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Trinder and his co-driver John Moody tackled the completely ridiculous Can-A-Mex rally in a lightly prepared Corolla GT-S. That's fitting, because the legend of the Corolla GT-S stretches back further than Japanese manga, and into the memories of old racing and rally drivers.
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The legend of the Corolla GT-S stretches back further than Japanese manga, and into the memories of old racing and rally drivers.Ĭartoonish about the way this car feels. You can just imagine it hurtling down some narrow Japanese canyon road in the dead of night. Everything is a mechanical symphony of clicks and snicks and revs and g-forces. It's a little hooligan of a machine, with weighty unassisted steering and a close-ratio gearbox that feels brand-new. With four throttle bodies and a 5.5 kg flywheel, the 86's engine responds instantly to throttle inputs, and gets insanely loud as the revs climb above 5,000 rpm or so. A newer, 20-valve version of the original 4AGE 1.6L four-cylinder engine has been swapped in it makes around 165 hp and revs to 8200 rpm. The chassis has been reinforced with cross-bracing and has been stitch-welded in places for added stiffness. Ng's carefully preserved and modified AE86 manages to capture the spirit of the iconic Initial-D car, and is a pretty wonderful machine in its own right. Initial D was first a manga (comic), then an anime series, and eventually spawned driving games. Tricked into developing an almost supernatural driving talent on the winding passes of the fictional Mount Akina, he eventually falls in with a crowd of street racers and beats the pants off all sorts of much more powerful machinery.Īs an underdog story, it's got an appeal that doesn't require you to know anything about ball-bearing turbos or titanium valve-springs. Takumi Fujiwara is a disaffected teen who delivers tofu every day in his black-and-white Sprinter Trueno (the Japanese version of the Corolla GT-S). The AE86 is carried high on the shoulders of Japanese car culture thanks to its appearance as one of the central characters in Initial D, a comic that broke out of Japan in 1995. At a time when monsters like the third-generation Mazda RX-7 twin-turbo and the Mk IV Toyota Supra Turbo were flexing the might of pan-Pacific muscle, a little hatchback was sliding sideways into the imaginations of millions. The AE86 is carried high on the shoulders of Japanese car culture thanks to its appearance as one of the central characters in Initial D, a comic that broke out of Japan in 1995. In the same way that BMW fans throw around chassis codes like E30 and E39 as shorthand, Toyota enthusiasts know this squared-off hatchback by its numerical designation.Īctually, it's more than just the Toyota nuts who will be able to give you chapter and verse on the There, stamped into steel, is the model code: AE86. Pop the hood latches open and take a look at the firewall, and you'll immediately see the reason for all this 86 business. Because it's a Toyota, it starts instantly. It has 305,000 miles on the odometer, and has been sitting in storage for the past two years. Ng's 1985 Corolla GT-S, which he purchased for $1,800 in 2000, as a commuter for his first job in L.A. In the same way that BMW fans throw around chassis codes like E30 and E39 as shorthand, Toyota enthusiasts know this squared-off hatchback by its numerical designation. I know "Corolla" doesn't sound very exciting, but hang on to your hat. To explain the connection, we have summoned an ancestral spirit by way of a 1985 Corolla. Nods of understanding.Įven when Scion was around and this little coupe was called the FR-S, it still had 86 written on its fenders, as a bit of a secret handshake to those in the know. If you arrived at a midnight gathering of Japanese car enthusiasts at one of the parking lots that dots the highway circling Tokyo, you could instantly join the club by saying nothing else. On the steering wheel, on the front fenders, and etched into the headlights of this bright orange Toyota (which is actually a Subaru, more on that in a bit) is the same mysterious number: 86. Those who have gone before are still a part of daily life. Lanterns are lit, gravestones are cleansed ritually, and music and dancing welcome the spirits. In Japan, the honouring of long-dead ancestors is an ancient and well-established tradition.