In general, think of the cars that make up the car culture. Go ahead. What kind of cars pop into your mind? The answer from person to person will differ depending on experience, but when the general mass thinks of the makeup of our car community there are more or less the stereotypical cars that come to mind.

A Toyota Corolla Wagon is one I would categorize into “a car that people usually don’t modify.” Not that we believe it’s a bad car or shouldn’t be modified, but because a more stereotypical car to be modified would be… probably a Civic and two, my dad had one just like it…

He had a lot of pride in his wagon and took really good care of it. I remember him detailing the thing almost monthly and even thought to myself as an adolescent, why would he spend so much time and effort on something like that?

Ironic isn’t it? Funny that I’d be questioning why someone spends so much time and money on a car…

Jon, the owner of this wagon, takes pride in his design and build, but goes up a notch. It’s something that would catch my eye on the street.

It’s not “stancy” or “flashy” but definitely respectable in its own right. I have an appreciation for those who choose to go a “road-less-travelled” when doing a design and build.

Staring with the engine, he has an engine bay much cleaner than some cars manufactured in 2010’s

Note the headers… it gives me a Honda D-series vibe…

On the outside, we have a set of clean OEM flaps behind a set of some ADVAN Racing Touring Competitions

Further outside, is the silhouette of the well-known Corolla wagon, sitting lower than universally seen.

Take note of the front of the car. It’s ok if it doesn’t look familiar. Jon gave it a thorough Japanese makeover as its front end is what would only be found in the Japanese version of this wagon. Check out the Sprinter badge and those fog lights!

The interior is clean as hell, with a driver seat right outta Japan.

Back in my previous post of the SCCA Rookies the 2024 season Jon decided to take what he had to the local autox for the first time with no additional changes and no addition prep to the car. Again, I commend him for participating. It takes courage to do something unfamiliar. With 3 DNFs in his first three, he was able to pull a clean final 4th run. I was privileged enough to be able to sit with him during that run too!

Looking forward to what he has next in store, be it another makeover for the wagon… or something else.

Two final notes, that Rav in the background is also quite a handy tool! Its also owned by Jon. And this build hit home some for me… I found out that its in dedication to his grandfather, a continued inspiration for him to this day.

Glad to have had the honor!

---

Jon’s 1992 Toyota Corolla Wagon

Exterior 

• Rev9 Hyperstreet 2 coil-over suspension.
• Hyperco 10k springs front / 8k springs rear.
• New oem rear mud flaps painted to match the strut bar. Has replica Toyota decals.
• Amazon front rubber mud flaps.
• Amazon gas hood struts with carbon fiber finish.
• Ebay Radiator Cooling plate
• Ebay catch can with vacuum guage.
• MRP roll center corrected ball end joints. 
• 1999 Advan Touring Competition 5 spoke wheels.
  • 15x 6.5” +32 offset.
  • Repainted Toyota 192 Sunset Silver.
  • Replica Decals from UK.
• Yokohama Advan Fleva tires 195/50/15
• GTS disc brake conversion.
  • Replaced the brake master to a larger size
  • proportioning valve to properly adjust brake bias to run rear disc brakes.
  • OEM knuckles were also replaced to accommodate the new brakes. 
• Red steel braided brake lines from eBay.
• OEM GTS front strut tower bar.
  • Resprayed black to match the coil over top hats. 
• Painted valve cover with Silver VHT paint
  • Replica 16 valve decal to give the motor a cleaner look. 
• Toyota C52 5 speed manual transmission swap.
• Stage 1 Exedy clutch system.
• Subframe also came with the transmission off a GTS and it had a stock anti roll bar. Base model subframe does not. 
• Rare OEM Japanese AE92 “Wagon Face” 
  • Refinished with the same paint code as the chassis.
  • Grill, Headlight housings and corner lights
• Rare OEM Japanese front bumper with aftermarket fog lights wired into the inner lights by headlamps.
• Spray painted wiper arms silver for. 
• Resprayed front and rear bumpers the same colors as the body.
• Very Rare window vent shades. No longer in production. 
• Spectre 8219 3” polished intake.
• Flash Shark 4-2-1 Stainless Steel headers for the 4afe. An alternative cup style flange with a donut gasket was welded to the down pipe to allow for better sealing. 
• 2.5″ Vibrant Ultra Quiet resonator 
• 2.5″ Private Label Manufacturing Spoon style Muffler

Interior

• 1992 D-Shape Momo 3 spoke stitched leather wheel
• Momo steering hub adapter.
• ShirtsTuckedIn weighted black shift knob with red emblem. 
• MeganRacing short shifter.
  • Designed for the ae100 series from 93-97
  • Modify the existing shitter plate to allow the short shifter to work. 
• ShirtsTuckedIn shift boot cover. Yellow stitching matches the yellow on the Momo horn button.
• Dash cover from Rockauto
  • Uncracked dash
• Momo floor matts with yellow logos
• OEM Gauge cluster from LE model sedans from the same generation.

-Fun fact: No base model sedan or wagon came with a tachometer if the car came as an automatic which this one was. Early carbureted models in 1988-1989 did not have the wire needed to make the tachometer work unless you ordered a manual car with the tachometer option from a dealer. Later models like the 1990-1992 have the wire and you can swap in the gauge cluster after opening it up and switching odometers. Good luck finding any LHD clusters with tach though, stupid hard to come by. 

• Bee R rev limiter 😉