In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
Registration and lining up in grid, I had so many people coming up to me & like "Woah, did you get a GR??" It was slightly popular, at least to people that knew what it was.
We also had the whole GR family in my heat. I was next to the Supra, and mentioned it to him. He saw the 86 and we finally noticed the GR badge on the trunk lid. I was hoping to get a photo of us together at the end but everyone was pretty spent from the sun and scattered.
I managed to swap the autocross wheels out to the normal street setup. I can't decide if I like the silver wheels, they are kinda plain.
And the Toyota window visors from Japan came this morning so I popped them on quick. Usually don't go for them but some forum members have said they're worth it.
This weekend was productive. Saturday my friend replaced the generic black calipers with the fancy red ones. Sunday was spent in the shade of the garage.
The side vinyl in black and red, those letters were placed one by one and the thin vinyl font made it interesting. The stripe wasn't as bad, I'm used to vinyl now. Added the GRM to the side windows.
Emblem overlays in black and white, Laminix over the fogs for a European touch. 
Redid the hashtag to be larger, redid the track outline of Kil-Kare raceway. Added my old cellphone holder that attached to the seat bolt, see if it holds up.
Pretty much done with quick minor stuff for now. Time to figure out a spoiler, and cold air intake. K&N makes a reasonable one that will make more turbo noises for now, see what comes out in the next year.
I feel like they're still developing new products so I'm not in a big hurry for now.
I had a short troop Saturday morning with the stormtrooper costume, so I drive the Crosstrek. SWMBO had asked if the bin would fit in the new car, and I said I wasn't sure.
When I got home, I measured the bin still in the Crosstrek. 23-24" tall, and I knew length was ok with seats folded down. Measured the opening of the Corolla. 23-24" tall. Hmm, this is gonna be close but what the hell.
It fits, just barely.
Second autocross event for Great Gazoo. I'm still figuring it out, but it's definitely fun. I spent most of the day on 30/70 for the diff until someone in grid asked if I had tried all the different settings. Hm, I had not, I was going by the piece of tape the PO left on the driver's sun visor mirror.
So the last two runs I tried leaving it in 60/40 first, seemed a bit more tail happy but quick (only one run so could be my imagination). Then last run I pressed the diff button that gave me "Track" and I believe 50/50 split. Holding down the traction control a few seconds still turns off stuff but EXPERT goes away, which I believe turns off more than not. (I think EXPERT leaves a bit of nannies active.)
(EDIT: rereading above sounds confusing. I believe if you just press traction control, it turns off MOST of the nannies & displays EXPERT. If you hold the button a few seconds, EXPERT goes away and from what I've read, all or most nannies go away. Seems backwards to me but others have said the same thing.)
Another good run, maybe I'll keep trying "Track"? I haven't looked at all my times, and I almost never remember to look at the sign at the exit, but I did see the times on the last two runs and they were both 54's which having watched two heats put me squarely mid-pack to slight above average. (It was a very long course compared to what we normally do, like an extra complete circle around the outside oval of the track we use.)
I'll do another event in September, and that might be the year. We have a charity fun event early November if the weather holds, & I'd like to bring the Celica race car for that one for the hell of it.
Congrats!
I did a GR vs EVO 9 MR a bunch few years back when these are brand new.
Some minor stuff from weekend before last. Found a company in Lithuania that makes a decent bracket for the fire extinguisher that I kept from the BRZ, showed up fairly quick for other side of the world.
Since the costume bin fits, I decided I needed a bumper protector like the Crosstrek. The regular Corolla version fits even if eBay says otherwise.
$20 steering wheel emblem because why not?
Yesterday I swapped the BRAID wheels on because I felt like it, and got ceramic window tint 20% all the way around. I almost scheduled for this past Saturday until I realized I'd have to leave the windows up all day at Sunday's autocross.
The K&N intake is just waiting for K&N to send them the hardware packet, a common issue from the forums apparently.
And the Exhaust Buddy, a device someone made to plug into the exhaust valve to trick it into staying open, is going on Saturday. My friend with the lift, vs me fighting vertigo under the bumper.
Congrats. Definitely seemed like the right deal for you.
I told him it would take longer to put on the lift than the actual work, and I was right. Unplug, plug in, use cover from the Buddy to cover the port.
On the drive home it sounded a bit "more" but nothing crazy. My friend said he could hear a difference. Only drove it home from there so far so I'll see more later.
Cars and Coffee actually had a blue Circuit model. All stock from what I could see, but it gave me a chance to see the OEM Circuit spoiler. I like it.
Weekend plans, "this shouldn't take long".
It didn't.
My new friend took a photo to send to the previous owner, who introduced me to this guy. He lives 7 miles away, has a black GR, and is a recently retired Toyota Master Technician. So he was definitely handy to help out.
Which is to say he jumped in and did everything. Cool guy, very friendly and detail oriented. I had a few car parts the PO gave me that I wasn't interested in, bigger gas pedal, different wireless charger base, and a sunglass holder. I took them with me and gave them all to him.
Install took about an hour, we probably bullE36 M3ted at least another hour. I forgot to ask if he or anyone else liked Star Wars, I meant to give him some trading cards.
But there will be a next time I'm sure. He installed a Circuit edition spoiler and I will likely buy the same thing. I'll need help at least lining stuff up, he and his wife installed his.
It sounds normal in the driveway but the drive home was much fun. I kept goosing the throttle to hear the turbo noises. I can probably skip a blow off valve, this makes enough boy racer noises for me.
Played with the vinyl cutter. Pleasantly surprised with how well it turned out.
Still need to do the hood and spoiler, new friend was unavailable this weekend. So I did some minor stuff. Ordered two things from Limit +1 (same as the spoiler), interesting having basically overnight shipping available.
So yesterday I completed the rear wiper delete (had only removed the blade and capped), and replaced the lower rear reflectors with bits that match the front end. I've heard the concept car had this originally and I like it better.
Original version. It did involve removing plastic clips underneath and a Phillips screw from inside, and I fought my vertigo, but I prevailed.
The wiper removal was simple except the 3 bolts for the motor were on some kind of cams that kept spinning. Used a very thin pair of channel locks from my childhood tool box to hold them. After that, piece of cake.
Tuesday after work an SCCA friend helped me physically install the hood. Simple task, four bolts and one for the prop rod. I needed someone on the other side for both hoods.
Spent Wednesday after work transferring all the clips, hoses, and nozzles. Had to stop at HF for a set of tools, only broke one clip. Went fairly quick.
Hoping my local GR friend will help with the spoiler Sunday. That will balance it out I think.
New hood, and new spoiler last night. It was late, but by the light of my new friend's garage lighting we added the spoiler.
Other than a short shifter I want, that's the last big $ purchase for awhile.
Between the vertigo Thursday and a Star Wars event Saturday, I didn't have as much energy to do car stuff as I'd like. But I did manage a little Sunday evening.
Wrapped the bit in front of the hood in black, and added smoked overlays to the front orange reflectors.
Jerry said:And looking up SCCA classes ... the next step up is XA, no Street Touring options like STH.
Is this true?
Is the GR excluded from ST?
Thanks.
Duke said:Jerry said:And looking up SCCA classes ... the next step up is XA, no Street Touring options like STH.
Is this true?
Is the GR excluded from ST?
Thanks.
Using the handy-dandy SCCA Solo classification tool, it shows all versions of the Corolla GR go into Street Touring Ultra.
https://www.scca-classifier.com/a/index.html
In reply to NickD :
Ahhhh, thank you! I always for about that classiferator, and just go to my local copy of Appendix A.
I appreciate the prompt response.
I know someone on the GR forum had entered STU, I commented that I thought STH was the catch-all for a car matching this description (engine size, seats, etc). He said there was a FasTrack bulletin saying they were going into STU.
Our last event got canceled for the hurricane remains a few weeks ago, I had planned to just reuse my old XA magnets from the BRZ. See what happens next year when they possibly rename all the ST classes.
Yesterday was event #3 of WOR Games, the drag race. Autocross, then a time trial, and finally this. Most of us were clueless while 2-3 members had previous experience.
We had 18-19 entries I think. Kil-Kare raceway made a separate class for us, mixed in with the usual crowd and I heard there's was a championship for some group going on.
Got there at 930am, our first trial run was over 3hrs later. Our second test was about 2hrs after that, and I had to leave for a Star Wars event. I see this morning there were four actual runs after I left, photos in the dark. That was likely a 11-12hr day.
Both my runs were fun, hit the limiter both times forgetting to pay attention. First pass was my best at 14.5 and 93mph. Probably ok for a noob and on snow tires.
Saturday was the last Dayton Cars and Coffee of the year, plus it was a Trunk or Treat. They let me do a road rally that started immediately after the C&C and let us mark off a spot for all of us to park together. I had 13 total entries which is pretty good for a first-time since 2016 event, and it was a range from sporty things to an old F150 from the 80s (manual) to three motorcycles.
I spent the whole time waiting on check-ins, paperwork, etc that I never walked the event, but I could see most of the people arriving anyway. I had quite a few interested in my car, asking about it, taking photos, and a few remarks about a "rally version" of the GRC. We only have one more AX and I'm likely skipping it now, it got moved to Cincy and they tend to bring in 120+ entries. Spend all day in likely crap weather for 3 runs around 35 seconds (ok 40 for me). No thanks.
Time to start looking more heavily at the Coolerworx or CAE shifters over the winter now. I'd like more exhaust fun but can't decide on anything, still hoping to find a simple solution like a down pipe or something vs all new exhaust. (I do miss the Abarth's exhaust.)
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