It’s like wow! a real upfront and center 20V turbo Levin. I’ve heard of it now I’ve seen it, and felt the performance capabilities of a mildly tuned 20v VVTI motor with quad throttle bodies sucking air all the way through the rpm band to red line of 8200 with the aid of a T3/T4 ball bearing turbo from Garret. With stock internals and boost set at only 10psi, what a rush! . When I first saw this car, my friend’s ride was being blocked in by it at a beach party on old year night. When I found out it was a Toyota Levin, I was like “ no way”. Why can’t we get these yotas in the US? . This was the first time I ever saw one like this in person. The car is beautiful. This car looked very sleek and clean, with a beautiful black glossy finish. By the looks of this beautiful machinery, its safe to say its well cared for. But as elegant as it looked, the real hi light came when I met and spoke with the owner and found out it was a forced induction. The instant he said forced induction I though “ supercharged”, but I was immediately corrected. No! , It wasn’t a 4agz turbo, a 3sgt swap, or a 7af/4ag combination. It was a 20v VVTI turbo. This set up is very rare in NY, and to run into one on the shores of Jamaica was just pure luck. I wanted to start the interview right away. I wanted to asked him to pop the hood right there in the dark (no flash light), I didn’t care. just a peek would’ve done justice. But the push mouth, wrinkled eyebrows, and heavy breathing of my date let me know this wasn’t the time or place. I calmly set up an appointment for the following week, so here are the inside scoop.
This is a 1992 Toyota corolla Levin 20v VVTI, owned by this gentleman, a new friend of mine. He is a very nice person and possibly a rep for DIV1 in Jamaica. This wasn’t Sule’s first 20v, but it’s his first turbo set up. He had a 20v silver top motor in a ae92 body with a 90 shot of Nos pushing it through the ¼ mile in low 13s on street tires. This car haven’t ran the conventional ¼, but by using a G- tech it registered a 13.7 at 10psi using pump gas which is worst than we have in NY. Still given the circumstances 13.7 isn’t bad at such low boost, but when its time to burn some Type R’s skin he uses race gas to avoid detonation when the wick is set at 15psi. Sule told me he didn’t trust the readings from the G- TECH, so he sorted a chassie dyno shop where he took the car to get some real numbers. Once again on pump gas with boots set at 10psi, the Levin spun the rollers to a whopping 200hp @ the wheels, and that’s without the ignition upgrade or the ram air system that it now has.
How could he run so much boots on a 11:1 CR motor and not blow it up? . Here is how. He uses a thicker head gasket from HKS to lower the CR, he added 4 extra 480cc injectors which were placed directly in each throttle bodies for better fuel distribution, while the stock 310cc stays at home for regular drivability. A SDS EIC unit is been used to control the 4 extra injectors, and a MSD system controls boots timing while Jacobs controls sparks. An HKS EVC easy keeps the boost in check. A turbonetics delta gate is set in place to regulate, and prevent boots spike. To dump excess boots an HKS sports blow off valve was utilized. A custom turbo header, and all the plumbing for the ram air system that extends to the bottom of the bumper was done by Muffler Special Ltd in Jamaica. The custom plenum was imported from Australia. A T3/T4 was used to up the anti in all aspect, and a Greedy turbo timer is used to protect the turbo after a day of killing Hondas. To make sure there is enough fuel a bell engineer fuel pressure regulator was used to increased fuel the minute it senses boots, and in order to monitor the activities a gauge was also installed. The muffler was upgraded from a 2 to a 2.5 inch piping from the cat back. In order to put most of the desire power to the ground Sulea decided to massage the drive train a little, so he jacked the piggy bank once again. He gave TRD a call and decided that he would get a Quaife limited slip DIF in order to eliminate the excess wheel spin and torque steer to insure proper launch. Sule didn’t finish just yet because he realized he need some good clamping force so he opted for the TRD pressure plate with a stock clutch . After the drive train was taken care of he turned his full attention to the suspension and braking. Sule knows that it wouldn’t make sense having all this power without proper handling or stopping powers. For starters a set of TRD springs coupled with Tokiko 5 way adjustable struts gave the car a drop of about 40mm and a nice firm ride. A set of Goodridge steel braded lines and brake bias controller by Wilwood, a 10 ¼ inch cross drill disc in the front and 10 inch at the rear. To finish up the handling a set of 16/7 Racing Senika wrapped with 205/45 ZR Eagle F1 tires. AS I write this article Sule is planning the future mods. He recently sold the 16inch rims and is now searching for a set of 17 inch TE bronze Volk rims. He’s also planning to upgrade the present IC unit to a larger and more efficient Spearco unit to handle the hot weather in Jamaica and future power up grade. The 2inch piping is about to be yanked once again for a 3inch HKS GT spec Dragger system. We’ll be keeping an eye out for those upgrades and hopefully some impressive dyno# or low ET time slips from the tracks. DIV1 will be keeping all you Toyota heads out there posted.
20v Toyota Levin
Written by: Lloyd Moore.
Photos by: Lloyd Moore.