Alex's 2005 Corolla Sportivo!!! :) PICS! More pics now page 2!

[flopper]

are those rims 16's?? they look HOT..

oh nice..if only i could of found a white sportivo before,but it was hard so ended up with a blue one LOL :D

funny you mention that, I wanted a blue facelift but couldnt find any, so I went with white.

want to straight swap? LOL .. nah im going to give my one a full respray when i cbf working on it !

no chance of swapping, as soon as I saw it i fell in love. You'll soon come to realise the sentimental attachment comes when you start modding them. They are a bit of a pain, but well worth it in the end.

[GHOSTIVO]

are those rims 16's?? they look HOT..

oh nice..if only i could of found a white sportivo before,but it was hard so ended up with a blue one LOL :D

funny you mention that, I wanted a blue facelift but couldnt find any, so I went with white.

want to straight swap? LOL .. nah im going to give my one a full respray when i cbf working on it !

no chance of swapping, as soon as I saw it i fell in love. You'll soon come to realise the sentimental attachment comes when you start modding them. They are a bit of a pain, but well worth it in the end.

yup that true,especially since its my first car too. got to love it like a baby

[Trickey]

White Stivo's!! Looks great! Wish I got an 05 though, Looks good with black shoes on it. Good job.

[4ABHGE]

Car looks grouse, i love the buddyclubs :)

[alexl8891]

Okay... so the car came with KYB shocks lowered on king springs.. the handling was good i wouldn't say superb. Wasn't completely happy with it... looked into getting coilovers however decided not to take the plunge due to the rough roads around my area and having to use the car daily i just didn't think i would be happy with them in the long run.

The car came with a whiteline front strut brace, thus far I have added a whiteline rear torsion bar - this made the car definately a lot tighter and firmer especially when going around corners.. however i still wasn't completely blown away by the handling.

Also another major problem I am having is gear box issues... 1st to 2nd and sometimes to 3rd always feel a bit notchy (more so 1st to 2nd, it is def not smooth).. did the whole gear oil change + nulon additive.. helped slightly but no major improvements. What i have noticed and i believe there is no correlation is that when changing from 1st to 2nd going around a turn/ corner the notchiness during the shift is worse!! I'm 100% sure of this... I'm not sure if this is because of a chasis problem/ flex when turning but it shouldn't affect the gear chaning right?

Anyway to get you up to speed, ordered a 3pt front lower bar, a middle lower bar and a 2pt rear lower bar to add along to the front strut and rear torsion bar. This is what they look like:

Shipping and service was A+, luis from ultra racing was especially helpful and even gave me a deal of no shipping charge. Well i had to ask for it :P but he was kind enough to do this... When it arrived was packaged extremely extremely well, i'm pretty sure they are well known for this lol.. took me ages to remove all the protective packaging!

Installation:

Was fairly quick and easy. Everything was done at home with just the car jack, 2 jack stands, socket kit and arm muscle. At first, because I am new to car modding I was not sure how to deal with the rear 2pt lower brace, as the bolt from where the axle to chasis had to be removed in order to install it. I was a bit hesistant as i thought i would have difficulties installing it.

So i installed the front 3 pt lower brace and middle brace first... easy peasy. Then set to tackle the lower brace. This required some quick thinking, using the car jack to help aline the screws back for the axle after placing the brace in place. But that was about the only difficulty. The brace itself also had to be forced in as the fittment was very very tight.

Review:

So as i said i installed the front 3 pt brace and middle lower brace first. Took it for a spin, noticeable difference when going around the corners, front end felt very stable. However after installing the rear 2pt bar and then taking it for a drive the car was instantly transformed from being tight... to being tight as a nuns ******.

Handling improved 150%... car feels absoultely amazing. Taking turns at higher speed and also in the wet were no problems at all, minimal to no body roll at all. everything just feels transformed.

And the weird thing is... changing gears from 1st to 2nd is no longer an issue.. however will test it out tomorrow in depth to make perfectly sure this is not some one time thing! It feels as though because the chassis has become very rigid now, changing gears feels extremely smooth as well... strange to say the least! And this was on a cold start where its usually at its worsed!!!!

In my opinion, although quite pricey if you add it all up: upgraded shocks and lower springs, whiteline front and rear bars... ultra racing front, middle and rear bars the end result is phenomenal. its made me fall in love all over with driving it! wonder how long that will last though :P Definately makes me not wanna bother with coilovers any time soon thats for sure.

Will let you all know how the gear changing issues goes :)

[dweebz]

what site did you order it all from very interested :D. ultraracingaustralia.com.au? cus i cant find out zze on it.

which model did buy it for?

Edited May 1, 2012 by dweebz

[alexl8891]

ultra racing australia .... highly recommend them. They are cheap compared to everyone else as well! :) let me know if you take the plunge.

http://www.ultraracingaustralia.com.au/index.php?categoryid=15&p2_articleid=20

[alexl8891]

what site did you order it all from very interested :D. ultraracingaustralia.com.au? cus i cant find out zze on it.

which model did buy it for?

Follow link above ^ will lead you right to it

[Bristowe]

So did the extra bracing really cure the gearbox notchiness?

I've been very impressed with the difference a rear strut tower brace made to the rear traction in my Seca. Big fan of chassis bracing ever since.

Oh btw did they weigh much?

Edited May 3, 2012 by Bristowe

[alexl8891]

It's really strange but notchiness has reduced about 95% in my opinion... it's been notchy for a bit over a month. Every time i change from 1st to 2nd I expect it to notch up but it doesn't at all and that's even when it's cold.

It has only been a couple of days.. hopefully it will keep up :)

I'm not sure of the exact weights but they were quite light. They are hollow as well but very strong.

[Kenshin X]

get cusco from japan. better quality build and sturdy. the only two thing9s u really need to upgrade the handling on the street are the front strut brace and the rear torsion beam. ultra racing (from memory) rear torsion beam is only 19mm. the cusco is 23mm (same as the discontinued TRD one)

thicker is not always better, but helps with the under steering that FWD cars are prone to

[alexl8891]

Just washed the car after the weeks of horrible weather... just mucking around with the camera, i'm no pro

Wheels changed back to stock, got over the whole black wheel thing. My previous car had black rims too. Also the gear knob is a TWM desert eagle which i bought from a member on this forum... 650g weight.. it's nice and heavy :)

Also lately have been contemplating whether or not to sell this car... it's been a really good car, no complaints about it. Its been a fantastic upgrade from the POS i was driving before. But I really want to get a faster quality car that will yield good gains with minimal modding.. *cough evo. But realistically i'm in no position to be spending money for another car :( oh wells... Will just wait my turn!

Anyways enjoy the pictures...

[alexl8891]

Also the previous rims were wrapped in khumo ecstas... and coming back to the stock rims which are yokohama C drives... i much prefer the C drives. Really quiet, nice and grippy! The khumos were pretty loud (i.e. in cabin noise), grip was not to bad.

[Licky]

I have a strange feeling i looked at this one when I was looking around, you got it from enogrra way? (not enogra but around that direction?) fella had a really steep driveway?

[alexl8891]

...

Edited April 19, 2013 by alexl8891

[alexl8891]

I have a strange feeling i looked at this one when I was looking around, you got it from enogrra way? (not enogra but around that direction?) fella had a really steep driveway?

If you want to buy it it's for sale now... It's been a great little car, just need something a bit bigger now unfortunately.

[alexl8891]

Most recent photo, white 16' enkei es tarmac with project mu floating lug nuts

Edited April 20, 2013 by alexl8891

[rich70]

gawd damnit!
always too late when nice, clean, looked after Sportivos come on sale