My AE-86 Corolla page

I first saw the AE-86 in Australia in 1983, and had to wait until 1990 to have enough money to buy one. I've now owned it since then and the longer I keep it the less chance there is of selling it!
The car started off as an Aussie production model, ie, a 'poor cousin' of the 'proper' AE-86 models that are available around the world;
The Aussie ones have these bits as standard -
- Single cam 4A-C 1587cc engine. ~100hp (?) 6,000rpm red line.
- Solid disc front brakes, with drum rear brakes.
- No limited slip diff.
- 13" x 5" alloy wheels, with 185/70-13 tyres.
Ho-hum ...

Overseas, what's far more common is a set of mechanicals like this -
- 4A-GE 16 valve twin cam. ~128hp, 7,700rpm red line.
- Vented front disc brakes & disc rear brakes.
- Optional limited slip diff
- 14" x 5.5" alloy wheels, with 185/60-14 tyres.
 

Note that in all these pics, my car is the one with the black rubber stripes on the side, and the small front & rear spoilers. The other car is owned by a friend of mine, Rick Choules, who is the clever chap who built my racing car.

Well, I planned on keeping my AE-86, known as a 'Sprinter' in Aus but a Corolla everywhere else in the world, standard, but after a couple of years - late '92 - the old urges overcame me and I rang around and found a 4A-GE twin cam and gearbox from a Japanese AE-86. It took me about a week to fit it all in, with the only the exhaust work being done outside my workshop.
With the engine, I had an ex-Formula One engineer friend of mine do some head work and supply a pair of 288° cams for me, and in conjunction with the aftermarket computer the end result was around 160hp. The engine, apart from 10.5:1 compression, aftermarket computer, cams, and a little head work is standard. The only other thing that I've done is to completely remove the TVIS, which stands for Toyota Variable Induction System, to improve the low end torque. (Note that this mod only works when you have cams bigger than about 270° duration, or so)  The TVIS is a set of butterflys in the inlet system that close off half the inlet manifold to improve the gas velocity below ~4500rpm.
Here's a zip file of my car starting - Sounds a LOT like a rotary. :)   (202kb)

The engine is a 1985 model, as can be determined by looking at the dates on the spark plug leads, and so far the bottom end has never been touched, despite all the abuse it's had given to it ...
 

The suspension is largely standard, but has been lowered about 50mm by means of stiffer springs. The front shock absorbers are adjustable gas DeCarbons, and the rears are gas KYB's. The handling is ok, but I have some improvements for it that I've recently been buying from Japan. (see later paragraph on this ...)

The wheels in the pictures are 15" x 6.5", and are fitted with a set of 195/55-15's. I used to run a set of 205/50-15's, but the diameter was a little too small, and so the scrub radius on the front end wasn't quite right. Much better now though.

The brakes are also largely standard, but I added the genuine 'twin cam' vented front discs in July '99 and also fitted it with a set of 'Endless' brake pads.
The rears are the 'twin cam' discs, courtesy of an imported LSD disc brake rear end that I bought from the wreckers in 1995. The car stops well, but due to the poor manifold vacuum that the engine makes, the pedal effort is sometimes too high. More upgrades to this later, as well ...

The gearbox was a standard Toyota T-50, but has been replaced with a close ratio T-50.

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2005 onwards

This is how the car looks now, with the new wheels and the Toyota Altezza 3SGE & 5-speed automatic gearbox fitted. They're 16" wheels, with 205/45-16" tyres. The engine came from a very low km's front cut, and it's taken a long time to get it to work properly, but it has finally been sorted out. The big brakes all-round are also nearly finished.

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On to the Altezza 3SGE conversion page

On to the mods done page

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