Grassroots Motorsports

Introducing our Corolla GT-S Feb 20, 2001

Our latest project car, a 1986 Toyota Corolla GT-S, comes with an interesting back story. This car has been part of Toyota Racing Development's fleet for the last four years or so, and along the way picked up some neat items like a fiberglass rear hatch, flashy paint job, sport-tuned suspension and Nardi steering wheel. (The drivetrain is still mostly stock, however.)

Anyhow, TRD decided that the car wasn't doing them that much good sitting in storage, so they asked us to take over--so we did.

The catch was that we were responsible for transporting the car from TRD's Southern California headquarters to the magazine's office in Florida. Calling a car delivery service would have been too easy, so we sent our dynamic duo of Tim and Rennie to fetch the car.

Along the way they encountered snow, border guards, Mardi Gras and a cactus or two, but they made it back in one piece. 

So what do we have here Feb 27, 2001

With our Corolla home in sunny Central Florida, we could finally wash the car and see exactly what we have. We're happy to report that we found a few pleasant surprises.

For one, we seem to have every piece of paper ever drawn up on this car, going back to its 10,000-mile service. This paper trail continues through several different owners, and we seem to have a receipt for every oil change, light bulb, smog inspection and a/c tune-up. We even have some gas receipts. Fortunately, we haven't found receipts for major bodywork or bizarre satanic rituals.

Since the car's most recent owner was Toyota Racing Development, the Corolla came blessed with some neat hop-up parts. Inside we have a TRD/Nardi steering wheel and shift knob. Aside from the TRD pieces, the rest of the interior is incredibly clean, especially for a car with 145,016 miles showing on the odometer. One of the rear headrests needs some attention, so the car will soon head to a local upholsterer.

There are more TRD parts located under the car, including sport springs, Bilstein shock absorbers/strut inserts, short-shift kit, 1.5-way limited-slip differential and 5.37:1 final drive. (If all of our paperwork is true, then we may have some more TRD parts on the car, but we need to first verify their existence.)

While clean, the car does have a few used-car bugs that need attention. For one, right now we're riding around on three no-name tires and one dry-rotted Dunlop. Amazing these tires survived their cross-country journey. Soon we hope to upgrade to 15-inch tires, but right now we're looking at our options regarding wheels. Old-school or modern?

Our water pump also is on its last legs, as it weeps.

We also need to assess the condition of the clutch and transmission. Both were finicky during the cross-country drive, but their attitude has improved once in Florida. We know car problems rarely fix themselves, but this one has left us scratching our heads. 

Work starts on the Corolla Aug 20, 2001

Work has finally started on the Toyota Corolla. We've installed a set of Revolution wheels that are wrapped in Bridgestone's new Potenza S-03 rubber. This is a very sticky tire for the street and even performed well in autocross conditions at a CFR event with Gabe Barrett behind the wheel.

The timing belt and water pump were recently replaced, as their time was up. Toyota's 4AGE motor is very reliable, but after 140,000-plus miles, some work was needed. Later this week, we will be taking it to an upholstery shop to get some of the small tears in the seats fixed. 

GT-Slow Oct 31, 2001

We recently learned that our Corolla is not a drag race star in its current state of tune, as we recorded a few 18-second runs at Orlando Speed World. We're currently putting together a list of speed parts that we'd like to test and install.

While the car is no quarter-mile screamer, it has received a few workouts on the dirt roads of Florida's Ocala National Forest. 

Drift-style Sep 26, 2002

After serving us faithfully as a parts chaser- lunch getter, daily driver for the last few weeks, we decided the Corolla deserved a little exercise. We weren't really sure how we wanted to work the Toyota out until we heard NASA was holding a drift competition at their Hyperfest 2 event. We had seen the crazy Japanese drift contest videos featuring the AE86 chassis Corolla, so we knew the hachi-roku had potential as a serious drifter. Besides, it looked like more fun than a barrel full of monkeys!

The Corolla as it sat probably would have been a decent drifter, but we couldn't help but tweak it a little to get the most out of it. Our first stop was the local boneyard, which yielded a set of 13X5 inch rims off an early rear-drive Corolla wagon. We cleaned them up, and painted them with remarkably good results using a two-stage dark anthracite urethane. Next, a call was made to our friends at the local Discount tire requesting the crappiest, baldest, 13 inch tires they had in their dumpster. Lucky for us they had four 165/80/13 tires in really bad shape to choose from. They even mounted them for no charge, thanks guys!

Now being new to this whole drifting thing, we weren't really sure of the rules, or lack there of. To find out what our boundaries were we e-mailed the Hyperfest website. Within a couple of days we received a reply stating that there were " NO modification restrictions" this information got the wheels in our heads spinning.

Considering the goal of the drift contest was to be spinning the tires continuously thoughout the run, we came to the conclusion that the only thing better than skinny bald tires was wet, skinny bald tires. Ken Gearin (Joe's brother) at Flounder Pounder Marine Surplus in Port Canaveral, FLA. was nice enough to donate materials, and his own blend of twisted expertise in developing our tire lubricator system.

Our system used a 6 gallon water tank, mounted under the hatch, connected to a marine bilge pump which forced water though twin tubes exiting out of holes in the chassis and onto each rear tire. The whole setup was activated by a toggle switch mounted in the center console under the radio. We ran a few test runs in an abandoned parking lot and achieved the desired mega-ridiculous oversteer. By midnight the system was installed, Ken's wife was mad, and we were off to North Carolina!

We arrived at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Saturday full of confidence in our modified drift car. That is until NASA Virginia region director Chris Cobetto saw it and outlawed us. He mentioned something about insurance liability, and making the track dangerous for the other drivers. Oh well we'd just have to run without the "lubrication system".

We had a chance at a few practice runs during the day, as the actual event came that night under the lights. After practice, while changing tires, the Corolla shed a wheel stud. The whole adventure might have been scrapped if it weren't for the help of fellow drifters, Micah Williams, Jose Santiago,and Nathan Brasz, who came to our aid, driving us to the local auto parts store for a replacement.

We got the car back together in time for the main event which took place around 10:30 PM. Even without our system the car drifted well, and despite an off course adventure, and a spin, we managed a fourth out of 13 or so cars. Presently our "Outlaw" drift car still has its sprayers intact, waiting for the next event.