Meet your heroes: the drift-happy 1983 Toyota Corolla Coupe GT

This is one that built over time. Because back in the pre-internet 1980s communication didn’t travel well. Toyota sold the Corolla Coupe GT in the UK for a few years but we preferred our Ford Capris and Vauxhall Mantas, cars with a bit of swagger and bravado. A Toyota was a white good, we looked at Japanese cars then the way we look at Chinese now.

What we didn’t know was that the Corolla Coupe GT lived an alternative existence in Japan. There, nicknamed the Hachi Roku, it was a drifting and rallying legend, its reputation built as much in illicit street racing as in legitimate competition. It wouldn’t be until well after the Coupe GT had gone off sale in the UK (1987) that us Europeans started to really discover what the AE86 was all about. For me, this was a new world opening up. Until now, it had all been about French hot hatches: 205s, AX GTs, 5 Turbos. Suddenly there was a new shape to lust after, and a new hero on the block. Keiichi Tsuchiya. The man who ‘invented’ drifting.

A dozen years ago I got to spend a day with him, drifting GT86s around barrels. He was cool as they come, either driving furiously, or sitting on a stack of spent, bedraggled tyres, chain smoking cigarettes. He was as responsible for the Hachi Roku’s fame, as it was for his. Hachi Roku, by the way, is Japanese for 86, and the GT86? That was named in honour of this car.

Tsuchiya started drifting to overtake, sailing into corners broadside without braking to get in front, then sorting out the resulting mess after the apex. It was a technique that made him famous and started the whole drifting ball rolling. And it was doable because the AE86 was so fabulously well balanced.

As I’m finding out. Because, boy, does this car have a sweet handling balance. The body roll is hilarious, but the balance of the (modest) grip between front and rear axles is absolutely perfect. It’s one of those cars that seems to site you slap bang in the middle so that you feel exactly what’s going on at either end equally. And then it gives you just enough power to overcome the available grip if you commit hard enough to the corner. I am no Tsuchiya and this car is too precious and frankly feels too old, rare and frail to be overly abused, but what a thing. A thing ripe for tinkering and improvement.

This was the fifth generation Corolla and the last to feature rear wheel drive. As standard it came with a 1.6-litre twincam four cylinder which sounds way fruitier than you’d imagine. It developed 128bhp and 110lb ft in the days when that was acceptable. Since it only weighed around 950kg it had a power to weight ratio not far off that of a 205 GTI 1.9. Today, it’s got just about enough pace to convince you it’s, well, moving (0–60mph in 8.6secs was the claim), but although there’s a good hit of torque low down, there’s more noise than forward progress. Luckily, the noise is tremendous.

You don’t get the impression the UK spec Coupe GT was a performance car. The three spoke steering wheel is nice to hold but massive, the blue velour trim of the broad seats an attempt at luxury that the hard plastics and blocky cabin design do little to sustain. Actual sportiness and satisfaction comes from the unseen parts here.

Not for the first time, something was lost in translation between Japan and Europe. Europe didn’t realise what it had on its hands with this little coupe. For us the Corolla hatch was our original white good car, and the Coupe GT could do no more than add a luxury tint. But treated as a blank canvas, stripped and made ready for action, you can see exactly why the AE86 has lived a life way beyond its natural lifespan.