One of our favorite episodes of Grassroots Garage was recently posted, and features a restored 1967 KE10 Toyota Corolla. It’s a beautiful example, one that hails from the first year Corollas were imported into Australia. The owner, Nat, achieved the difficult feat of restoring what needed to be restored while keeping what needed to remain original original.
The result is a stunning specimen of a 1100cc Corolla with two-speed Toyoglide automatic. The car has a bit of local history, but when Nat got the car he knew it was something special — the original spare tire had never been mounted — and didn’t want to go crazy with the mods, even though his previous car was a rotary-powered 323 Familia hatchback.
Aside from a lowering and accessory rear window blinds, the car remains stock. Anything that was changed, Nat’s kept the original parts to put it back to true stock if needed. He also describes himself as a curator for the car, and will only pass it on to the right person. It’s a true labor of love, and it shows.
When I first discovered Toyotas in 1979 I was a 20 year old kid working for a Toyota dealership then and I always loved the early RWD Corollas for their simplicity and durability those days ignited a flame that burns stronger than ever for bare bones basic Toyotas. That’s why I have a 99 Tacoma regular cab that I’m slowly restoring but is still a faithful, dependable daily driver I will take that truck to my grave
Omigawd! The so-called interviewer had never heard of Bill Buckle…. The Father of Goggomobil in Australia? Sheeesh!
He might also be well advised to take a course on body language….. looked pretty bored whilst interviewing the owner.
Nice vehicle, yup, lots of work put in, sure – concours?? No. It’s been lowered, and certain items were never cadmium plated/yellow zinc plated – it’s never going to be concours with those.
It took up to the seventh minute to actually get a decent sound grab of the engine running!
Nice to see a KE10 within cooee of being completely restored.
Man, that’s beautiful. Still such a great design.
Thanks for the right up guys it’s very much appreciated, she is a special one with an amazing history and in the right hands with me and passion for vintage jap cars is made obvious in the Episode.
While yes I restored the engine and bay (with a concourse approach) the rest is untouched and factory original with lowering it just to get my personal mark on her.
Peter and Ryan from Grassroots Garage are true automotive enthusiasts with I’m a huge advocate for (the celebration of cars and their owners) just like Japanese nostalgic car and totally disagree with the comment regarding him looking bored, GrassRoots style is a relaxed sit down and chat approach without the frills..
Peter did know who Bill was but as a interviewer asks the questions for you to answer.
Once again I’m very humble with the feature guys.
Cheers Nat
A like but a toyota Corolla antique