For your Hump Day viewing pleasure, we present two videos about 1970s Toyota Corollas. One’s stock, one’s anything but, though both are equally entertaining.
In the first video, Matt Farrah of The Smoking Tire takes a spin in a Toyotafest regular, Mark Still’s 1975. However, the Corolla en nombre solamente is actually a Lexus SC400 with a TE37 body.
Mark, a Hollywood fabricator, had the skills to pretty much build anything. So he built a hyper-flared Corolla using the front and rear subframes of Toyota’s mid-90s luxe GT powered by a supercharged 1UZ Lexus V8 that could have come straight out of Mad Max.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, and indeed the world, comes a third season episode of Top Gear: Australia that was recently re-aired. The hosts set out to recreate a legendary 620-mile journey to Lake Eyre by David Norrish in 1974. The only catch? They must do it in an early 1970s car while carrying a boat, as Norrish did so he could sail on a body of water that fills up only once in a generation.
Being Australia, two of the three slots are filled with a Holden HQ Kingswood and a Ford XB Falcon 500. The third opening goes to an unexpected choice, a ’74 mango that not only completes the grueling expedition across unpaved roads with a dinghy on its roof, but ends up towing the Kingswood out of a rut. Its character and refusal to die ends up winning over the hearts and minds of the hosts, who all agree they’d take it over a new Corolla in a heartbeat. You can watch the episode here.
So, which Corolla would you prefer?
Original. Though that’s mostly because the modded one would never pass a roadworthy and I can drive the original on my P-Plates.
As much as I enjoy an nice, customized ride, I’d have to go with the original. For me, it’s what these cars ARE that got me into JNCs, not what they could be.
if both were in the garage 9 outa 10 days it would be the orginal for me. Any car you drive you have the most fun when your at its limit. The limit of the lexas/corolla is so far you would hardly ever touch it and if you did it would probably burn you. In the orginal corolla you can hit the limit going through a grocery stor parking lot and laugh all the way home
Original for most of the driving in my life. The modded one would be for screwing around on weekends, etc. I prefer my burned calf to be on a bun.
Top Gear lost me some time ago, beating decent old(er) cars to death. Stupid stuff like, “Let’s see what happens if we drain all the oil out!” Remember the British version where they dropped the Toyota truck off what I recall to be a 5-story tower? The guy who did the trek back in ’74 probably had a not-more-than 5 year old car, so yeah, I’d maybe do this with an ’09 something, as they’re still reasonably common.
I prefer the styling of the older cars to the newer ones from everybody.
I love that the guy with the 1UZ Corolla has kept the original steering wheel!
I think the audience here is a little biased!!!