Charlene the AE102

Hi guys, I know this is AE101 owners club but in Aus that means you got the pov-spec 4AFE model (we didn't get the cool 4AGE Levins, Truenos or FXs) - all the decent models were the 1.8L 7A-powered AE102s  Anyway, my dad bought this new in 1997, and I inherited it when I first got my license in 2004, with actual change of ownership in about 2009.  1-owner blood relation makes it so much better for service history etc

Specs (as of 05/04/17):
1997 AE102R Conquest - "Charlene"

Engine-related
7AFE 1.8L, 178,000km young
TRD ignition-leads
Painted cam cover
HPC-coated 4-2-1 extractors
2" engine pipe to stainless 2.5" hiflow cat
2.25" mandrel-bent stainless exhaust through hotdog resonator
Stainless Lukey Ultraflow rear muffler, 3" dump tip
Combo dyno'd at 71.7kw ATW on Dyno Dynamics dyno in Shootout mode


Suspension/driveline
C52 5-speed gearbox w/ custom short shifter
KYB Excel-G shocks
Lovells low springs all-round
Stock sway-bars (rear Ultra Racing sway bar waiting to be installed)
AE101/111 TRD 3-point 3-piece strut brace


Exterior
JDM AE101 FXGT front bar with lip extension and foglights
Hella grille (2x high-beam lights, yes it was a factory-option in Europe)
17x7 Speedy Lite-5 wheels


Interior/ICE
JDM AE101 FXGT factory-option Momo 4-spoke leather steering wheel
JDM AE111 BZG Levin front bucket seats
TRD leather gearknob
AE111 G6R leather shifter boot
JDM Centre console with flip-out cupholders
AE102 Sprinter dash clock instead of dummy air vent
Kenwood head-unit
VDO Dayton MPS-1300 5-1/4" front splits, tweeters on the side-mirror covers
JL Audio TR600-CXi 6" rear 2-ways


Still to be fitted/re-fitted
- JDM Clean Box
- JDM CleanAce roof-mounted air purifier
- BZ Touring-copy black crystal headlights w/ clear parkers instead of indicators
- Ultra Racing rear sway bar
- AE101 Levin Superstrut 275mm twin-piston front brakes
- Power folding mirrors
- Genuine JDM slimline weathershields

Pictures:


How it used to look







How it looks now

Another TN guy haha, badass ride man. Love the rims and steering wheel.

Welcome, Nice looks ae bro

hello and welcome, that is a very nice car

I don't think I ever saw your car before! Nice.

I agree, thats a nice car! Looks sooooo clean!!!

Thanks guys, I've got a Youtube video of how it sounds that I'll post when the 7 days are up for anyone who's interested

In the meantime, dyno plot:

Nothing amazing, but on-par with what your average stock 16v 4AGE pulls on a DD dyno, just with much better low-down torque

very nice.

The as-promised exhaust video - this is from about 20-90km/h in 2nd gear, little help from the concrete barriers and a slight downhill on the on-ramp



A couple of extra photos I found running around showing the evolution


Stock engine bay


First attempt at painting cam cover


Second attempt at painting cam cover


Old halo headlights and OEM front bumper


With the old KE55 down by the lake


Old halo headlights + FXGT front bar. If the halos weren't so pathetically weak, the wrong spread and horribly wired, I might have considered keeping them

And the thing that prevents me from spending money on the Corolla

beautiful

Another year, another TOCAU annual meet done and dusted....

Only got one decent photo myself, waiting on all the Vic guys to upload their photos so I can trawl through for some better ones...

Looks sooo clean man.

Very nice and soo clean, needs to be lower though

miib14 wrote:

Very nice and soo clean, needs to be lower though

I'll consider coilovers once wedding is out of the way, I'm not going to go SuperLows because they are for show only and completely ruin the handling. I'm happy with how it sits now though, don't have to worry about scraping or bottoming out going into driveways/over speedhumps etc, which is important for a daily.

Definitely looking good, especially with that front end! But you can definitely lower it some and not have to worry about scraping or rubbing! when done properly...

gold94corolla wrote:

Definitely looking good, especially with that front end! But you can definitely lower it some and not have to worry about scraping or rubbing! when done properly...

Rubbing isn't the drama, it's scraping. The mudflaps already scrape on short sharp speed bumps (like you get in shopping centre car-parks) but they can at least be trimmed a little bit. The exhaust can scrape on the same kind of bumps too, and on driveways etc (the rear tip for uphill driveways, the resonator/cat-pipe for downhill ones)

Yeah, I know what you mean, those can definitely be a pain! I guess with mine, I figure no one will ever seen the underside of things, so I don't care if they get scratched lol. Although I really don't scratch on anything somehow.

Not worrying about cosmetics (the underside has copped a beating over the years, 360,000kms does that to a car), I'm more concerned about snapping an hanger off or scraping a hole in an exhaust pipe. If I get the mudguards trimmed down I can probably go another 20mm safely, but wouldn't want any more that's for sure.

Its all about the angles baby haha I found if you take them at an angle you can get away without bottoming out

^^

so true

Looking good And idd it's all 'bout angles

Angles will only get you so far (and then only on some table-top speed humps)...most of my problems are short sharp humps and driveway gutters. The Soarer is 10 times worse though, much longer wheelbase and the cat pipe off the end of the turbo dumps is only about 2-3 inches off the ground (got to get that fixed)

CLEAN!

And since Duy finally posted his pictures from this year's '12 TOCAU meet, I've got another one to add



Got a few little surprises lined up in the next coming weeks, need to get my wedding out of the way first though

Man your ride looks goooood. And CONGRATULATIONS!!