Ben Williams AE111 Corolla Levin BZ-R

So, lets kick this off quickly, the car is a 1998 AE111 Corolla Levin BZ-R that I have owned for around 18 months. I bought the in December 2021, it is exclusively an import as in the UK we have the E11 variant.

My thought process behind buying the car was a bit confusing, I was in the market looking for a car I could modify and have a play about with as my first car a Polo, wasn’t something I was wanting to ruin. It was bought as a good daily and I didn’t want to change that. I had a look at GT86's, S13's, Integra Type R's and was still on the fence of what I really wanted, then my dad who worked at Just Japanese told me about the car I eventually came to buy. I went down, had a look at the car and knew it was something special, at first, I was a bit dumbfounded as it looked a lot different to the Corolla I knew we had in the UK at the time. Over the next few days, I researched all I could about the car, staring at pictures at what would soon be my Corolla, and then next thing I knew the keys were in my hand and off I went hearing the glorious sounds of a 4AGE blacktop scream down the twisty B-roads.

Luna as she is now known to me and my friends has gone through only a handful of modifications since I got the keys, such as a nice set of Team Dynamic 1.2 wheels finished in a glorious golden bronze colour, a back box delete which and swapping the air surge tank out for some trumpets for the ITB setup, all the parts that have been taken off or swapped are still with me as I don’t see a point in selling them, but pretty soon she will be getting a full set of TRD super strut suspension and a TRD exhaust to compliment.

Thankfully working on her is a lot easier than what I’ve done previously having a very accessible engine bay, nothing major has been carried out yet but I’ll get into why a little later.

A memorable moment for me in the Levin was the first holiday I took after purchasing her, me and my partner went to go see my aunt in Cornwall]. She lives in a small village near Newquay and one night after a delicious steak we took the car out for a run, parked up and me and my partner got a blanket, sat on the rocks overlooking a beach watching the stars. The roads to get there were some of the best roads I have ever driven down in that car, yes I’ve taken my Polo down there before and even my aunt's SLK but nothing compared to the Levin and one day my dream drive would probably be a trip to Goodwood. I recently went on holiday to Pagham in my Nissan Elgrand and again the roads like in Cornwall were stupendous, I wish I could have taken the Levin, enjoyed the roads to get to Goodwood then enjoy whatever would be happening at the track that day as my previous dream road has already been conquered in Cornwall.

My dream retro Toyota would probably have to be a 2000GT, by no means quick by today’s standards but the stunning appearance of the car and the noise they make is intoxicating, but one can dream!

Now here’s the part where I tell you why I’ve not had to do much work to Luna, the story goes is that the person who owned her last was also the first owner of the car back in Japan. Supposedly he owned his own dealership in Kobe, drove the car around for a few years and then put her inside the dealership as a show car for the last few years. In that time all the work had been done by that particular dealership and I even got my hands on the service manual and found the original Jap plate which I now have a copy of for car shows. I believe he has also had her repainted but I’m not 100% sure on how true that is. Just before she came to my hands a full inspection was carried out and a full service, including the belts and they made sure she was running perfect before coming to her new home. Sadly, the story goes flat from there, I’m not sure if the person who owned her before me is still with us or weather the dealership was sold off, I leave that up to your own imagination.
Thank you for reading the long description of Luna I could honestly go on forever about her and other AE111's as they’re becoming a bit of a rare sight, Luna is the only automatic in the UK but if the gearbox ever goes I may consider a manual, but these cars are becoming a lot rarer for the engines as people transplant them into the older AE86, which though I think we would all do the same, it’s a sad sight to see as these cars are literally becoming shells of what they were designed to be.

Thankyou everyone for reading it means a hell of a lot to me!