Motegi Racing’s Killer AE86 Corolla GTS

,

The stock strut housing has been modified to accept an adjustable KYB AGX cartridge.  The lower part of the knuckle has had the roll center and camber curve fixed with these spacers.  The spacers are adjustable in the tie rods so steering angle, Ackerman and bump steer can all be adjusted.

An upper camber plate allows easy adjustability of camber as well as eliminating flexy rubber.

Good suspension means that good brakes are also needed.  A T3 big brake kit was used on all 4 corners using big rotors and Wilwood calipers.  A manual non-power steering rack was used to lighten the car by removing the superfluous power steering system.

Another view of the strut top and camber plate.  We think the plates are on the wrong sides, they should be swapped to get more caster!

You can see the Wilwood 4 piston caliper here and some of the mods to the front knuckle in this picture.  The front part of the wheel well has been cut open to avoid wheel contact at full lock, a common drifting practice.

The 4AG engine is an AE86 weakpoint.  Today its 1600cc’s are considered weaksauce and high strung built versions are both untractable and somewhat fragile.  A F20C swap was considered but putting a Honda engine in a Toyota is heresy to the AE86 purist so instead to keep it real a Toyota engine was selected for the engine swap. 

A Wilwood big brake kit is found on all 4 corners.

A BEAMS 3SGE engine was selected and imported from Japan.  The BEAMS engine is found in the Japanese 1997-2006 Toyota Altezza or the first gen Lexus IS200 in our market.  The BEAMS acronym stands for the decidedly Japanesey, Breakthrough Engine with Advanced Mechanism System. Presumably BEAMS refers to the VVTi variable cam timing system that can adjust the advance, retard and overlap of the intake and exhaust cams.

BEAMS is a long tongue twisting Toyota acronym for variable cam timing.  A BEAMS motor is a 2 liter variant of the 3SG found in the JDM Altezza.