Shammer Khan, better known as Sam in the West, just loves Toyota Starlets and is in fact a big fan of TRD.

For those who might be wondering what TRD is – it stands for Toyota Racing Development. TRD is the in-house tuning shop for all Toyota, Lexus and Scion cars.

TRD is responsible both for improving street cars for more performance and supporting Toyota’s racing interests around the world.

Mr Khan has a 1997 Toyota Starlet which he uses for racing.

His Starlet has a turbo setup and he describes the vehicle as small yet fast.

“I have done a lot in the vehicle having installed boost controller, turbo timer, techo metre, bigger fuel pressure pump, bigger turbo with top mount cooler and bucket seats,” he said.

With all the upgrades, Mr Khan has ended up spending around $12,000 on the vehicle.

Like many car enthusiasts, one of the limiting factors to the upgrades has been the availability of parts locally.

Mr Khan said some parts for the vehicle were available locally and some had to be brought in from overseas.

Thus, he says: “It has taken me two years to build my babe”.

Mr Khan has so far participated in four drag races.

His father, Mohammed Shamim (also known as Maxi) who is the director of Maxi Motor World, also owns a Toyota Land Cruiser.