The Little Corolla with the Big Heart – LS1-Powered AE94
At first glance, you’d never suspect this unassuming 1994 Toyota Corolla hides the thumping chest of a 346ci Chevy V8. But this isn’t just another entry in the #lstheworld hall of fame — it’s a machine built as much with compassion as it is with compression. And yes, it’s rear-wheel drive.
After deciding that I wanted to build a Hot Rod, naturally I needed to find a starting point. The possibility of purchasing this 1934 Chevy 3 Window Coupe turned up and started with a viewing of the car along with the parts that came with it. Then, came the negotiation process about an extra chassis from a Chevrolet Master that was lying in the sand under a tree and a Ford flathead motor. The viewing ended with a braai, 2 bottles of whiskey and only after the first bottle was finished was the price of the car mentioned for the first time. It was an eight-hour process that lasted till 7 PM in the evening which culminated in a deal being struck.
I drop in on Bradley Lightening and Greg over at Speedway Auto every now and then to see what they have cooking, and sometime in 2014 at their workshop, I noticed the incomplete nose belonging to a Ford F-100 poking out at me from around the corner. It was pretty impossible to miss, having just received a flawless Skoda Red paint job at the hands of Dane and Gordon Thompson over at The Paint & Panel Shop.