(first posted 10/27/2017) I had a friend who was a real wine connoisseur. One of the best pieces of information I remember him giving me about purchasing fermented grape juice was to always avoid exported Italian wine because, according to him, “They keep all the good stuff and drink it.” There are exceptions of course, but by and large, I have found this to be pretty sound advice. Likewise, one could argue that Toyota kept all the good stuff for the Japanese Domestic Market. This Corona hardtop coupé is a case (of wine) in point.
Just look at it! It’s got one of the sharpest suits this side of the Adriatic and a 130 PS twin cam 4-cyl. with a five-speed manual driving the rear wheels. Chrome has not been completely eradicated yet, and the C-pillar’s not clad with plastic – it’s the early ‘80s at their best, the last wild designs before conformity set in, the final fling with flair, the one for the road.
Angular? No, gaijin-san, those are the dying embers of the disco era’s passion for the wedge and the straight line, but with a hint of curves still bending a corner here and there. The bouquet is fragrant, with spicy notes – vanilla is already present in this vintage, but not overpowering. Drink young, perhaps with one companion, but not more, as they won’t fit in the back seat.
The sweet white is best served chilled, but the tall glass of red is also tempting…
Surely you know the Corona T140. You, reading this in Australia, Brazil, Germany or the US, you remember the last RWD Coronas – but they were never like this. They were as boring as the Italian wine you bought at the supermarket the other day. Capable cars, yes, but devoid of style, a million miles form this classy JDM coupé. Coronas of that generation, as far as you were concerned, were wagons or saloons – something like this:
So you do remember. When did you see one last? You might not remember that, as few are still around – though one was featured on CC a while back, and another one quite recently, hidden amongst a herd of Corollas. The crafty product planners at Toyota must have gathered after hours at a smoke-filled salary-man watering hole in Nagoya, saying something like: “Let’s give these poor saps the Corona saloon and wagon, as they are used to them and will buy them in droves, though they are turkeys. But let us keep the hardtop coupes for ourselves. It is too good for this world. Only our fellow citizens will be allowed to partake in this final RWD Corona coupé, for it is only reserved for decent people.” And Mr Toyoda smiled and replied: “Let it be so. Kampai!”
OK, that might be a slight exaggeration, or even complete BS, but still. Need I remind you of the countless times Toyota kept all the nice stuff and wouldn’t share? The 2000 GT, the Century, the Chaser, the Mark X, the Crown Comfort, the Crown Athlete, the Crown Majesta, the Progrès, the Sera, the Sports 800… It’s a long list. What’s the deal, Toyota? We lesser peoples of the world are not fit to buy your best products?
So we non-Japanese had to make do with the frumpy Corona saloon instead of the stylish Corona hardtop coupé. We got Sonny instead of Cher. We bought Duchamp’s urinal but were left without a pot to piss in. We were sold oregano when we wanted chronic. We had the fava beans but not the nice Chianti. It always comes back to the vino, doesn’t it?
But was the Corona hardtop coupé all that good? Perhaps not. After all, it had the same shortcomings as the saloon it came from. A solid rear axle that looked pretty dated by the time it came out. A boring dashboard and absolutely no legroom at the rear. An afterthought rear windscreen wiper that could have been dispensed with, had the aerodynamics been better. Not to mention our CC’s aftermarket wheels… And look – no cupholders. You mean they want you to drink or drive? But then every car has its bad points.
007 shaken and disturbed: “Why can’t one get these back in Britain?”
The Corona T140 debuted in Japan in January 1982 and the JDM-only hardtop coupé came about six months later. But it, much like Roger Moore, went off the radar after 1985, replaced by an anonymous-looking FWD two-door that ushered in the blandness years for Toyota, as was the case practically everywhere else. I remember the late ‘80s / early ‘90s. I was there, though I was well below drinking age. It was dreadful. The cars were all lookalikes. I think that’s what drove me to drink. After all, I was below driving age, too.
So I’d like to propose a toast, to the Toyota Corona 1600 GT Hardtop Coupé – the loveliest Corona we never got to know because they wouldn’t let us. It may not have been a great car underneath, but skin-deep and with beer goggles, it was one of the best Toyotas of the ‘80s. Hip, hip, hurray! Oh darn, my glass is empty. And so is the bottle. Never mind, I think I’ll have a Corona.
Related post:
Curbside Capsule: 1983-87 Toyota Corona – The Sun Sets On The RWD, Japanese Intermediate, by William Stopford
That lead photo and pics of the back end remind me of this.
Was gonna say the same thing.
Meanwhile, I had thought of a resemblance to the Plymouth (Mitsubishi) Sapporo — with tail lights borrowed from a 1976-77 Vega.
It’s a safe bet that a Grand Prix 2+2 and a Sapporo have never been mentioned in a single comment thread before, anywhere.
It reminds me of what a smaller Mirada may have looked like.
Next gen Challenger/Mirada…
I was going to say that too! Love the window treatment.
Yes, I even had a friend that had a ’79 Sapporo and traded it for an ’83 Challenger….2 of the same Mitsubishis in a row.
Funny thing, I was hardly a fan until I got to ride in it. I’m an confirmed hatchback lover for one thing. Surprising rear seat space (maybe shouldn’t be so surprised, this is one thing you often give up in a hatchback vs coupe). Very plush inside, nice front seats. He got rid of the Challenger in ’88 when it started cupping rear tires and he couldn’t get an alignment to work to stop it.
I think this would have been the first year for the Camry at least in the US? The end conventional RWD Toyotas except for the outgoing Corolla, Cressida, Celica and longer term the Supra. I’ve not owned a Toyota, but have been to Toyota City in Japan (a moderate train ride from Nagoya) and remember seeing all sorts of models never sold in the states.
What I wish we could still buy is a Corona Liftback, ugly as they were, but pretty practical, which is what I’m looking for…just 40+ years too late.
I see a shrunken Ford Fairmont Futura coupe.
Beat me to it!
Agree. It looks so… American.
Had they invested in a bent glass single piece rear window, this could have been perfect. As it is, this was a sweet little car. I am betting Toyota would have sold a lot of these here. A shame.
Agreed about that rear glass. The one they put looks too cheap. But it’s just a Corona, after all…
You don’t need beer goggles to appreciate these; they are basically a higher class Celica coupe of the times. The GX and EX Saloon models are fairly stodgy, but the other models had legitimate credibility. This 1600GT example carries the now famous 4A-GE motor (although the high strung nature combined with low torque in a car this heavy doesn’t really make for a swift vehicle in this application). The early 2000GT models shared the DOHC 18R-G with the concurrent Celicas, and that was later supplanted with the GT-T and GT-TR models. These 3T-GTE 1.8 DOHC turbocharged cars, along with the Celica, were the first application of such technology in Japan at the time. Good for 160 PS, they were very credible for 1983. The Carina series shared all these motors as well during the same period, and although they would have been the lowest rung of the ladder, they likely were the lightest of the trio, and probably the fastest.
I do see a hint of Celica in the styling now that you mention it, as well as the original 1982 Soarer.
And the dashboard/instrument panel looks like a Celica’s of the time. The HVAC vents in the center were a giveaway.
What an awkwardly styled car! Reminds me of a generic car you’d see in a late ’80s/early ’90s video game.
Roger, I thought the same exact thing. It’s a pretty low-polygon model. 🙂
Wow, there’s a lot to see here. The Pontiacky/Oldsmobine taillamps, the Fordic (basket handle) greenhouse treatment, the Monte Carloid rear bumper, the backglass wiper just about never seen on notchbacks outside Japan, the Japan-type side turn signal repeater in the location where an US/Canada-spec car would have a sidemarker light…
Knowing that the JDM had so many interesting models that were not offered elsewhere (or at least in Australia where I live) has long been a source of fascination and frustration for me.
The boring white colour and cheaply aftermarket wheels does this example no favours, but I actually liked this model, even if it is from the Origami school of design. The family resemblence to the Celica of the same period is obvious. I love the rear wiper (such a practical idea for non wagons and hatches-why hasn’t the rest of the world caught on… perhaps someone can do a CC feature on this? ) , and note that not many of this model were fitted with this option in Japan from perusing photos of used examples. As is usual 99% of Japanese sedans or coupes that had rear wipers, had this feature deleted for Australia.
Whilst not an export on this model, i believe the base models had the live rear axle, and the semi and full performance models had an independent rear, the first Coronas to have one.
Unfortunately we in Australia were never offered the Corona hardtops in any generation (if you discount the RT72 Mk2 and MX2X Corona mark 3 series). The reason was probably a fear of an overlap with the Celica and Toyota Australia’s unrelenting and colossal conservatism and cynicism. Interestingly the much smaller market of Toyota New Zealand did find room to sell the Corona hardtops as well as the Celicas.
An interesting tidbit: I read somewhere that Toyota Australia actually assembled some 2 door sedan Coronas (RT11x series) for export to countries like Fiji. I don’t know if that is correct though. Of course they were not sold here.
Regarding the overlap, that didn’t stop Toyota Australia from falling over themselves to offer yet another SUV, but to offer even one performance or personal type car, well that was all too hard.
I’ve always had a weird interest in Corona hardtops, partly because they were unobtainable here and because if the juxtaposition between the conservative nature of the pedestrian sedans and wagons and the concept or a sportier model of a car that perhaps isn’t supposed to be sporty. I find that a bit subversive. 🙂 My favourite has to be a 1974 RT114 2000GT.
One of our local motoring magazines WHEELS went to Japan in around 1984 to drive a selection of performances Toyotas (it was a golden age as at the time Toyota had a wide range of twin cam engines with turbos, multi valves, or twin plugs or in the case it the Corona hardtop they drove, 2 out of the 3).
They drove the GT-T which apart from the GT-TR (I don’t know what extra features that one had) was the top model with the 1.8 twin cam, twin plug turbo 3TGTE engine. They reported that it went very hard (probably the fastest accelerating car of the day) and handled very well.
In Australia we eventually got the top line Corona sedan (called the Avante) with the independent rear suspension after the minor facelift when the switch was made to lead free petrol here. But something was lost in the translation (or suspension tuning) as the IRS model did not really handle appreciable better that the live rear axle model, which was panned here for being horrible.
At one stage I wanted to buy one (a GT-TR in the blue on the left in that brochure photo above would be fantastic) and approached an importer who had brought in done of the very few GT-TR sedans that have found their way here. The importer was basically disinterested in my potential business and was only inclined to try to sell me a R32 Skyline, which an an import cliche here.
I’ve only seen a small handful of Australian based examples here in photos that were usually a low sped model in done horror red colour with dodgy rims etc.
When Toyota replaced this model with a coupe derived from the ST162 FWD Celica (ironically a car I did own and a decent car) I lost interest in anything Corona related with 2 doors. ?
As made in Australia, these 140 Coronas had truly horrible handling. My wife had one when we married, and my ten-year-older Cortina handled better. The Corona was a very nice car to sit in, and for low-speed city driving, which was probably exactly what it was designed for.
Agreed. But the platform was capable of better. The Celica (and the Supra) of the same period with the same basis chassis handled decently, at least with the IRS update according to an Australian road test, and the sportier JDM Corona variants were by most accounts good.. It’d put it down to crap suspension tuning choices for the Australian models.
Australia had a very restricted market for Japanese cars NZ had more models and no 4 banger Holden engines fitted to ruin a good average car, these are the Toyotas critic Chris Amon complained long and loud about with their awful road manners, given his abilities Amon was offered the Toyota parts bin and a free reign to fix the handling problems, so NZ got suspensions tuned for local conditions that improved Coronas immensely you only have to drive the mushy narrow tyred JDM offerings once or twice to notice the difference, that situation continued until local assembly ended in the mid/late 90s
Ex JDM Corona coupes turned up in NZ but are rare now, lots of absolute junk turned up in the early days of used imports nowdays poorly repaired accident damage and wound speedos simply dont make the grade.
To echo Daniel M. and a few others, this Corona is giving me some alternate-universe Dodge Mirada! I actually really like this…everything but its front fascia (which I find too flat and plain). But the rest almost makes up for it!
Another great find, Tatra87 – thanks for sharing it.
I agree, the front end is the least interesting part of this car. Always hate it when that happens.
Only on CC would Timothy Dalton be described as an anonymous-looking FWD two-door, and only T87 would make the analogy work so well.
hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
Nice find. Saluté
Knew someone would appreciate this. 😉
Dalton was the worst official Bond ever, in my book. Fully deserving a comparison with boring Toyota’s of the late ’80s.
Great find; a car I’ve never seen.
Perhaps someone should point out that the US never got this generation of Corona at all; we got the brand new FWD Camry instead. Of course, in sedans only.
The FWD coupe that replaced this hardtop, incidentally, was sold in the U.S. with a Celica front clip as the T160 Celica notchback.
Interesting find.
That rear window makes this loom like an Austin Montego derivative
Well I, for one, quite like these Corona Coupes, they’re definitely the rarest of the Celica/Supra/Corona/Carina “family”. We used to see a few around in the 1990’s but like most Japanese imports of the time, they’re mostly all gone now. They were terrible for rust in the rear quarters.
A guy who used to live over the road from me until a year ago had a top-spec GT-T coupe. Those 2T-GTE engines can make some decent power when they’re lightly modded.
I’d note also that these had the same rear suspension as the Celica, semi-trailing arms. Well I know the GT-T does, I assume all of the coupes do.
My understanding is that all the GT models that had the 2TGE, 18RGE and 3TGTE has the independence rear. The cheaper models, which in some cases were badged “saloon” despite being a hardtop, would have being live rear axle. The sedans would have had similar rear suspensions depending on the engine.
Previous generations of Coronas had semi sporting models called SR and SL, the sat just below the GT twin cams. They had a similar suspension set up to the GTs, i.e. Firmer rates, rear anti roll bar, track rods etc. If there was an equivalent grade in this final RWD generation, they also would have the independent rear end.
Why oh why doess Toyota not cars like these any more? They make the FT86/FRS which is something but you can’t really sear an extra 2 adults in the rear when you need to. There is hardly any affordable 2 plus 2 RWD coupes any more. The BMW 2 and 4 series are are a rip off down under.
I’m not super familiar in regards to the logistics of suspension setup of these / Celica / Carina of this generation, but I am fairly certain this Corona never got the 2T-GE (not the case with the Carina and Celica). I’m only aware of the 1600GT in the Corona line until after the debut of the 4A-GE in May 1983.
The underpinnings were basically now shared with the A60 Celica/Carina, so most models had a similar live axle/five link setup with the GT and possibly SX hardtop having semi-trailing arms in back. As you surmised, the 2T-GEU was never offered on the T140 hardtop; initial base engine was the 1S-U, with the 3T-EU on 1800SX cars and the DOHC 18R-GEU on the GT. The 3T-GTEU became optional in October 1982 and the 4A-GEU a year later, according to Toyota.
Yes, my error as I was confused with the circa 1981 (AE7X series?) RWD Corollas which had the distinction of being fitted with both the first generation 2TG twin cams then the 4GE twin cams.
I’ll have a blue GT-TR with 3TGTE, optional sports seats, analogue dash and rear wiper please 🙂
Here’s one in better condition. 🙂
And that rear window.