It's a 1985 Toyota Corolla
GTS. The reason why I dedicate a page for my "ex" is
that I still like the car very much. I found it very interesting
that this page about my previous car has been visited more often
than the other pages about my current car. I'm curious about how
you find out this page. I appreciate if you could let me know by email or guestbook. I've received
quite a bit of responses from Corolla car fans. Thanks for your
reply. No doubt this is a fun car to drive and work on!
Factory DesignMy
Modification
When the car debuted in the mid '80s, the engine was quite a hit back then. I vaguely remember the TV commercial that showed a Corolla GTS and an MR2, both sharing the 1.6L 112hp 7500rpm twin-cam 16V port-EFI engine, parked near the edge of a cliff, viewed from a distance.
Although the engine on my Corolla had 140,000km on it when I bought the car in '93, the high-end power was still wonderful. Below 4350rpm, the engine felt even worse than the civic 1500S back then. So I never used any rpm range below 2000rpm even for standing start. But when all intake runners opened up (T-VIS) above 4350rpm engine speed, the engine suddenly woke up and sounded much more aggressive (with the air filter box modified). Beyond 6000rpm, the engine revved eagerly towards (and over) 7500rpm redline in first and second gear.
By comparison, the Miata engine gives much more drivable low-end torque. But with half the mileage than the Corolla, the Miata still did not give the rush-towards-redline feel. That's why I think that HLAs in the Miata are degrading high-end performance comparing to solid lifters used in the Corolla engine. Although it did not have oil jets and oil pan baffle, the Corolla engine is hooked up to a factory air-to-oil cooler, not like those inefficient water-to-oil cooler used in nowadays' VTEC engines.
The 6-way adjustable driver seat was also my favorite in that car. I could adjust the side bolsters to hold my body real tight for hard cornering. However, I found a tight sitting position is not good for autocross racing because it did not give me as much feedback than loosening the bolsters a bit.
On the bad side, the car's suspension was outdated, using those truck type rear live-axle. This type of suspension is non-tunable and creates enormous unsprung weight.
All modifications made on the Corolla were cheap. The most expensive one was the tires. I bought a set of used Riken 15x7" 17mm-offset 3-piece gold mesh with chrome lip wheels for cheap. Even today, I still think the wheels look nice on that car. Then I got some used shitty tires (Dunlop Qualifier and Goodyear Eagle GT) from my friend, before I finally settled with a set of new Defender 195-50-15". Frankly, never ever use Dunlop Qualifier tires. They wear out like eraser but grip the road like ice. The Eagle GT was a bit better, but still wear out fast with little traction. Although the Defender is also a cheap tire, it gives much better traction than the above, comparable to higher-priced performance tires. Yet, the Defender is the most durable tire I have ever seen. Even having run 1.5 degree front camber for two years, having had 2 full seasons of autocross racing, and logged 30,000km, the tires still had at least half of the treads left. According to the salesperson, Defender is made by BFGoodrich. Yeah, the tread pattern looks a bit like Comp T/A ZR.
Suspension modification was cheap, too. The shocks were replacement type from Canadian Tire. I believe Monroe was the brand. Interestingly enough, these shocks were quite stiff enough for racing. One reason is that Toyota makes identical strut housing for many cars ranging from small Corolla to big Supra. Since both Corolla and Supra uses the same part number shocks, I guess Monroe has to make the shocks stiff enough for the Supra and gave a chance for Corolla owners to have stiff shocks. Spings were custom-built from factory ones. I did not just blindly cut the springs, but actually did some testing and tuning before settling with the ride height and spring rate. How did I tune spring rate and ride height from factory springs? See my Shop Talk for details.
The only power-train modifications included a custom-made air-filter and a 20" long Dynomax super turbo muffler with 3" chrome tip. The air filter customization was done by removing all intake pipes and air box before the air filter and turned the filter to face the front of the car for more fresh air. Apologize for my bizarre description, but RWD Corolla GTS owners should know what I mean. The result of the air-filter customization was a loud intake sound, didn't notice about performance difference, though. Since then, the kick-in moment of the secondary intake runners over 4350rpm were obviously noticeable by the sudden increase in intake sound level. That's quite comparable to the effect of VTEC kick-in in Honda engines.
Sound system included a Sony XRU-550 head unit driving 4 speakers and 4 tweeters, CDX-U300 10-disc CD changer, AudioVox 120W amplifier driving 2 no-name 12" Subwoofers mounted directly behind the rear seat backs. Listening to dance music on the rear seats was like having body massage. In the front, I could feel the floor pan shaking, and also the blurring images from the shaking side and rear-view mirrors..
There were not much interior modification except for the Dino 12.6" steering wheel and re-fabricated seats.
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