corolla or eg?

[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.