supra2

Rear towers finished and new tank mounts done.

Thanks for the kind words Stuart. Work has been so busy that I havent been able to follow my own advise of doing one thing every day. Not far off seeing some major progress now.

One rear tower is done.

Thanks Daniel. What will your 30 be used for? Rear towers being fabricated.

New 4.8 diff gears and alloy flywheel turned up today from LC Engineering.

Thanks Stuart. Ian, the flares are ma61 supra fronts. They need a little reshaping to fit,but they seem to suit the corolla well. With the ball joint you will need some thick walled tube thats a tight fit on the commodore ball joint cut to approx 10mm long. Then knock out the toyota joint. Drill a series of holes around the flange in the lower control arm to help remove it. Then clean up the hole with a die grinder until it fits the thick walled tube. Weld in place and press in new holden ball joint. I also put a couple of tack welds to ensure the joint wont move.

Thanks Justin and snot. As the car only came with the rear bumper, I thought i would see if it fitted the front as well,and it does. Only have to make one mold to do both ends.

Starting to mock up the flares and body mods.

Hey Snot. Here is some mod info on pre vr commodore struts that may be helpfull. Cheap Coil over kits to suit tube size are easy to get. You can buy a commodore v8 bilsten to bolt straight in which I found worked well in the lighter celica or corolla. They come with bigger alloy caliper brakes and the twin spot vt caliper bolts straight on. The toyota strut top bearing is the same dia so you can use the celica/corolla strut top. The celica has the same wheel bearings so the toyota hub fits the commodore stub.Just have to use the holden lock nut as the stub thread is different. Only real mod is to fit the longer lower ball joint to the toyota lower control arm. There is some expence for a real performance gain, but no where near the cost of buying dedicated performance parts to suit a toyota.

They are old vn commodore struts. They work well as they allow some serious widening to the front track and still keep the shock working in a vertical position. Best of all, the wreckers can't give them away so they are really cheap. The struts in the photo are my old bilstens ive used for many years. The Corolla will borrow the MCAs from the group b celica as they are based on the same leg.

Minor mods on the front towers to accept the rally suspension.

Ok for a road car. No good for rally. Any thing slotted for alignment will move unless a washer is welded in place to hold the adjustment which makes changes a pain. I am using rose joints on the front radius rods and lower control arms,but not where they would be subject to a side ways load on the joint. Ive mod the inner bush mount to adjust camber and toe useing falcon alignment shims. Once its set it can't move,but still allows for easy changes.

Trailing A arms now fitted.

Its never ending. And can be all consuming if you let it, but what a rush when all is going well. Under the car is now all finished. YA Ive laid a single layer of fibreglass over the leading edge of the floor well. It wont stop rocks, but will help reduce the wear from being blasted with dirt and gravel.

I know exactly what you mean. Although we havent had an event here for a while because of the weather, I think I would have those issues in the TA64 Celica. The main reason for building the corolla is to go fast again and not be to concerned with the normal " wear and tear" of rally. The sport can be,and is expensive.as you know, So I want this car to be fast, strong and reliable. I consider these long weekends away at events as mini holidays and with the cost of fuel and tyres and travel, nothing is more anoyimg than something breaking in the first 100m. I guess it is a lot of work, but I do enjoy most of it and its so much easier to get the mods done now . Hows the RA40 going?

don't mind at all. The subframe mounts are right under the roll cage main hoop mounts so should make for a nice stiff shell. Finished the rear quarter repairs.

Rear subframe is now in and finished.

New sills finished.

Hi Justin. Yep they will be flush, just havent trimmed them yet untill the reo plates are on. I can just hear the scrutineering out cry now if I turned up to a rally like it is. lol

New sills almost finished.

Thanks Reed. Made from new 1mm plate.

Yes your right about the stroke, I was thinking about the stroke on the 22re we built. I don't have any photos of the pistons but I remember them looking like someone had stuck an iceburg on a flat top. I remember we tried every thing to make the thing go, and it did, but not like it should have with all the effort and money we put in. All the normal bottom end mods and these silly high comp pistons. Over size valves and rally cams, mild head porting and matching the intake manifolds. We also ditched the solex carbs for webbers and ran electronic ingnition.. We spent countless hours tuning with no real impressive results. If I were to build one today. I would use the 90mm or 92mm flat top to take it to 2.2lt and bring the comp up with a big head skim and thin head gasket.

Finished boot seal repair.

Did you know that CAMS now allow you to use a 1st gen 3SGE with carbs as a replacement for the 18rg and still score points in the state prc championship. We ran and devloped a 18rg for almost 5 years when I started rallying. But it always seemed to be lacking something for a 2lt twin cam. These engines have a great cyl head but the long stroke lets it down. The high comp pistons we had were almost a V shape wedge crown which upset combustion and flow. This was over 10 years ago now so the shape may have changed. Just a thought as you may spend a lot of money, and like me, and be dissapointed with the results. Like Neil Bates, I reckon a 3sge would give you more value for your money.

Hi Seb, I found some old picks of my ra23 you asked for.