Almost A Classic: 1980 Toyota Corolla TE72
The E70 Corolla was the fourth generation of Toyota’s best selling subcompact, and the last to retain a conventional longitudinal front engine rear-drive setup (with the exception of the AE86 “Hachi-Roku” coupe). It will be miserably slow with a slushbox, but somehow, it still manages to ooze cool. Find this 1980 Toyota Corolla TE72 offered for $3,000 in North Bend, WA.
The E70 Corolla was available in a diverse array of body styles — 2-door sedan, 4-door sedan, 2-door hardtop, 5-door wagon, 2-door coupé, and the 3-door liftback we see here today. Personally I think the liftback is the most interesting of the breed.
Under the hood is a 1.8 liter 3T-C, which is a pushrod equipped 4-banger that is fed via a single carburetor to produce something around 75 horsepower in California spec. The seller states that it runs & drives perfect, but mentions that the muffler fell off…
See another cheap liftback equipped almost-classic? tips@dailyturismo.com
some editor-in-chief likes their new badge 😉
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make this car fast enough that the Sparco seats are not just a riceboy embarrassment, but actually needed.
I was just looking for these a few days ago. I even considered submitting for the mid-week matchup, but since I'm based in Canada I found one on Kijiji in Calgary, which is only 12 hours away instead of 24. Now I have to figure out if I actually want to go forward with such a project.
This thing is located only like 2 or 3 miles from my house. Hope it didn't get parked outside for a long time since it rains almost constantly here.