RE: PH Hero: Toyota Corolla GT

[anything fast]

Great car!

So much character that modern cars seem to lack!

Now one of these with a fettled Celica GT4 Turbo lump.. that would be a tasty prospect!

[Dagnut]

anything fast said:

Great car!

So much character that modern cars seem to lack!

Now one of these with a fettled Celica GT4 Turbo lump.. that would be a tasty prospect!

Nightmare to keep in a straight line...I've seen one with the 2Ov blacktop...they can be tuned to 175bhp quite easily ..stripped out the car only weights about 850kg so it's plenty of power and you retain the throttle response and balance

[PHOENIXUK]

Took one of these in PX about 20 yrs ago..... Amazed me at the time revved like a Ferrari, not that I knew how one of those revved back then.....

[johnpeat]

MartG said:

s m said:

MartG said:

johnpeat said:

In terms of numbers - UK cars could well be seriously rare.

How Many Left suggests 40 GTs and 41 GT Coupes BUT there was a 3-door GT (one of those 2 designations) AND the later Corolla had a GT (which sucked) so we could even be in teens or single-figures!?

The AE86 GT was a fwd 3-door in the UK ( I'm fairly sure we didn't get the 2 door one here ). The later Corolla ( AE92 ) was badged as GT-i in the UK so won't be included in those figures

Wasn't the AE86 the rear wheel drive car ( the GT Coupe ) and the AE82 the front wheel drive Corolla GT?

I stand corrected

Yeah - I reckon the GTs are the AE82s (FWD), the GT Coupes are what we're looking at here (basically Levin Coupes as they have fixed headlights) and the later Corollas were, indeed, GT-i's

So 41 UK cars - and, surprisingly, 40 of the much inferior 3 doors - unless people have registered em wrong...

[denisb]

Interesting article, especially the G figures. For info a modified road spec GT Coupe can pull over 1.2G, a race spec track day tired one around 1.4G and my thing around 1.6G.

[aww999]

I enjoyed that old article as well. Seems like my bargain-basment Mk1 MR2 was a good choice!

[s m]

aww999 said:

I enjoyed that old article as well. Seems like my bargain-basment Mk1 MR2 was a good choice!

Friend ended up with the MR2 after test driving both

[denisb]

aww999 said:

I enjoyed that old article as well. Seems like my bargain-basment Mk1 MR2 was a good choice!

Need any spares? My dad has a Mk1 MR2 he is sort of breaking.

[Lauren13]

MartG said:

On my lottery list too, but I'd go for a supercharged one

LOL!

[s m]

Lauren13 said:

MartG said:

On my lottery list too, but I'd go for a supercharged one

LOL!

A friend has a standard-ish one - I reckon an extra 40bhp would make it even more fun ( if my old Mk2 RS' were anything to go by )

[donna180]

s m said:

Dan Trent said:

s m said:

Did you see this old 'Motor' article?

Corollas vs MR2

Great link, thanks for that. I hadn't actually seen it before either.

Tis from a fair few years ago
Interesting though as they're all the same power but different drivetrain configurations

That's really interesting. 3 diff. layouts/same engine. - Thanks for posting/saving for reference.

[BULLITT Rich]

johnpeat said:

There's zero chance of that - imported Levins (the booted equivalent) and other much-chavved/riced stuff are £6K+ - a tidy and original UK Corolla GT must be WAY more now, IF you can even find one...

Couple of imports on eBay in varying states of 'rice'

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AE86-TOYOTA-COROLLA-GT-W...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fresh-Import-Toyota-Coro...

Levins weren't the versions with a Boot.

Levins were the fixed headlight version as seen in the article.
Sprinters were the "pop-up" headlight version as seen in Initial D (Takumi's car)

Though those were the Japanese Domestic Market versions. Both Levins and Sprinters were sold under the name of GT Coupe in the UK.

[MartG]

BULLITT Rich said:

Both Levins and Sprinters were sold under the name of GT Coupe in the UK.

Nope - only Levins were officially sold in the UK. If you wanted pop-up headlights, you had to import a Trueno/Sprinter

[s m]

donna180 said:

That's really interesting. 3 diff. layouts/same engine. - Thanks for posting/saving for reference.

No problem - they did a lot of similar stuff back then. Can easily get 'lost' for a few hours looking through back issues

[BriC175]

Love these. Not a fan of the 'drift spec y0!' scene, and would love a clean, standard one. Maybe a few performance tweeks, but otherwise standard please!

[trackerjack]

Fantastic little cars that have had a loyal following since they were made and many are snapped up by the Irish as they use them over Escorts in rallies.

[denisb]

BriC175 said:

Love these. Not a fan of the 'drift spec y0!' scene, and would love a clean, standard one. Maybe a few performance tweeks, but otherwise standard please!

Lower it an inch, get some decent wheels and tyres, change the suspension bushes (you can actually move the car body in relation to the wheels by just pushing it with the standard ones) and uprate the dampers and you will have a fairly quick nice handling car that will be fun and make you feel like a hero.

[denisb]

trackerjack said:

Fantastic little cars that have had a loyal following since they were made and many are snapped up by the Irish as they use them over Escorts in rallies.

They can buy mine if they can afford it (230BHP, 810Kg, 6 speed sequential gearbox, ali rear axle, wide arched, etc etc)!

[s m]

denisb said:

trackerjack said:

Fantastic little cars that have had a loyal following since they were made and many are snapped up by the Irish as they use them over Escorts in rallies.

They can buy mine if they can afford it (230BHP, 810Kg, 6 speed sequential gearbox, ali rear axle, wide arched, etc etc)!

....and the price??

[aeropilot]

S3Swiss said:

Great cars - I used to spanner for a guy who rallied one - he won his class on the 89 RAC on the last chance before the homologation expired.

So did spanner for a AE86GT owner on three RAC Rally's. Only thing we ever had to fix was a broken steering arm after he lost an argument with a large rock.
Unbelieveably reliable car given the abuse handed out.
And the last year for the AE86GT before homologation ran out was in fact 1992, which was also the last RAC Rally I spannered on as well.

Also surprised that the original article didn't mention that the AE86GT came with a LSD as standard!

As well as spannering on RAC Rally's, I also drove my mates then almost new, late production, 'D' reg AE86GT on several night trials back in the late 1980's.
They were good fun to drive.