Buddy Club Racing Spec Bucket Seats - Sport Compact Car Magazine

Other than the bubbling paint and rust (built up in the humid Japanese weather) from metallic brake dust, the wheels were straight. They were dropped off at The Wheel Supply (TWS), just a couple miles away, to be disassembled, hot-tanked, straightened if necessary and re-powdercoated, since the set was made up of two different pairs with slightly different colors.

Within a couple of days, I essentially had a new set of Watanabe look-alikes with a fresh powdercoat and polished lips at a fraction of the cost. A set of Buddy Club aluminum lug nuts were also thrown in to fit the new tapered lug design and the extra-long ARP wheel studs already on the car. I now have bling worthy of a DUB sticker.

The wheels were shod with 205/50/15 Nitto NT01 tires, chosen even before finding the wheels. The NT01 is still my tire of choice for track-bound street cars, on account of its wide temperature tolerance, communicative and predictable nature, streetable wear, and-most of all-that 24 Hours of LeMons-winning grip. This, plus the inch of increased rear suspension stroke, has put Project Corolla in the 1.05g club with the Lotus Elise, compared to the 0.87g it had on street tires.

The track-oriented, 102mm-high sidewalls also help keep high-speed bumps from sending the car off-line (like the Hankook street tires did). But the added grip comes at a price; it now requires herculean strength to crank the wheel during low-speed parking maneuvers. Total unsprung weight saving from the new 20-pound tire, 13-pound wheel and Buddy Club aluminum lug nuts is only half a pound per corner over the old wheel/tire combo, though I now have a lot more rubber.

Replacing the stock seats were a set of Buddy Club racing buckets and the five-point Takata racing harness pillaged from SCC's old 24 Hours of LeMons race car. The seats aren't SFI-approved, but have already proven themselves through many hard hits. The seats were mounted on sturdy Buddy Club rails made for the Corolla, which lower the seat significantly and are unusually fuss-free to install.
Replacing the stock seats were a set of Buddy Club racing buckets and the five-point Takat

The second-hand free-for-all continued with the safety gear left over from our old Celica LeMons race car. This included two Buddy Club Racing Spec bucket seats (of the wide variety, so I can get in and out without the help of a prybar) and the three-inch FIA-certified Takata seat belt harness with anti-sub belt-which by itself was worth more than the old LeMons Celica.

The bucket seats are in the process of being SFI certified and seem a lot safer than the now-rickety OEM SR5 and GT-S seats that came with the car. Based on the multiple crashes we experienced at the LeMons race (that bent the seat rails but left the seat intact), I figured the Racing Spec buckets would hold up to their name. Buddy Club also supplied a new set of driver-side and passenger-side Super Low Down sliders and brackets made specifically for the AE86. Although designed for Buddy Club buckets, these brackets also fit Sparco and Recaro buckets (depending on the chassis). Each rail is side-mounted (allowing the seat to be set as low as possible), is extremely well constructed and has no fitting issues whatsoever, something extremely rare when it comes to seat installations.

Not So Hand-Me-Down
Other safety parts weren't hand-me-downs-no corners could be cut. Even though most regulating bodies don't require roll bars for closed-top cars during open track days, adding a roll bar to Project Corolla was top of the to-do list for several reasons.

First was the lack of rear seats. With the entire rear of the car gutted, the only things going into the back would be tires and trackside tools. This gave the space to bolt in a prefabricated Autopower Race Roll Bar with minimal fuss.

I ordered the race-style bar which comes with a recessed harness brace (that allows the driver's seat to slide all the way back), diagonal cross-brace and head restraint bar (as dictated by SCCA), in addition to the standard main hoop and rear bars. The main hoop bolts onto structural points on the chassis (made of reinforced dual-layer steel) at the base of the B-pillars; the rear bars bolt to the rear wheel wells. For this application, Autopower designed the bar to fit with the factory headliner in place and bends the main hoop slightly in excess of 180 degrees to maximize interior space.