Toyota Corolla Sportivo

[Joey7]

I am currently selling my nissan 200sx and am looking to buy a corolla sportivo 2003-2005.

I am not looking for a 14 second car but have been on a few Toyota forums and have read that the the sportivo lacks a bit of torque.

What are some mods to give it a little more zip? I dont want to toy with the engine but looking for natural mods. Cold air intake etc

Any ideas?

[X kyle X]

like every other basic mods on just about every other car you have owned..

start small and work up,

COLD AIR INTAKE (there is a TRD kit available for the sportivo)
EXHAUST AND HEADERS
GOOD OIL

then i believe there is unichips available for them...

[MR22ZZ]

My old Sportivo (you can find the thread on it on TOCAU) ran a best of 14.3 1/4 miles (consistantly under 14.5 as well)... still the quickest I've seen without going forced induction.


The important things...

CAI - AEM, Injen and TRD have all produced proven results and are all pretty close in performance... get any one of them.

Exhaust - The 'best' I have been able to find with proven results is a system produced by Complete Exhaust Systems (CES Racing) in Queensland. They set you back around $1000 for a complete cat-back, but it's the only one I've seen that actually shows gains across the entire rev range and it street legal. (may not be street legal with CAI as well but I've yet to see anyone picked up for it)

Correct tyre size - I cannot over emphasise this point enough. With the narrow power band the correct rolling diameter is vitally important in getting the correct drive ratios to stay on the lift zone (on the high cam). The best I found was 205/50r16. Even as small a change as that over the standard 195/55r16 makes a significant difference in your ability to change gears without dropping out of lift. There is some discussion that going smaller to even 205/50r15 helps even more but I never tested it myself to know for sure.

Lastly, Weight Reduction. - Even though I was able to record a 14.5 in street trim, taking out the rear seats enabled me to get my best time.

Other than that, a good set out coilovers can help the attitude of the car off the line and improve grip. But! at the end of the day these are not a drag car. I had my most enjoyable time with the sportivo out on the circuit where they are quite nimble and love to slide the tail around trail braking into corners.

[Roundy]

Correct tyre size - I cannot over emphasise this point enough. With the narrow power band the correct rolling diameter is vitally important in getting the correct drive ratios to stay on the lift zone (on the high cam). The best I found was 205/50r16. Even as small a change as that over the standard 195/55r16 makes a significant difference in your ability to change gears without dropping out of lift. There is some discussion that going smaller to even 205/50r15 helps even more but I never tested it myself to know for sure.

What??

Rev drop between gears is dependant on difference in gear ratios only.

Drive ratio and tyre size don't come into it, sure that changes the road speed in the gears, but the rev drop will stay the same.

[MR22ZZ]

yes it does.

when the car had the 17 inch rims with 215/45r17 tyres it was a dog of a car to drive compared to the 16 inch rims with 205/50r16 tyres. The wheel/tyre combinaitons were comparible in weight. Both felt much different to the standard combo also.

the 205/50r16s were by far the easiest to drive on and keep in lift.

[Roundy]

No, at least not because of gearing.

Here is an example using simple gear ratios and an 8000rpm change point.

Formula: (8000/lower ratio)*higher ratio

Gear Ratio	Final Drive	RPM     After Change	Final Drive 2	RPM after change 2
	                           4.2		                                4.1	
4.0	                          16.8		                        16.4	
3.0	                          12.6              6000.0	        12.3         	6000.0
2.0	                           8.4               5333.3	        8.2          	5333.3
1.0	                           4.2               4000.0	       4.1       	4000.0

As you can see, lengthening the final drive (by fitting larger dia tyres) does nothing for the RPM drop due to gearing.

It certainly could affect it in other ways however.

Edit: Hardly a neat table, but it is all there.

[Joey7]

wow mid 14s?

couldnt find that thread MR22ZZ...have you got the link?

cheers

[Hiro]

By reducing overall diameter, you are incresing acceleration (at the expense of top speed). By increasing acceleration, you are decreasing the amount of time the car spends out of the lift region, ie the faster the car can accelerate, the faster it can get back into lift and in turn accelerate faster.

Same thing as losing weight, which is why the 2ZZ goes so well in a Lotus.

[MR22ZZ]

here 'tis

http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forum...opic=7271&st=0

[SuperDave]

I am not looking for a 14 second car but have been on a few Toyota forums and have read that the the sportivo lacks a bit of torque.

It doesn't really lack that much torque as it has more than it's 1zz sibling, just. It only seems like it lacks torque due to that fact it's power is disproportionably higher. Shifting at 3-4000 rpm in daily traffic is enough to get it moving faster than all the other cars granny shifting

My car with everything stock got a 15.1s 1/4 mile time, with most runs under 15.5s. It does handle poorly stock. Fixing up the suspension should be high up the list before any extra power is added.

CES Racing also do a CAI and ported manifolds for the 2zz; There is a shop in Sydney that also does this service. Porting the manifold yields power gains on par, and even exceeds, that of the TRD extractors.

But for what it is worth I don't even use my CAI. I too also run it on 205/50/16 and 205/50/15's, but impossible to tell if the rim diameter makes a difference since the 15's are semi slicks.