Wolf in sheep's clothing!

Well I got the Toyota Corolla Ke-35 Hardtop out of the workshop and paint shop a few days ago and I must say the painter did an excellent job on catching the colours that I wanted. The workshop boys did a fantastic job of putting the 4A-GE engine in the car.

Basically the car now is having a Toyota Corolla Ke35 Hardtop body but below it is a 4A-GE Levin. The colour scheme, I just tried to follow as close I could to the original Toyota Corolla KE35 Hardtop Yellow colour scheme, was hard choosing the yellow. There were so many shades of yellow to choose from, in the end this yellow shade was what we decided on. I added the two black stripes to help make the car stand out more because I felt that just the yellow body doesn't give it the wow from a distance, but when I pass by kids, they call the car bumblebee, haha. 

For now the 4A-GE engine, the only addition i could do is the K&N air filter. The budget is getting tighter and tighter as the project slowly reaches it finishing. The stock engine in this body still packs a punch due to the power weight ratio. But now the big problem is sorting out the handling, there's a lot of body roll in this car plus need to fins some old skool 13inch wheels. These 15s just doesn't suit a car from this era. Plus I need to do some work on the interior, maybe some semi-bucket seats in there and re-do the steering wheel's fabric. 

BEFORE:                                                                     AFTER:

A little info about the Toyota 4A-GE engine that I got:

Used in:


-Toyota MR2 AW11(MR)
-Corolla AE86 GT-S(RWD),
-Corolla AE82 FX-16(FWD),
-Corolla AE92 GT-S(FWD)


FIRST/SECOND GENERATION(83-89): 


Valvetrain : DOHC 16Valve (TVIS)
Fuel System : MPFI (Multi Point Fuel Injection)
Displacement : 1587cc (straight 4)
Compression Ratio : 9.4:1
Bore : 81mm
Stroke : 77mm
Power : 130HP@6600rpm(Japan, MAP sensor)
Torque : 131Nm@4800rpm




*After the paint job, I have spent approximately RM27000, including buying the car, the insurance, and road tax.  

Japanese Old Skool Bibles!

If you love checking out old skool Japanese cars, like me then this magazine is for you. Nostalgic Hero, unfortunately its all in Japanese so you can only look at the pictures unless, you can understand Japanese. This magazine is a good source to find spare parts for Japanese cars and also expands your knowledge on Japanese Classics, and their value. Very interesting magazine, very hard to find this magazine in Malaysia's bookstores. RM500+ just for the above magazines, bloody expensive magazines...

Old Skool Heaven here in Malaysia!

My dad and I went to Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia the last weekend and we stumbled on some interesting facts about the Toyota Sports 800 (Yotahachi) in this small little town. When we arrived at Kuching, the first thing we noticed is that there's old skool cars all around us! You name it and its there, well most of it. Toyota KE-35 hardtops, minis, Honda 800, the old skool Celica, and my favourite, there was 4 units of Toyota Sports 800. Wow, 4 units of Toyota Sports 800 in Kuching, a small little town located at East Malaysia, how? Apparently, during that time West and East Malaysia had different car importers so the importer in East Malaysia i would assume had better taste for cars, haha. The Toyota Sports 800s in Malaysia originated from Sibu, Sarawak 400km down south from Kuching, Sarawak. Unfortunately we could only see 2 of the Yotahachi's as the 2 owners, Peter and Mr. Alex Chan was very helpful and ever so kind to allow us to see their cars. They shared with us their contacts and their story about their cars. The 2 other owners however, were busy at the time when we wanted to visit them. But we sneaked in a bit to have a glance at their cars too.

Peter and my dad.

Engine bay with the heater mount.

Mr. Alex Chan's car. Not running condition due to workshop issues.

Original horn.

Original 3 pedals.

Original Dashboard still in good condition.

Interesting to know is that, both these cars were similar. Both these cars had the heater mount in the engine bay. The Yotahachi's that were brought to Malaysia like mine did not have the heater mount and no side mirrors, except Peter included the side mirrors in his car. The rear view mirror was either on the dashboard or above it. All the 4 units were very original, approximately 60-90% original parts in them. The only car that was in running condition was Peter's car, and another owner which we were unable to meet. The other owner that we were unable to meet was the first owner of the Toyota Sports 800 in Kuching, and used to work at UMW Toyota, Kuching. He's Yotahachi has been described as the most original one out there. 

If you can read Japanese, here's the ad for the spare parts. 

Some info for parts:
There is this magazine called Nostalgic Hero, a Japanese magazine that in one of its issues had information to this factory in Japan which produces parts of the Toyota Sports 800. This magazine ranked the Toyota Sports 800 the top 6 japanese car: Nostalgic Hero Japanese Car Ranking

Another way to get parts is in Bangkok, Thailand where boats there used the same engine as the Toyota Sports 800, and spare parts are still available there. In Malaysia, two states that are famous for spare parts are Ipoh and Penang. The oil filter, we have heard that Micro brand oil filters do make specifically for the Yotahachi.