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Classics by The Beach: June, 2026

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Old school cool meets new-ish school resto-mod in this absolute ripper 4A-GE-powered 1969 Corolla, resulting in a mean machine that doesn't just look the part but is in equal measure wolf - or fox, according to the rego - in sheep's clothing.  Alright, I admit that it's pretty lairy looking sheep attire - striking red duco, front and rear spoilers, a fat set of 13" Jelly Bean alloys and a race-inspired interior - but all that good gear's pretty much in keeping with the car's era.      However, a standard KE17 Sprinter , as the fast back variant is known, was equipped with an 1166 cc twin-carby 3K-B pushrod engine, pumping out around 57 kW ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Corolla_(E10) ) .  That was lively enough for its day - especially in such a simple, light-weight shell - and certainly amenable to a bit of tuning but nothing in comparison to the 84 - 123 kW that can be had from the DOHC 4A-GEs fitted to Toyota's beloved AE86 range from the mid-1980...
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From Ziff: a 1996 Fraser Clubman

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According to publicly-available Transport Tasmania records, this ripper Lotus 7-based sports car is a New Zealand-built Fraser Clubman.   Unfortunately, there pretty much endeth the lesson because there’s no readily available information that definitively states what engines, transmissions and other running gear was used when this particular example was built in 1996.  Even AI vacillated on what might be lurking beneath its long, shapely bonnet, suggesting that as it is effectively a kit-car, a range of power-plants may have been used.  It also lamely suggested visiting the Fraser Clubman Wikipedia page ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Clubman )  but that didn’t help, either. Our chip-for-brains friend did, however, timidly suggest that either a Toyota 4AGE 20 valve or a Toyota 3SGE could have provided this example’s get up ‘n’ go, which is plausible, as both those options were produced in the mid-90s and are still available as current Fraser specs on th...
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