Eighteen till I buy. Failing hard with Corollas for half a life time.

So, I've now owned 18 Corollas. I'm 26 years old and that's just way to many? #1: I saved up all my money for this car. I was like 17 or 18? I knew nothing about cars on a practical level, but I knew I wanted a Corolla. I drove out to Toronto with my girlfriend to buy an $800 Zenki GT-S Coupe. Minutes before I got to "Speed Star Auto" the mechanic had sold it. However he was selling his daily driver, pictured below I dumped $1500 on a GTSR5...well sort of, it had a 4ag swap, but still had drum brakes. So it's more of a haciu-goku? (hachi-roku means eight six, but since it originally was closer to an eight five, it would be a hachi go, but since it was half swapped, it became a terrible dragon ball zee reference to which my knowledge of it makes me a failure as a winner and a winner as a failure.) Either way, being young and having no parking spot, mixed with mental illness led me to give this car away for free. Fail hard. #2: I found this one for a girl I was dating at the time. $1300 or something of that price range and it was a rust free auto SR5. Sweet, we drove it for about a year and a half before it completely rotted out. Moral of the story, Maaco paint jobs suck. Got a few tickets for it's mal-functions and that was it. Sold it shortly after. #3 This car was actually the first AE86 I ever recognized as an ae86. I'm sure I had seen them before, but never thought to notice them. This was parked around the corner from my house at the time. I scoped it out but the owner wanted $4500 for it. I found it two years later sitting in his driveway. It had stopped running and he had went out and bought a 2.5RS Impreza coupe so he had no interest in it anymore. $1100 and it was mine, TRD header, HKS cat Back, Tokico fronts, KYB rears, ground control fronts and Chowini rears. After bending the clutch neutral start switch back into place the car started easily. Sadly I sold it shortly after. I regret selling this car. #4 I had found this car right after spotting #3 pictured above. Again I followed it for two years, until running into the owner at a Williams coffee shop. A few days later I grabbed it for $500, polished it up and sold it that afternoon for $900. I needed cash sadly and it was helpful. Not being able to support your self sucks. #5 I had found a craiglist ad that said "AWD corolla wagon $200". No picture nothing, James agreed to pay for the car and we bombed down to Hamilton. It was stuck behind a 'GO' train station. We rounded the corner, and James instantly said "NO fucking way" as the damage quickly reveled it self. After chatting with the owner, we gave him $40, he gave us his keys, 2 of his bands CD's (The Good Ideas) and after removing all the empty cans and bottles of beer out of the back we drove it home. There's a longer write up of the full story here. #6 This car was originally from Brooklyn New York. It spent most of it's life there, but eventually made it's way to downtown Toronto. An older Jewish couple owned it and James and I scored it for $700. We drove it back where it started to over heat a bit. We then took slower random roads home, which eventually progressively got faster and faster, and well. We made it home. :) #7 This was a gold find on Craigslist. Much like the first AE95 wagon, this was another limited description advertisement: "AWD corolla wagon RHD $1000". Phil and I hopped in the car and bombed 4 hours north, up past 'Bob Cajun' where we found this immaculate wagon in a womans drive way. She had bought it in the Yukon, drove it back to Ontario, enjoyed it for a few years until her signal lights stopped working. Her local Toyota dealer refused to work on it, so she sold it to us. A new flasher unit later and it was on the road again. #8 When we first got the AE85 above, it was Phils car, eventually I drove it for a summer. However, Phil at the original purchase felt bad I couldn't afford it, so he found my own AWD wagon for $200. Needless to say it was a fucking rot bucket, but I loved it anyways. I learned a lot about corner entry with that wagon, and how much fun sawzalls are! #9 The rotarolla was an explosion of misguidance. At this point I LOVED Corollas and drifting, and I was going to do it. I was going to build a serious drift car! However, I didn't have any money or time. So in the matter of 4 days and a total build cost of $160, the Rotarolla was born. a 13B powered AE86 coupe. It ran, but only after I sold it did it drive for the first time. I wish I would've been able to drive it. However, I ran into an opportunity to move out west, and that came first. I enjoyed this build immensely. #10 This was a random shell we grabbed in Hamilton. The dude was about to scrap the car, and I needed parts for the Rotarolla build. So we traded removing his parts for him in exchange for the rest of the car. He had a Hayabusa Locost Seven, a RWD blacktop 20v powered original mini with widebody, a '77 celica with a 4ag swap, and a tube chassis, full race AW11 Mr2! #11 This was a donation from Brent. An GT-S hatch back for parts, the frame was completely rotten but it had some stuff I needed. found this a while ago #12 I swear I had pictures of this car, but I cannot find them. I was driving home one day and stopped on the side of the highway to see if this guy needed a hand. His AE92 Corolla was broken down, I offered him a ride and a hand, but he just wanted to be done with the car. He traded me the car for a ride home, it never quite felt right. :(. It eventually got parted out and scrapped. #13 Found this in Toronto off Dorikaze. Was a nice car! picked it up for $800, and it was a nice daily for a while until we sold it for $1500. The night we drove it back I was following Phil with a $250,000 1200hp MK4 Supra on the trailer. We had stopped at a gas station to get some Diesel and a fellow approached us, walked right past the Supra with out a glace. He came up to me and started to give me props on the old Corolla. lol I always hated that Supra. #14 While looking for parts for the Rotarolla, I came across this AE86. A friend of a friends brother had an ae86 coupe. A neighbours friend had backed into his Corolla and dented the door lightly. They left a note "Will make this up to you" and a week later he returned home from work one evening and there was another AE86 sitting in his drive way! Unsure what to do with it he was going to cut the A pillars out of it to save for his restoration. I stopped him, having a scrap shell sitting at the shop, gave him the A pillars from the shell and grabbed the car! Was a super fun car to bomb around in. Very rare version of the AE86 as well, as it was a 1984 Sport SR5. Came in a rare '84 only dark blue and had a bunch of '84 Sport only interior trim pieces that was super rare and obscure! #15 While driving across Canada a fellow named Ed was selling this wagon in Victoria, where I was moving to. Some friends from back east showed interest on my behalf. When I landed I bought the car for $50 with no transmission. It's been a huge project of mine, and is nearly complete minus some engine work. Full drive train swap included steering systems has been done. It's quite the car, but I haven't had enough time behind the wheel of it! #16 This was the donor for the Wagon above. I picked it up shortly after with bad rod knock. It had Tokico shocks, Eibach springs, brand new Radiator, manual steering rack, and a bunch of other goodies! Shame it had a vehicle inspection notice on it, or I would've just fixed it up. It's now up island getting a full restoration as a Levin nosed race car! #17 This car is mine in name and blood only. It's James' car and although registered in my name, with a large chunk of the wrenching being done by me, it's still his baby. :) It's now got a sweet welded diff and just finishing some motor work #18 So were up to date are we? Well a while ago, I spotted a corolla through a fence. I found out at the time it was not for sale. However, after a few stops by the house, on random days following I eventually picked it up for $250 as a first car for Robin. She's looking to learn to drive on her own. So it's dented, auto and runs really well, a perfect starter car. There we are!

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  • […] passes, so do family members, but not my rusty first corolla, it’s still alive and killing it. The fairly long video is located […]

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