removed the backseats from the clio and fitted a carpet and rear brace. I rarely if ever need the back seats, but do use the space quite often for hauling stuff around, already done a dump run!. The carpet keeps the noise increase to a minimum, keeps it neat and tidy and the weight saving is welcome.
on the corolla t sport I always preferred the pre-facelift without the skirts and other bits that I never really liked. It just looks a lot less fussy, part of the appeal is that it was an inconspicuous car that didn't draw attention. I had one for a while and I have to say the handling was pretty terrible, I never drove the facelift though. Comparing it to an ep3 stock the corolla got a spanking.
I ended up trying lowering springs which lasted a matter of weeks before binning them in favour of kw v2's which were actually brilliant. Lowering the car had a big effect on the acceleration past 100, presumable because the comically high stock ride height had some terrible effect on the aerodynamics. However lowering mine to the point it would still get over speedbumps, removing the rear seats and removing the hot airblower from inside the front wing, had a remarkable effect on its performance and it was quite a lot quicker, it was quicker than a standard ep3, and a match for one locally that had been modified with a few bits and was of a benchmark for me to measure the car against as I compared it at each stage of modding.
The 2zz is a decent engine although the dip in power just before the high cam kicks in becomes quite tedious pretty fast. I believe that the 2zz in the corolla's have been consistently shown to make better power than in the celica, although no idea why that would be. I had a blitz intake and remus exhaust and it was quite a quick car in the end, pulling well up to the top of 5th and deep into 6th. It was never a great handling car though, traction was poor, gearing was a little odd, you sit too high, i'm sure it could have been good with more work though. The interior wasn't exciting but it was quite nice, and strangely the materials were miles better than those used in the same age celica, good car for long journeys.
Its not much use if you have to mod the crap out of the car though to make It half decent. This was mine.
Having had a few cars in between and now gone back to something similar, small hatchback, similar power output etc in the clio rs, its eye opening the gulf between the corolla and a properly sorted and well rated car, its a shame as the corolla could have been a good car, it had most of the ingredients, Toyota just didn't cook it up all that well.
