corolla or eg?

[supernoob49]

Hey guys. I am looking for an eg at the moment, but I love the old school corollas. I was wondering if you guys could change my mind in my decision. Could you please help me compare the 2. I was wanting to get involved in hpde events and autocrossing. I have never owned an import, but I have recently gained interest since going to college. I have done my research in honda's, but I don't know much about toyotas. One of my biggest questions is are corollas expensive to modify. Are they good for racing or just drifting. Also, what is the typical motor swap, and how much would it cost? Would I be better going with the eg.

Thanks for the input guys. Maybe this will give me a starting point.

[777AE86]

Well this is a Corolla forum so you might be able to guess what most people are going to say.

My main reason for going with the 86 is it's RWD, I don't really care for FWD cars as a sporty or fun car ( you know cars you also want to work on). Honda has a huge mod list (but I'm guessing you already know that) which helps to make parts cheaper, and so some will say you get more power/$ with a Honda than with a Toyota. IMO small cheap 1/4m=eg, fun mountain or drift car=AE86.

Hope that helps sir, and welcome!

[robokill]

Depends on how far you want to go with mods. I have seen AE86's with engines of 240hp making them very well able to drag. But its always a money question.

Honda is a good car to go with. But if you are doing track days a RWD car will preform nicer

[BOOMEX]

I have the twoo cars. and all i can say is that the AE86 is way fun to drive thar the Civic.
Depand on what you want and the money that you have.

My AE86 is cote to cote to an 170HP civic. from 40 to 160km/h
I have just TRD pistons and a redtop Tvis ECU injectors on my bleutop.
the engine have bean rebuld lightened and balanced.
No cams or header or what ever.

The 4AG can make serious power with simpel mods

[firehawk]

I have both a 2gen CRX (DOHC ZC) and an AE86 as racecars so I can do some comparison between them. I don't yet have any actual track time with my own AE86 though, as the car is still somewhat incomplete. Also, I don't really care about drag racing so I may be a bit biased towards suspension issues.

Anyway, of all the late-80s/early-90s FWD cars, Hondas are probably the best suited for racing thanks to their well thought out suspension geometry. The Civics are easily competitive against a lot of other cars with bigger engines - both RWD and FWD. However, if your class allows the use of limited slip differentials, the advantage isn't as great as when only open diffs are allowed.

For reference, here's an incar clip from our CRX racing against E30 325i BMWs (2.5-liter RWD) and a Renault Clio Williams (2.0-liter FWD) - only open diffs are allowed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBq_cR2zll4&fmt=18

The AE86 suspension, on the other hand, is not particularly modern but this isn't necessarily a drawback. The live rear axle does mean zero static camber in the rear wheels but makes the AE86 fairly interesting and rewarding to drive.

In road racing, the rear suspension setup really needs to be properly tuned to avoid taking too much load off the inner rear tyre. The LSD will keep power going to the outer wheel but with effectively just one tyre's worth of contact patch on the tarmac, the rear really wants to go sliding. Beefy stabilizer bars and sticky tyres will do a lot to help in keeping the grip on both tyres.

For autocrossing, however, the easy transition to oversteer may actually be a desired trait. In tight slow-speed corners the rear can be easily "steered" with the throttle to quickly get the car aligned for corner exit and acceleration.

I've never tried autocross myself but in endurance, I sometimes use late braking and lift-off oversteer in slow corners to rotate the CRX quickly to get the nose pointed towards the exit. However, an FWD car set up to be able to do this is going to be somewhat scary to drive in wet and you'll also need to overspeed into the corner. In an RWD car you can just blip the throttle mid-corner to loosen up the rear a bit.

All in all, the FWD Honda is more sophisticated and probably offers an easier drive but not quite as exciting and rewarding as the RWD AE86. As you start racing, the Honda will probably initially help you get better lap times but in the end, with an AE86 you'd eventually reach the same times but also find yourself to have become more skilled as a driver.

[Miguel - Newera]

I used to own an EF8 CR-X V-Tec in 1999 and drove that daily for almost 2 years, mostly above 6,000 rpm! . Also participated last year in a full N2 race EG6 - in a 12 hour endurance event. Our car set the 2nd fastest pole (Not in my hands!) It was a pretty well sorted car - until it's engine died of oil starvation (But that's another story!).

The EG6 makes a good race car with relatively little preparation. The B16A engine's a peach and can take a lot of mileage. As has been mentioned, the suspension design's very good - although you do need some decent coilovers, run it very stiff, very low and on S tyres.
It is FWD though and so the driving experience is marred compared to that of a lively AE86 which can be steered from the rear too - with throttle application.

An AE86 isn't only a good drift car. They make excellent grip cars too. The 16 Valve engine can take higher lift camshafts than the 20 Valve, so in racing (In Japan at least) the most powerful cars are made using 16 Valve 4AGE's. You can fit S2000 or Altezza Beams engines - but that requires quite a lot of extra engineering to get right. The 4AGE is quite a tunable lump and sounds amazing when properly sorted.

If I were ever forced to make a choice, the AE86 would be the winner as a driver's car against the EG6 - any day. But that doesn't mean the EG6 is a bad car, it's just different.

[supernoob49]

Thanks for all the input guys, it really helps. I guess the question I'm trying to ask is how expensive is say a motor swap(possibly 4ag), decent suspension, etc.? I am a college student so I really don't have much money. I have about $6,000 to spend on a car and other parts. I know honda parts aren't too expensive and they are easy to find. But what about parts for the ae86.

Thanks again.