I have this 2006 XV30 Camry SE with a 3.3L 1MZ-FE. It's paid off and it gets driven like 200 miles per year. We originally bought it to replace my spouse's 2014 Focus which had a Powershift transmission (god I hated that car). The Camry gets worse fuel economy but makes a bit more power. Plus it's a Toyota, no FoMoCo in my house.

Both my spouse and I work from home so we don't commute. Any time we drive anywhere we almost always take our 4Runner. So the Camry has been neglected for about three years now and I figured I might as well do something with it.

There's a healthy Autocross community around Salt Lake City (where I am) and I've participated before in my previous vehicles; 2007 MazdaSpeed6 (god I hated that car), 2007 Infiniti G35X (god I hated that car), and now this 2006 Camry.

My plans are simple: coilovers, sticky tires, oil cooler, maybe sway bars. I don't want to spend more than ~$2000 on this car so I'm going to do as many "budget" mods as I can.

These are literally the only photos I have of the car and I'm currently too lazy to go into the garage to get more.




Here's me at Autocross in 2018. I can't believe this was six years ago. Time flies!

Did some basic maintenance. New swaybar endlinks front and rear, new swaybar bushings and brackets front and rear.

Since it's been sitting, the car has been very creaky so I got some greaseable endlinks, bushings, and brackets. I couldn't find greaseable bushings/brackets for the rear, but they are easily accessible if I need to grease them later.

The endlinks, bushings, and brackets that I removed were honestly fine, but I like have greaseable parts.

Almost all of this install was incredibly simple EXCEPT for the front swaybar bushings/brackets. I had to disconnect both front endlinks then undo the swaybar brackets from underneath the car and behind the front subframe. Toyota obviously had the foresight to make this do-able, but not easy.

I definitely over-greased the bushings because I couldn't look at them while I was pumping grease into them but they're probably fine.

Here's my parts list:
https://a.co/d/dO893LY
https://a.co/d/5xZV95O
https://a.co/d/3Qoq2Fz

Picked up a set of IS350 wheels for about $300. 18x8 and 18x8.5. I didn't realize the IS350 had staggered wheels from the factory. Now I have to decide if I want the 8 or 8.5 up front? Since I won't be staggering my tires, I'll probably put the 8s up front to reduce rotational mass on the drivetrain.

I'll wrap them in some Kenda Vezda 245/40 tires which are like $550 for a set.

Eventually I'll throw some coilovers on and get an alignment but I'm not even sure if I'll get out to autocross this year so I'm not in a rush