The hatchback appreciation society

[sertac]

Megane Kit Car project from Turkey. It was standard Megane coupe 1.6 at the beginning. 

[Barry]

I haven’t seen a Maxi kit Megane for years. That era of Meganes were a good car. Had a 1.9 DCi as a company car and it went surprisingly well. The later fat assed Meganes weren’t so good. Electrics were horribly unreliable. 

Peugeot 306 Cosworth. Fully spaceframed, mid mounted 2.5 Cosworth engine revving to 11k, Metro 6R4 running gear, ice racer body panels. 

 

[treks]

 

 

My hatchback is a blue 2004 Toyota Tazz (Starlet, elsewhere), with a carburetted 1.3 2E engine, and therefore nothing as glamorous as anything else posted in this thread. 

Although some members might find my Tazz a bit boring and pedestrian, I have never had any sort of trouble with it, and it gives me better mileage than my Audi A6, which is why the Audi has only done about 8 000 km in the past four years.  

Edited July 5, 2018 by treks

[Barry]

I love it. Retro cars make my boat float. We got that in Ireland and U.K. but it was called the AE92 Corolla hatchback but it went out of production in the early 90s. The Corolla nomenclature was a mess in that market because there was a few different body styles being sold under the Corolla name. The Starlet was a different smaller car for us.

Anyway, here's the crown jewel of the AE92s, the GTi 16v Twin Cam. Same 4AGE as the legendary AE86. 130 BHP might not seem like much now but back then it was something special, especially in such a light car. And the engine is pretty much bulletproof. You can rev it until the manifold turns red and it still begs for more.

Ill also throw in our EP82 Starlet GT Turbo, 1.3 engine is good for 300 BHP + with mods.

Plus bonus Irish spec AE86. By Irish spec I mean 90% of AE86s in Ireland are built to the same spec, as a homage to the rally heritage I guess, Superlite wheels, lowered on Bilsteins, Janspeed exhaust, 2 up 2 down Cibie spots on the front, CB radio aerial on the roof. Some of these sell for up to £20,000 (100k dhs). I remember as a kid when they were lying in hedges full of rust and you were lucky to get £500 for one.

[treks]

Toyota imported a few of the 1.6 Tazzes, but for some reason they were not all that popular here, but the AE86 was another matter. They were hugely popular, and some mod boys tuned them into fire-breathing monsters that ate almost anything else for breakfast. 

I was never into that sort of thing though- for me it was always enough just to build a performance engine on the bench, and what the customer did with it was none of my concern. But who knows, for a suitable cash consideration I might be tempted to come out of retirement for a bit to build a couple of crated LS 1 engines I still have lying about, but until then, I'll continue enjoying puttering around in my bog standard Tazz.  

[desertdude]

On ‎7‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 5:11 PM, treks said:

 

 

My hatchback is a blue 2004 Toyota Tazz (Starlet, elsewhere), with a carburetted 1.3 2E engine, and therefore nothing as glamorous as anything else posted in this thread. 

Although some members might find my Tazz a bit boring and pedestrian, I have never had any sort of trouble with it, and it gives me better mileage than my Audi A6, which is why the Audi has only done about 8 000 km in the past four years.  

So I assume you don't get the turbo charged starlet in SA

[treks]

4 hours ago, desertdude said:

So I assume you don't get the turbo charged starlet in SA

There may be a few unofficial imports still floating about, but I have never seen one. 

[sertac]

[sertac]

[sertac]