Where do I start with this?
I bought this in New Zealand in 2014. For the vast majority of it's life it belonged to a little old lady in Palmerston North, on the North island of NZ. I drove it for a while as it was, added some Dellortos, ran out of engine, then spent ~3 years swapping in the 4AGE and shiny bits. I finished it just before leaving NZ, and couldn't bear to leave it behind, so had to bring it back with me at great expense! It has been my summer car over here since arriving in the UK at the start of last year.
You can find the build thread here.
Specs:
-1984 Toyota Starlet ‘Sprint’
-New Zealand market top spec model, with special (super rad!) interior, stronger diff/axles, and originally came with 1.3l ‘4k’ engine and 5speed box
-126,000km (78,000 miles) on body. Unknown mileage on engine/trans.
-Really solid, rust-free, with some sun-burned patina on the roof and rear hatch. It was owned by a little old lady from new, and she used to leave it under a carport, with the sun shining on its rear! I bought it in 2014 drove it for a year, took it off the road for 3 years to do the mods, then brought it back to the UK with me last year
-20v Blacktop 4A-GE transplant, running on factory individual throttle bodies, factory ECU, and cut down/integrated loom. The blacktop was the final (and most powerful/high revving) version of the 1.6l, twin cam 4AGE. This one has done <1000km since cambelt/tensioner/oil/filter change. I recently had the head off to fit supertech valve stem seals, and reassembled it using a TRD 0.8mm metal head gasket to marginally increase compression. A new dizzy rotor was fitted at the same time.
-New-old stock VVT pulley fitted (old one was worn and rattling) - these are hard to source and silly money now. T3 lightweight single-row crank pulley fitted to fit behind radiator.
-SQ Engineering RWD orientation conversion kits for dizzy and waterlines (20v engines only came in a transverse setup from new)
-AE86 refurbished radiator with electric, automatic thermoswitched fans
-Custom fuel system with lift pump, under-bonnet swirl pot/high pressure 044 EFI pump
-4-2-1 heatwrapped manifold with custom 2” system, recent O2 sensor
-Techno Toy Tuning (T3) 100mm black alloy trumpets (the induction noise is to die for!)
-New Exedy clutch, Flos.ie k50->t50 cable clutch conversion kit
-T50 gearbox from RWD Celica, custom prop, 1g-ge hi-torque starter
-T3 front coilovers with adjustable shocks, T3 camber-adjustable top mounts, T3 strut brace, polyurethane bushes throughout
-Gaz adjustable rear shocks, Cobra 'Superlow' rear springs
-MRP ‘big brake’ kit, specifically engineered to fit behind 13”s - Wilwood Dynapro 4pot calipers with Znoelli grooved and vented discs, Hel braided lines
-13x6.5/13x7” SSR MKII alloy wheels with nearly new Yoko A539s
-Scarles 25mm bolt-on spacers (front)
-Custom SpeedHut ‘STARLET’ logo tachometer, aftermarket coolant temp gauge and battery voltmeter.
-Battery moved to box in boot. High quality (fat!) positive wire run directly to starter, then alternator, rest of positive feeds pulled from there
-T3 nylon gear knob, Abarth steering wheel, T3 alloy TRD-style wing
The car runs and drives brilliantly, and is a daft amount of fun with it's fizzy engine and nimble handling. Bear in mind that it is low, and relatively firmly sprung - a lot of time and a fair bit of money has gone into working out the suspension so it drives well without shaking your fillings out, but this is not a luxury wafting ride either. It has passed both of it's UK MOTs with no advisories, and is due it's next one in March 2020. It is correctly registered with the DVLA as a 1587cc, so is all legal and above-board.
It does burn a little oil (very common on 4AGEs) - I recently replaced the valve stem seals which helped, but it still burns a bit. Compression is solid across all cylinders, so I suspect valve guides may be worn. Either something to tinker with, or just keep an eye on the level and top it up occasionally.
The reason I kept it on a factory ECU setup was to maintain it's good manners, keep the VVT system, and keep it reliable, and it has never let me down (except in 2014 with the old 1.3 engine!). Starts first turn of the key every time.
It has behaved very well on its 4.5 hour round trips to RRW at Goodwood over the past 2 years, as well as numerous shorter journeys - mostly on sunny days as I don't like getting it wet! I have only run this on super unleaded since fitting the engine, and recommend the next owner does the same.
I’ll be sad to see this go - I have spent hundreds of hours tinkering with it, but am moving countries (again), and this one can’t come with me this time. I have probably forgotten to include some things - please ask if you have any questions as I know this car inside-out!
Difficult to price, but forum requires one so we'll say £9k, but open to sensible offers.
PM me or text/call 07double eight double seven 81822
