There’s just something about Queenslanders shoving huge motors into little chrome-bumpered Japanese cars and going stupidly fast with them; maybe it’s in the water. The latest of these builds is William Yarwood’s recently completed 1972 Toyota Corolla KE20 coupe, boasting a 1300rwhp 2JZ, a turbo the size of your head, 275 radial rubber and genuine seven-second potential.

First published in the July 2026 issue of Street Machine

“I’ve always liked these old Corollas; I think they look cool, and it’s what we had on Ps when we were kids,” William says. “I’d been planning and building my KE26 panel van, but the cost was blowing out, and then this coupe bobbed up for sale, but the first time I missed out on it.”

Funnily enough, it was fellow Drag Challenge entrant and 235 Aspirated class winner Louis Younis who had scooped up the coupe. It was already a built race car with a turbo LS combo, but only a few months later, Louis had it back on the market. “He said it was fine; he’s just an aspirated Torana guy and it wasn’t for him,” William recounts. “So, a mate and I came to a deal where he essentially paid for the driveline, and I got the car. We drove down to Sydney and picked it up from Louis, all a few months out from Drag Challenge last year.”

Despite Louis badgering him to enter the Corolla for DC 2025, William wanted to build it right, so instead he entered his proven eight-second Toyota Supra Mk4 that’d won the Tuff Mounts Six-Cylinder class the previous year.

“The Supra had got to a point where it needed a lot of changes to go faster, and I didn’t want to do that to it,” says William. “So instead, the engine, turbo and transmission set-up that is now in this car was tested in the Supra, and now we’re ready to give it a proper run in this coupe.”

William had initially thought that buying a painted car that’d already had chassis work done and a nine-inch fitted would save time and money, but as the build progressed after DC ’25, that didn’t quite eventuate. “I took it to Jamie from ET Chassis, and we ended up removing all the suspension, diff, and anti-roll bar and started again, as we were going radial,” says William. “Fast-forward a few weeks, and they’d redone the car with an all-new four-link rear end, Enemies Racing ARB, gearbox supports, steering set-up and floorpan – remind me again why I bought a ready-to-go-chassis?” he laughs.

Fitting the 2JZ and Powerglide from the Supra into the little ’Rolla was a thing as well, with the firewall needing to be recessed four inches to do so. Speaking of that engine, it’s a Dart-based combo that was given a refresh before being dropped in. It’s still a 3.0-litre mill, running a standard Toyota crank but with Nitto trunks and JE pistons. The 2JZ head uses BC Stage 3 racing bumpsticks, and a Toomey intake manifold takes two sets of injectors: 1650cc primaries and 2400cc secondaries.

“We’re running straight E85 at this stage, which we’ll have for DC 2026, but we have scope for methanol down the track,” says William.

The crown jewel is a Garrett GTX5020 turbo that currently chucks up to 45psi into Beyonce’s other half. With driveline control by a Haltech Nexus R5 and a PD16 running the rest, the package made 1354hp to the hubs on Scott Hoffman’s dyno at Cleveland Dyno. “There is scope for more, but from here on out, without big changes, The Hoff will just track-tune it,” says William.

Despite working on the car in his limited spare time from running his go-kart racing business, William still screwed the Corolla together in around six months. “I try to do as much as I can myself, including building the engine, and it helped having already started the panel van build,” he says. “The diff came from that car, and I had purchased all the fuel system stuff – it was mostly there already.”

At the time of writing, the Corolla had already had an outing at Willowbank Raceway for William to go through licensing passes. “On the third pass, I chicken-footed it!” he laughs. “I let off at the eighth-mile but then realised I had to get back into it to deploy the ’chutes at the quarter as part of licensing, so I got back on the power,” he says. “I reckon I was off the loud pedal for four to five seconds, and it still ran an 8.2@140mph – the same mile per hour it was doing at the eighth.”

That means this thing is easily on target for sevens at DC 2026. “My goal is to do Drag Challenge and average one second quicker than the Supra at each track, so that puts it in the 7.3-7.5 range,” William says.

With Jamboree, Kenda, Allstars Drag & Drive and Six-Banger Nats all lined up for William and the Corolla between now and DC ’26, which takes place 27-31 October, we should have a fairly good idea of what the little ’Rolla is going to be capable of in the DC ranks by the time spring rolls around.

“It’s still my favourite event of the year – there’s nothing quite like it,” William enthuses. “I’m keen-as to get back down south and have a red-hot crack.”

WILLIAM YARWOOD
1972 TOYOTA COROLLA KE20 COUPE

THANKS
My wife Jackie; my family; my car mates and track buddies; Scott at Next Level Motorsport; Scott Hoffman at Cleveland Dyno; Kristian and Naomi at Goleby’s Parts; Michael McLean – some mate; Peter at Surface Correction & Protection; Damien at ToomeyNC; Jamie at ET Chassis; Geoff at TR Engines; James Horan at Full Race Fabrication; Craig at Pro Custom Coating; Craig at LongBoost; John and Keith for the wheels.