So this car started as kind of a joke. I had a sweet 1993 Civic EX EJ1 coupe with a SOHC V-Tec in it. The crank stripped and after already putting thousands into the car, I had to cut my losses. I traded this car even up for it & she looked horrible in my opinion. My wife has been driving Lexus's for years now & recently got an almost new HS 250h Premium with every option out. One of my dream cars has always been a is300, but it's another year or so off. Since my wife had a Lexus, I told her it's nothing more than a glorified Toyota, so, my conversion started. It started with just Putting a Lexus badge on the rear of the car, while it still said corolla. This is where the nickname came from. Now it's an all out assault on anything I can change on it, to make my own model. A quick FYI for those who don't know, Lexus models are named after their engine liter plus the body style. This is where I came up with the ES160 name. It's a economy sedan & has a 1.6 liter in it. When I got the car it had huge 18" rims full of pitting so I painted them white. They rubbed horribly, so I traded for the Protege rims & polished them by hand for 2 days straight. I put a 1.8 cluster in her with tach, changing my speedo to keep the miles accurate. A factory clock & a TRD Carbon Fiber shifter from an is300. I have a Lexus first aid kit, es300 black floor mats, and an es300 leather owners manual to keep my corolla manuals in. Future mods will include custom blue & black vinyl seats with microfiber inserts from my friend's interior shop, and an intense under hood polish on an aluminum parts. The intake manifold will have 1993 SC300 Lexus emblems from that car's intake manifold. I might also paint it the new CT200h blue color. I would love to get some JDM parts, but prices can kill. I just can't see why they feel it's worth 10x's the American model's counterpart.
