Third generation Toyota Celica. Learned to drive standard on one of these. Liftback, not coupe. Dunno why I loved the car so much, other than it was a 5-speed and rear wheel drive and just a stupid fun car at a time when cars really weren't all that much fun. Growing up as a child of the 1980s, I watched the Thunderbird go from the bloated '70s land yacht to the neutered six-banger in the '80s. Dodge eschewed pretty much all V8s in favor of 4-cylinder turbos. And GM? Putting the Iron Duke 2.5L I4 in the third generation Camaro is an abomination unto Nuggan.
When gas economy forced out the big V8, pure raw power was out. Cars like the Celica, Nissan 280 ZX, Volkswagen GTI and others started to fill the niche. They weren't as powerful as the generation of muscle cars that preceded them, but they could be made to corner pretty well; if you couldn't pin your buddy to the passenger seat through raw acceleration, you could make him grab blindly for the oh s**t handle as you tore around corners.
And I'm not telling whether or not I got the inside rear wheel of my '86 GTI off the ground in a tight corner...
That is all.
7 comments:
From an era when the traditional muscle cars V-8's were making as much power as the Japanese four-bangers.
And the Japanese cars were lighter.
Don't get me started on that "iron duke." More like iron dookie. Or as I liked to call it, 2.5-suicide.
From my GTI days, a day without three wheeling was like a day without sunshine!
Mine for the record was also fitted with the lovely, lovely VR6 motor. I still dream of that silky rumble to this day.
Many times while autocrossing my 1984 GTI, I clipped corners and avoided knocking down the cone when that inside rear tire lifted just enough to clear the base of the cone. Fun car!
I know you did get the inside rear wheel off the ground. It was easy on both of the ones I owned...
Welcome back... :-)
In the 80's, my neighbor raced and cornerworked SCCA races. Ran the Rabbit based GTI's. He said the stock ones cornered on three wheels, and turned laps at Sears Point around 2:03's. (I remember the laptime because that was the same as my stock engined Moto Guzzi LeMans 850 ran.
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