Ive been slack on this, I really have been and I hate that I have. Over the last few weeks ive definitely lost a little interest in the car, mainly because of how good my pinstriping and sign lettering jobs have been going, its been super busy. I dont tend to think that losing interest is a bad thing altogether, I believe that its just time to put that hobby away for a little while and come back to it fully focused, not many can commit 100% to a few different things I think, and if you can it never lasts, its just not sustainable.

CorollaPalooza was a special event for me. Mez and I had been in talks about doing some work together, since the last halfway and finally it came to fruition. Alongside talented artists Thomas Gordon, Nathanial walker, we designed up the next round of shirt designs for WreckEm and this event I got my shirt design to drive in. This was a milestone moment in my life, seeing my friends excited for the shirt was truely amazing.

This event was unreal, to see a field of ke/ae chassis was incredible along with the sounds it truely felt surreal to finally be a part of something like this. The drive up was great, seeing as Kev and I wake up pretty early for work we decided to do the same for this. So we met up at 430, grabbed a coffee from our coffee shop near work and headed up. The drive up was pretty uneventful, although a new roadhouse sorta deal opened up, called ‘The Artisan Farmer’ right on the hwy heading up, was nice to stop and have good food and coffee instead of the usual maccas.

About 5 mins after this photo the place filled up. I got myself a nice chicken sambo and it was delicious !

Once again this proved its worth, it does so time and time again. It amazed me again with the fuel economy towing, it did roughly 12-13L/100 from what I know the original owners use to tow a caravan with it, so its life has been towing orientated I guess. And it just looks cool as fuck and I love towing haha

Beautiful scenery had us stop for a few mins after having lunch to have a laugh and enjoy the view.

Both Jesse’ sporting factory corolla pinstripes painted by me, with a little extra flavour on VDB one on the right.

Another reason why this was a special event was because of this moment right here. Dans car was a huge inspriation for me to get into corollas and drift mine with the 4ac. Dans had this car off the road for a fair few years now whilst doing the beams swap and basically upgrading every single bit on the driveline and suspension. When we arrived to valla beach there was some work to finish on the car, so we got the tunes cranking, drinks flowing and spun some spanners and had a heap of laughs as we also waited for everyone to arrive and join in on the fun, its moments like that I remember how much i love this sport. Unfortunately Dan had a lara bingle on the day but fast forward to today the car is all fixed and ready for more action.

Overall the day was a great success, the fast line was buzzing all day with everyone absolutely humming. The car ran flawlessly all day once again, with all the minor fixes/upgrades the car felt so much quicker, and with an alignment it felt planted, I would have to say it was the best driving I have ever done and i feel very proud of myself, I made a little video from the day to record my driving and see how it progressed as the day went on.

CorollaPalooza 2024 cant come soon enough.

From as long as I know, most corolla guys who move away from them either regret leaving or they end up coming back, you just cant steer clear from them, even friends I know who have a wide variety of nice cars, wish they kept their Corolla. Even if you aren’t into N/A cars watching them drifting is a sight to see something like a swarm of bee’s coming at you. Around 2011(?) or thereabouts ae86drivingclub hosted a corolla only day at Raleigh, it was so long ago that Grant Scott still had his Corolla. It was such a cool event to see photos from even if there was a small amount of cars, its rare to see a day being hosted to only a specific model of car or motor, but they seem to be popping up more here in Aus.

Fast forward to now, a few months back at Halfway Hangs, chatting to Mez from Wreck’em, I expressed a vision of seeing a corolla only day again, and to my surprise he had already had it in the works. With that its now 3 weeks till we set off again up to Raleigh to CorollaPalooza. to think how small ae86drivingclub’s event was to now this event having 60 cars, its pretty cool seeing how loved this chassis is throughout and to see this idea come to fruition.

With that in mind I decided to again get all the work I needed to do done early, luckily again it wasn’t really much that it needed besides the usual maintenance, but it needed some things repaired or upgraded. I got the oil change out the way early, put a new pod filter on it as it still had the same one from when I bought the 4age motor, so 5 (?) years with me and who knows how long before that, with that i put on a valley cover between the rocker covers as I found water getting into the spark plugs and rusting them. It might not be much but those two things really made the engine bay look a little nice and complete.

Im pretty lucky to have the friends I have with such a wide skill set, I originally was going to get a whole new exhaust made by Benny but thats been put on hold. After so many years iv’e absolutely ripped through the flex bend in this car causing it to lose some power, causing more fumes, and sounding terrible so Benny fit me in and welding in a new flex bend, also shortening my intake pipe, as you would expect the work is unreal as always with the car now feeling faster, smoother and sounding a hell of a lot better. Whilst it was on the hoist I did a quick bolt check and gave it all a once over, I found some things that I need to replace but all in all its not bad.

-A

Its both hard and not hard to believe halfway hangs has been happening for 10 years now. Its hard to believe how quickly time flies, and not hard to believe that the event has made it this far. It is hands down the best event for the drift community each year, and with each year it keeps growing and growing, this year was no different. The quality of the cars was outstanding, the vibe in the park was unreal as always, although I do miss seeing some of the old faces from the secret drift forums, thats probably the only let down for me, although talking with some of the forum guys that still attend and reminiscing is always great time.

I managed to get a lot of the maintenance tasks done early on in the year, with that just leaving me to put the car back together after paint. I painted the last front end myself with the help of Elliot, but even with a lot of the maintenance done I was running out of time, so i left it in Elliots hands, and the result came out beautiful. Ofcourse issues would arise the day before we were set to leave, with my gearbox still having a bad leak due to a crack in the casing, and losing bolts that hold my tow bar set up on the hilux, after sorting all that out I loaded it all up, met up with Kev and Scott the next morning at 4am and set off for the 501km drive. It was pretty smooth sailing the whole way up, although i did get pulled over which was nothing more than just losing about 15mins of the trip, everything checked out and i was on my way. Kev and I get up early for work, so getting up early to leave for halfway wasn’t hard and im glad we did, as we arrived around 12pm.

Friday set out to be a pretty awesome day, The car show was full of quality cars, I pinstriped a few cars and as always talked & caught up with a tonne of people. With friday done I focused on saturday which wouldnt be the best day for me and the Corolla. Luke and i set off early that morning and secured our pit spots, under some shade and central to everything. After the morning activities were done i set off to get my first few laps in to shake my anxiety away I always get first lap out. After turn 1 I had got rid of that anxiety with a huge smile on my face, every time i drive this car it feels like the first time I took it drifting with the 4age, but that was short lived, after about 4 laps in the car kept cutting out mid corner, feeling like it was surging, I limped it back in and found the alternator had died, which wouldnt have been a major problem as I have a spare one but thats in Kevs car atm, Jordan had a spare one but it didnt suit, so I sold my spot and packed up to watch some drifting. After getting back to the cabins, Jordan realised that we could just swap the internals from his spare one to mine, which worked a treat, so I was ready for TGD.

TGD lived up to its name as everyone on the day got down, all day everyone was throwing down great runs, improving and all in all having a great time, it really is a grassroots event. Corolla drove perfectly all day mechanically. Suspension wise it sucked, bouncy as all hell but I pushed through and pissed with the dick I got. One new thing Raleigh opened up was the fast line, so after turn 1 from the starting line, instead of doing the; right, left, right corner you drove a little further straight and cut those two corners, which made for some really fun and fast runs, im really keen to come back to do that corner with my suspension sorted. All in all it was a surreal weekend, i cant wait to do it all again in a few months.

-AL

(Photos by Danny D!)

One of my favourite things is revisiting old photos I took years ago, often ill find hidden gems I might have, at the time thought they werent any good, but actually are haha. Enjoy these two photo’s of Jake’s N/A SR20 ke70 at Pheasents Wood!

Ive been a bit slack, well not a bit, I guess other priorities took over but it always. lingered in the back of my mind to get this car back on the road. To say that the last event I did was good would be a long way off from what i really was. The night started off great before the rain came in. It was my first event driving this section of SMSP, so I was a little hesitant, but on the first corner I gave it everything and it did not disappoint. The car once again was perfect, it was loving it. After this is got pretty sketchy with the rain setting in and making the track, well at least for me, very uncertain. The front felt fine but the rear was just so unpredictable, even changing to a fresh tyre and adjusting the pressures it was slightly better. After waiting for what felt like an eternity to get a run, as well as the rain i decided to call it. I packed up my gear, sat by the main straight and just watched the guys drive.

The following days i spent an hour or so where i had spare dismantling the front end to do any body work/rust repairs, luckily for me this front end I got off Jordan was in pretty good condition with only a few minor imperfections but this gave me an opportunity to do some panel beating which i dont get to do enough of. The worst of it was the lower section of the front left guard with rust eating a chunk of the metal. I had most of the panel beating out the way and looking pretty good, unfortunately I had sold my welder, luckily for me im surrounded by great friends with a lot of talents. So I messaged Glen from Caetano Bodyworks for a favour and he happily obliged, repairing the rust and welding a whole new piece aswell as pulling out a dent in the bonnet which I couldnt get access to, to pull out then without even me asking he sanded down the whole bonnet for me, I cant thank him enough.

With all the major bits repaired I can focus on doing the rest of the small panel beating and sanding. As I said earlier i get great joy from doing this sort of work, I find it super rewarding, even sanding down bog. Seeing something that was damaged come back to life just from using tools with your hands, thats the best reward.

This is where im currently at, fitting up majority of the panels to set the gaps, mark as much as I could so its easier to line up once its painted. Hoping to have it all painted around January, in the meantime most of it will be in primer and start doing the mechanical prep for halfway/getdown next year.

-A

After winton, as much as it sucked having the car look the way it did, I couldn’t get over how well it performed. I also didn’t want that feeling of fear setting in, fear of driving and crashing again. So when I got home I booked a spot to drive a Friday night south circuit night.

Its been a few years since I last drove to an event and seeing a lot of the boys embrace that made me miss it even more, so leaving home after work, it felt very nostalgic as I hit the 3pm traffic rush heading out to SMSP, tyres in the back, basic tools and hope that nothing goes wrong, no better rush.

With everything unloaded, I headed out. I spent no time and hit it straight away, after the first lap it felt like any fear I had was gone. I had this rush of excitement, and happiness flow through me, happiness for owning the car I do, and the smile it gives me every time I drive it, nothing beats it imo. Unfortunately that all went to shit once the rain hit, you would think rain and a corolla would go hand in hand, right? not in this instance.

I had two great runs at the start of the night, the lines i took though were the wrong ones, losing a lot of speed before turn 4, luckily I knew what I had to rectify but the rain set in, and turned the track super unpredictable in my case. I found the car so grippy in the first 3 corners, then turn 4 was basically an ice skating rink, and the last corners all grippy. I changed over to some tyres that were left over from winton, which helped a little, but it was still unpredictable, so I decided to call it for the night.

Despite all that, it was still a super fun night, how can it not be, being surrounded by great mates with cool cars. I ended up just leaning on my car, by myself in the pits, just enjoying the moment watching my mates drive the hell out of their cars.

I know im probably making a huge deal about this accident, I sound like a broken record some days about it, so heres me talking about it some more. After coming home from Winton, I unloaded the car, parked it up in the garage, went upstairs and hung out with Kristen. The whole time I was sitting there all I could think about was the car, how good it performed on the weekend. After about an hour I looked at Kristen, said Im going to the garage to start pulling the car apart. I think she could tell I was itching to start on the repairs.

Given the times, having spares is handy, even before the stupid price hike of parts, its always good to have spares and I have always had spare sets of everything as you just never know. Luckily a few months ago I acquired a whole GL front off my friend Jordan in QLD, in good condition with just some small imperfections that need attention.

Ive done a little bit of hammer & dolly work on the crashed front end, as it was in ok condition but needed some work, and it was fun. So I was determined to do fix this damage myself, so on my lunch break I bought a hammer & dolly set and got to work. After a few days of making a lot of noise and not sure if im doing it correct, I was all done. Seeing as I entered to drive south circuit on the 26th of august, the main goal was to get the car straight, straight panels on and go drive again, get back on the wagon asap. I decided to fix it as best as I could without taking the radiator and oil cooler off.

The damage I was dealing with, I didnt get any front on photos but most of the right side was crumbled. The first point of action was trying to get the rad support pulled out as much as I could, using one of my tie down straps and the hilux.

Slowly and surely, bit by bit I got it the best I could with the size of the strap it is and with the rad support still in. After that i got to work with the hammer & dolly, and a slide hammer getting it all looking how it was.

With still some minor touch ups to do I was pretty content with how it come, next up was paint and piece it all back together !

Where I am currently at, as you can see in the photos its still not 100% there were certain spots which I just couldnt get creases out as I didnt have enough room to swing the hammer, but thats ok as it gives me a challenge once the car goes off the road for a full respray, whenever that is. Ive also started to repair the damaged panels too. the guard is pretty much almost there, the bonnet will def be the tricky one, but for now the car is coming along nicely and I am beyond keen to get back out there

~A

Often the time spent getting ready for a drift event/weekend is some of the most stressful times, piecing everything together, making sure you have everything you need and just hoping the time spent on the car is worth it and it works. After hyping up the boys, we entered and I started right away on the prep. I knew if I atleast got the car ready, if I happen to not be able to go to winton, the car was ready for whatever the next event was. I made sure of this because thats exactly what happened the last event lol

Thankfully for me, the car was ready than ever with it only needing minor things, its been working faultlessly for a long time now, I was ready than ever. So the next few weeks I spent getting the car ready along with the hilux. The corolla was looking great and i was pumped!

It’s been 5 years since the last time I drove winton so I was beyond excited, even more so with a few of the guys who haven’t driven Winton, entering the event. The track is like nothing else, It levels up your driving real quick, especially in the higher groups. Even just the on track cruising speed, you always have someone behind you, and to prevent an accident or ruin their run, you have to foot the fuck down, all that in itself helps you gain a whole bunch of experience, fast.

We left early Friday morning, meeting at Pheasents nest rest stop, the trip was longer than it should have been which to me wasnt a bad thing, towing down I dont like to hurry, so just cruising down and taking our time was fine by me.

I didn’t take too many photos like I had planned to. I originally had planned to skip one session and just take photos of the guys driving, but the laps we had the whole day were something else, I dont like to toot my own horn, but that weekend was the best driving I had ever done with the corolla, I felt like I deserved it and needed it considering the amount of time, the frustration I had gone through to get it to work properly.

The car is basically a whole new car, new motor, new suspension, new brakes, all this combined with the PC knuckles, it felt like a completely different car, it felt faster, way more predictable and the steering response and quickness was something else, all this was showing lap after lap, the car just performing perfectly, I couldnt stop smiling, I was happy.

Coming into the pits after a great session, hugging and high fiving each other from pure joy and excitment was something else, and it reminded me why I love this sport. Seeing everyone including myself improve their driving was great to see, even some falling in love with their car again after losing a bit of motivation for it, that was great to see.

Jake entered the big entry comp, taking out 2nd for the 3rd year in a row!

Harry drove the pants off his car that weekend, falling in love with it again, but had a small lara bingle, nothing major though, more cosmetic than anything, but it was more than enough to get Chris excited.

Akshay’s car is one of my favourites.

Ciaran not happy the weekend is over.

Corolla getting some love from Lakespeed!

Overall the weekend was a blast, bring on next year !