Rhyscar's Toyota Levin - 2zzge Touring car - finished*

[Roman]

So good! 

Did you have any major take aways from the first major time out? 
As in any revisions to anything that you think are needed before next events.

What is that reversed shifter arrangement like to use? 
I think that would break my brain having reversed H pattern. haha

[Rhyscar]

On 14/11/2025 at 23:49, Roman said:

So good! 

Did you have any major take aways from the first major time out? 
As in any revisions to anything that you think are needed before next events.

What is that reversed shifter arrangement like to use? 
I think that would break my brain having reversed H pattern. haha

 

Yeah there is a such a massive list floating around in my head.. but seeing as I only just managed to unpack the car yesterday (2wks later!), I haven't had a chance to write it all down. So here goes. 

I think it's too early to make any bold calls about the shifter, as I was extremely rusty from not driving a car like this in 13yrs. Unsurprisingly, I had the most issues when I was rushing into a corner or having brake issues. I've driven other cars on track, but the difference between a 1:28 car and 1:20 (where I'm hoping to be) at Manfield is like speaking another langauge. Everything happens faster, needs to be more precise and the options for what you want the car to do are endless. I was blown away by the grip levels of the CR-S and the setup. So much higher than I remember. So I need to get more seat time to blow out the cobwebs. 

Shifter

Generally, I liked the reverse h pattern and only had a brain fart 1-2 times, typically when I was cruising back to pits using 5/6th etc (brain not engaged). The 1-2-3-4 gear changes are magic and I was impressed how easy it was. (however, I had to lol when I drove the Type RA last night and tried to go from 3rd to reverse ). Going back down to 2nd was the hardest gear to select, which could be play, or could be the side-side spacing I've set it up with (can be adjusted). It loosened up throughout the day and had a bit more play by the end. So need to have a quick look and make sure everything is tight etc.

The linkage that popped off has the longest lever arm/gain, so I'm not suprised it happened. I think I'll redesign this one to use dual skateboard bearings and hold the rod end in a clevis instead, so there isn't the sideways force on the bearing housing. Whether I eventually do this for all the levers to reduce play or not I'm unsure, but I don't want to commit to reengineering it just yet. 

 

Other stuff

• Brake fluid - replace all with good fluid. 
• Clutch pedal - make a stopper and adjust up so the engagement point is easier to feel. I was tentative on the clutch pedal as mashing the pedal at high RPM will cause max damage to thrust bearings
• Airbox filters - these tried to fall out on track, need a retaining thing to hold in place (likely 3D printed)
• Spring rates - check whats actually in the car. It handled pretty well, plenty of turn in and mid corner, but never got tailey - which means I was nowhere near the limit of grip. Also need to adjust rear swaybar as it was set very conservatively for first time out.. and I haven't touched the shocks, so a bit more compression/rebound might sharpen the car up and get me feeling what I need. 
• Tyre rub - Check where it's rubbing, add more camber in front if needed, adjust rear clearance with a hammer. This may involve stripping springs and stroking suspension to double check my compression and droop values, as I don't know exactly where it's ended up. 
• Guard liners - front wheel pick up stones like crazy, and fire them in all directions. There will be tears if they dent the front guards from inside. 
• Fuel surge - put foam in the fuel tank. Which means accessing the top of the tank again, so I need to re-design the filler neck and alloy print something that isn't so infuriating to assemble
• Gauges - Oil pressure and fuel gauges are not working/inaccurate. All senders are new, so need to get Drew to look at this. These aren't super important, but they are good sanity checks for a quick glance to make sure everything is as you'd expect while ontrack
• Weight - I'm also curious to see what it weighs, and corner weighing it isn't a silly idea either
• Race box - I'm in desperate need of a dedicated container to store all my raceday stuff in, so I have all the correct fluid, specialty tools etc on hand. I found it too much to remember everything each time, so I need to automate the process. 

 

Rough plan for events is keep it simple next year while I get used to the car again. A couple basic Hampton trackdays and a few tarmac sprints are on the cards (and hopefully some gravel rallies in the corolla!). When this car was fast, I drove it every day, so I knew it like the back of my hand. If the cert progress goes smoothly, I should be able to get into regular sunday morning drives in the second half of next year. 

For drag day, I'll likely do nothing as I'm hectically busy atm.  @kpr has provided a tweaked tune as the IRL Fuel numbers were slightly different with the airbox. It was worse down low and better up top (who know's whats going on - probably gypsy's involved). 

I've got some shitty road tyres to do some skids on and have some fun, then will chuck the CR-S's on and see what it can do (if I manage to work out the lights properly. haha)

[Hyperblade]

30 minutes ago, Rhyscar said:

 

• Race box - I'm in desperate need of a dedicated container to store all my raceday stuff in, so I have all the correct fluid, specialty tools etc on hand. I found it too much to remember everything each time, so I need to automate the process. 

 

So awesome following this build, thanks for spending time on the updates!

Re race boxes, I run a Dewalt tstak (cheapest of these types of kits I could find, they also come up secondhand often) which I've found works really well.

Bottom

Then on top i run 

 

Fluids and heavy stuff go in the bottom (tape, brake fluid containers, brake clean etc), tools in the top one.

Makes it easy getting it from the car to service area, and can come apart so fits in the car easier, and each is not over heavy to lift around.

Obviously lots of choices too for what you put on top to suit your setup.

I then run a simple checklist on the phone (Google Keep) which i verify against when packing to make sure I've got the important things.

At some point I should 3d print some internals so each tool has a place, but to much time/effort going on other more important things.

[Rhyscar]

Thanks, and great suggestion for the toolbox. They look to be very reasonably priced too. I see they come in different configuration organisers for the top boxes which is awesome. 

Does the carry handle detach? I don't drive a silly ute so everything needs to pack in boot of racecar/Lexus. It provides a Tetris-like challenge when wife and 2 kids are also packed.. 

[Hyperblade]

10 minutes ago, Rhyscar said:

Thanks, and great suggestion for the toolbox. They look to be very reasonably priced too. I see they come in different configuration organisers for the top boxes which is awesome. 

Does the carry handle detach? I don't drive a silly ute so everything needs to pack in boot of racecar/Lexus. It provides a Tetris-like challenge when wife and 2 kids are also packed.. 

 

I know the struggle, i have 2 car seats in the back of mine. Luckily I have an SUV so boot space is decent. But when you add a spare set of slicks rims and then wets things get challenging.

The handle doesn't detach but it slides down at press of button (so silver shaft goes inside black) height collapsed from ground to top of handle is 635mm.

 

[Rhyscar]

Awesome, will keep an eye out for one (unwanted presents on marketplace post-xmas hopefully)

[mjrstar]

A bit unconventional but I'm running a large chilly bin,mostly because I take a fuel container and the proper seal on the chilly bin means no fume smell. I have a cantilever toolbox which has most of the tools I might need.

[Rhyscar]

25 minutes ago, mjrstar said:

A bit unconventional but I'm running a large chilly bin,mostly because I take a fuel container and the proper seal on the chilly bin means no fume smell. I have a cantilever toolbox which has most of the tools I might need.

Thats actually genius. That's one downside of having a car is fuel smells get through from the boot easily. Ute not so much of a problem. 

Bonus feature is you can chuck some ice and beers in at lunchtime when you fill your car up and chill your beers for after racing is done. 

[Rhyscar]

DRAG DAY Prep!!

 

Which is a bit of an oxi-moron as the prep has been minimal, however I found a few things that explained some issues I was having at Manfield. I don't want to use this car with known issues, as it just leads to more pain and risk than there needs to be, so I've pushed to sort the important things, even though drag day will be a relatively easy workload on the car. 

 

I've been noticing some odd drips of coolant on the bottom of the oil filter, but had no idea where it was coming from. Managed to identify a blocked off coolant line that had a slightly undertight hose clamp. Man it was hard to reach though!!

 

Bought some new TGP axle nuts for an SW20 MR2 as I had a mis-match of nuts/washers that I didn't fully trust. God damn these were expensive. 

 

So turns out there's quite a lot of force going through the shifter levers. I managed to bend this one at Manfield, so I straightened and added my hory bearing-retaining-bolt fix. A re-design to a double-bearing 3d printed part is needed in the new year

 

I also fabricated a clutch pedal stopper for the pedalbox so I wouldn't overthrow the release bearing and damage thrust bearings. From the incar footage from manfield I was pretty timid with the clutch pedal, which didn't help shifting issues. So I'm hoping this will let me mash the clutch without worry. I still need to set position up correctly, and tweak the clutch switch adjustment so I can do flat shifting (future problem). 

 

So I noticed a small amount of brake fluid dripping on the inside of the car behind the pedal box. Turns out the front master cylinder was not only bypassing, but leaking out the pushrod seal too. The master has been sitting/installed in the car without fluid for over 10yrs, so I'm not entirely suprised. My caliper seals might be the same too. Explains my brake issues at manfield (but old fluid probably didn't help either). Pic below shows how much of a PITA it was the access/replace. 

 

 

I also got a chance to check out the tyre rub issue too - and summary is it's just rubbing everywhere. Front is contacting guards, and rear is contacting upper tyre well on the outside. I can add more camber in the front easily enough, but the rear might need some cut/welding - will decide on the right path forward after I've removed springs and stroked the suspension to check bumpstop engagement point. 

 

 

These few little things and renewing my race license have made what was supposed to be a cheap, easy day out drag racing suddenly be a $1000 exercise... That's motorsports for you! Let's hope the day goes smoothly. 

 

Other than this, absolutely no prep has been done. Car hasn't been started in over a month, and unfortunately I haven't tried the new tune from Kris either. But, I've got some hory old 17" road tyres to do burnouts on, and looking forward to a day surrounded by awesome cars and people. See you all there!

 

 

[Rhyscar]

Officially drag'ed. 

 

Great day out enjoying the car with friends and family. Just jumping in the car, starting it, and driving it made it worthwhile. I actually can't wait until I can daily drive this car - it's going to be so cool (and make all the effort worthwhile!). 

 

Edit - check out Finley tucking into the dinosaur lollies while mum & dad aren't watching. Cheeky bugger!

 

One for the pool room here. Finley loved all the different colour cars even though some were loud. Yellow ones were her favourite. 

 

14.2 @100mph is the best I could manage. Interestingly, I did this in my second run without thinking too much about it, and by the afternoon and a bit more trying/finesse in getting off the line that's all I could get it down to. Ended up launching at 3000rpm and still wheel spinning through first before I could get to WOT. 

The heat definitely played a part, heat-soaking the IAT and showing intake temps of between 40-50deg C. Among other things, this pulled some fuel which isn't ideal. @kpr has suggested a few tweaks to the tune but nothing major until I can give it a proper well-rounded road shakedown. 

 

 

Snapped a few pics in the morning light. I love the side profile with the wheels tucking.  

 

A few good takeaways:

• Clutch - stopper definitely helped my driving, knowing theres a physical stop before it mashes the thrush bearing into the crank was reassuring. 
• Shifter - Linkages are getting sloppy again after my temporary fix - re-designing and printing a few linkages needs to be high priority in new year
• IAT position in bottom of airbox needs some heat sheilding or relocation to prevent heat soaking while sitting in traffic/start line. Temps had dropped by end of strip, but still +10deg above ambient.
• New brake master worked awesome. Way better pedal feel and no issues. Makes me wonder if my clutch master needs replacing too (has been sitting round same length of time). Rear circuit master is newer but still 3-4yrs of sitting around. 
• It makes fucking great Dooty noises

 

 

Other than that, everything worked as it should. Car stopped/started all day and didn't leak anything. Call that a win. Great day by all, thanks for those who organised it!

 

 

[kpr]

I had issues with the wilwood master cylinders in the starlet.  had been in there awhile, but really not that much use compared to what a oem deals with. they had scuffing damage in the cylinder bore.  be interesting to see if yours was the same or just old seals?     mine weren't fluid  leaking.  but kept letting air into the system. 
I have swapped to tilton masters which, drop into the wilwood pedal box. see how they go 

 

[Rhyscar]

1 minute ago, kpr said:

I have swapped to tilton masters which, drop into the wilwood pedal box. see how they go 

 

 

This is great to know! Yeah, we were having this discussion at the pub afterwards about how important brakes are and how large the quality difference is between cheaper brands like wilwood and the likes of Tilton and AP etc.

 

The more I think about it, the less I want to skimp on brake stuff just to save a few bucks. I'm thinking I'll probably chuck my new Wilwood 0.75" onto the clutch and replace the two brake cylinders with Tilton 

[Hyperblade]

1 hour ago, kpr said:

I had issues with the wilwood master cylinders in the starlet.  had been in there awhile, but really not that much use compared to what a oem deals with. they had scuffing damage in the cylinder bore.  be interesting to see if yours was the same or just old seals?     mine weren't fluid  leaking.  but kept letting air into the system. 
I have swapped to tilton masters which, drop into the wilwood pedal box. see how they go 

 

I was advised to avoid Wilwood master cylinders (calipers were fine just mc shit) when I did my pedal box from someone who end up replacing their new Wilwoods and had a good relationship with the importer.

I run ap racing ones now as that was recommended by the same person. But they aren't cheap (understatement...). But I haven't had a single issue with them and pedal feels great (but so many factors goes into that).

[mjrstar]

Sounds like a successful day out, plus the car looks great

 

as a benchmark its running the same trap and very similar time to my honda, I also struggled with 60ft. Best I did the year I went was a 14.08 at 100.xx mph with about a 2.7 60ft

Worst thing in my machine was having use 5th before the finish. As the extra gear change costs time.

 

[Rhyscar]

1 hour ago, mjrstar said:

Sounds like a successful day out, plus the car looks great

 

as a benchmark its running the same trap and very similar time to my honda, I also struggled with 60ft. Best I did the year I went was a 14.08 at 100.xx mph with about a 2.7 60ft

Worst thing in my machine was having use 5th before the finish. As the extra gear change costs time.

 

That’s an interesting comparison, and makes about sense with similar power and setup. My 60fts were around 2.3
 

The advantage of Hondas is the much better gearing - I’m only just into 4th at that speed. 
 

@Hyperblade good to hear AP is worthwhile. You get what you pay for. I’ll have a look around and or see if I can pickup something reasonably priced when I’m in Aus for Bathurst 12h.

They don’t seem to have an option where the outlet is on the end (which would be my preference so I don’t need to remake any lines). A direct replacement for the wilwood would be ideal 

[Roman]

My carina with beams did a 14.2 and 97something mph. With the supposed benefit of rwd in a car weighing roughly the same. That was the best after a few events too.

14.2 and 100mph is awesome, especially considering its got lots of front camber and non drag tyres.

Easy 13s if you had drag tyres on.

[Hyperblade]

24 minutes ago, Rhyscar said:

@Hyperblade good to hear AP is worthwhile. You get what you pay for. I’ll have a look around and or see if I can pickup something reasonably priced when I’m in Aus for Bathurst 12h.

They don’t seem to have an option where the outlet is on the end (which would be my preference so I don’t need to remake any lines). A direct replacement for the wilwood would be ideal 

Yeah, that makes sense if you can just do drop in then.

I don't have any experience with the Tiltons (other then I'm running their pedal box, which is a well built unit) but from the anecdotal evidence I've seen through the web over the years, they look to be decent units, I'm pretty sure they would be better quality then then the Wilwood. They would be my second pick to try personally.

[Rhyscar]

For interests sake, I pulled the old master apart tonight. Yup leaking from front seal with a buildup of gunk/alloy shavings. Scuffing on the bore doesn’t seem too bad, but there is some. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Roman said:

My carina with beams did a 14.2 and 97something mph. With the supposed benefit of rwd in a car weighing roughly the same. That was the best after a few events too.

14.2 and 100mph is awesome, especially considering its got lots of front camber and non drag tyres.

Easy 13s if you had drag tyres on.

Thanks man, I didn’t know what to expect, and was super surprised at how hard it was to get it to hook up.
Numbers seem to be consistent with lots of other people with similar setups, unless they’ve spent heaps of time at the track and refined their setup. 
 

100% agree even a good 15” road tyre would make a world of difference. 

[kp60nick]

Great to catch up with you at the track on Saturday. Such an amazing machine you've built. It was so good to finally see it in person. 

I probably cant help any more than the others above but I had some wilwood masters that I used in my kp they bleed up nicely when new but car sat for a few years, I can only assume the brake fluid ate away at the rubbers as I was never able to bleed them up again.  That is probably obvious but assume OEM masters would last longer than a few years before losing seal highlighting the fact maybe wilwood masters aren't as good as we think? Or because the are cheap maybe designed to be a throw away part? 

 

 

[mjrstar]

On 16/12/2025 at 19:03, Rhyscar said:

That’s an interesting comparison, and makes about sense with similar power and setup. My 60fts were around 2.3

@Hyperblade 

Cars are even.closer, just double checked my old slip it was a 2.317 not the 2.71 that my old brain thought it was. 

Anyway drag racing is not where it's at to measure full potential ot a build like this.

For instance orange hayabusa starlet guy does 13.7 and will clean up most things at tarmac hillclimb events.

 

Also some race brake fluid is not great for longevity,  for instance motul rbf660 that I run tends to trap moisture and turn corrosive worse than some other fluids.

I hear endless fluid maybe a little better. So I might swap to that this season.