Find Reviews by Make:
American car ads of the early 1980s came up short in several departments: Burning rubber, jet-engine-grade turbocharger sound, and blatantly sped-up film that made the cars appear to be going 300 MPH. Oh, and they also lacked James Bond!
Since my very first set of wheels was a 50-buck ’69 Corona sedan, I have a soft spot for the not-so-sporty rear-drive Toyota sedans. Not-so-sporty in North America, that is; 1982 car shoppers could still buy a new Corona— in theory, though almost never in practice— but the versions we got were hopelessly stodgy, more suited for the regional sales manager of a faltering plumbing-supply company than, say, a Yakuza enforcer in a $10,000 Italian suit. Not so in Japan, where you could buy a mean-looking Corona GT coupe with “TWIN CAM TURBO” in bright orange letters on the steering wheel and ten billion whistling horsepower under the hood. Well, maybe not quite ten billion horsepower; with the 3T-GTE, Roger Moore was getting 160 PS (about 157 HP) when he leadfooted it out of the TWIN CAM TURBO 18-wheeler in search of baddies. That’s still plenty of power for the time, especially in a 2,500-pound car.
9 Comments on “Roger Moore Gets 10,000 Pounds of Turbo Boost In His ’82 Corona GT...”
Read all comments
Japanese car ads should get some sort UN World Heritage designation. They are just so bizarrely wonderful.
Power Steering! Four-wheel independent suspension! Twin Cam Turbo!
New Technology Era. TOYOTA.
I know this wasn’t released for the US but damn, looking back at the Celica’s and the Corolla’s of the eighties…what happened Toyota? You used to be so cool.
157hp in a 2500lb car is indeed pretty quick for the early ’80s – what kind of 0-60 times did it do? It’d be interesting to compare vs. by Saab 9-5 luxobarge, which has a little-bit-better power:weight ratio… heh.
That was great. I want that kind of attitude./
Is tthat car the father of the Supra?
More like the Supra’s uncle.
I’d call it the red-headed step-child… my friend’s mom had the last RWD Corolla sold here in the USA, and I remember doing him doing donuts in the winter while I did donuts in my family’s beater, a Ford LTD RWD Station Wagon. Ah, those were fun days.
Murilee,
Interesting timing!
I just bought (last weekend) one of these in Carina form.
Let me know if you are looking for more info.
I also have a few brochures, tech write-ups and road tests.
Assuming that I read things correctly, the 0-400 m time is about 15.7 to 15.8 seconds.