Larry Chen Video Transcript

Foreign Hilo we’re on the big island of state of Hawaii and we’re featuring some awesome cars we’ve actually been featuring a lot of Toyotas we’re here to shoot the Tacoma launch and since we’re here I figured we might as well check out some of the local shops some of the local builds but this

Is probably one of the craziest if not craziest Toyota Corollas I’ve ever seen so Brendan from PSI racing you actually built this correct and I don’t really know what to say I kind of feel like this is a handful this is um this is a lot so then

I guess this begs the question what did this start life as we actually purchased the car the way you see it built minus engine so we put together the motor it’s a 3tc it actually has a Billet stroker crankshaft in it as well so it’s stroked up to about two liter

Originally it’s 1800 CC has a custom uh Billet head on it as well which you don’t see very often what year is this uh 71 71 ke 20. Toyota Corolla Corolla but is it is there like a nickname for this they call these uh peanuts for some

Reason I don’t know why that took off with this actual body style so you have this body style then you have the te 27 body style which is kind of the coop but for some reason draggers drag racing guys love this body style you won’t see

The te 27 body style is there like a difference oh same wheelbase same car just the back the curvature the t27 actually looks sportier to be honest with you but for some reason they this is like the most popular body style when it comes to drag racing do you think it

Could be faster no nah same thing same same thing yeah huh yeah it’s not like this is your you know cream of the crop drag car but when you make the right power and you have the right combination as far as chassis set up you know everything in

The car is it’s got a four nine inch rear end 40 spline axles like it’s majorly overkill for what we’re doing with it but that way you know you have no problems when you’re going down the racetrack and safety is number one as well you know so let’s talk a little bit

About why it’s here okay why is it here on the big island well they probably run their drag organization is probably the most uh how would you say it I wouldn’t say popular but they’re they run all the time basically twice a month so Billy uh

Reached out to me that he wanted to build a car I actually found this car in Florida and then you’re actually from Florida I’m from Florida and your local racetrack is what Cletus runs on yeah we either race Bradenton or we race Orlando Speed World got it okay so we found the

Car in Orlando actually and I told them about it we purchased the vehicle we brought it back to my shop and then from there I basically built the car up got it running dino’d and away it came over to Hawaii and there’s something really special about these cars the Hawaiians for

Whatever reason they love these so much and they’re modified so many different ways you know I’ve seen so many show cars and I’ve actually now that I’ve come to Big Island I’ve seen a bunch of these nice Classic Toyota drag cars and this one without a doubt is the craziest

One I’ve seen yeah so like how did you guys start in Florida building these things oh God we’ve been doing I’ve been doing this since about 1995 94. I actually used to have a 82 Starlet that I used to drive to high school and it had a carbureted

Turbo version of this and uh I just kind of got sucked into it from there you know I’m Puerto Rican so the Puerto Rican culture is huge when it comes to a lot of Toyota as well just like the Hawaiians and you know I started working on cars and

Not going to school and just porting heads in my parents garage and from there it just took off why is it that you guys Embrace these is it because these were just like everyday driver cars everyday pedestrian vehicles that you wanted a hot rod I don’t know if

You’ve ever been to Puerto Rico but if you travel to Puerto Rico you’ll see you know a regular house and you’ll see a full-blown you know hundred thousand dollar drag car sitting in front of it you know like they their heart and soul is just Toyota drag cars I really don’t

Know why it catapulted so far in Puerto Rico but uh even here you see Tacomas and all kinds of Toyotas just driving around and it’s just I don’t know it’s just a brand that people love basically you know I love Toyota all I do is say what I used to

Venture into like Mitsubishi and stuff like that and eventually I just got away from it all and this is this is my little niche what is the whole point with using this motor because this actually didn’t come with this 3tc right well this actual car did not come with

It but some of there was a version of this car that did come with a 2tc the 1600. so the beauty of this car is that it actually has a combination that is consistent with the car got it you know what I mean my question is I understand that you probably want

To keep it authentic in that it’s still a Toyota engine yep from that era right but why this motor like isn’t there so many other things that you could do like you could do an updated Toyota inline 4 motor yeah there is but it’s just that’s the beauty of this car and its

Combination is that it’s consistent like the heritage of the vehicle is consistent with the motor so that just gives it that much more of uh you know a quality that people can appreciate you know inherently this is not a very good design well it actually was pretty good

Believe it or not it’s a hemi style motor and for the ERA this is probably one of the best engines Toyota ever made but it’s not like you’re sticking with it now because it’s such a good design and you can make really big Power from it this is this is pretty much bragging

Rights is what this is you know so it’s basically to you know challenge us to see how far we can get with this combination and the car because it is that difficult to make this as fast as we would want it you know okay so now it

Is not 1.8 liter it’s two liter yeah it’s a custom crankshaft that we do so the block is actually original Factory Toyota 3tc block we put custom main caps which is what holds the crankshaft in place to support the blog because the factory main caps can’t do it so to get

A little bit more performance out of it we go with the custom crankshaft which is actually Billet chromoly and uh I may have heard from Ricky that it’s a very expensive piece oh yeah well the way things are now prices they basically have doubled in price it’s not like it

Used to be you know things were pretty affordable we actually built these back in about 2001 that’s how old this crankshaft is but it’s such a quality piece as long as you don’t damage anything in the motor that could damage the crankshaft it’ll probably last it’ll outlive the engine by far this is

Actually a brand new motor we just put together because we damaged the last block and then uh this is also a Billet piece correct the head the entire head the entire head is cnc’d from a chunk of aluminum because that would be the weak link that would be your first

Weak link when it comes to a 3tc the heads aren’t very strong you could make pretty much the same power as far as porting and valve size but they just fatigue too much so then the design of it once you do make it out of one piece

Of aluminum is it similar or do you modify it it’s 100 Factory stock so everything falls in the same exact location which is good for drag racing you could have made changes to it but then it wouldn’t fit everybody’s application so to sell more of them they basically just reproduce the factory

Part just bill it got it you know interesting okay so then did you have to modify the block oh like did you have to like do closed deck or I don’t know oh yeah the block is actually full of cement so we use uh an automotive style

Cement that we use and we eliminate all the water passages inside of the block and we fill it full of cement got it because there’s still a way for it to be cooled or oh no this is only we leave a little probably about an inch and a half

From the top of the deck I leave so I can run water through it to go through so basically the water runs through here yeah and there’s a portion of the block that’s about this tall goes through and then it exits out the back of the head and goes back into

The water tank that’s in the car so we don’t run a radiator also it’s just cold water or ice water and then it it’s enough to keep it cool for the Run correct or the the burnout and leading up to the run and then the run and then

That’s it I turn it off and let it start its process of cooling down got it so this is could not be further from a street car like this is a full-on yeah I mean if you want to get that little extra Edge to make more power and be

Reliable these are things you have to do yeah you know okay wow that is so cool all right so then what else what about like the intake manifold and this so intake manifolds I used to actually make these pieces you can see they’re all cast I had a company that used to cast

Them for me out of Columbia and uh so they would make them down there again this is very very old this is back in 2002 2003 and it’s still around till today but it’s all New Old Stock stuff that you’re using to build this motor actually came out of a front

Of ours car that was based out of Oahu and then uh he sold Billy kind of the combination and then we just went through it all and refurbished parts and stuff like that got it okay so then um and then you guys made this in-house

Too yep yep yep so we put the uh custom plenum box on it you know bigger throttle body um and then is this like out of another like the mechanism is out of something the throttle body we use they use a lot of cars use a baseline of a Ford Ford

Mustang so like the 86 I believe through 91 Mustang is a very popular throttle body that everybody just bolts to different applications that’s what that is and then what about fuel what fuel it runs are vpx98 ethanol so it’s 98 ethanol which helps in the cooling as

Far as keeping the motor cool as well it has a lot of cooling properties to it so since the motor is fully cemented or mostly the fuel helps to keep the engine cool as well plus it creates Power by having those cooling properties and how much

Fuel are you running through it with one pass you think uh it’s actually pretty good on fuel to be honest with you since it’s not the most efficient motor you know we might use maybe half a gallon you know per run and then this is a

Water to air yep water air and our cooler so again this this shares the water that keeps the engine cool but what we do is a lot of guys think we’ll actually run ice water through and we don’t do that because the motor is not going to want freezing cold water you

Know so I have a valve that I regulate inside the car that basically Works kind of like a thermostat so I slow down the flow so the water can build up some heat but still pass and keep the engine cool but it doesn’t get a shock of cold water

You know but the intercooler itself is free as far as returning back to the water tank so we want this as cold as possible got it got it okay same tank but this is free flow as much water too much cold water in the engine it’s like

A slower trickle right I mean a very small trickle just to see it just you know a little bit more than a drip it’ll be a little steady stream but very tiny and then what tank is this that’s the fuel tank oh yeah so on drag cars you

Kind of want to if you have the space you want to bring all all the weight you can up front in a perfect world you’d like like a 50 50 balance and this helps to allow that you don’t want any weight really on the rear because you got the battery back there

Which is heavy you know and the big rear end stuff like that it’s just so cool it looks so different because there’s no accessories or any belts it looks clean yeah it’s very clean yeah yeah so yeah we try and you know incorporate that it

Looks good as well you know it’s so cool so then what about the business side the turbo side okay so we just built this this is actually brand new uh we have not raced the car with this setup we’re trying something new as far as turbocharger and header and uh it’s

Actually from a new company called HPT Turbo and I’m sure you’re familiar with Precision Turbo well Harry who used to work for precision uh started his own company again he left precision and he started building turbochargers and this is what this is HPT stands for high performance turbocharger this is

So awesome so you guys actually build this one then yep you guys done yeah I do all the all the Fab work and everything so when we ran the car last time it actually had a smaller tube on the header so we’re trying something different we went to a bigger tube to

See how it performs amazing yeah and then so um with this setup how much did this Dino at uh we’re hoping to make in the area of about 750. that’s the goal and then you’re actually going to dine out today yes but why do you actually

Need to dino it here on the island well it’s a whole new combination and again since we did build a brand new header new turbo combination new intercooler all this is brand new to the car when we ran the car we were here Labor Day last

Year it went 8 45 with the air to water I’m sorry air to air different header smaller Turbo so now we’re trying to see how much more power we gain got it so originally this whole car with the engine everything was built in Florida at your shop at PSI racing

Correct and then you shipped it here to Big Island it didn’t even make it to Oahu and then you built a motor and then shipped that no no I built the car was running I dynoed it in Florida it was TurnKey drove it ready to go but then

This one is rebuilt did you rebuild it here or did you really they sent me the motor back to Florida yeah so Ricky pulled the motor out did all the leg work since I’m not here got it uh ship it back to me build a motor ship it back

They put it in amazing it really is a team effort here oh it’s it’s and it’s crazy how far apart we are you know this is just so cool I love that so I actually cannot wait to see this strapped up on the Dino and I’m curious

To see if you guys are gonna make more power then yeah we’re gonna try we’re gonna see what we get out of it I mean it definitely should last time we we actually had a spare engine in the car I was here in February and we were just

Testing out all the changes we did with another motor and it showed potential you know all right so let’s talk about the rest of the vehicle yep um a lot of it is metal but like the hood I’m guessing that’s fiberglass us hood is the only thing that’s fiberglass

On the car everything else is 100 Factory and then what about the windows oh these are all everything is lexan yeah yeah it’s better for safety as well yes you also save some weight of course yeah did you have a chance to weigh this uh yes I waited in Florida so I scaled

The car to make sure all the weights are the way I want them I weighed about 21.60 with me in it and that’s full cage everything running fuel everything this is so crazy so did you guys build this stuff did you guys build a wing that was actually again when we

Purchased the vehicle the way you see the car painted windows that was all there already oh okay yeah and tubbing and everything that was already there too it was already there yep why is it that the tubs are so much bigger than what you actually need uh

That was the chassis Builder I wish they would have went actually wider so we could have put a bigger tire you can’t really put a bigger tire than what’s on the car now regardless it doesn’t hurt to have the height because like in the burnout the

Tire is going to grow got it you know yeah so you’ll see it if you were here you would see the tire get just like a top fueler and it gets real skinny and you know so this allows it not to touch and just makes things better so

Legitimately this is the biggest you can run yeah and you couldn’t really modify this to go wide body because the problem is there’s not enough room in the actual tub on the inside so when you build the car like this the way we normally build the car is I’ll basically bring the

Chassis guy hey I got a 15 by 14 wheel make it fit you know so what you have to do is take the frame rails which are where these tubes are running on this this down bar right here got it and you would bring them in

We’ll see I see and then you could get a bigger tire in the car this is the biggest you can fit on which is good that’s still a good tire and I’m sure it’s it’s quite the handful of driving yeah yeah it’s definitely because not only are you the Builder you’re also the

Driver correct the owner doesn’t actually drive it but the owner enjoys racing against you watching you drive well I’ll be honest you know all my life I’ve driven cars but I don’t get to see what they get to see you know I don’t get to see the car take off and launch

And the burnout I’m stuck inside of the thing so even when we race back in Florida you know we won a couple races and the crowd goes crazy I don’t see that you know I’m down at the end of the track waiting for guys to come and pick

Me up you know and I’m just sitting there yeah and they’re at the party or sometimes they’re celebrating because you won and you have no idea I have no idea yeah you know so I’m like hey what’s up guys how do we run you know and I’m just sitting there twirling my

Thumb so it’s got its perks either way you know and then of course because this is going the Trap what’s the traffic of this uh last time we ran about 154 I believe 154 in this yeah that was probably when it came from the factory

The top speed was 75 miles an hour yeah yeah we’re hoping now to run in like the mid 160s that’s that’s fall works out well that’s that’s the plan and then what’s your target time wise uh we’re trying to break the Eight Second Bears so we go 799.99 that’s that’s our goal

Wow yeah that’s our ultimate goal and then so when you’re actually on the drag strip you have to run wheelie bars because this is probably going to this would do like a bumper stamp oh it’ll totally stand up yeah you have to have a wheelie bars on it yeah already because

Some of the Big Island street legal vehicles that I’ve been featuring you see the way they wheelie oh yeah some of them like the way they land it’s violent it destroys the front of the car that’s the problem you don’t want it to do that

You know I know it might look cool for a picture but in reality you’re also losing time yes yeah so the ultimate goal in Drag Racing is to get the car out you don’t really want it to spend a lot of time squatting the rear

Or lifting the front you want the car to move out so still metal yep four handles Factory door yep um there is so much going on in here in terms of safety and everything so then what kind of transmission does this have this is a GeForce 5-speed clutchless five speed

And then so you use the gear and you actually get up to like fifth year yeah fifth gear would be your fourth gear like a standard transmission so fifth gear is your one to one ratio and then for launching is there some kind of like electronic helper for

You to launch this or you just basically line lock the car so it doesn’t roll once you stage the vehicle I’ll pump the brake one time as I’m on the line lock just so when I go to two-step the car we’ll launch the car at about 7 800 RPM

About 25 pounds boost so when the motor get it gets up there it’s making that kind of power it wants to kind of roll the car so we use the line lock to stop it and that’s it you just pedal the car in the king hold on and start shifting

And then this is the water tank that’s the water tank correct yeah okay yeah in the cage this was already like existed when you bought it so it was already a drag car yep but it’s all spec to what it needs to be so you can see over there there’s a chassis

Certification so we have to have that to make sure the chassis is legal to run as fast as you want to run so right now this chassis I believe is certified to either 750 or uh or maybe into the sixes huh but you have to have that and then

This is basically just the rear end service that’s that’s basically what they cut out from the car that is not original so everything back there is what’s fabbed up as far as then you put your tin work and stuff like that and it just covers all the suspension and

Everything else but everything else I mean you can see it’s all Factory floor so then you guys then had to build like another tube or some shielding here for the drive shaft or anything no there’s this tube that’s here just in case God forbid it breaks this front U-joint this will

Stop it but for the most part yeah this is strong enough to kind of hold it down if something were to break and then you replace the factory Dash with like a little custom little tin Dash it’s got a you know haltech Digital dash there that we use

See that power up which is pretty cool and it’s got a series of shift lights and everything up here that you you program to what you want it to ah so so it what does it rev out to then uh this particular motor will rev close to 9 500.

Which is pretty good considering Factory was 6200 so it’s it screams so the 3tc factory made how much power like 90 horsepower I want to say 80 horse 80 horsepower yep yeah there’s so much love for this motor it’s crazy the problem now is it’s getting really really hard to find parts

You know so you have to find blocks and things like that and it can’t find them like you used to yeah so that this is all your electrical stuff here so I built that little control panel there kind of make it easily accessible you

Know if you need to work on it or look for a problem so I just basically just put that right there on the floor I didn’t want to hide hide anything or you know make it impossible to get to so the reason why this is here is

Because the owner is from Oahu he’s Hawaiian and he wants to see a race here on Big Island what’s the draw because I’m assuming that there’s potentially a lot faster tracks on the mainland yes attracts like where we’re at in Florida between Bradenton and Orlando those are top-tier

Tracks you know but these guys have a lot of heart and they really want to pour their heart and soul into making the track better you know one of the issues they have is they don’t get all the spectators like we get back home so

They don’t get all the money to fund the track as well you know but they’re doing but I was a little skeptical when I came originally to drive the car because I’m so used to driving where I do drive and I know it’s safe so number one for me is safety as well

You know but when I started to talk to the guys and you know see the kind of cars they have like these guys are really they’re they’re trying to do the best they can with what they have so yeah and this is a theme that I’ve been

Talking about in all the videos that I’ve been doing here on Big Island it’s incredible to me with a population of between 180 to 200 000 depending on the time of the year it can sustain a drag strip right right I think that is so cool yeah yeah which

Is tricky for them because they it does cost money to run an event you know we have to they have to spray Compound on the track to make the track sticky you know they have a they have a specific it’s kind of like a like a tractor that

Has slicks bolted to the back of it a rotator they call it they drag that down all that stuff’s expensive and this also is interesting in that um because there’s no drag strip on the most populous island of Oahu a lot of the people that are into drag racing on

The other Islands they have to come here correct yeah yeah we have I mean I’ve been pushing it on my Instagram page and my YouTube page and telling people hey we’re coming May we’re coming may you know we’ve been pushing because I want to help them out as well you know and uh

I’m committed to them so they can get you know we probably have 60 people 70 people coming from all the islands just for this race wow that’s cool yeah plus you know Billy brought me my wife my kid you know so it’s it’s a good time you

Know huh well I can’t wait to see it hopefully you break into the sevens oh we’re gonna try have you ever had a race car that’s gone faster oh yeah yeah before this I used to race a little uh 82 Toyota Starlet um what was your fastest pass we went

695 at 204 and that that is 100 miles an hour 204. it went 167 in the eighth of a mile it went 460 or 440 at 167 half track so then you and this is a question that I’ve had for some drag racers when it’s 204 trap speed that potentially could mean that

You’re actually going faster before you hit the shoot right because you’re still on gas past oh yeah yeah one of the hardest things that people don’t understand is you want to get to your to the to you know the track you know you want to make it to the quarter mile but

You need to stop as well so a little Toyota like that going 204 205 it’s hard to stop the car so believe it or not I’d probably be I’d probably be a hundred feet away from the quarter mile and I’m already throwing the parachute so one of my

Biggest issues that I would have is you would literally see the shoot come out and I’d probably be like 10 feet before the Trap really that was one of my biggest problems but I’m like man I want to stop this car and I want to stop it

Now right right because if you lose the shoot and you don’t get the shoot at that speed you might not make it yeah I’ll tell you the truth and then this track luckily it’s a pretty long shopping district yeah the shutdown here is pretty good even though I still throw

The shoot on this it’s just good practice Yeah you know in case you do lose right God forbid something happens and you take it for granted so if I have to shoot why not use it yeah so I throw it regardless not every pass so cool well thank you so

Much for showing us this build hey this is just so cool I love this so much I’m glad I love that you’re just going I wouldn’t say you’re going against the grain but you’re just doing it uh almost just for just the cultural aspect of it yeah he even asked me like

Chase who owns the shop where we’re gonna Dino he’s like are you guys going to run exhibition are you going to try and enter a race and I said no we’ll probably just run exhibition and they love it because we’re here basically just for the show you know and people

Come from the islands just to see this hey thanks for watching if you want to support us directly go to larrychanprince.com I print and sign every single one of these this is the perfect gift or it’s the perfect piece of art for your wall foreign [Applause]