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!

Edited yesterday at 06:06 AM1 day by GJM85

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?

Edited yesterday at 06:01 AM1 day by GJM85

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.

Edited yesterday at 06:30 AM1 day by GJM85

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

By then the cars were so well-designed its hard to make them better, not like the 1960s.

Are there sway bar options? Factory ones are too heavy in the front and too light in the rear usually. Will it change direction with the throttle going on or off mid-corner?

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by altezzaclub