Why Corola Ts?

[gramacar]

Hi

I have noticed the number of modifications some people do

to their Corola TS in order to improve handling like bigger wheels,

lower springs, induction kits. They even talk about turbo or chips.

The question that I have is why are they going into so much

trouble and extra expences and they don' t buy in the first place

the Celica TS which has better handling, is faster and is by

far far far....... pretier.

regards

john

[jerry phipps]

Hi john well what can i say. Not everyone wants a coupe. The corolla is a bit of all rounder. It's got the speed the looks and it can carry five people in comfort.

Can the celica do that?

jerry!!

[spwolf]

celica is a tight coupe... but Corolla TS is quite nice hot hatch... i live in a city and Corolla is perfect car for me... and it looks tight as hell, i dont think I saw GTI or A3 lookin as good, and definetly they dont sound as good ;-)

besides, Corolla TS is 8k Euro cheaper than Celica TS, with the same engine and tranny...

[gramacar]

As for the space I agree that Corola has more room in the back, but

celica is quite confortable for 4 passengers too, (not too much space over

their heads though) and the boot is much bigger than corola (340lt)

As for the 8k Euro if you add the cost of upgrading the corola then

I don' t think that the difference is more than 4k Euro. And you still

have the leather buckets and xenon lights that corola does not have. :D

[jerry phipps]

Hey at the end of the day they are both good cars. I would be happy to own anyone of them. :D

jerry!!

[Jake]

Hi gramacar,

the modifications I'm making to my car not only improve the hanlding, power and looks, but also satisfy another element of wanting to do this, and that is to create a car that is a little diffrent from the rest, to just stand out a little from the crowd, to make it mine, to put my bit of character to it and of cousre, to just suprise even furhter that B'meer that tries his luck at the lights.

Oh and that time hounered oldie "why do it",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, "coz I can" ;)

gramacar enjoy what you drive, and drive what you enjoy :P

[gramacar]

Thats true jake. But you have to admit that driving a celica makes you

stand out of the crowd which mostly drives corola. Did you ever count

the number of corola and celica that you met when you go from home to work

or where ever? I believe that the number of corola is much bigger and that is

why you have the need to differentiate your car. With all these comments I don' t

want to say that corola is not a good car. They are both very good and each one has

its adv... and disadv... :D

[Jake]

Hi gramacar,

I can't comment for your part of the world, but believe it or not here in North Yorksire Uk, I see many more Celicas than TSport Corolla's, and I recently attended a Lexus/Toyota/Honda club meet in the UK, and was one of only 3 Corolla Tsports there, (over 60 Civic Type R's) so I actually think I have quite and exclusive car any way, but agree with you that each has his.her personnel prefference, and for me it's the Corolla (this is my 3rd, so I think I must like them) ;)

[gramacar]

Hi jake

To continue our little debate I will say that I was not referring to Corola TS, but regular Corola when

I said that you can see much more corola than celica in the road. And the corola TS is almost

indistinguishable from the regular corola 1.6 (apart from tail pipe, the red corola and TS signs and the 16'' wheels). And as I remember from my Christmas holidays which I spent in Scotland and a short visit to Derby, I saw many many corolas on the road (and peugeot too in scotland) but not ford (is that strange?)

[Jake]

Hi gramacar,

happy to chat mate, and have no problems with you expressing your point of view, :D

it must be the part of the country I live in but honestly have had my car about 6mths and hardly see any other Corolla's TSport or others, just so happens where I work about 5 celicas in car park, and to be honest if wife had not got Puma I would have got Celica ;) but the Corolla was never a second choice it was always an option.

Didn't see many Fords you must have had your eyes shut

[spwolf]

once again, there could be gazillion Corolla 1.4's on the roads, but my TS looks tight as hell... i see heads turning every time i pass by ppl on the street...

now, Celica is really a nice coupe... but all this trashing of Corolla TS doesnt make any sense... and price difference is huge if you ask me, for 8k not only you could add everything TTE had on order for Corolla, you could also add a SC which would make it much faster than Celica TS, which in turn would be un-modified and a quite bit slower

;-)

btw... Corolla TS was a 2nd choice for me... I actually wanted Celica TS but I had to wait for it too long and I decided to get Corolla...as to space in Celica - unless you friends are under 1.70 meters, there is no way they can fit in the back without hitting their head every time you go over the bumps, but at the same time I dont need the space but many ppl might...

i love my car though, 500 Euro is all you need to make it look really nice, everything else is optional

[gramacar]

Hi spwolf

I agree that corola TS is a good choice of a fast and prety car.

(not many choices in this category of hot hatchbacks) But still

I think that celica is much pretier. Don 't you think that corola

looks like an A3 in the rear? By the way, how many years is the

warranty in your country? In greece toyota gives 6 years full warranty.

If I may have a picture of your car I could also tell you my opinion.

Jake' s is a really nice one.

[Jake]

Hi gramacar,

not going to say too much about your last post except, I agree totally with your very last comment

more pics can be seen here Jakes TSport

[Steve Ratcliffe]

An interesting thread....

My opinion on the upgrading a corolla vs buying a celica disscussion is that I modify my cars to make them different, to customise them exactly how I want them and to make them individual to myself.

This is not overly difficult driving a Yaris TS as I think in the 2 months since I bought it I have seen one other on the road... (the other three at the gaydon meet don't count as that was artificial concentration!) Unlike other cars in the class such as the VTR which I see about 10 or more every single day.

So for me it is not about trying to make your car like another car, or as good as a higher class car, but simply making it unique, and different from others, so that I feel like it's my car, rather than a car the same as every other one sold that i drive around all the time. It's kinda hard to explain but I'm sure you all get the picture.

It's like my first ever car was a mazda 121 (kia pride) beleive it or not, this was my learning ground for modifications and the first major audio install - one night I didnt set my alarm because of a big storm annoying it - the next morning someone had been in, trashed all my months of work and took all my stuff - I had to sell the car because of that not because it was wrecked, but just because it didn't feel like mine anymore (I'm not a freak really) - I guess the only good thing that came of that was my move into Toyota's.

Steve.

[Jake]

Hi Steve,

nicely put mate (and I think you may have some element of a freak in you, as on another thread you where going kill some with a herring )

But I agree entirely with your views on why mod a car, coz it's mine coz I can coz I want to :D :D :D

I saw the neat row of well turned out Tpots at Gaydon and they all looked great, only got to me Jerry, but may be we'll get to meet at the next one.

[Steve Ratcliffe]

We met briefly at the LFE services if you remember rightly Jake?

Steve.

[gramacar]

Hi Jake

I have just seen the pics in your site. Your car is quite good looking.

I have read that you installed the quick-shift kit and the TTE springs.

I have 2 questions.

1. Does the quick-shift really improves the feeling of the gearbox?

2. Do the TTE springs compromise the comfort of the car and is it possible for someone

to fit the TTE springs leaving the same 16'' wheels? I usually drive

in the city where we have many bumps on the roads.

john

[T Sport]

I believe Jake is still waiting for the delivery of his TTE quick shift kit.

I've had one for some four months now and I simply love it. It's difficult to describe how it "improves the feeling of the gearbox", as this may be of personal taste. How does it feel...well travel is short, quick and precise. I always felt that original T Sport gear shift mechanism somewhat sticky. The biggest difference is the shift precision, the shift pattern is simply "tight and firm". Almost "impossibe" to miss a gear. Personally I feel that you have to pull and push the gear lever a bit harder than before, but you simply engage gears faster than before.

You can fit TTE lowering spring and use original 16" T Sport wheels, and you hardly loose any comfort by installing TTE springs. I think everyone on this club with TTE springs (or other brands like myself ) installed agree that you barely notice a difference in comfort but see big improvement in handling and looks :P .

Cheers,

Petri

[jerry phipps]

Hi everyone. Great discussion here. Well back to steve's point. When you buy a new car it's because you like the shape and spec of the car? Perhaps thats the only model that you can afford at the time.

Now after awhile you begin to think now what can i do to this car that you can really call it my own you know different from say the next man's car? Sometimes it could be something simple like fitting different wheels or painting the brake calipers. But what i'm saying is that at the end of the day we all what something different. Like steve said driving a yaris T Sport around is being different. Where i live i know that there is only 3 more yaris T Sports around of which 1 of them happens to be my wifes car :D

So what if there are more corollas on the road than celicas At the end of the day we all drive pretty unique motors. After all we all live in a world dominated by FORD, VAUXHALL, BMW, etc etc.

So let's not blast are cars lets be proud we all drive a toyota :D :P

jerry!!

[Jake]

Hi Guys,

Damm Jerry you had me going at the end there, was looking for the words to the TOC national anthem to get up and sing , but the rest of you post was spot on ;)

T Sport,

I some times think you and spwolf no more about my TSport than I do, you are correct I'm still waiting for my TTE quick shift :( , latest news is that TTE are just fine tuning the QS for right hand drive <_< <_< something to do with offset, but the pics I've seen it look dead straight . Should know more this week.

The way you have described the how the TTE QS changes the gear feel makes a lot of sense to me and can't wait to get it, I can just about manage to snatch a fast shift now that keeps in the power band through 2,3,4,5th gears but with out any margin for error, have to be very quick with hand and foot so QS should make this easier :D :D

gramacar, thanks so you think "I have just seen the pics in your site. Your car is quite good looking" hopefully I can still improve on "quite"

[jerry phipps]

Glad to be at your service jake :D

jerry!!

[Rothgard]

Hello Guys,

first post in this forum but I've read it for months. Nice to hear that there are a lot of TS enthusiastic ;)

Actually I'm thinking of buying TTE springs and quickshift but there is a problem. I live in Italy, I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY but here TTE is not under Toyota warranty. I mean that if I use something TTE on my Corollla TS they will stop the warranty!

Some friends of mine did it but they had to find "friendly" mechanics (if you have an accident they will put the original things back...).

I think I'll write a letter to Toyota Italy but I don't think it'll work. Maybe it could be better if TTE send a letter to Toyota Italy ;)

Well, I hope to become a TTE owner, my TS needs only little change to become perfect... :D

Ciao!

Davide.

[gramacar]

Hi Davide

I live in greece. I do not have a corola TS but as I have heard

from a friend who owns one there is no problem with TTE

regarding warranty (Toyota Hellas gives 6 years warranty).

By the way are you happy with corola' s interior quality as many bad things

have been heard in this forum concerning various squeaks especially

from the trunk and the rear seats.

regards

john

[Rothgard]

Hi John,

well, I'm quite happy about my Corolla. I think the rumours discussions are about the 3dr. I have a 5dr and I haven't heard yet any rumour or squeks. The quality inside is good, very "german", all black, hard seats.

Here the warranty is 5 years... without TTE parts <_<

Bye,

D.

[spwolf]

yep... most of rattles are only found in 3 door corollas... but keep in mind that these are only minor complaints from people, and that these are the only complaints about the car... which just tells you a lot about quality of the car