Talez

The EJ15 is a much neglected engine in Subaru's lineup. It's a SOHC with poor economy and power compared to the 2NZ-FE. The EL15 would be far more likely but that develops even less power (110ps vs 120ps) than the 2NZ-FE. The car's target weight has already been stated as under 1 ton and this is quite achievable for a 3-door coupe style with modern materials. Keep in mind the AE86 only developed 130ps in the first version of the 4A-GE and 120ps in the second generation so a 120ps 2NZ-FE isn't out of the question when we're looking at the same sorts of weight. This isn't supposed to be a sports car to take on your WRX. It's to attract the kids with a sort of kit car. The 2NZ-FE is incredibly compact so you're going to be looking at a lot of room under the bonnet with bolt on turbos and what not and I wouldn't be suprised if they generally started taking advantage of the Scion style business model where they sell a premium line of performance parts and the base car is incredibly cheap. The car is only going to weight 1000kg or less. If they were to sell it over here they'd have to drive home the fact that it's a rear wheel drive for under 20 grand. That alone is going to get you a whole heap of tofu delivery boy wannabes. It would also be an incredible car to push the TRD performance parts branding which would be incredibly profitable. Keep in mind that TRD at the moment is generally limiting itself to the rich, middle aged boomers who can afford a Aurion Sportivo.

Everyone here is a bit behind the times. This was on autoblog in August 2007 with way more detail and full sized scans. Basically this is a result of Toyota's "Committee to create interesting cars" and is going to be a resurrection of the small, light and cheap RWD concept. The engine that they're planning on using is a 1.5L 2NZ-FE good for about 120hp. With an all-aluminum build it'll probably be a hell of a lot lighter than the iron block 4A-GE. They are keeping the weight of the car down as much as possible and they intend for it to come in as close to 1 ton as possible while retaining most of the modern creature comforts. Rumoured release date range between Christmas 2008 in Japan and mid 2010 for the rest of the world and the sticker price is to be below 1.5 million yen (that's approximately $14-17K). And yes, I'll be grabbing one of the first ones that are sold in Australia.

I personally think they won't make a TRD Corolla because of the current choice of engines available for such a machine. Even if you go up to the 2L category what do you have available to you? 1AZ? 3ZR? 1TR? Give me a break. I realise I'll probably get torched later on by 2008 Corolla fans who will proclaim their 2ZR is the best thing since sliced bread but compared to the 4A, 3S and 2ZZ engines these modern engines border on a complete joke as far as performance goes.

I've had my 2004 Corolla Sportivo for about a week and a half. After the first week I found I had chewed through almost 120L of fuel (BP Ultimate) and pulled just over 800km which means I've been chewing up 15L/100km. I figure it's because I usually downshift pretty early while braking and have been hitting lift all the time once the thermostat says it's up to normal operating temp. This week I've been driving a bit more sanely and I've currently pulled just under 200km and have used a touch over a quarter of a tank which should result in about 600-700km out of this tank and a much better result of about 8.5-10L/100km.

TRD Corolla should just be a road going version of the old Corolla WRC. Problem solved. :D