I had the hardest time photographing this car. I tossed different ideas around like there was no tomorrow. I've pulled the old, "Hey, let's meet at sunset at an industrialized area-it'll look cool!" one too many times. I thought long and hard. This car deserved to be shot well. I mean, look at it: Corollas like this aren't sold here. This model exists only in Japan and, to the Japanese, this car is a cult classic. But to find one here? Now, that's just damn lucky for us-and for Steve Nakamura. Well, the chap's built one fine automobile.
Built mainly for canyon driving and the occasional sideways drift, Steve needed to develop some sort of eye-candy and opted for whatever Japanese OE parts he could. It's not easy-finding parts for this car is like trying to locate an unsmoked cigarette from the '70s. And even if you do find parts, chances are they are worn. Luckily, what Steve found was good, but quality doesn't come cheap; the Japanese optional door window visors took hard bargaining at a gypsy camp with a Ronco food dehydrator as the trade-off. He capped off both ends with a Trueno front bumper and taillights (refer to sidebar). His only new piece of gear is the J's Racing carbon-fiber hood, which checks in at a hefty $500 price tag.
Keeping his car true to form, Steve based his engine not entirely on hardcore internal work alone, but more as a good, all-around package that could provide plenty of punch. Taking the 4A-GE, originally equipped in the GT-S, the high-mileage block was thrown out and replaced with a bottom end from a later model AE92 Corolla. HKS camshafts with 264/256 (intake/exhaust) duration were installed for higher revving, and to further increase the overall compression ratio, a TRD head gasket accompanies a milled AE86 cylinder head. A TRD clutch package was also used along with a lightened stock flywheel and Kaaz two-way limited-slip differential, improving driveability ten-fold throughout the corners on a canyon sprint. Through Aerodyne (a Japanese parts specialist in California), Steve brought in a Fujitsubo Legalis exhaust system that purrs silently under normal driving and screams when you mash on it. Oh, yes...it's that groovy.
The "panda" paint scheme is similar to what you'll find on Corollas in Japan minus the Toufu graphics along the side.
For the meat and potatoes of this car, we turn to its suspension. It's the most important factor when setting up a car of this caliber-Steve knows this and chose the Revolver coilover set for its stiff spring ratio (on the front) and TRD sport springs (on the rear) to increase overall handling. This package was sweetened up with shocks from the AE92 and rear GAB Gymkhana five-way adjustable shocks, making "comfortability" comfortable again. Further suspension tweaking comes in the form of Revolver's roll center adapters, Cusco upper pillow mounts and strut tower bars along with stiffer bushings from TRD. Constant grip with the road is maintained with Yokohama's Avid H4 series tires in the 185/60R14 variety and are mounted on a set of ultra-rare (to the States) 14x6 RS Watanabe road wheels-another thing Moe would give up his Jill Kelly collection for (amongst other things which shouldn't be printed in here).
Although you couldn't say that Steve's car would beat Steph Papadakis' Civic in the quarter-mile or score more points than an Integra on steroids at a show, we'd rather get our hands on this one instead. You won't be able to find many like this here. If you do, then you've probably just passed it on the freeway.