America's outlook on car culture and what makes a car cool has changed drastically over the years. Obviously, almost everybody is always going to love their old '60s and' 70s muscle car builds, but it is no longer the only thing people care about. With a heavy influence from the Japanese car market on younger and even middle-aged generations, we are seeing a lot more builds that cater to that liking as well. Cars such as Josh's Toyota AE86 Corolla, are popping up at car shows and especially track events all over to show off just how cool these small, light cars really can be.
Josh's 1UZ Swapped 86 Is A Toyota Lover's Dream
As a true Toyota enthusiast himself, Larry Chen was instantly drawn to Josh's beautiful AE86 time attack build when he saw it competing at Gridlife in New Orleans. Originally a basic, every-mans car now turned into a track monster, Josh's little Toyota has gone through a couple different iterations in its life, and he originally planned on swapping a Honda engine in the car but ultimately decided on keeping it in the family and swapping in a 4.0L 1UZ V8 out of a Lexus LS400.
After a bad experience with using a standalone ECU on a different build, Josh chose to use the V8's factory ECU and modified it to work with the rest of the car, including engineering a way to make the factory gauges work with the engine by basing RPM signal off of only half of the engine. Aside from a set of custom headers and intake setup, the V8 is pretty much stock, making roughly 250 hp and 250 lb-ft of torque. Not necessarily a neck-braking power figure, but considering the car only weighs in at 2,300 lbs, it's more than enough to be a great time.
It's All About The Driving Experience
When he started this build, Josh wasn't looking to have the fastest car on the track or anything like that. He just wanted a clean, reliable, analog car that he could take to the track and squeeze every bit of fun out of with every drive. Both Josh and Larry talk about how good the car feels, and how much you can truly feel the road through the whole car, and that is what makes driving a car even as low powered as this Corolla so exciting to drive.
It really is everything you could want out of a sports car, all the sound and appeal of a V8 muscle car, the comforts of a typical road car, a 5-speed manual, and all the incredible handling you'd expect from a small Japanese sports car. All that wrapped up into one car makes for an incredible build that we as enthusiast shave come to appreciate oh so much.
Source: YouTube