Shokuji J-Tin Historic Japanese Car Show – Part 2

Shokuji J-tin is a low-key San Francisco Bay Area gathering of vintage Japanese car organized by two young men who have a passion for cars that were running on the streets before they could crawl. The following are some outstanding examples of vintage Japanese machines that were built by nostalgic car enthusiasts who have a genuine passion.

As promised in Part 1, we featured cars that are NOT Datsuns this time around.

1973 Toyota Corolla SR-5 Transformed to TE27 Levin “Mango”

Patrick Ng purchased his Corolla in 2003 for the purpose of building a car for nostalgic purposes but held off on his project for one year while he helped a compatriot, Ed Dizon, finish his JDM ’72 Toyota Celica. That unselfishness came back with dividends upon completion of the Celica because Ed returned the favor by working with Patrick on his Corolla. After undergoing a two-year process of building a period-correct Corolla in his garage, Patrick’s Corolla was transformed from a family car to a high performance street racing machine – Corolla Levin.

The original 1600 motor was a 1.6L [2T-C] rated at 88hp. Transformation to a Corolla Levin meant the factory engine was replaced with a 1.8L engine [2T-G] that features TRD twin cams, 44mm Solex side-draft carbs, mild port of the heads, and a high-rise TRD header.

The 3.5-inch lowered stance is possible with an all-TRD suspension, designed by the manufacturer for this car. The undercarriage is fully detailed with MacPherson struts, upgraded TRD race springs, eight-way adjustable shocks at the rear and almost to-die-for blue TRD leaf springs. Color is PPG Lamborghini Orange.

PK-Studio gives us a closer look at Patrick’s 1973 Toyota Corolla Levin

Rotary Powered 1974 Toyota Corolla

Father-son team of Ruben and Carlos labored many hours to build a fantastic Monza Green Corolla – twice. One of the unique features of this Corolla is the 12A rotary engine that was pulled from a 1983 Mazda RX-7 FB.

Engine details include Weber carbs and MSD dual coil ignition. Performance is enhanced with a lightweight flywheel and stage 3 clutch mated to the 5-speed manual transmission. Sparco harness and Celica seats cradle the driver and passenger.

A 100 percent of the work, including changing the original color from yellow to Monza Green, was done at home. As mentioned earlier, the entire car was stripped and rebuilt a second time, which took 3 months to complete.