Car builds I'd love to do #1 - Toyota Starlet KP61

I’ll see if I can turn this into a series and keep it going. Knowing myself, that probably won’t happen… but I’ll do the best I can do.

The 2 key features of this series are the car and the engine, layout and specifics will be discussed in the text. Only the car and engine will get a full intro. Also, money is no object. It’s all about dreaming up things that are hardly possible and will need quite a bit of engineering to put together.

So, first on the list is a small, FR-hatchback. The list of things you could do with this little car (that most people at first glance will think is a sh’tbox), is actually pretty big. Someone else has already fitted a turbocharged Hayabusa engine in one of these and hooned it up a hillclimb. What I see when I look at a facelifted, second-gen Starlet (or KP61, as most would call it), though, is a potential replacement for the AE86. It’s going to be harder to drift (something that the drift king himself has said), but with its shorter wheelbase and lower weight, you can yeet this things through corners like there’s no tomorrow.

The engine

Of course… what else than the legendary 4A-GE? With a large variety of Toyotas being fitted with this engine, aquiring the engine wouldn’t be so difficult, right? Fit it with a (possibly more custom than it needs to be) stroker kit and some bigger pistons, strap a turbo to it and give it some ITBs and forged internals. It’ll break your neck everytime you press the throttle. But that’s the fun of it.

So, that’s that. How much power would you get out of a (aiming for) 1.8-litre ITB single-turbo 4A-GE? Surely, it’ll be over 300hp, right?

• MH