OH, WHAT A FEELING!

THIS 1700HP BARRA-POWERED COROLLA IS HEADING FOR BOTTOM SEVENS

- MARK ARBLASTER

HISTORICALLY, Toyota's legendary Corolla has not exactly been a model that conjures up images of brute horsepower. It hasn't been until the past few years that these former granny-packs or inner-city commuters have found their way into performance circles, as stock of more desirable muscle car platforms dries up.

Burnout stalwart Andrew Lynch has certainly upped the model's reputation for insanity with his tip-ins on the pad, but for sheer driving madness, the little KE20 Corolla of Queensland's Guy King gives Lynchy a run for his money.

The old Toyota catchcry of 'Oh, what a feeling!' has never been more appropriate. Stuffed with 1700 horses worth of nitrous-injected Barra badness, Guy's Corolla weighs four-fifths of bugger-all. It's a recipe for quick ETS.

Guy's been partial to 'Rollas ever since piloting a KE55 as his first set of wheels. I've always loved them, and when I came across this 1974-model KE20 for sale in Melbourne with an RB30, I had to have it, he says.

It came with problems, and lots of them. Mechanically it was a wreck. It had a hurt engine, and I had to change out the ECU and upgrade the fuel system.

Guy eventually got the issues ironed out and raced the car for two years with the single-overhead-cam RB30, force-fed by a GTX42/45 hybrid turbo and running on E85. In that guise, it belted out a hefty 1000rwhp. With the car weighing in at just 1100kg, it ran an 8.4@163mph on a 275 radial - until it all went pear-shaped.

I lost an injector at the track and burnt a hole in the piston, Guy recalls. I was at a juncture as to which way to go moving forward: Do I swap to a twin-cam head, which meant that I could only use the block, crank and rods and would have to redo the whole hot and cold side, or do I switch to something else?