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Thread: Leon's car farm

  1. #1
    Senior Member Leon's Avatar
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    Leon's car farm

    I'm turning my Corolla club car into a gravel spec car, hopefully my first gravel hillclimb shall occur this Sunday.

    It is 5km of first and second gear steep uphill.

    I put taller springs and shocks into the car this week, as the current suspension is set up very much with tarmac in mind (low, and with hardly any droop on the suspension).

    I've done some gravel autocrossing before, but that was one circuit repeated, also it was while running road tyres. So this weekend is a bit scary. It is a road I've navigated on a couple of times, so I'm semi familiar with it.

    Notion gravel 2.jpgNotion gravel 3.jpg

    This is what the road looks like from my friend's almost identically spec'd Corolla from last year. If you listen, you can hear he never even gets into third the whole run

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A68UOlXZySA

    This is what it looks like from inside a Legacy RS driven by a lunatic

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj-K3F_NPf0

  2. #2
    Senior Member Leon's Avatar
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    The appliance spec Corolla road car of boringness, and 464,000km on the clock has been getting some love, and some money too.

    Respray bumper, bonnet (hood), blend over the wings, front half of the roof and A-pillars, also new windscreen. This was from a bit of rust starting at the top of the screen, then as the entire front of the car was just a massive collection of stone chips, the respray was to make it all look nice again.

    Uprated lowered springs fitted (dropped it a couple inches, but nothing silly) and new Toyota genuine shocks.

    Also new head unit fitted, to save me from having to tolerate listening to my CD collection (which hasn't been updated in ten years).

    marathon lowered.jpg

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    ITR?

  4. #4
    Senior Member Leon's Avatar
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    yeah, 96 ITR.

    I've been sinking some money into that too, but it really needs yet more.

    It has some nice headers on it now, and a Hondata ECU. So it goes like shit off a shovel now, but the diff is definitely open, so traction is a bit of an issue.

    Suspension is too low and soft, so when combined with the low hanging headers (a known Honda issue with aftermarket headers) means it scrapes the headers on the ground constantly. Highly annoying.

    Uprated engine mounts, which means that at cold idle, it is like being on a big Honda vibrator.

    Needs taller and stiffer springs, and better dampers!

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  6. #6
    Bad Taste novicius's Avatar
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    The ITR looks sick-as-phuc just sitting there. Such a cool ride.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Leon's Avatar
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    Raced Corolla up 5km long steep hillclimb, all first and second gear wiggles.

    Almost crashed a couple of times, but didn't.

    Came third in class, which is an ok result. Not super amazing or anything, but a solid effort for my first time racing on gravel (other than a small autocross track).

    notion gravel 4.jpg

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    If that picture had originated in the US, I'd assume it was just a Toyota driver who didn't even realize he'd gone off the road.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Leon View Post
    Came third in class, which is an ok result. Not super amazing or anything, but a solid effort for my first time racing on gravel (other than a small autocross track).
    Cool, good stuff! What is that, about 5-7 minutes solid hard driving?

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