Restomodding the perfect Daily Driver: the AE91 Corolla

Despite being introduced in 1987, the E90 Corolla generation continues to capture the attention of car enthusiasts in South Asia, making it a highly coveted choice for entry-level project cars even after more than three decades. Its enduring popularity speaks volumes about its timeless appeal and enduring reputation among enthusiasts in the region.

Syed Abrar, a passionate car enthusiast, has been driving E90 Corollas ever since his childhood. In fact, this is the platform which introduced him to the world of project cars. Oldest readers of The Business Standard will remember Syed Abrar's iconic 3S-GE engine swapped AE91 which was featured on one of the earliest issues of Wheels. 

Since then, Syed Abrar has decided to put aside the vicious monster of an AE91 (the 1500cc variant of the E90 Corolla) and opted to buy another one for a new project. Unlike the previous Corolla, however, Syed Abrar actually went the other way and the result is a neatly done 'restomod' project.

 "My first interaction with this particular AE91 could be dated all the way back to 2013 when a friend of mine from Sylhet originally purchased the car for himself." Syed Abrar mentioned in an interview with The Business Standard. "What's ironic is that my friend originally purchased the car after getting inspired by my AE91 back then!"

He got reunited with this car again back in 2022 when the car was put up for sale and he couldn't resist himself from buying it.

Even after three decades, the Corolla was still in good shape. It still retained its 13 inch OEM rims. Besides, it is the SE Limited variant, it also has the iconic red interior. 

"Most importantly, however, it was still running with its original engine!" Abrar stated. 

Seeing how well the car was taken care of, Abrar couldn't resist keeping the car for himself when his friend decided to sell it.

"Purchasing the car from my friend, the first thing I did was overhaul the full engine." Abrar said, "The next thing I did was change all the shocks and suspension as well as fix all the minor issues the car had. Then I started working on the cosmetic upgrades." 

To be fair, there's not much that needs to be done to make an AE91 look good. It's the last of its kind to come with a boxy design. In his previous 90, Abrar went with a Levin faceswap, added side skirts, fender flares and many more. However, this one being a restoration project, his decision to keep it as OEM as possible has only added more character to it. 

Abrar repainted the car in a beige shade, similar to the ones which used to come in Ke70 Corollas and FJ70 Land Cruisers, albeit to retain the old-school look to it.

A treasure hunt at Dholaikhal, the country's largest refurbished car market, had him discovering a unit of OEM end box of the E90 Corollas and a set of lowering springs, both of which he later installed in the car. He also managed to source a set of genuine 15-inch Enkei rims which gave the car a very elegant look.

Since the interior was already in good condition, there was no need to replace any components except for some rusty panels. However, Abrar decided to upgrade the stock instrument cluster to the popular 7-meter gauge cluster, a modification commonly done by AE91 Corolla owners worldwide.

Abrar's previous familiarity with this Corolla generation proved invaluable in locating the right parts for the car. Nevertheless, like any project, he encountered unique challenges specific to this particular model.

"It's true that certain spare parts of the E90 Corolla have surely become difficult to source, even from Dholaikhal. Hence paying a little more sometimes is justifiable." Abrar said, "Although, the situation with pricing of the parts got much worse due to the increasing popularity of this generation of Corollas among car enthusiasts. This has almost led to a newly created hype among the shops to charge inflated prices for every spare part of E90 Corollas."

Although, given his experience with this generation of Corollas, he didn't have to face too many struggles when building the car. 

"It was a fun journey throughout the process of building this car." Abrar confirmed, "However, it's far from being completed as I have other future plans with this."

Abrar's first project AE91 was one of its kind when he first installed a 4A-GE engine to that car more than a decade ago. With this car, however, Abrar was planning to build his ultimate daily driver E90 Corolla. Hence, he didn't do too many performance modifications to it. After all, it's almost certain that any car becomes unreliable when people start pushing the limits of the car for better performance. 

Abrar still misses the roars and rumble of the 4A-GE engine which he mentioned to us. Hence, in future, he plans on swapping the stock engine with a black top 4A-GE and ultimately pairing it with a 6-speed manual transmission in the long run! Till then, it stays as the most elegant daily driver E90 Corolla out there.