Going Off The Deep End

I've always been a fan of the sleeper style. People don't give enough respect to the Corolla. I would love to pull up to the light with some obnoxious punk revving his engine next to me only to get smoked by my car and learn to respect it. Although I plan on keeping my Corolla as stock as possible, I've always been a fan of the dual exhaust look. I'm even considering going quad! (like the BMW M5). Here's a little photoshopped picture I did:

http://www.freewebs.com/brendonbosy/Quad%20exhaust.JPG

I wonder if this could be considered "flashy" ; its definately intimidating.

Here's my opinion on performance:

I was considering installing the 2zz engine in my Corolla a little while back, but I read up on reviews of the engine and I don't care much for the incredibly high revving required from it before you get any real power. Up to about 6000 rpm, the engine is no better at performance than the 1zz-fe engine. That means in a race, you don't really get the off-the-line kick you would expect. You got to wait several seconds into the race until you start to pull ahead and start putting down some serious power. I guess its kind of like having a turbocharged engine. If you do decide to go to the 2zz-ge engine, I suggest getting the Celica's one over the XRS if you can, since the GT-S gets slightly better low end power (about 5 more ft-lbs of torque).

Personally what I've been planning on doing is installing the Celica GT engine in, the 1ZZ-FED (140 HP), then installing a TRD supercharger onto it (about 165 HP). The advantage is that a supercharger allows you to feel the power at all ends of the rpm spectrum. If I coupled it with a highflow exhaust, I could probably push it to 170+ HP, which would match the XRS while still allowing me to get better fuel economy and low end power. Couple this huge power increase with my already weight reductions and I estimate my 0-60 time would drop to less than 7 seconds, which beats about 95% of the cars on the road.

I've always been a fan of the sleeper style. People don't give enough respect to the Corolla. I would love to pull up to the light with some obnoxious punk revving his engine next to me only to get smoked by my car and learn to respect it. Although I plan on keeping my Corolla as stock as possible, I've always been a fan of the dual exhaust look. I'm even considering going quad! (like the BMW M5). Here's a little photoshopped picture I did:http://www.freewebs.com/brendonbosy/Quad%20exhaust.JPG

 

I wonder if this could be considered "flashy" ; its definately intimidating.

Here's my opinion on performance:

I was considering installing the 2zz engine in my Corolla a little while back, but I read up on reviews of the engine and I don't care much for the incredibly high revving required from it before you get any real power. Up to about 6000 rpm, the engine is no better at performance than the 1zz-fe engine. That means in a race, you don't really get the off-the-line kick you would expect. You got to wait several seconds into the race until you start to pull ahead and start putting down some serious power. I guess its kind of like having a turbocharged engine. If you do decide to go to the 2zz-ge engine, I suggest getting the Celica's one over the XRS if you can, since the GT-S gets slightly better low end power (about 5 more ft-lbs of torque).

Personally what I've been planning on doing is installing the Celica GT engine in, the 1ZZ-FED (140 HP), then installing a TRD supercharger onto it (about 165 HP). The advantage is that a supercharger allows you to feel the power at all ends of the rpm spectrum. If I coupled it with a highflow exhaust, I could probably push it to 170+ HP, which would match the XRS while still allowing me to get better fuel economy and low end power. Couple this huge power increase with my already weight reductions and I estimate my 0-60 time would drop to less than 7 seconds, which beats about 95% of the cars on the road.

Have you driven a XRS or GT-S? I drove the XRS and it is faster at low RPMs then the 1zz-fe engine. Not just at really high RPMs. The XRS did feel like it had a little extra kick at really high RPMs that felt odd, but the car is faster as a whole.

If you search around on the 9th gen corolla forums, you can find some video's. I saw a SCed Corolla against a XRS and they were close, but the XRS still had more top end pull. The XRS is just barly slower in the 1/4 then a Spec V. Close enough it would be a drivers race. The Spec V would probably always get the better 0-60' times. If the XRS had LSD too, it might even be even or a tad faster.

How do people not give the Corolla enough respect? It's known as one of the most reliable sedans on the road. If you mean sleeper race car, then maybe, but I don't think it's for a lack of respect as hardly any one does that. If you want to spend wods of cash at a car to get "respect" go ahead, but you won't really get respect. You will just have a fast Corolla.

I'm not sure why you think less then 7 seconds will beat 95% of the cars on the road 0-60MPH, but you might want to rethink that number. Less then 7 seconds isn't that fast.

Right now my weight reduced Corolla sits on a curb weight of just under 2400 lbs (with a 1/2 tank of gas) and it makes a 0-60 time of 9.5 seconds from 120 HP, which is about 20 lbs/hp. If I beefed my Corolla up to 170 HP using a supercharged Celica GT engine, that would give me 14.12 lbs/hp, meaning my 0-60 time will be about 70.6% of its current time, which makes my hypothetical Corolla capable of 0-60 in about 6.7 seconds. You could add or subtract .3 seconds depending on actual results. A Celica GT engine is about $1800-2000, and a supercharger kit is about another $2000. $4000 isn't that much money, especially considering the only alternative for better performance; buy another car.

I suppose if 6.7 seconds isn't fast enough, I could install the Celica GT-S engine and supercharge it. It would give me about 210 HP and 11.43 lbs/hp, which is putting my Corolla into the mid 5 seconds range. The problem is by that point, torque steer will take over like you said in an earlier topic. That means I would either have to install a limited slip diff, or convert my car to RWD. The problem with this option is that a GT-S engine, along with the transmission for it, can run up to $5000, along with a $2000 supercharger. Then you got to add however much money an LSD system or RWD conversion will cost.