TDSAutoMag

Kicking off with some of the new content I’ve been telling you guys about; today we take a look at Landis’s EP82 build. Being in the market for a daily, Landis came across a EP82 Toyota Starlet GT Turbo at a price he couldn’t refuse. After having resolved a few issues which forced his hand to make some upgrades, he quickly caught the bug to dive a bit deeper into the build. Even though he spent most of the time dailying the car, Landis felt the urge to bring the build which developed in his mind over time to life. The goal in mind was to produce his version of a streetable, drag focused project car.

I’ll be taking you guys from the initial purchase through some of the early stages of development that occurred to kick start this build…

 

A look at the Starlet when Landis initially purchased it…

With the car in his possession, there were a few issues which needed immediate attention. Landis headed over at T.M Industries to have them dealt with along with a full assessment on the car…

Initially being under the impression the car had a blown head gasket the guys started work on diagnosing the problem. Upon further inspection, it revealed there was a coolant hose that was installed incorrectly which caused water to enter the intake…

A few random shots taken after the issues were solved and Landis was able to move around freely…

Shortly after the guys made a lighting upgrade with the instillation of a HID kit…

 

Having made up his mind to dive in on the project, and not fully confident with performance of the stock motor Landis wasted no time and placed some orders. A decision was made to refresh the motor and while he was at it he thought would make some upgrades…

For the plan to go smoothly while avoiding down time, Landis went ahead and swapped in another 4E-FTE motor so he still could be able to get around while the motor was being built…

With everything fitted back together Landis was able to make some rounds. It was time to move the build into the next phase which was dealing with the exterior. Landis reached out to Butcher over at Ricky’s Auto Body and had the car to booked to be painted…

A progress shot of the EP82 during the colour change…

 

While the car was at the paint shop, the donor motor was disassembled in preparation for the remainder of parts…

As for the bottom end Landis opted to go with 74.5mm 8.0:1 compression Arias oversized pistons with H beam rods. He wanted to make sure it was a solid enough to base to build towards his power goal. As for the head package, Landis went with Speedvision 270/280 camshafts and a set of Supertech valve springs and retainers to close out the upgrades to the head…

 

With the project officially underway and taking shape, the main highlight was still missing. Landis was able to acquire a GT2871R turbo with the hope of extracting some power out of this setup; however, the dated log styled turbo manifold would have to go. He reach out to ReWeld with the intentions of having something built to suit the plans he had already laid out in his mind…

Not only wouldn’t the log style manifold produce the level of performance Landis is chasing, but its appearance was less than satisfactory. Landis thought why not take it to another level and agreed to have a forward facing manifold built. The guys got together and came up with a concept design for the manifold…

First up was getting things in place to start building the collector. Reudon started with a T25 flange and proceeded to cut the 1.25″ mild steel tubes…

Tubes tacked in place to begin the fabrication process on the manifold…

A quick mock up in the jig as ReWeld set the stage for the firing order on the runners while focusing on an equal length design…

 

Landis previously owned a EP82, however the shell wasn’t worth repairing given the condition. Before sending it to the dump, he thought it could be useful during the manifold’s fabrication…

With the shell being around it simplified things somewhat when it came time for test fitting…

Having built the jig is only one part of it, test fitting throughout this entire process is very valuable. It’s always great to mock up on the car to ensure optimal fitment between components…

A look at the car after Landis received it from paint. Pictured with the hood open showing the stock 4E-FTE motor with a top mounted intercooler…

A quick look at the rear…

A look at the finish with the black hood and roof to aid with the contrast of the bright blue hue. The car sat on a set of 15×7 +35 Traklite Gear wheels wrapped in 205 50 Toyo Proxes TM1 rubber at the front and 205 50 Kumho Ecsta V720 at the back…

With paint knocked out, and the motor assembled; Landis returned to T.M Industries for the guys to prepare the EP82 for its new transplant…

 

That brings us to the end of this inside look at Landis’s EP82 build, more to come soon…