Baby ///M3

Sorry Mods, I know this thread has something to do with your typical stop light racing occasions but I thought I may get more objective opinions from this forum.

The first thing that comes to my mind; Is there any engine mod out there that would make a Toyota Corolla outrun a SC4?

Last night I was coming home cruising in the Lexus and when I was stopped at the red light, I noticed a youngish Caucasian male flicking his high beams in a late 90s model Toyota Corolla (or a Geo Prizm) to get my attention. I casually glanced over and saw him giving me provocative heads up gestures as if he was going to eat me for dinner.

The Corolla looked completely stock and its wheels look OEM as well. There was nothing to suggest that it was a tuned car. I thought to myself: Whatever.

I was having some personal issues with my girl and I was definitely not in the mood to race anyone that night. Not to mention a 4 cylinder Toyota Corolla.

But since I was not the only person in my car, I didn't feel like having a Toyota Corolla beat me to the next light and cut in front of me as well. So, I switched on the PWR button and waited for the light to turn green.

5 seconds later, the light turned green and I did not immediately jump on the throttle. The Corolla really took me off guard. I did not react until he was 1/2 car length ahead of me.

Obviously, after I gunned the SC4's throttle, the Lexus was by no mean, slow by my standard. At 20mph, at full throttle I was 1/2 car behind him; at 40mph, I did not gain an inch. At 60mph, it was still the same result. By the time we hit 70mph, I slowly caught up with him and passed him.

Since there was a car ahead of him, I suspect that he had slowed down to let me go by.

This guy then decided to follow me from behind as I proceeded to make a right turn onto a bigger road. I spotted him in my rear view mirror and kept my eye on him as he changed lane to pass me. This time I was ready for his challenge. Since we're going uphill, I floored the throttle all the way as he lined up with my car at 35mph or so.

Even at wide open throttle with the gas pedal floored all the way, this guy still managed to pull 1/2 car length ahead of me all the way up to 75mph+. I was eventually able to catch up and pass him but I am not sure if it's because he decided to slow down or not.

I only had a skinny passenger in my car and my gas tank was nearly empty. My SC4 is running in good condition and I did not have the A/C on as well.

How is a 4 cylinder Corolla able to out perform my SC4 like this?

Jon

mkorsu

Maybe he was running 20 psi of boost??
There's another post here somewhere of a late model Civic BEATING a Viper!! The Civic is totally riced out but he is pushing his turbo at 20+ psi!!! At that level, most 4 cylinders are going to womp on a SC4 without FI!

Baby ///M3

I think that may very well be the case here.

What troubled me is that this guy didn't even have aftermarket wheels on his car. The windows were untinted and there was no apparent body mods. done to the car as well. It's simply a 1998+ Toyota Corolla. Unless I missed something or simply had terrible night vision, I could not tell anything in particular about that Corolla.

I was really surprised by this result as the second race was done when we were both going uphill. There is no way that a stock Corolla can muster so much torque to beat a SC4 (or at least keep up with it) from a rolling start at 35mph all the way up to 75mph.

Jon

Vegassc400

Total sleeper. You were had. He must have had some serious mods goin on under that hood. Did you hear a turbo spool up or a blow off valve?

Baby ///M3

In that case, I gotta give him at least a thumb up for not ricing up his car.

Does anyone know if there's any market for modding a Corolla though?

Jon

PS. I did not hear anything that suggested it was a FI car. I could be wrong though. I had all my windows up and the Lexus' sound insulation might have kept me from the blow off valve noises.

Vegassc400

Apparently, TRD makes a supercharger for the Corolla. There are several other mods available. I just checked this forum http://www.2003corolla.org/phpbb/

link13

My guess would be NOS if you didn't hear a supercharger or turbo.

Baby ///M3

Vegassc400: Thanks for the info! That makes me feel a whole lot better even though I got my butts whopped.

link13: It's also possible that he had a bottle in his car. Now it's the time that I wish I had a FI SC300.

Jon

Skulinex

if it was a newer model, they have the new XRS out there, it comes with a detuned version of the celica's GT-S engine with 170HP and a 6-speed manual tranny, and yes they do make FI kits for them

Baby ///M3

I am pretty positive that it was a 1998ish model, which preceeds the current model.

Jon

xioix

you absolutley sure it was a 98? because the 98 and 04 is the size diffrent and tailights

or if he had an engine swap

the xrs will run 0-60 7 flat, so with mods it can beat you

CleanSC

SC4's aren't *that* fast so a Corolla with mods would beat one easily.

Corollas have an excellent aftermarket especially the 87-98 models because they all essentially shared the same A-series engine. 99+ feature the 1ZZ engine and the new XRS the 2ZZ.

I'd suspect that car had nitrous because it's quick and easy. If he turbocharged it, he'd most likely have other mods like wheels and suspension. Plus turbo cars make sexy noises. The A-series motors are pretty stout and if he had the right connections he may have had a 4A-GZE factory supercharged engine as featured in the MKI MR-2 -- but I highly doubt it. A FWD 4A-GE is also a possibility and a mean little 1.6.

If that Corolla had 20psi on it it would have smoked you by miles. Being that it was a mild win, I'd say either a modest nitrous shot or a low boost turbo kit since they are the easiest and cheapest ways to make these cars fast. Remember they are very light.

Baby ///M3

xioix: Even though it was dark, I am pretty sure that it's a 98ish Corolla. Its bodyline is not as roundish and sleek as the newer models. Also, its halogen headlights looked rather hazy and old compare to those of newer cars'.

CleanSC: Actually, SC4 is plenty fast for me. I do a lot of driving in and out of traffic and it's simply too scary for me to have a sub 5 second car. Please note that both the Corrolla and I were going uphill in the second race. Unless the Corolla has some serious work (or nitrous) done underneath its hood, there's no way that a four banger can have so much torque to propel itself to 75mph+ from a 35mph rolling start in such a short time.

Jon

CleanSC

Hehe I said it's not *that* fast. It's no slouch either. Still faster than mine (for now ). And I agree with you, it needs some work to out torque you but it's not that hard however much that torque is. Small cars like that don't need as much as SC's to get moving quick... 50 or even 75 extra foot pounds is a significant boost in power to weight for these cars and it's not that hard nowadays to get it.

Bottom line, he had something under that hood that wasn't stock. Doubt it was a V8 tho.

My money is on a 75 shot of the giggle gas UNLESS this guy went full on ***** a$$hole sleeper status and has a crazy turbocharged built engine in there and left the outside bone stock just to sting unsuspecting victims.

Gotta love it. Either way I wouldn't let it bother me. Because he still has an econobox with cloth seats and you drive a Lexus. If I was interested in cheap, crapbox speed, I would have bought a Mustang 5.0 or a first gen DSM. Cheap and cheap to make fast, but still loosely assembled buckets which are not my style. It's needs to be a nice car when I park it, too.

All depends on where your priorities are.

Baby ///M3

Very true indeed.

Yes, I suspected that it's probably not physically or economically possible to stuff a V8 underneath the hood of a Corolla.

But hey, I did catch your attention with this title. Right?

Cheers.

Jon