Corolla Levin GT-Apex 1.6 20v
 

Sorry it's not a Ford but it's something a little different so might interest a few people.

I bought my Corolla Levin about last September. It's a N/A 1.6 with 160bhp, the engine is a 4age which Yamaha designed a 20v head for (5 valves per cylinder). They have 4 throttle bodies, VVT (superior to Honda's VTEC ;)) and rev over 8,000rpm standard. The car has superstrut suspension and is basically like double wishbone, the handling is excellent, as are the brakes with twin pot front callipers and dics all around. It is standard in the below pictures other than a set of Tom's Racing lightweight alloy wheels (15").

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After a few months of driving it, the exhaust was falling apart, it was rotten in a few places and some hangers were mashed. I decided to buy a 5Zigen Border Speed 304 exhaust from Japan, it was second hand but not fitted. It cost about £320 once i'd paid import tax on it. This system removes the cat and is manifold back. It's a pretty big bore for a N/A 1.6, it's 2.5". It's a huge weight saving from the standard twin back box system. When fitted, I lost quite alot of torque lower down the rev range but gained a fair bit topend and now the car pulls really hard all the way to the redline.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...Photo-0042.jpg

A few of the cars drawbacks are that it dets/pinks at very high RPM, from about 7,800 upwards. I think this is due to the Japanese having better fuel and the car being tuned quite hard as standard. I've decided i'd go for a Megasquirt ECU, Gareth will be mapping it for me. I bought it ages ago from a guy in Canada who built it and also built me a custom harness adapter. This should be here soon.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...cf0175an21.jpg

Here are my velocity stacks that i'm going to modify to fit my TB's. I'm probably going to run them open with no filters but unsure yet.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...Photo-0015.jpg

I bought myself a bonnet that has a scoop from a supercharged Levin. It should be ideal for getting the air into the TB's. I travelled 3.5 hours there and back for it, but parts for any Levin is a rare thing. I polished the car today and took these pictures (outside my house).

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cool car.

doubt many people realise there was later model FWD ones like that :)

thes are lovely,
and surprisingly low insurance for what they are,

all it needs is some split rims and it would be perfect mate :top:

engine looks gawgouse

The insurance is really cheap, they don't have a clue what the car is/capable of. I wanted to buy a Mk6 RS2000 but the insurance on this is more than half of what the RS would have cost me.

I quite like the wheels actually, they remind me of the old RS 4 spokes on the Mk1 and Mk2 Escorts. Also, they have "Tom's" written on them and thats my name, so people who don't know much about cars think they are personalised for me. Same with the gearknob. All the girls who come in my car get to feel Tom's knob :top: ;)

Whats gawgouse mean?

sorry lol,

looks lovely,

unfortuanatly, im disabled and cant spell :cry: