Favorite aftermarket carb?

[Petros]

I read somewhere that Toyota did not want a "sporty" image for the Tercel, so they never had a racing program for it (unlike their celic and trucks for example). So they not only did not support any kind of racing for the Tercel, there was never any thought to performance. A mistake in my mind, just because the only thing a person can afford is a Tercel, it does not mean they are not interested in a sporty car, even if through vicarious pleasure of seeing others race it.

[ARCHINSTL]

Could part of the reason for no racing program be from uncertainty how its first-ever FWD (or 4WD) system would hold up under racing stresses? It was different than most. Of course, Subaru was (is?) quite active.
While I recall every piddly little Euro car under the sun being in Monte Carlo and other rallies, I don't recall ever seeing a Terc. Of course, the Mini (and SAAB) ate everything starting in the '60s.
Tom M.

[Petros]

I am not even talking about the T4wd (that was a "birdwatching" car, remember?), but the little hatch back would have been perfectly suited to competing with the Civic and the GLC, which were raced in great numbers in club racing, rally and autocross and even some professional series. if the Tercel hatch back was ever raced (and had factory support for it), there would be good carb systems, suspensions mods, replacement fenders and bumpers, good camshafts, etc. etc. that would work perfectly well in our Tercel4wds.

Nissan raced all the cars, from the B210, the 510 and all the way up to the 240z. Honda raced both cars and motorcyles, Mazda raced the RX7, trucks, sedans and the GLC, and of course almost all the fun little boxes that came from England had racing programs, and lots of good performance parts available. Fiat had a racing program, as did the German Fords, VW, and many of the more costly cars as well. It was part of their marking program, and they got a lot out of it. I know Nissan spent about $2 million on their racing support, and that was only about 2-3 percent of their national advertising budget, and it sold A LOT of Trucks, sports cars, 510s, and B210. Toyota came very late to racing, I think in response to the Nissan sucess during the 70's and '80s. Toyota Racing Development (TRD) I think came along rather late (despite having many well made cars and trucks suitable for tweaking and performance driving), but even then it was only for the big engine Celica Supra and the 4x4Trucks, and later expanded it to several other models, but NEVER the Tercel, not even the later one with the better engine.

Like any large company, they were slow to respond, and they did it in a rather clumps and half-assed manner. Perhaps the geniuses over there at Toy did not understand that much of the US market loves performance cars, large and small, we are kind of like the British in that sense (though I am really impressed with what enthusiasm for performance cars, and cars in general that the Brits have, considering it is a country the size of Florida, yet has as many car companies as the rest of Europe! Way more than we do as well).

So we are currently on our own when it comes to improving, tweaking and enjoying our Tercels, to make them more than the manufactured ever imagined, and that is unfortunate for us (and in many ways, Toyota as well). The smallest AWD car they offer is the Matrix, as an accessory. Clearly they are not very serious about small 4wd cars. When we can not get parts for the Tercel4wd, we are all going to have to switch to the Suzuki.

[animeracing]

The 3A block was likely first intended as the "all around" motor for Toyota's mid-80's lineup, and was the original engine first fitted into the AW11 MR2.

However, the 4A block was developed, and with the advent of electronic fuel injection, the 4A-GE was born, and Toyota has it's answer. The Corolla lineup became Toyota's platform of choice for autosport (although there were track and rally versions of the MR2 as well) and the 4A block was used in everything from production vehicles to Formula Atlantic racecars.

Really, the 4A block is just a mildly revised 3A block, of course all based off the 1A block that was in the original Corolla Tercel. There were further revisions of the 4A block in later years, as it was used in the Supercharged 4A-GZE and kept being improved as it found more applications, going all the way to even being a 20-valve engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_A_engine



As for carbs, I wholeheartedly agree on just going with the popular and functional Weber 32/36 above all else if you want an aftermarket carb.
The aftermarket support is there, as is the help on this forum and elsewhere.

Personally I'd love some dual sidedraft Mikuni's, or maybe even Webers, but those are overkill, and not too great on the 3A with the exhaust manifold right below the intake.