1985 Toyota Corolla TwinCam 16 review from UK and Ireland

Given the car was built in 1985 I don't regard the following as drastic -

Front c.v's and wheel bearing- changed at 115,000Mi - lets be honest these will wear out on a bentley or a merc at some point!

Anti roll bar coupleing, - rusted / the car was driven hard.

If you want a car that will start every day rain or shine that will take being driven hard, buy a corolla GT.

"DRIVE IT LIKE YOU NICKED IT!"

Where to start,

well I picked the rolla up from a mate who had owned sevrial and it came highly recomeded as a hot hatch, it had been standing at his place for over a year, and it started first time on the button.

I was lucky enough to get some bits with it pannles, springs, glass ect...

The gear box is solid, very little movement in the linkages. apparently the one thing to look out for is 5th poping outwhen your on motorways, I never had this problem.

The GT can be driven down the shop or full out back lane racing, the t-vis injection system fitted to the GT's Fab twincam engine, anything bellow 4k rpm is fairly normal 1.6 performance and economy.

However push the GT over 4K and the T-VIS (Toyota Variable Induction System)

act's like a v-tech allowing more air and fuel into the engine, but without any of the complex valve tech behind a V-t lump.

I have had races with almost all cars in it's class, Ie 5 gt-turbo, XR3I / rs turbo, Starlet gt turbo (import form japan) CRX - 16V & V-Tech. ECT...

Some are more powerfull on paper, but what matters is delivrey and handling at which the corolla GT is King,

no other hot hatch I have ever driven has done what the GT can.

Name another car which you can drive at over 4.5k all the way up to 8.5 k (also known as the rev limiter!) in every gear for over 2 hours, throwing it into most corners at 70+ mph and hammering the brakes. and it just wants more! nothing fades un-like all the other french / english crap hot hatches.

I would recomend the following as good mods which are not hard to do and improve an alredy excelent car.

Changing the front disks. - 2 hours

Springs- all round 30mm drop 40% up rate. do not lower your car if you want it to handle suspension needs to move.

Take the standard air box out and retro fit a K&N or other high flow filter as the the T-Vis needs high air flow over 4k rpm. you will notice the diffrence when driving on a hack using the engine power in the 4.5k-8k power band the standard box seems to restrict things.

The suspension is fully ajustable (Tow in, Camber) all round and springs and shocks are easy to up grade as it is McPherson strut all round.

They are addictive, and now getting expensive, do not destory a GT with a sad body kit leave it as a woolf in sheeps clothing. much more fun, much more valueable!