Toyota killed most of the Corolla's soul when they shifted the model from rear to front-wheel drive back in the day. Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe Corolla is a rear-driver from the '80s, and goes the extrovert route one better by rocking a Lexus V8 and some serious attitude. Is that enough for you to get excited about its price too?
The seller of yesterday's 1974 Pantera didn't bother to so much as wash the car before throwing it up on Craigslist. That proved bothersome to the 78% of you who were compelled to write 'wash me' in the dust on the rear lid. That, and its price, resulted in it falling in a Crack Pipe loss, which might be construed as a low-down dirty shame. You know, because the car was so low… and dirty.
Today's 1980 Toyota Corolla on the other hand, is dirty in a whole different way.
The Corolla is generally considered to be synonymous with dullness and mediocrity, a motoring appliance as it were, and little more. This one however, which hails from the days when the marque was rear-wheel drive and boxy as hell, looks to be the party of the century.
Today there is only one Corolla - a milquetoastian four-door sedan that offers little reason to buy it over any of its direct competitors. That was't always the case, and this 1980 job comes from the days when Toyota offered a butt-load of Corolla models - wagons, two-different hatchbacks, sedans, etc - all of which where rear-wheel drive.
Those all came with some form of sturdy and unflappably reliable four pot under the hood, and of course a choice of stick or automatic gearboxes. This one however kicks the four to the curb to make way for a 32-valve V8, late out of some form of Lexus. See? It still has that dumb-ass italic L logo on the plenum.
Sending the Lexus' ponies to the live rear axle is a W58 5-speed, and the mill is controlled by an aftermarket ECU from Autronic. That means you can fiddle with all its settings and have it put out as much grunt or growl as is your want.
The suspension has been modded with coil-overs at each corner and adjustable tower mounts in the front. Wilwood clampers provide the demotivational skills, while deep-dish wheels and fat-boy tires spill from the already extended wheel arches. The trunk is now home to a fuel cell, repositioned Optima battery, and humorously, a hella-lot of ballast.
On the inside, there's a six-point safety bar, plus a pair of comfy-looking Corbeaus for all your seating pleasure. The dash has been striped of its original gauges, and those have been replaced with some aftermarket dials that should keep you abreast of what's going on under the hood.
Actually, I'm not sure this car has a hood. I mean, it looks like the V8 fits nicely in the engine bay, but no hood is evident in any of the pics. It's sort of like a body builder who only wears tank tops so as to show off his guns. Still, I'd ask for a hood. The rest of the bodywork looks serviceable and extremely loud and proud.
The ad doesn't go into a great deal of detail - aside from the odd admission that the engine comes with custom ground cams… from New Zealand. It does claim that the pictures tell the whole story, and there are plenty of those. They don't however give you a clue as to the mileage of the car or mill, age of all the work, or if it was professionally done or perhaps by umpa-loompas in their off-hours.
The pics also don't give you an idea of why the car is now being offered, nor its price. Thankfully for us, that last bit of information is in the ad's headline. I guess the pics don't tell the whole story after all.
That price is $6,995, and for that you get a very interesting Corolla. That fact alone should be worth something, right? The question is, do you think the car as a whole is worth that $6,995?
You decide!
Dallas Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to IDROVEAPICKUPTRUCK for the hookup!
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