Photo: eBay User: joshuaflude
Is it an E70 Corolla in a hatchback blob suit? The Yaris' long-lost ancestor, or something in the middle? Whatever it is, the Toyota Starlet was nothing but a blip on the radar in North America. But over in Europe, Asia, and Australia, where the Starlet sold like hotcakes for decades before sun-setting in 1999, it's served as the foundation for some pretty spectacular restomods. But few among those are quite as special as this KP-61 example for sale on eBay out of Chesterfield, England.
From the factory, the KP-61-series Toyota Starlet, also sold in the U.S. from 1981 through 84, sported a 1290 cc naturally aspirated Toyota K-series four-cylinder engine, making in the neighborhood 64 rampaging stallions, with a choice of a three-speed automatic gearbox or one of two different four and five-speed manuals. Well, it's safe to say whatever stock hardware was under the hood of this Starlet from the factory wound up in a landfill far before this eBay advertisement was published.
With all the sluggish OEM hardware removed, what replaced it was the absolute polar opposite, a turbocharged 1,933 cc Cosworth YB four-cylinder engine most famous for its use in the all-time classic Ford Sierra Cosworth. Race-tuned variants of the Cosworth YB meant from Group A rally homologation used to jet as much as 370 horsepower in their day. But even so, the aftermarket goodies added to this particular YB send it leagues above even what Cosworth themselves used to tune them to.
With a Turbotechnics T36 turbocharger on offer flanked by Mahle pistons, a ported engine head with K20 ignition coils, and a G19 Engineering intake manifold with ID1050X fuel injectors, this "Cossie" motor is stuffed full of enough performance upgrades to make Cosworth's engineers jealous. It's all made to work harmoniously through a Link Fury G4+ ECU that, when tuned to its builder's liking, cranks out a scarcely believable 460 horsepower to the tires.
All this power is sent to a Tremec T-5 five-speed manual gearbox, where a custom driveshaft feeds to an Atlas aftermarket rear end with a limited-slip differential. Add in the AP Racing Tarmax four-piston calipers and 285 mm brake rotors up front with Cosworth OEM brakes in the rear riding on Yokohama A048r tires and Force Racing 13x7-inch wheels, and this is the kind of jalopy sleeper that keeps high-end sports car drivers awake at night, knowing this long-defunct Japanese economy car would take their German or Italian hunks of steel to "Gapplebees" and back in a real race.
There's just no getting around a car that makes as much horsepower as a V8 in a lightweight, zippy form factor. For this reason, we have reason to suspect this Starlet is one of the pound-for-pound quickest road-legal restomods in the entirety of the British Isles.
With all the sluggish OEM hardware removed, what replaced it was the absolute polar opposite, a turbocharged 1,933 cc Cosworth YB four-cylinder engine most famous for its use in the all-time classic Ford Sierra Cosworth. Race-tuned variants of the Cosworth YB meant from Group A rally homologation used to jet as much as 370 horsepower in their day. But even so, the aftermarket goodies added to this particular YB send it leagues above even what Cosworth themselves used to tune them to.
With a Turbotechnics T36 turbocharger on offer flanked by Mahle pistons, a ported engine head with K20 ignition coils, and a G19 Engineering intake manifold with ID1050X fuel injectors, this "Cossie" motor is stuffed full of enough performance upgrades to make Cosworth's engineers jealous. It's all made to work harmoniously through a Link Fury G4+ ECU that, when tuned to its builder's liking, cranks out a scarcely believable 460 horsepower to the tires.
All this power is sent to a Tremec T-5 five-speed manual gearbox, where a custom driveshaft feeds to an Atlas aftermarket rear end with a limited-slip differential. Add in the AP Racing Tarmax four-piston calipers and 285 mm brake rotors up front with Cosworth OEM brakes in the rear riding on Yokohama A048r tires and Force Racing 13x7-inch wheels, and this is the kind of jalopy sleeper that keeps high-end sports car drivers awake at night, knowing this long-defunct Japanese economy car would take their German or Italian hunks of steel to "Gapplebees" and back in a real race.
There's just no getting around a car that makes as much horsepower as a V8 in a lightweight, zippy form factor. For this reason, we have reason to suspect this Starlet is one of the pound-for-pound quickest road-legal restomods in the entirety of the British Isles.
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