Hiro Protagonist

Went to WSID on Freaky Friday, first time I'd been to the drags and because of the rain I only got 3 runs in (not enough to get the launch point figured out correctly), best time was a 17.1, maxxing out 3rd instead of shifting to 4th. With a bit more practice I probably could break into the high 16s, especially once I get the suspension and exhaust done (huge amount of squat on launch meant that traction was at a premium)

Pretty sure you can see the roof panel blow off when they do the cigarette lighter myth, so that would confirm it for me

Staple gun. It's not like the VN (the bastard child of a Commodore) is worth much

Not all models got those specs, but you're right in saying that the full-height door trims came about with the 55 mid-life update. My 55 has full height trims, square headlights but non-adjustable headrests (CS seats, but the SE ones didn't have it either), intermittent wipers but only the 4-speed. No idea about the FM though, that had been ripped out a long time before I bought the car

I'd say it's most of the other people in this thread that need to chill a bit. Everyone seems to be assuming that the minute these people get their license they're going to immediately switch back to being hopeless and start terrorising the roads.

I'd be careful saying things like that, one of the drivers DOES has cerebral palsy As for the concept of the show, good on them. It's not like they're letting them loose on the street without supervision, it's no different to any other L-plater with an instructor or supervisor. The whole premise of the show is to discover each person's "problems" that they have with driving and cure it (something that they've been unable to overcome so far) so that they can earn their license. Not everyone picks up on the skills of driving as quickly as others. But because it has become such an integral and necessary part of our lives, these people are being disadvantaged because of it. Imagine if you were extremely crap at playing the trombone, yet you were forced to do it every day as part of your job. If you could learn to play it properly, you could get a lot more out of your job - more satisfaction, more money etc. But you really suck at it. You just can't come to grasp with the concept of the slide to alter the pitch of the note. No matter how many lessons you get, you still suck. But one day you get offered the chance of a life-time: free professional tuition by an expert in the field, as part of a reality TV show. If you perform well on the show, you will a chance to graduate as a musician, and not just an amateur hack, and get given a brand new shiny trombone as a present too. In short, give them a chance. Nothing the show is doing is going to introduce dangerous driving to our roads. Any person, no matter how crap or good a driver they are, can get their L's, and keep them for the rest of their life without ever taking a driving lesson, or taking the P's test. So the aim of the show is to reduce the number of extremely bad drivers on our roads by a few (by turning them into good drivers), and hopefully set an example for those others out there which struggle with something that a lot of us find easy.

'81 KE55 SE square headlight model: Blue vinyl trim for door cards and all seats, grey/blue (very faded) carpet '79 KE55 SE round headlight model: Brown vinyl door trims with exposed window sill, brown vinyl seats, can't remember what the carpet was

Puerto Rico mostly, from what I remember. They just drive 'em until they blow, then drop a new engine in. No mechanical sympathy whatsoever.

By the way, Twincam has actually moved to www.twincam.info, although it's still known as Twincam.org. The old site is effectively redundant, as all the old threads were transferred over to the new doman, with only a two-week period or so missing in the transfer

Thats a AE10x series wagon, so it'd be (depending on your location in the world, but I'm guessing the US) around a 94-98 model. Now two generations old, will most likely have the 4AFE or 7AFE engine. Highly doubtful that it's a 2002 car, most likely the owner got mixed up between 2002 and AE102 (a heap of people think the last two digits in the name mean the year, like 1982 for an AE82 etc)

Considering there were only 4 ever made, and none were officially sold, thats not that surprising

Seems there are resistor and non-resistor versions of the GT40

I know it is a Corolla, but it seems to be slightly separated from the rest of the Corollas sold here. Just because it has visual differences on the outside, doesn't mean it's not related on the inside. Just look at the AE101 and 111 Levin/Truenos.....not one body panel in common with the ADM 101/102 and 112, yet engine bays are almost identical, and obviously run same engine series/suspension/drivetrain/chassis/etc

Heaps of people call them Tercels because they don't know that the Tercel was actually a different car to the Corolla (closer in size to the Starlet). The Tercel was never sold here in Aus except for the one 4WD wagon version, and when the AE95 came out and didn't look much like the rest of the AE9x series (front end resembles a Seca, but apart from that different) they assumed it was the next Tercel. It'd be like calling the Camry a Corona because it replaced it (first one looked vaguely similar from the front, around the same size and concept), and then assuming that parts were compatible

Just to clear a few things up, the AE95 is NOT a Tercel, most people assume this because it bares a strong resemblence to the previous 4WD Tercel wagon that was sold here. No idea if the drivetrains or even the engines are compatible

But it's not going to be designed as a mass-market car, thats the thing. People will buy it because they know of the potential it has. If they want electronic seats, twenty-billion airbags and whatnot, they'll go buy a Benz or something. If they want a lightweight, nimble small-medium car with sporting pretensions, they'll buy this. Look at the MX5 and Elise: classic examples of relatively bare, purpose-built cars that have sold very well, because they appeal to a certain part of the market. I personally reckon a liftback based on a lightened (ie most of the luxury gear trimmed out) IS chassis, like the picture above, is the way to go. In a similar vein, for Toyota to really compete against the Falcon and Commodore here, they need to strip the luxury and electronic features out of the GS (hence making it cheaper), hence having a medium/large sized RWD sedan with a V8 option, for something around the price of a up-spec Falcon. Call it the Aristo, or Chaser, or Cressida, and it's problem-solved-buy-me-a-beer time.

Pretty sure there's a resistor in the car standard anyway, at least according to the wiring diagram

I've got an Echlin GX-80R coil, came with the dizzy, heard that they're pretty decent

So, as some of you may remember, I recently aquired a 4KEU electronic distributor and coil to go into Billie. Whilst being from a 4K, it had the internal ignitor and seems to be identical to the 5K electronic distributor (maybe someone needs to update the FAQ?). Anyhoo, after pulling out the distributor on the spare parts car (Lemon/Pineapple), it appears that there is only one low tension wire running to the distributor, as per the Gregorys wiring diagram, yet the electronic dizzy has two wires, one black and one black with a brown stripe. Obviously one of these needs to go to the negative side of the coil, but where does the other one go? Positive side? Ground? Any and all help would be appreciated

There's a set on sale on eBay at the moment, not sure how good they are but at least they're new. Can't be bothered finding links, just search for KE55 and you'll find them

OK, time for some updates, as a lot is going to be happening for the old girl in the coming weeks (I might as well do it, even though it's technically the g/f's car and she drives it 90% of the time, I bought it and do 99% of the work, as well as take the photos and hand over the folding) Firstly, bought an old rusted-out 79 KE55 the other week, mostly for spare parts for $200. Body is more rust than metal now, but engine/gearbox still work fine, and the dash was in good nick along with a new uncracked dash-pad, and a much sought-after front left rubber bumper cap. Main use she'll have for the next few weeks will be my test-bed for trying out the electronic dizzy, as well as the Gemini Nikki carb I've got lying around, and ripping off the emissions spaghetti maze of vacuum pipes to see what can actually be ditched Here she is in the g/f's backyard getting some parts pulled out of her And the rust.........ohh god, the rust....(note, these pictures show just two of the countless areas of terminal, blue-slip impairing rust that the car has. Also note that the bonnet hinge has actually rusted OFF from the bonnet) She's called Pineapple, partly for the colour but primarily for the reason that she's going to get crushed once we're finished stripping it............get it? Pineapple Crush?........didn't think anyone would.. other options included Lemon (for lemon squash) and Banana (for Banana Peel, as we're peeling it apart, or Banana Split for also obvious reasons). Fascia panel Almost-perfect dash pad As an unexpected bonus, I also acquired a (almost) complete electronic distributor out of a 4KEU. This confused me for a little while, as all documentation I could find suggested that 4K electronic dizzys had external igniters, and the 5K/7K ones were internal. Mine was very obviously a 4K one, and also very obviously internal ignitor. The reason that this was an issue was because I didn't get a rotor with the dizzy (hey it was free, who can complain?), and the standard 4KC points one was waaay too big, as was the dizzy cap. Went trawling through parts catalogues, cross-referencing the ID number on the dizzy as well as looking at pictures of distributor caps and comparing it to the spare nipponDenso one I got with the dizzy, and finally found out that the dizzy seemed to be identical to a 5K, which meant that off-the-shelf rotors and caps could be attained. These were attained. Distributor and coil, clearly showing it has an internal ignitor ID plate clearly saying that it's from a 4KEU New cap and rotor obtained for the princely sum of $23 So, whats coming up........went around getting quotes for the rust to get cut out of Billie and fixed up, best I got was $750 to cut out, plate and prime the holes in the A-pillar, around the tailights and in the back passenger sill, leaving me to bog up the ones in the guards. Seeing as how I'm not flash with a welder (and don't own one), this seems to be the likely option. Most of the places were quoting in the vicinity of $4grand for a full exterior respray, which I couldn't justify either, so I'll be forking out for a decent air-compressor and gun set, and then painting the bloody thing myself. Can't hurt right? Hopefully that'll get done in the Easter holidays, unless I get more work in which case I'll have to try and fit it in on weekends...... Like I said, things happening

Bastard, I want one of those things....... Anyway, fastest I've ever been in a car was an indicated 200km/h (end of the speedo) in my AE102, me driving, at night, not legally (ie public road). Despite what I just wrote, that never happened. It was on my private 3-lane highway. I was not speeding, officer. Fastest car (potential-wise) I've been in is my mate's ST162 with a ST185 GT-FOUR engine, 2WD, and about 20psi shoved down it's throat. Wheelspin central in the wet, but in the dry it smoked RX7s easily Fastest car (acceleration/cornering) I've driven was the 2005/06 University of Newcastle Formula-SAE racing car, aka the PIG. We called it the Pig because it was basically the longest and widest car in the competition, the Goodyear slicks squealed on the practice track, and it slurped petrol like a .......well, like a pig slurps slops. Capable of doing around 1.2-1.3G through a corner, and 0-100 time in the high 3/low 4 second bracket, and that was starting in second gear (first was avoided because of the risk of dropping it into neutral on the 1-2 shift). Pity the top speed was only about 130-140km/h

KE55s had the 4K, not the 3K

Once again I ask, how can this happen without serious boring out of the head (or does everyone like squish zones?). The 5K block has a bore of 80.5mm, the 3K has a bore of 75mm.

Seeing as how the 3K head has a different bore to the 5k, how exactly is this possible without major boring? 3K head can fit on a 4K, but only because the 4K is essentially a stroked 3K