GJM85

There's virtually nothing offically available. Torsion beam rear end and all. I believe versions sold in Japan and the US had an IRS rear. But not in the good old land of Oz. The car in its factory configuration always handled and braked well. Its sure footed through corners. Has a big heavy 24mm factory sway bar up front. No aftermarket options available locally. No strut bracing or anything. Probably doesn't need it. It has handled the drop in ride height very well. Everything is quite flat, the ball joints aren't overly strained and it still drives straight as a plum line without having a wheel alignment yet. I'll get it into the shop for a balance and alignment in the near future. I did jump the gun a bit and already bought a set of 20mm roll center adjusters from Car Mods Australia, but without adjustable tie rods they're gonna be pretty useless. And likely too big to use anyway. Could be that there's other adjustable tie rods that'll fit, GR maybe? Also had to take the Motegi's off as there's a buckle that's driving me nuts. Hopefully have a replacement in the next week or 2.

Maybe this one. https://rrrshop.co.uk/collections/2zr-lotus-parts/products/pb-racing-exhaust-manifild

I've been trying to find information regarding modifications for this car. There's a lot of dead ends. In fact nearly everything ends in a dead end. Most likely because the strict standards placed on these cars regarding noise and emissions. But.... we don't care about that much do we? So exhaust is next. Thinking a 2 inch mandrel system with Lukey megaflow resonator in the mid and muffler in the rear. I'm pretty desperate to change the headers as well. It has some bloody hideous pressed metal thing with a close couple catalyst. The headers are dead set hard to find. There's some junk on ali express or baba and a couple of providers in the US that don't ship to Aus. monkeywrench racing and performance chip tuning. Then there's Lotus. The 2ZR-FE and EC60 6 speed was also used in the S3 Lotus Elise in a supercharged configuration putting down 245hp and 275hp depending on the option. Internally identical engine and gearbox. Just a blower and a tune. But damn that shit is priced out of this world. Something like 9000 euro for the supercharger kit. I've hit up Genie about a set as well. We'll see how that goes. I'd be keen to keep the close coupled catalyst setup with a tight little 4-1 header to keep it all factory looking and avoid having to do any wiring or ecu stuff at this point. I've read the 1zz uses the same intake and exhaust flange design also. Not sure I want dive into that either.

My wife works from home and sometimes has to transport precious cargo. She will regularly use my 2017 Isuzu MU-X once or twice a week and leave it in an undesirable state, so we recently made the decision to make the swap official and permanent. She gets the big car and I'm back in a rolla. First things first. We went down to the gumbyment services and we swapped the personal plates over. GJM85 back on a blue Corolla. Next, goodbye tow bar because racecar. Then I needed wheels, so up jumped my sons old Motegi Traklite's 17x7+45. These wheel come with their own story for later. What about some low? A set of Kings KTFL-119 and KTRL-120. These springs are designed to be used with factory shocks and stay trapped. Perfect when you find the whole brand new, unopened set on FB market place for $330. In they go for 30mm low. The factory gearknob makes my palm itchy. Off to SCA for the stereotypical dildo shifter and a K&N panel filter. Why not? So what's next?

After almost 10 years the 2017 Ascent Sport hatch is officially mine. Not my wife's. We purchased this Corolla new in late 2017 for my wife as a daily driver. The old ZRE182R Ascent Sport hatch in something blue gem. 2ZR-FE, 6 speed manual. Factory tint, mats &, tow bar. Added the ceramic paint protection as well. Long story short, the gearbox gave up, so it sat in limbo for about 6month. Turns out towing a 6x4 trailer full of road base wreaks havoc on the gearbox's input shaft bearing. Even though it was a couple of years ago, it likely initiated the eventual failure. These little cars don't utilise a spigot in the back of the crank, so total drive load literally ends on that transmission shaft bearing. Pricing for these EC60 6 speed gearbox's varies wildly and I eventually took a gamble on a local wreckers advertisement and picked up a 2012 transmission for $700 + postage and it turned up the next day. I grabbed a new clutch from clutchdirect for $500, new trans-axle seals and rear main from Bursons for $160 and had it all swapped out over a weekend. Back in business!

It's been a long time... but i remembered my password.

Ordered an update.

Use ke2 inner bearing kp outer bearing.

I use a denso 5k electronic dizzy with a Streetfire CDI (MSD's budget line) with a Bosch coil and 1.0 gapped plugs. Capacitive discharge, multi spark to 3000rpm and rev limiter. More energy that you'll every need.

They make a DGV style one as well.

A job done right and all that......

Lowering the body to the road, lowers the centre of gravity which does increase the cornering ability but the tie rods(steering arms) and the lower control arms end up on funky upward angles where they were once almost square. This places load on the ball joints of these particular parts which they are not designed to sustain. The steering becomes heavy and the parts deteriorate rapidly. This increases sloppiness in the steering and bump steer. Roll centre adjusters (RCA's) are spacers used between the strut leg and the lower control arm to correct this problem. Next you have the issue of increased negative camber, where the top of the front wheels tend to lean inwards. Generally a positive trait on a track car and for the fan boys who love to chew through tyres, but the tread doesn't run squarely on the road, increasing tyre wear on the inside line and decreasing forward traction & braking capacity. Also increases bump steer. You use adjustable camber tops (strut tops) to counter this issue, although most wouldn't consider it one. Finally you have shock absorbers. Short stroke shocks are required to keep lowered spring trapped inside the strut itself. The standard shock absorbers upward travel is big enough it will allow the lowered spring to fly free of its upper and lower enclosure. These shocks are not generally of the shelf items and extensive part cross referencing is required to find the right shock and then you generally have to modify the strut to fit it. It's generally illegal to do for Provisional licence holders. It is definitely a lot more complicated than most people expect and the detriments out way the style points 9 times out 10 unless you do the job properly. Just do the 30mm springs in the front with 35mm RCA's (available through Techno Toy Tuning or others) with standard shocks and get a wheel alignment. Then use inch and a half blocks in the rear with Nolathane or Super Pro bushings. It will be cool.

50mm drop is significant and has negative effects on steering geometry without the appropriate counter measures. ie. RCA's and camber tops. It flogs the tie rods, pitman and idler arms, controls arm bushes and the front tyres. 30mm springs and 1&1/2" lowering blocks gives a good balance between stability & steering and doesn't attract as much unwanted attention, which is important for learner burners. And I'd still recommend the RCA's with that.

I'm using a 32/36 DGV Weber on an early modified manifold. Never had it dyno'd but it's faster than a Mirage and a twin cam excel. Seat of my pants says its around 80-90hp.

My head was done by Yatala Head Worx. 5k 30cc head. Intake is port matched and tapered with some bowl and comp chamber work. Exaust port is stock with the exception of bowl and short radius. Standard valves with Performance dual springs. 85lb seated. CC'd @ 10.6:1. Using 218/227@50 cam.