Two other very famous cars in the Joburg Auto Tech stable are 3.2 turbocharged Audi A3 Quattro, and the 2JZ powered BMW which produces in excess of 1000hp! Those are some impressive rides, but their latest acquisition is set to really break a few hearts on the highways and byways of the city…a KE70 Toyota Corolla!

Now, it’s safe to assume that everyone loves KE70 and the rest of the article will offend the purists, so here goes!
A few months back; prior to lockdown, Ally managed to get his hands on a clean 1300 model which was in awesome condition and originally destined for a run of the mill Lexus V8 conversion. I’ll be honest, nothing wrong with that but when you want big power in a Toyota, you need 6-cylinders and turbo, and with that in mind the team decided NOT to fit a 2JZ motor with a big turbo! Yes, you read correctly; NO 2JZ in a Toyota! Instead (stop reading now Toyota fans) they chose to fit a VW VR6 motor!

With lockdown now easing, Ally and his team can finally get back to work on the Corolla and what can we expect from this Japanese/German hybrid? Well, for starters the car is fitted with a newer multivalve VR6 motor which makes sense in a way because the compact design allows you to cram 6-cylinders into the engine bay without hacking the firewall to death. As good as that sounds, it still a VR6, so to get maximum power out of the block a set of Traum oversized forged pistons were fitted which increases capacity to 3.0, a “VR30” if you may.

Connecting those pistons to the steel crank is a set of Integrated Engineering X-Beam conrods with custom billet main caps and block brace from Spark Hydraulics. Holding the motor together is a set of ARP bolts and when you invest so much money in strengthening a block it only means one thing; TURBO TIME!

Once this KE70 hits the streets, it will go 2JZ hunting thanks to TWO GT3071R turbos mounted to Joburg Auto Tech branch. Keeping that boost cool is a massive intercooler that utilises an APEXi core with custom end tanks. The motor has also been fitted with a custom billet intake manifold from MWAS Systems that was built to accommodate the 90mm VW R32 drive-by-wire throttle body.

Now that Ally has upset the Toyota and VW purist, its time to upset the BMW purist. Somewhere out there, an E46 BMW M3 is missing its 6-speed manual gearbox because its going into this car along with the Tilton triple pack clutch. To get all that to mate with the VR6 motor (I doubt there’s anyone in the world with intention of bolting a VR6 to an M3 gearbox) Pieter Thomas made an adapter plate and flywheel.

Apart from the rather unusual motor swap, another thing that this KE70 has going for it are its looks, OEM covered in Nardo grey…you don’t need anything else. The interior however may need some safer seats because its stock 1300 spec with no headrests or safety devices, but its in such perfect condition that nobody would want to change it. What needs to change though is this car’s status from project to completed, and hopefully by the time that this hits the shelves, a few “fast cars” will have another headache to contend with!