2001 Toyota Camry- anything I can do?

  • Thread starter hawkeye122
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hawkeye122

hawkeye122

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United States
California
gdwest1
So my mum has this car
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And Im wondering if there is much to do to it in terms of performance. It's the 5-Speed manual, with the I4 engine. I dont want to make it into a big, Tokyo Drift-style car, but just some Engine and suspension and drivetrain bits to make it go a bit more quickly on the track.

Currently, the engine only gets going around 3000 RPM, and then drops off around 5000-ish. It's plenty fast for day-to day stuff, but I get smoked at the track.

Also, the ride is fantastic. So stable, and really smooth over 60 MPH.
 
Intake, exhaust, and Chip, how much would that cost?

Yes, the car does seem very well built. Im not talking change the whole car, just bits here and there.
 
Before you do, don't.

The only Toyota Saloon I would modify would be a Cressida, and I've seen some very tasteful mods including some nice 1JZ, 2JZ, and 1UZ swaps. The RWD helps though.

Leave your mom's Camry alone, and get a Miata or something if you want to take something to the track.
 
Eric.
Let's just stop right there and reflect.
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Ahahah.

The suspension is good because it's a luxury car so of course it rides smooth. Race cars have awful hard rides. If you can get a chip to add more power try that, air filter, and most important lightening it. The car is so heavy if you take out the back seats and carpets etc you should notice a huge improvement. However that may ruin it for other uses lol.
 
One of the easiest ways to make a car feel sportier is to increase the diameter of the anti-roll bar(s). With a car that size I'd look for something around 1 inch diameter at around $120

It'll make it a bit more fun in the winding roads, but I think it'll be much better to save some money for a better car if you're thinking about track time.
 
astrosdude91
There are plenty of FWD cars worth tuning. The Camry's drivetrain isn't the problem, it's everything else.
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I get that, but there are plenty of RWD cars to tune and it's be much easier than messing with this. Then again my preferance is RWD and AWD. If you want to go Toyota, you should find an old MR2 they're not expensive and you'd do great in that.
 
If I saw a Camry at the track I'd be laughing myself silly. My mum used to have one of them. The handling is atrocious! Talk about floaty, and you'd better LOVE understeer. How you can imagine to go racing in it is beyond me. It's heavy, it's FWD, it's slow. It's the WRONG car.

Now instead of wasting your money tinkering with YOUR MUMS CAR you should save you money for your own car, get something more suited for the track for not much money and enjoy genuine handling.

Edit: To clarify: I'm not against FWD, if it is suited for it, for example Integra or Civic. A big heavy sedan on the other hand...
 
Punknoodle
If I saw a Camry at the track I'd be laughing myself silly. My mum used to have one of them. The handling is atrocious! Talk about floaty, and you'd better LOVE understeer. How you can imagine to go racing in it is beyond me. It's heavy, it's FWD, it's slow. It's the WRONG car.

Now instead of wasting your money tinkering with YOUR MUMS CAR you should save you money for your own car, get something more suited for the track for not much money and enjoy genuine handling.
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See others get the FWD^ that alone and the handling should tell you no. Also the car has alot of body roll in it, which isn't something you'll feel safe with when you drive it hard into corners.
 
FWD isn't the main problem. I'm under no illusions about a FWD car matching an equally prepared RWD car on the track, but it's entirely possible to make a FWD midsizer fun (enough) on track. He'll, unless you have at least 300 horses, a good FWD is much better than a heavy, understeery AWD car.

Much easier to do it with a better FWD than this one, though... Like a 6 or even an MX6. (there are some excellently done MX6s on Probetalk and the MX6 forums...)

Oh. And from experience, Mumsy doesn't like it when you diddle around with her daily driver... :lol:
 
niky
He'll, unless you have at least 300 horses, a good FWD is much better than a heavy, understeery AWD car.
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Good being the operative word. This isn't.
I'll take my heavy, understeery AWD, thanks :)

Edit: Also, the Camry isn't a mid sizer is it? Id call it large..
 
Advice. If you want to go to a real track (IE; one with corners) spend your money on track events and stuff like that. The car, as humble as it is in stock form, is still beyond your abilities on the limit I would bet.
 
This Camry has the same running gear that is underneath my Celica GT. The 5S-FE is a good engine. Nothing too terrible, but nothing too great either. Just "good," and that's that. I understand that there are some modifications that can be done, but generally, it isn't going to be worth it. Believe it or not, Toyota made the 5S-FE to be a practical engine for their practical cars... The power curve is surprisingly useful, in every application it found it's way into.

The typical, basic modifications of a cold air intake and perhaps a performance exhaust can be done, but it won't get you too far in the performance category. The Camry would do well with a performance tire swap, and perhaps some stiffer springs, but it would substantially affect the ride quality of the car.

Given the rarity of the mechanical setup in this car, I wouldn't do anything. If I could find a Camry like that around here, I'd seriously consider buying it. Yes, I am crazy.
 
Eunos_Cosmo
Advice. If you want to go to a real track (IE; one with corners) spend your money on track events and stuff like that. The car, as humble as it is in stock form, is still beyond your abilities on the limit I would bet.
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This.

And, Don't mod someone elses car.
 
Punknoodle
Good being the operative word. This isn't.
I'll take my heavy, understeery AWD, thanks :)

Edit: Also, the Camry isn't a mid sizer is it? Id call it large..
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The Camry is classified as a midsize, and that generation weighs just over 1,300 kg.

You can buy coilovers and brakes for it... That's the most important part out of the way... Strip the car to fighting weight, remove the rear seat and most of the interior, chip off the sound deadening and you could probably get it down to around 1,200 kg. Weld a reinforcement plate over the trunk pass through and weld the rear doors shut for extra rigidity. Modify some adjustable anti-roll bars to fit, while you're at it.

Then take the motor out and replace it with the turbo engine from the Celica. Wiring? Who cares, throw out the entire stock loom.

Rollcage, tires... You're set. Should actually be fun... :D

Or you would be set if Mumsy liked racing. I've heard of father-son bonding over similar projects, but I don't think this would work out that way...
 
Eric.
Fixed.
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It's got alot better balance than that body roll they call the Toyota Camary. Why not just do it cheap and right and get an intergra or civic hatch? I'd never do it cause I'm a RWD guy, but at least you can run light and make power cheap.
 
niky


Or you would be set if Mumsy liked racing. I've heard of father-son bonding over similar projects, but I don't think this would work out that way...
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I don't think my dad would like having his Taurus stripped out for me to race, either...

LMSCorvetteGT2
It's got alot better balance than that body roll they call the Toyota Camary. Why not just do it cheap and right and get an intergra or civic hatch? I'd never do it cause I'm a RWD guy, but at least you can run light and make power cheap.
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The Camry is safe. At the limit its going to push straight ahead. The MR2, at the limit will push straight ahead, until you chicken-lift and you go backwards into that same obstacle.

I fully support a Civic/Integra or other light FWD car as someone's first venture into motorsports. By the sound of it, the OP is young and has no business driving an MR2 on the road, let alone in a competitive manner on a track.


We need all the spares we can find, still in decent condition.
 
First off how old are you? Not to come off like a Richard, but the idea sounds like a whimsical idea of someone who's 15 and getting excited about driving for the first time.

If you do an intake and exhaust, all your car is going to be is loud without any real performance gains. You need to remember Toyota spent millions engineering the Camry and some lowly tuning company isn't going to be able to best that. The only way they'll give you any real performance is if you get quality engineered stuff, which means start forking out the cash. Oh and since you live in California make sure you are emission compliant.

If you do anything to the suspension you'll ruin the ride of the car and it won't be comfortable at all. Track suspension is designed for the track, not going to work. I know some people will say that it doesn't bother them, but I always sceptical of that.

Changing out the springs will just give you a bouncy ride and blow out your struts quickly. Getting something like Koni's would help that though. Increasing the sway bar size will more than likely cause you to spin out on slick road surfaces if you don't know what you are getting into and don't take other things into account as well, like the rest of the suspension and the tires.

So really if you prep it for the track and don't go all out, you are just going to be left with a car that is awful to drive on the road and awful to drive around a track. Listen to what others say about getting a car more suited to track racing, hell you can even get a Dodge Neon and get it track ready with a reasonable budget.

Pick up a copy of Grassroots Motorsport magazine and look through it, they always have something about cheap track cars and what makes them good. I'm going through the same thing right now with getting setup to build a track car (hopefully I have it Friday!), and it takes a lot of research to figure things out. I've been putting in a ton of hours this past week getting an idea of what I need to do and I've only begun to scratch the surface.

Just some food for thought...oh and don't modify your mom's car, she'll hate it and people will laugh at you for driving your mom's beige Camry like it's a racecar.
 
Joey D
If you do an intake and exhaust, all your car is going to be is loud without any real performance gains. You need to remember Toyota spent millions engineering the Camry and some lowly tuning company isn't going to be able to best that.
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Meh, this has always made me cringe. Yes, Toyota puts millions into R&D. But that doesn't mean that they spent top dollar on making sure that the engine is putting out the most power it can possibly make. Remember that these cars are built down to a price. Corners are cut, compromises are made.

Pick up a copy of Grassroots Motorsport magazine and look through it, they always have something about cheap track cars and what makes them good. I'm going through the same thing right now with getting setup to build a track car (hopefully I have it Friday!), and it takes a lot of research to figure things out. I've been putting in a ton of hours this past week getting an idea of what I need to do and I've only begun to scratch the surface.
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Always a good suggestion.
 
Eric.
I don't think my dad would like having his Taurus stripped out for me to race, either...



The Camry is safe. At the limit its going to push straight ahead. The MR2, at the limit will push straight ahead, until you chicken-lift and you go backwards into that same obstacle.

I fully support a Civic/Integra or other light FWD car as someone's first venture into motorsports. By the sound of it, the OP is young and has no business driving an MR2 on the road, let alone in a competitive manner on a track.


We need all the spares we can find, still in decent condition.
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You have a point sir...I guess I was thinking about what I would drive and not a young lad just getting their feet wet. What was I thinking? Well either way good luck to the OP.
 
Im not looking to make this into a "Track car", just something a bit quicker, thats all. I'm fully aware that a suspension mod would ruin the ride.

The suggestions about Chips and fiddling with the exhaust, actually helpful, thanks.

Yes, it is my Mums, but she doesnt want it, Im going to "Buy" it from her for about $900, as an upgrade from my currently rather crummy car.
 

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