| Toyota Corona |
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PASS THE CORONAWritten by Owner Nathan AirdMost of you are probably wondering how a 1986 Toyota Corona ended up looking like this. Why Granny’s shopping trolley now has custom paint, custom body work, leather trim, custom airbag suspension, a boot full of sound gear and a fully developed custom turbocharged engine. Well, here is a little history on PHOBIA. In 1996, I got my learner’s permit and needed a car of my own. It just so happened that my nan, believe it or not, had her car up for sale – a perfect example of an untouched 1986 Toyota Corona. It was a steal too, so $6000 of my hard-earned Maccas money was handed over, and I became the owner of a very well-looked-after original Corona sporting a torquey 2.4L EFI engine, rear-wheel drive and 160,000 original kilometres. It stayed this way too for about 24 hours before the first set of wheels and exhaust where fitted to the car. It was mild, but the beginning. 
Now, the future of this car was never to go down its current path and for about three years, this held true. The car was used for daily duties to and from work, the beach and the occasional lap around Newcastle with my mates. It wasn’t until about 1999 that things started to get a little out of hand. I purchased my first run around, a 1973 R12 Toyota Corona (who would have thought) to take over the daily duties so that I could pull it of the road for more extensive modifications. It started, PHOBIA began its transformation with new wheels and a custom bodykit by New Style Motor Sport fitted and finished of perfectly by Mark at Coastal Smash Repairs. “From that humble beginning, there was really no turning back, and over the last six years PHOBIA has been molested into the creation you see before you today. Nothing has been left untouched, even down to every fastener being replaced throughout the car with stainless-steal hex head bolts.” PHOBIA has been stripped of all things unnecessary, wipers, water jets, aerial, body mouldings, badges and caringly prepared and finished of in House of Kolor ICE green sparkle over multiple coats of white base by Mark from Coastal Smash Repairs. There are actually over nine coats of paint lathering the Corona in an always wet-looking shine. The interior has been re-upholstered in a few cow hides of beige leather with white highlights and punched aluminium flooring. There is a custom pillar pod and tweeter mounts up front with the front seats donated by a MY99 WRX. There are also the usual bolt-ons – wheel, pedals and gearknob on a custom shortened shifter on the Supra box. A full custom install extending from the head unit, to the custom door pods to the full boot fit-out designed and installed by myself, my father Ian and my brother Dan. There is enough heavy hitting hardware wired to the Soundstream SPL subs to give you heart arrhythmia or, if you chose, you can soothe your soul with the perfect sound-reproduction characteristics of Boston Acoustic precision speakers all supplied by Ryan from Easy Installations. 
The engine conversion was the most recent and enduring adventure undertaken with PHOBIA. Nothing has been overlooked, forged pistons, reground cam, adjustable cam gear, ported, polished and bench-flowed head, custom water pump and housing, re-drilled water jackets, custom turbo manifold, Garret GT35/40R with a Tial 38mm external wastegate. Custom second fuel rail with four 22R-E injectors and four Group A injectors, Bosch 044 fuel pump, custom 75mm throttle body, custom radiator, recessed thermofan, Delco ignition system and a fully programmable Delco computer, HKS SSQV blow-off valve, custom intercooler and piping and a Blitz DSBC boost controller. From the engine, there is a machined flywheel mated up with a four-puck brass-button clutch and a W58 Supra five-speed box. Further along, there is a balanced two-piece tailshaft and an MA61 LSD centre in the RT-142 diff with a disc-braked rear end. Not a great deal could be bought of the shelf for a 22R-E, as this is one engine that doesn’t get a great deal of attention. “If we needed it, we made it.” Countless hours researching and developing the 22R-E into what has ended up being a very fast and reliable package. The best figure of 318hp at the rear wheels at an astonishing 28psi during early tuning was recorded. The whole package is now tuned on 100LL avgas up to 25psi for Dyno comps with a more streetable 18psi being dialled in for driving duties. 
With the help from the boys at Burnin’ Customs, we have just custom fitted airbag suspension to PHOBIA. With full F/F/S/S capabilities, PHOBIA can now lay its belly on the ground. It took to boys quite a few days to work and re-work the airbag system to work faultlessly under PHOBIA but the result is quite impressive. With custom made air struts up front, custom rear brackets for the rear bags allowing for maximum rear wheel tuck. There is a 12V ¾hp compressor pushing air through 3/8 valves and lines. Brendan made up the floating rear tank set up in the boot, and the compressor and valves are hidden within the original boot install. The tanks have been painted in gloss black with House of Kolor green fleck for the feature you see in the boot now. I do hope you enjoy what I, with the help of the abovementioned people, have created. I have often been asked why, and I guess that contributed to the motivation to create something unique. I am certain that you haven’t seen another one like it and I doubt that you ever will see a 1986 Toyota Corona quite like this one. Once again, I would just like to thank the following people for there help with the elaborate transformation of PHOBIA. Mark from Costal Smash, Allan from Allan Ross Mechanical Services, Dave and Rod from Silverwater Automotive Services, Brendan from Burn’in Customs, Ryan from Easy Installations, Stuart from Procoat, Allan from Scott’s Upholstery, and off course my family, my Nan for the car, Dad, Mum, Dan and Kristel for all your patients and support. MORE… I’ll start with PHOBIA, the numberplates, for example, the meaning behind them is somewhat unknown to most. Phobia’s text book meaning is ‘fear off’, I used the word to describe peoples fears of embarking on the unknown. To build a car that has never been built before and was probably never meant to be built. I chose this numberplate to brand this lonely RT-142. The bar-work, well, imagine the reactions I got when I first started investigating companies to make up a bodykit for a 1986 Toyota Corona, remembering that this was back 1999. No-one even knew where to start. New Style finally accepted the challenge and did its best to graft the front and rear bars from an early prelude and the side skirts from an early 3 Series BMW. Obviously, as the Corona never really had formed front and rear bars from the factory, getting them to fit to the lines of the car was probably the hardest task of all. The bars where very raw when they emerged from New Style, the fit was okay, but the fibreglass work left allot to be desired. I had been doing a lot of work with Mark from Coastal Smash in Berkley Vale on the Central Coast, so I left the finishing off in his capable hands. More ’glass work, a bit of filler and a number of hours latter and we have the smooth lines and well fitting bars you see on PHOBIA today. Before the car was kitted out with the bodykit, I spent days crawling around underneath cleaning and eventually painting the whole undercarriage of the Corona in gloss black. The whole underside and wheel arches have been spray painted gloss black. Every fastener, including the undercarriage, engine bay and so on has been replaced with stainless-steal hex head bolts – every bolt. There are literally hundreds of them. The guards have never been rolled or pumped. PHOBIA can tuck one third of the 18x8.5in wheels without rubbing. This was thanks to the custom offset spaces on the wheels and the hours spent testing the airbag set up in the rear with the IRS to make it work perfectly. “The Corona was never intended to get to this stage, and I would say there are a lot of modified cars out there that where never meant to be.” The first three years of ownership where great, I had a very reliable cruiser, an essentially standard engine. You know, pod filter, exhaust and so on, good sound system and clean straight body with kit all lowered over 16s. It wasn’t until I decided that I wanted a little more from under the bonnet that things got a little carried away. I pulled the standard engine out, had the bay painted and started investigating turbocharging the 22R-E. This is where I hit the wall. The Corona sat, engineless for a few years. I guess you could say I lost motivation, changed priorities. I had a new job and no longer had the spare time to perform all the work. Believe it or not, it wasn’t until another career change that things finally got moving again. Being self-employed freed up the time I needed to move forward, and move forward I did. In about 2003, I began finishing the dream. And this was to be done right. First up was to get the engine sorted. I had toyed with the idea of dropping in a 1J, but to keep some of the wow factor, I decided to turbo charge the factory fitted 22R-E. So it began, a manifold was made and a series 4 13B rotary turbo was bolted on. A Delco engine-management computer was enlisted to look after running the whole shebang. A Bosch 910 pump and Group A injectors where plumbed into the standard rail. The head was ported and polished and reassembled with heavier valve springs with extra shims. The bottom end was treated to brand new standard 22R-E pistons and rings and new brings. This was mated up to a W58 Supra five-speed with a four-puck brass-button clutch. Well, this combination lasted about five hours. The car never got of the dyno. Pulling the engine down revealed a melted number four piston with 1, 2 and 3 not far behind it. That was probably more due to the tuner at the time but never the less I took this as a sign to do more, rather than throw in the towel. 
So, I made the decision to have a set of custom forged pistons made up, dished to lower compression to a more turbo friendly 8.5 to 1. It cost me a pretty penny for the custom items, but the guarantee that they would not fail was enough for me. With this, an overhaul of the cooling system was also carried out. A bigger water pump was shoe horned into the freshly machined water housing. An old head I had was sliced into three to check the orientation of the water jackets. A gig was made up and three new inlets where plumed into the head to aid in moving more cool water through the head. A custom radiator was welded up, as big as we could possible fit into the available space. The block was O-ringed, a receiver groove machined into the head and a 2mm copper head gasket employed to keep everything in order with the help of the APR head studs. A new 272-degree cam was ground up and a 3 way adjustable cam gear mounted to fine tune the cam timing. A magna 75mm throttle body was grafted onto the original manifold and a second fuel rail was also plumed in. The Group A injectors were flowing enough fuel, but drivability would be lost so standard 22R-E injectors look after starting and off boost driving and the Group A injectors come on with boost. Back on the dyno and all went well. Tuned to 18psi on pump fuel a great resalt of 208hp at the rear wheels was achieved. Boost came on real early and the car was great to drive… for about three months. I had a taste, and I liked it, but I wanted more, so a new turbo and external waste gate was on the shopping list. The custom manifold was pulsing perfectly getting the reasonable large Series 4 turbo spinning quickly so size was not going to be a problem. After many a days investigating, a GT35/40R with a 1.06 rear housing and a Tial 38mm wastegate was purchased. Modifications to the first manifold and a new 3in dump pipe were made. A bigger Bosch 044 pump was plumbed in all this went back on the dyno. The highest figure recorded during the latter stages of tuning was 318hp at the real wheels. This was at 28psi during setting up the boost controller and a great result for an engine that made about 75rwhp standard. I only ever run the car at 25psi now on 100LL avgas to stay on the safer side of things and 18psi for street duties, but with the whole car weighing in at a touch under 1100kg, there is more than enough mumbo to get the show on the road. “The Corona was purchased new by my grandparents in 1986. I purchased it of them in 1996 in perfect original condition. My grandfather died in September 2006 and I regret not getting it finished in time for him to see it. My Nan is still alive and kicking and can’t believe how her trustworthy old shopping trolley has transformed.” I still have a picture of the Corona when my grandparents first bought the car home, and I display this picture when ever the car is on show. The reaction I get from people is still funny to me. The most common questions I get are, “What is it?” and “Why?”. Why not, I say, building a unique car in this day and age in becoming increasingly difficult. I wanted to be able to have a one off, yeah it cost me a fortune in experimental and custom fabrication, but the results in my mind are worth all the heartache, time and money. 
Car 1986 Toyota Corona RT-142 Engine Hardware 22R-E 2.4L Custom Turbo Engine Accessories Ceramic coated Garret 700hp GT35/40R ball bearing turbo, Tial 38mm external wastegate, HKS SSQ blow-off valve, GReddy oil catch can, custom front-mount intercooler, Blitz DSBC electronic boost controller, Motec turbo timer, custom ceramic coated turbo manifold, custom duel fuel rails, four 22R-E injectors and four Group A secondary injectors, Altronics injector driver, Bosch 044 Fuel pump, 75mm custom throttle body, Earls braided lines, Delco programmable engine management, Delco ignition, ported and polished head, machined receiver groove, 2mm copper head gasket, O-ringed block, custom dished forged pistons, re-ground 272deg cam, adjustable cam gear, oversized valve springs, re-drilled water jackets, custom water pump housing and pump, custom alloy radiator, 16inch thermo fan, custom 3inch ceramic coated dump pipe, 3inch Hi-tech Exhaust. Driveline hardware Supra W58 five-speed manual, four-puck brass button clutch with HD pressure plate, machined flywheel, MA61 LSD in an F-series IRS diff. Bodywork Alpine White base coat with House of Kolor Green Ice Fleck, full side spider vinyl graphics, custom front and rear bars, moulded matching side skirts, custom bonnet, shaved aerial, window washers and wipers, de-badged, side mouldings removed, colour coded everything, laser cut polished stainless steel wheel trimmings. Brakes and Suspension Four-wheel disc brakes, bendix high-temp pads, high-pressure race fluid, custom four-way independent airbag adjustable suspension with Koni dampeners and custom offset strut tops. Rolling Stock 18x8.5inch NK07 Trilogy S2 wheels with 20mm offset spacers, 215/35 Falken GRB FK451 tyres with white walls. Interior Gadgetry MY99 WRX front seats, full beige leather re-trim, custom door pods and pleated leather inserts, custom A pillar tweeter pods with in-built Carbon Series Auto Meter boost and volts gauges, Auto Meter Carbon Series Tacho and Temp gauges, glovebox-mounted switches and gauges for the airbags plus external switch box, boot-mounted floating air tanks, dash-mounted boost controller and turbo timer, down lights, carbon-fibre pedals, Momo gearknob, colour-coded leather wheel, colour-coded centre console and punched aluminium floor mats. Stereo Components Kenwood KDC PS911R motorised head deck, Boston Acoustics 6.5in front splits, 6.5in three-way rears, alpine V12 four-channel amp, Soundstream Rubicon 500-2 sub amp, two Soundstream SPL 12in subs in a custom sealed enclosure, Optima D34 Yellow Top battery, all Jaycar heavy duty cabling and gold plated terminals. |
