Talking of wheels, the standard-fit alloys are dinky 14-inch items, but you’ll find superior tyre options by stepping up to 15-inch wheels which fill the arches a bit better and also help with access and cooling if you’re thinking of a big brake kit. “There’s also hope that, in lead-free 1985, we will see the Sprinter with a more potent engine, one of the twin-cam multi-valve jobs now available in the Sprinter in Japan. The Wheels road test in October 1983 is a lament to what might have been: Unfortunately, it’s also the model that Toyota chose to import to Australia, which only adds to the full-fat Trueno’s local lustre. The AE85 got the lame SOHC carb-fed 3A-U lump good for just 58kW, and it has no rear disc brakes and no limited-slip diff. These can look fairly similar but they’re chalk and cheese. Since Toyota switched to FWD for all cars that used the 4A-GE after 1988, when the MR2 was replaced by the SW20 version, all 4A-GE engines from then on were in fact the 4A-GELU variant.Īnd while we’re at it, let’s clear up the difference between an AE86 Sprinter Trueno and an AE85 Sprinter. The 4A-GELU is designed for a transverse fit – as in the original W10-gen Toyota MR2 – and differs because the manifolds were of an altered design to cater for the different intake and exhaust routing. The 4A-GEU as installed in the Trueno Sprinter is the engine that was used for the Japanese and European markets, while the 4A-GEC is the crippleware version for the US market with its strict emission standards. Although that, unfortunately, increased the variance within the series, we managed to gain the understanding of the production division and other divisions by setting out a clear policy of always using FF layouts with the sedan version, and then FR layouts with the sports coupes. “With the sportier Levin, we stuck with the FR (front-engine, rear-drive) layout because an FF layout would reduce the sportiness of its performance. Of course, there were all sorts of packaging and cost benefits of an FF (front- engine, front-wheel-drive) layout, but Ohira hedged on the migration of sporting models to a rear-drive platform. This is the man whose life has been dedicated to the Corolla, from the fourth-generation E70 of 1979 through to the 11th generation E160 model of 2012, Japan’s mandatory retirement age creeping up on him in 2015. Ohira-san had been at Toyota since 1968 and was transferred to the Product Planning department as consultant engineer in 1977.
To trace its lineage, we need to go back to the start and a man called Shinji Ohira. But there are others who fully appreciate why this car is held in such esteem.
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