"It's incredibly slow, it's incredibly ugly, it's covered in chrome - and I love it!" This Feature Vehicle is 2019 Bay to Birdwood entrant Jordan Allen's 1965 Toyota Corona.
My dad had an old shovel-nose RT-40, like this one. In 1990, I bought a 1970 RT-80, basically the same car with a newer design body. I had the workshop manual for it. That rated the 1.5 litre 2R engine at 80 hp.
I drove one exactly like this, it was a 1967 model. The tractability of that little 1500cc stems from low-down torque due to a long stroke. This is what gave Toyota the name for reliability. Sadly that era ended, my last Toyota was a mechanical abortion, best way to describe it. But that old 67 Corona 1500 served me well for many years until I parted with it in 1986, sadly. 😊
Mine is the same colour. In South Africa we had some variation to the models in the rest of the world. I understand that the vehicles were sent here in SKD packs and assembled at the plant in Durban. Mine is a 1970 model, with the 1600 OHC engine and a floor shift 4 speed transmission. It also had an indicator stalk. My vehicle is near identical to 1969 powder blue one my late mother owned when I grew up. Enjoy your lovely car
My first car was one of these, it cost me $200 in 1993. I never got a speeding ticket in it because, with 1200cc of raging power and a two-speed automatic transmission, speeding was not really possible without a long, straight, downhill road. Burnouts/wheelspin? Nope, not even in gravel. If you were hiding from a really hot chick, this was your car...
