Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: Corona AT141

Nearly original red 1984 Toyota Carina GT-TR TA63 – Carina Sightings

I have been seeing this nearly original Toyota Carina GT-TR TA63 for the past few years in videos. I think it is one of the most stunning Carina A60s I’ve seen! As there are many videos around, I’d thought I’d go over the car once using photos from one video, and then make an overview of all the other videos I found of the car.

Red 1984 Carina GT-TR TA63 from Hokkaido

This 1984 Carina GT-TR TA63 is from Hokkaido. It is covered by various people on YouTube, but I’ll feature videos by Yu Sasaki and Bankakuemiko.

Near original red 1984 Carina GT-TR TA63
Near original red 1984 Carina GT-TR TA63

At first glance, you would think it is nearly original. Almost as if it were new from the factory. It even still has the small black trim pieces on the wheel arches that were only present after the facelift in 1984. However, there are a few things that make it not original. From the outside, compare it to the red GT-TR in the 1984 Carina brochure:

Continue reading

Count the Toyota 2000GTs in this picture!

Sorry for the small scale, but this picture was taken from Minkara and is too amazing not to post:
Count the Toyota 2000GTs in this picture!
In case you really want to count them: you can include the Toyota 2000GT SEV in the foreground. ;)

Just imagine the amount of money this lineup is worth: the 2000GT averages somewhere around the $400,000 dollars (the Carroll Shelby is an outlier) and I counted at least 12 of them and the line just continues. 12 times $400,000 is just short of $5,000,000 dollar!

To put this a bit into perspective, have a look at this amazing Toyota Corona T140 lineup: Continue reading

Carina Sightings: Carina’s twin Brother

MyCub uploaded these two videos containing all Corona Twincam Turbo TT140 commercials featuring Roger Moore (when he was still 007). The Carina GT-TR TA63 had the puppy saving Sonny Chiba, its twin brother the Corona GT-TR TT140 had Roger Moore jumping out of a truck!

On one hand I prefer Roger Moore because he got a bit more class (and so does the Corona), but on the other hand the Carina is more a ordinary hero’s car.
I love the last commercial with the three trucks saying “Toyota”, “Twincam Turbo” and “New Corona GT”.

In this second video we see more James Bond in the ads: with the classy ladies, the miraculous escape and the good endings! Continue reading

Rare bosozoku cars: Toyota Corona T14

I have a weak spot for the Toyota Corona T14 series: they are closely related to the Toyota Carina and Celica.

I found this great bosozoku styled Corona some time ago on multiple meetings and picture galleries:
Bosozoku style Toyota Corona T14
Bosozoku style Toyota Corona T14

It has been modified seriously with a sharknose, fins, big lip, oil cooler, deep dish wheels, tsurikawa and a big V-shaped exhaust! Unfortunately I could not find a picture rear of the car including the V-shaped exhaust:

Bosozoku style Toyota Corona T14
Bosozoku style Toyota Corona T14

Unfortunately this is the only Corona T14 I could find grachan/bosozoku styled pictures of… On the other hand I could find shakotan styled Coronas in large amounts:
Shakotan styled Toyota Corona T14
Shakotan styled Toyota Corona T14

That is very understandable: this last RWD Corona and they are mainly used for drifting nowadays. This series offered a cheap, relatively lightweight car and featured some new generation engines with great potential. Where did we hear that before?

Drifting Toyota Corona AT141
Drifting Toyota Corona AT141

During the 70s Toyota created a great diversity in platforms: they had the Publica (P), Corolla/Sprinter (E), Celica/Camry/Carina (A), Corona (T), Mark II (X) and Crown (S) and a few other platforms on which they built their cars. Toyota decided to merge the Corona and Celica platforms to cut costs and did this starting with the Corona T14 and Celica/Camry A5 generations. The Celica/Camry/Carina wheelbase remained the same, but the Corona wheelbase shrunk by 25 mm.

Factory stock Corona TT140 sedan
Factory stock Corona TT140 sedan

The Corona was positioned above the Carina and offered, just like the Carina and Celica, independent rear suspension on all luxurious and sports models. The wagons were based on the same platform as the Carina so Toyota only changed the front section to match the Corona look. The rear section of the wagon is entirely the same as the Carina, including the live axle.

Factory stock Corona sedan and wagon
Factory stock Corona sedan and wagon

Later on Toyota also offered the Corona as a taxi with an additional LPG engine (Diesel was already available). This Corona was basically a mix and match of the Corona and Carina: front looked like the Carina while the mid and rear section were Corona. Later taxi models featured the Carina taillights.

The 1982 and 1983 Corona taxi
The 1982 and 1983 Corona taxi

The Corona hardtop Coupe was targeted as the grand tourer edition of the Celica and positioned between the Celica and the Soarer. It offered great luxury above the spartan Celica and Celica XX models while it had less luxurious options as the new Soarer.

All varieties of the Toyota Corona hardtop coupe
All varieties of the Toyota Corona hardtop coupe

Toyota had borrowed some styling cues for the Corona T14 from BMW: the nose had a slight wedge in it, its rear section featured a BMW style rear door and its boot and taillights were slightly borrowed from the BMW 7 series of that era:

This Corona sedan shows its BMW lines
This Corona sedan shows its BMW lines

The Corona offered, like the Carina, a great variety of engines: from the 1.5 liter 3A-U till the 2.4 liter 22R. Of course it featured the sporty 135hp 18R-GEU and 130hp 4A-GE in the GT and the performance 160hp 3T-GTE engine in the GT-T.

The mighty 3T-GTE twin cam 16 turbo engine
The mighty 3T-GTE twin cam turbo engine

After this series the Corona and Carina models merged, the platform changed to FWD and started to feature a bit more dull styling. The Corona T14 series is the last great Corona.

© 2024 Banpei.net

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑