If ever a car was an appliance, it’s the Toyota Corolla. It is reasonably priced. It has four doors and four wheels. It goes from A to B without costing you too much in the way of C. If Kirkland, Costco’s in-house brand, ever starts offering automobiles, the Corolla is what you’d get. I’ll take a case of toilet paper, a giant tub of mayonnaise and one generic sedan, please.
So, on its 50th birthday, which is October 20, we stifle a yawn and flip ahead to read about the travails of Tesla or the Nuerburgring-storming antics of the latest supercharged Camaro. But not so fast. Not only is the humble Corolla deserving of more respect, it might just be the equal of enthusiast favourites such as the Supra or the MR2.
We begin, early on Sunday morning, gliding up to a waterfront parking stall in the modern version of Toyota’s ubiquitous subcompact. This one is the S version and provides as much excitement as the Corolla offers. The styling is sharper than the bland soap bars of the mid-2000s, with an aggressive front grille that bears a passing resemblance to the evil Emperor Zurg from Pixar’s Toy Story. You get 17-inch alloys, paddle-shifters, satellite navigation, semi-leather seats and a shade of paint called Blue Crush Metallic.
All things considered, the current Corolla is good. It’s equipped with a continuously variable gear box that, like all CVTs under sustained acceleration, has a tendency to make the engine moo like a cow graduating from Bovine University. However, it keeps up with traffic and hits its posted fuel-economy figures. Further, body roll is well controlled, and few other subcompacts offer this level of rear-seat room and trunk space. It’s just sporty enough to be interesting to drive, and still good value – the Corolla way. But hark, here’s the sound of the past pulling up.
With a rattle and a snort, Geremy Testar’s 1972 Corolla TE27 rolls up. It’s roll-caged, it’s lowered, it has rally stripes, fender-flares and a few battle scars from dicing things up with Datsun 510s at the old Westwood track. Next to the modern car, it’s a scrappy little terrier.
The first Corollas reached Canadian shores one year after Toyota introduced the model in Japan in 1966. “Corolla” is from the Latin meaning “Little Crown,” a fitting name, as Toyota’s larger model was the Crown. These first Corollas were much like the early Datsuns, simple and small and a puzzlement to North Americans reared on enormous Detroit iron.
However, the next generation of Corolla got the same lift that the original Honda Civic did; both arrived just as the fuel crisis began to squeeze Canadian buyers out of their big-displacement machines and into thriftier econo-boxes.
Besides which, the light and lively Corolla was a breath of fresh air. Testar’s classic was lifted right off the showroom floor in 1972, and its combination of low curb weight, durable four-cylinder engine and rear-wheel-drive nimbleness helped it make a name for itself. There were two factory competition cars such as this, one for Western Canada and one in the East.
At the same time, the Corolla was making a name for itself in rally racing. European and Australian teams were competitive on the world stage, and local Canadian privateers found much to like in the little ’Rolla’s mechanical stoutness.
I’ve seen a TE27 Corolla sitting proudly among a dozen million-dollar Toyota 2000GTs in a private collection above a factory on the outskirts of Tokyo. For Japanese and Canadian fans with long memories, it’s a special car.
However, the next cult Corolla to jump the pond was something even more special.
Mount Akina. Dawn. The early morning stillness is shattered by the barbaric yawp of a twin-cam four-cylinder screaming toward redline, the screaming of tires heralding a fast-approaching road-racer. But what’s this, a black-and-white Corolla? And it’s delivering tofu?
Meet Takumi Fujiwara’s Sprinter Trueno, probably the most famous fictional Japanese car this side of Speed Racer’s Mach 5. Analogous to a mid-1980s Corolla GT-S, this panda-patterned hatchback grew from a simple black-and-white manga comic called Initial-D to become an international phenomenon.
A drama based around the lives of young racers who battle for supremacy at night on the twisting mountain roads of Japan, the popularity of Initial-D swelled from comic to animated series to video games. With the advent of the Internet, it crossed the Pacific to influence a new generation of enthusiasts; you can now even get a Hot Wheels tribute to the car. The reason there’s an “86” embedded on the fender of the BRZ and the FR-S is all thanks to Takumi and his hachiroku.
The AE86 is the last of the rear-drive Corollas, and had similar success in rally-racing to its earlier ancestor.
However, its real legend came with the success of Initial-D and the way a new generation warmed to Japanese drifting culture. For a generation growing up in Japan’s lost decade of economic uncertainty, Takumi’s Trueno was as much a touchstone as the yellow ’32 Ford hot-rod from American Graffiti was for the boomer generation.
But while the icons inspire everyone from old racers to video gamers, that’s not really the soul of the Corolla.
Instead, we find the car’s true character miles away in Cambridge, Ont., sensibly four-doored and front-wheel-drive, and blue. It’s the first Corolla made by Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, built in 1988 and carefully preserved.
Corollas such as this never raced Mazda RX-7s at midnight, nor banged doors and jumped curbs at the racetrack. They brought babies home from the hospital, picked up the groceries, got the kids to and from school and were always there at the end of the work day to take you home.
A life of quiet dependability is a lot less exciting than one of furious speed, but it is also honourable.
Happy birthday, Corolla – for thousands of us, you were simply there when we needed you.
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