Fabulous Fabrications
A quick look into the work being done on my Corolla exhaust today by the one and only Fabulous Fabrications. A photo set covering a day of work for this assiduous gentleman will be coming up very shortly!
Morning Session Prep
It’s been quite rare for me to be making it to drift days over the last few years with work, uni and of course the fact that I often have to decide whether I would prefer to take photos or drift. Believe me it’s a tough decision sometimes!
Today I have been preparing for my next drift day that I will be attending on July 5th. Jason and I are both in dire need of tires for the event so being the one with a day off I decided to go tire shopping for us both. I was very excited today to be getting these new tires as the car is now for the first time sitting on all four Hayashi Streets wrapped in 185/55 profile tires. For those that don’t know my car personally it has previously been using 60 profile tires which several months ago I decided needed to be given the flick after seeing the C’s Garage ke70.
Anyway, I’m all set for tires now and cannot wait till July 5th.
Come at me Mereki!
E!CM
New Wallpapers | That Old Film Feeling
Here you go guys; I have added some new wallpapers for everyone to check out. I recently got my hands on some smooth Fujifilm Pro 160 NPS film so I thought what better way to try it out than on the Corolla and give you all some images to have!
Turning Japanese
I bought the Corolla a small present this month because I felt bad that it won’t be seeing the road any more. It was an incredible fluke that I found these with the numbers 71-71; they are genuine plates from Naniwa, Osaka it would seem, so no plasticy knock-offs here!
I really haven’t spent anything on this car in the last three years except for the occasional pair of tires. Thankfully I will be finishing uni this year so I can get right back into drifting almost every month like I used to be able to afford to!
E!CM
I Hate Bog
Having had the Corolla painted for close to 4 years now it is a very long time since I have played with bog. To be honest, it feels like just that… playtime. Like I am slapping a lot of mud around and just making a mess. I’m progressively getting the panel to a smooth shape, but it still requires a lot more work (and a lot more bog). I’ve also had the fun experience of learning what primers shouldn’t be underneath the bog; which basically meant I had to start from scratch on some parts.
I’ll have some more updates for you guys in the coming weeks hopefully. I will also have a morning session at QR coming up next week, so I am trying to get the panel to a respectable state for that.
E!CM
Hammer Time
Now that I no longer have a daily driver that requires the same amount of attention as a new born child, I have found myself a hell of a lot more time to spend the car I want to work on. The Corolla has been in dire need of attention lately, particularly on the panel damage that I caused early last year.
This week I have been getting quite stuck into it, and as you can see there is still a fair way to go. Panel beating and painting of cars has never been my strong point, but it’s definitely not my first time doing it. I’m slowly going through the process of hammering out as many dents as I can before the large amounts of bog that previous graced this car are replaced.
I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated how it is looking.
E!CM
Off The Road
Well I have to say it has been a bit of an interesting week for me after our slider meet on Sunday. While I have always known it was only a matter of time before I would have to take the Corolla off the road, for my own reasons or otherwise, I never would have thought it would be under the particular circumstances.
I’m still a little upset from Sunday’s events, and as I have said not so much because my car is now off the road. It was always going to happen eventually and I have known that for a long time. The disappointing part is that under fairly innocent circumstances (riding of huffy sliders in a deserted, open to the public street) the police felt it necessary to corner us in and license/breath check/fine/defect each one of us as appropriate.
On a very positive side, despite all this I’m still going to Queensland Raceway this Friday night for drifting. I will just have to trailer it up. I’m looking forward to this as the last time I drove was at the QLD Matsuri. Hope to see you all there!
E!CM
All Corolla Shoot
A good friend of mine, Ryan Beall has come up with a pretty amazing idea just this week. We have a pretty huge range of diversity when it comes to ke70′s in Australia; Corollas with worked N/A 4a’s, 4agte’s, 4agze’s, 3sgte’s, 1uz’s, 13b’s, Sr20det’s… I have even seen a Camry v6 placed into a Corolla chassis. The list goes on. It would be pretty amazing to organize a photo shoot some time soon in South-East QLD to show all our readers this diversity.
What do you guys think, and are there any very out there ke70/ae71′s that you would like to nominate for the meet?
The shoot will be invite only to maximize the diversity of the cars, but lets have a big discussion on Facebook so we can work this out!
- Grant
The Corolla Is Back!
I’m very happy to be writing this right now as I have not driven my Corolla since I completely obliterated my clutch at the Queensland 24 Hour Matsuri. Having been very busy with the magazine as well as work and university I simply have not had the money to buy a new clutch nor the time to source out the larger 212mm flywheel that I wanted to run. With a large thanks to Andrew from Kudos Motorsport I was able to promptly order in a brand new Exedy clutch, but this was only half of my problem sorted.
Car Feature | The Older The School The Better
There is something very amazing about owning an old car over something brand new. Old cars have history; they have tales to tell that often are 30-40 years long. Old cars clunk, squeal and knock to the point of driving you insane but at the end of the day you walk away loving the feeling that is gained from them. When I first laid eyes on Hayden Crowe’s ke55 I was immediately in awe to the point that I wanted to buy one.
Performance Imports Shoot | Behind The Scenes
When I first started playing around with cars my biggest aspiration was to build something worthy of being in a magazine. I would flick through publications like High Performance Imports, Zoom and yes, sometimes even Hot4′s and wish that I had the skill and dedication to achieve what these car owners had. I would look up to these people, but never did I think I would eventually find myself in the same position.
Last year my dream came true. I was given this validation that I so desired in the form of a photo shoot for Performance Imports. As I’m sure some of you reading this will have seen the feature in PI as well as in Retro Auto I thought it would be nice to share some of my behind the scenes shots from the photo shoot.
JDMST | Carseldine Teaser
Just a quick teaser for you guys. Josh and I met up at the JDM Style Tuning Carseldine meet on Tuesday night and we have come back photos of the best of the best. We also did a few individual photo shoots of some cars on the night so be sure to keep your eye out for that!
- Grant
Car Feature | Matt’s ke70
I have always felt that the best way to give a car that desired style is ride height and more importantly the wheels you put on it. Matt, one of my many ke70 chums, has been driving around this very clean example for a while now. The most interesting thing being that the wheels on it may not be what you think they are. You would be forgiven for thinking they are Hayashi Streets. I know this was my exact thoughts, and this is coming from someone who owns genuine copies of the things!
Car Meet | August JDMST EOMM
I don’t get to JDMST End of Month Meets as often as I would like to, but I am in constant awe of the variety and the quality of the cars that turn up. Like any event, you get a few that you just shake you head at but in all honesty the ratio is pretty good. For the August JDMST meet that was held at Calamvale Central Josh and I have decided to combine our photos to bring you the event all in one go.
MotorFIX 1uz Corolla In-Car Footage
Hey guys, Here is my in-car footage from the MotorFIX 1uz ke70 during my visit to YZ circuit on the 18th of June!
Read further on to check out MotorFIX’s footage from the day!
Midnight Mechanics Adventure To Meet MotorFIX
Anyone who has any interest in drifting and E model corollas will have heard of MotorFIX.
For the last 6 years of building my Corolla, MotorFIX has been a constant and ever increasing inspiration for myself. I have always been in awe of every car that has had this workshop’s name associated with it. Whether it be a rusty corolla wagon or immaculate sedan that has been built by this crew.
