Wednesday, March 16
Eating My Own Words
I now have plans to purchase a 1986 Toyota Corolla, the car that I once scornfully declared I would never buy. Mike's getting a clean coupe and will transplant his engine, diff, suspension, and other assorted goodies into the car. I will get a mostly stripped car with a rusty body, but it will be free. I'm actually looking forward to building it the way I think a Corolla should be built. Allow me to outline my plans:
Rusty Corolla Hatchback $0
GT-S Parts needed to hook it up $450
Imported low-mileage Japanese engine $590
Tokico Shocks, Espelir Springs $350
GT-S LSD $300
I figure I'll have the car up and running with pretty much new parts for $1700. That's not bad, but not great either. The car will need rust work, which I'm hoping to farm out to a friend of my brother's. Hopefully, this will bring the total to about $2000 for a non-rusty, well-running, albeit ugly, Corolla. I will also need some wheels and tires on there for another $350 or so so I can have some decent rolling stock. Then I'll need some spares for drifting, and I'm ready to go. The car slides so well stock, I don't think I'll have much more to do to it. But I do have a few thoughts, which I am not aversed to sharing:
Bride Exas III seat: $900
6-point Cage: $850
Body work and paint: ???$
Mild engine tune: <$1000
I have a set of N1 Flares that may end up on the car, but that would mean also spending a lot of money on wheels to make the flares work right. No sense having nice fender flares and stock wheels, right?
Either way, I'm looking forward to building the Corolla as my drift-only car and relegating the Miata to track and autocross duty. I feel like the Miata is pretty much done up the way I'd like it to be, so it's time to start using it for what I've built it: learning to grip drive. I've been frustrated with drifting the Miata for so long, I think it's time to start using it for what it's really good at and stop trying to make it do what it really doesn't want to. The Corolla is a far more capable drift car, and I think it will be easier on me to have one car to drift and one car for grip so I don't have to keep compromising on one car. I look forward to being able to make modifications on my Miata to increase the grip without having to be concerned with how it will affect the ability of the car to slide, and vice-versa. As the old adage goes, "horses for courses." One horse to slide, one horse to grip.
Rusty Corolla Hatchback $0
GT-S Parts needed to hook it up $450
Imported low-mileage Japanese engine $590
Tokico Shocks, Espelir Springs $350
GT-S LSD $300
I figure I'll have the car up and running with pretty much new parts for $1700. That's not bad, but not great either. The car will need rust work, which I'm hoping to farm out to a friend of my brother's. Hopefully, this will bring the total to about $2000 for a non-rusty, well-running, albeit ugly, Corolla. I will also need some wheels and tires on there for another $350 or so so I can have some decent rolling stock. Then I'll need some spares for drifting, and I'm ready to go. The car slides so well stock, I don't think I'll have much more to do to it. But I do have a few thoughts, which I am not aversed to sharing:
Bride Exas III seat: $900
6-point Cage: $850
Body work and paint: ???$
Mild engine tune: <$1000
I have a set of N1 Flares that may end up on the car, but that would mean also spending a lot of money on wheels to make the flares work right. No sense having nice fender flares and stock wheels, right?
Either way, I'm looking forward to building the Corolla as my drift-only car and relegating the Miata to track and autocross duty. I feel like the Miata is pretty much done up the way I'd like it to be, so it's time to start using it for what I've built it: learning to grip drive. I've been frustrated with drifting the Miata for so long, I think it's time to start using it for what it's really good at and stop trying to make it do what it really doesn't want to. The Corolla is a far more capable drift car, and I think it will be easier on me to have one car to drift and one car for grip so I don't have to keep compromising on one car. I look forward to being able to make modifications on my Miata to increase the grip without having to be concerned with how it will affect the ability of the car to slide, and vice-versa. As the old adage goes, "horses for courses." One horse to slide, one horse to grip.
