single-turbo upgrade. Park, on the other hand, wanted to retain the stock engine block (probably the only OE engine part remaining), and SRT custom-built a Stage 4 turbo system for the car, the first of its kind. "There will be a lot of guys who will mimic my car and use the SRT formula,'' Park said, "but I like to be on the cutting edge of what I do with the car.''

Long before Park reached this self-described precipice of import tuning glory, he owned a Mustang notchback, one he says he converted into a 12-second street car. Citing a hunger for something "more nimble,'' he was tempted to buy an M3, but then found out about a recent trend in sport compact car tuning based on using only Japanese domestic market (JDM) parts. The parts are difficult to source and usually cost more than a mail-order Russian bride. More often than not, the rarer and pricier the part, the higher the street cred. It was this challenge that led Park to the IS 300.

"There's an ...