In reply to Somebeach :
It looks pretty darned solid, especially for a car in Michigan. It has the styled steel wheels and I have some aluminum 13 inchers if someone were to buy the wagon. Interior seems to be ok from the pictures. Just needs to be converted to the manual transmission, which is a 5 speed. It would be an interesting little runabout.
It's also been listed for several months, so there may be more wiggle room in the price.
The ads shown here are pretty representitive of what's out there. The problem these days with 70s Japanese cars is that you find many owners suffering from auction syndrome. They see a the same model going for 10K and think their tatty car is somehow worth 75% of that. You them on craiglist for months at riduculous prices and then finally reality sets in. Fortunately there are still reasonable deals if you are patient.
As to Corollas, there are loads of hop up parts available at really good prices. The 2TC and 3TC engines are very capable. The motor can be taken out to near 1970cc if I remember correctly. It's possible to have a streetable engine with 135-140 whp, given the cars weigh between 1600 and 1900 lbs it's possible to see sub 14 second 1/4 mile times. There are also excellent gearbox choices for them as well. Suspension mods are a slam dunk as well.
My dad and I ran a ‘73 SR-5 in SCCA Improved Touring C back in the early 90’s. Held the track records at Sebring and Moroso for a while. Excellent handling and great brakes. Car was the South Atlantic Road Racing Championship winner and runner-up in the hands of the previous owner/builder. One of the few racecars my dad wished he’d never sold.
Whenever we ran at Moroso, they usually had drag racing on Saturday night. There was a guy there with a 1980 Corolla, 3TC on nitrous, running in the 11’s. The 60’ times were incredible. Super light, and it launched hard!
I had a 81 wagon for a number of years. It's one of the cars I wish I had never parted with.
This is on CL local to me.
https://charleston.craigslist.org/cto/d/1977-toyota-corolla/6520382641.html
He's asking $3k
Hmm. Here's another for $2500. 4 door though.
https://charleston.craigslist.org/cto/d/78-toyota-corolla/6521925475.html
My first car was an 82 box body sedan with an auto and the 3tc. We bought it with 239k miles and some minor rust holes from a drunk at a motel for $600 in 1992. I drove it about 30k miles. It was a fun little car if you weren't afraid to wring out the motor. I named it Sparky because it was like a loyal little dog, playful and always wanting to please.
I had a '72 4-door with the auto, and it was a 2-speed. That was a horrendous transmission but I loved everything else about the car. Also my brothers had a couple 80-81s that I drove from time to time, and I liked them too. They were very slow but still fun to drive and very, very reliable.
I bought my 1980 2-door sedan back in 1987 with only 64K miles on it. It seriously was sold when the elderly gentleman who owned it previously died. The thing still had bias-ply tires on it. Mine was the "stripper", no A/C, only the 4spd, and 3/4 windows that didn't pop out. I thew a set of 14" Celica wheels on it, with 185/60/14 tires that were left-overs when my Dad got new rubber for this GTI. It looked pretty cool, and was a blast. (especially on gravel / dirt roads)
That poor car withstood TONS of abuse, hundreds of handbrake 180 turns on pavement, and even more offroad excursions. (someone has to practice being a rally-driver right?) I even got so much air hooning around a closed gravel pit that one of the shocks broke in half! Admittedly that was a pretty big jump!
It finally met it's end after I rolled it 5 or 6 times on a lonely country road outside of Gibson City IL. I was thrown from the wreck, and landed a good 30 ft from where the car finally came to a rest. Amazingly I was unharmed besides a few cuts and bruises. The poor Corolla however..... had met it's end.
I'd love another...... but it's hard to justify at the prices they are bringing.
In reply to DeadSkunk :
Dude, buy a JDM 3SGE BEAMS import engine. Complete swap with a 6 speed manual trans can be had for less than a grand and they make 200hp in stock form and rev to almost 9k and sound amazing doing it
racerfink said:My dad and I ran a ‘73 SR-5 in SCCA Improved Touring C back in the early 90’s. Held the track records at Sebring and Moroso for a while. Excellent handling and great brakes. Car was the South Atlantic Road Racing Championship winner and runner-up in the hands of the previous owner/builder. One of the few racecars my dad wished he’d never sold.
Whenever we ran at Moroso, they usually had drag racing on Saturday night. There was a guy there with a 1980 Corolla, 3TC on nitrous, running in the 11’s. The 60’ times were incredible. Super light, and it launched hard!
The 3tc is the small block Chevy of the Toyota/Puerto Rico/drag racing world.
Somebeach said:I’m just dreaming here , but anybody know if you could do a 2.3t Ford into one of these?
Hopefully quoting myself is ok. But as I venture further down the rabbit hole I see where people swap ford 8.8s into some of the higher hp RWD toyota’s.
Any body know if this swap would be possible. Could just buy a SVO or turbo coupe donor car and use the whole drivetrain.
In reply to Somebeach :
I did it on my ‘85 celica. It was super straight forward. And low budget for a strong, LSD equipped axle. I think total rebuild and chopping down and re welding the drivers side axle tube costs about 275$. I rebuilt the brakes and bearings. All I needed was a 50$ explorer 8.8 and a 10$ passenger axle. I do still need to rebuild or shim the track lock lsd for more lock up.
Trackmouse said:In reply to Somebeach :
I did it on my ‘85 celica. It was super straight forward. And low budget for a strong, LSD equipped axle. I think total rebuild and chopping down and re welding the drivers side axle tube costs about 275$. I rebuilt the brakes and bearings. All I needed was a 50$ explorer 8.8 and a 10$ passenger axle. I do still need to rebuild or shim the track lock lsd for more lock up.
Do you have a build thread for your 85 Celica?
In reply to Somebeach :
https://www.celica-gts.com/forums/index.php?topic=29189.0
heres the axle sticky. My engine thread is elsewhere but I’ve lost most pics from that, due to photbucket debacle. Oh, and I was 420$ into the axle all said and done.
Update on the search.
Right after I saw that corolla wagon near Detroit, I was all ready to go look at it about a 2.5 hour drive. Then they day before the guy lets me know title isn’t In his name. It is in two owners ago name. I say no title , I am not making the trip.
So now he has title in his name being mailed to him.
But I got some other pictures of the rust on it, there is a few rot through spots that I think now I am out, and even with title I am not going to go look at it.
I think I will hold off and maybe pay more for either a running driving car or one with less rust.
DeadSkunk said:In reply to Somebeach :
It looks pretty darned solid, especially for a car in Michigan. It has the styled steel wheels and I have some aluminum 13 inchers if someone were to buy the wagon. Interior seems to be ok from the pictures. Just needs to be converted to the manual transmission, which is a 5 speed. It would be an interesting little runabout.
It's also been listed for several months, so there may be more wiggle room in the price.
DeadSkunk, I may be interested in seeing what your wheels are like and how much you would want for them. I ended up getting a 83 corolla.
Back to engine choices-
The current Toyota 4-cylinder- the 2AR-FE- can be easily found in RAV4s and Scion tC's, and while is a horizontal layout in those vehicles I can't image why you couldn't bolt the 6-sspeed gearbox from an FR-S to one. They are ~320lbs wet so they're plenty lightweight, and I know some drifters/motorsports enthusiasts can do some interesting things with them (but nothing like the 4A-GE crowd).
Another idea- the 3S-GE BEAMS. A full engine/trans combo can be imported for around ~$1500 and speed academy on youtube has a series where they are putting one in a first-gen Celica Supra, detailing the attaching of factory ITBs from a blacktop 4A and the ECU that can take full advantage of the engine's dual VVTi. I know stock they make a little over 200HP- should make for a great little rocket if you manage to find a good shell.
In reply to Somebeach :
New to this post.been doing alot of work to my 1970 corolla 1200 wagon.needing a lead on parts.? Help please.
In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :
In reply to G_lindz :
Find some face book groups to join. There are a few, 3tcgarage.com seems to have a lot of activity
In reply to G_lindz :
What parts are you looking for?
In reply to DeadSkunk :
Hood.door chrome..headlight bezel.driver tail light.i believe theres some kind of trim that goes near the side back window.where those holes are.
Soon to be lsx twin rear mount 72 mm turbos.have arleady installed cage 4 link suspension ,Rack n Pinion steering, coil overs .ford 9” Wilwood disc brakes all around.. guaranteed to be 1000+hp
You'll need to log in to post.
