Rare bosozoku cars: Toyota Corona T14
I have a weak spot for the Toyota Corona T14 series: they are closely related to the Toyota Carina and Celica.
I found this great bosozoku styled Corona some time ago on multiple meetings and picture galleries:
Bosozoku style Toyota Corona T14
It has been modified seriously with a sharknose, fins, big lip, oil cooler, deep dish wheels, tsurikawa and a big V-shaped exhaust! Unfortunately I could not find a picture rear of the car including the V-shaped exhaust:
Bosozoku style Toyota Corona T14
Unfortunately this is the only Corona T14 I could find grachan/bosozoku styled pictures of… On the other hand I could find shakotan styled Coronas in large amounts:
Shakotan styled Toyota Corona T14
That is very understandable: this last RWD Corona and they are mainly used for drifting nowadays. This series offered a cheap, relatively lightweight car and featured some new generation engines with great potential, it is probably one of the best cheap cars for students nowadays. Where did we hear that before?
During the 70s Toyota created a great diversity in platforms: they had the Publica (P), Corolla/Sprinter (E), Celica/Camry/Carina (A), Corona (T), Mark II (X) and Crown (S) and a few other platforms on which they built their cars. Toyota decided to merge the Corona and Celica platforms to cut costs and did this starting with the Corona T14 and Celica/Camry A5 generations. The Celica/Camry/Carina wheelbase remained the same, but the Corona wheelbase shrunk by 25 mm.
Factory stock Corona TT140 sedan
The Corona was positioned above the Carina and offered, just like the Carina and Celica, independent rear suspension on all luxurious and sports models. The wagons were based on the same platform as the Carina so Toyota only changed the front section to match the Corona look. The rear section of the wagon is entirely the same as the Carina, including the live axle.
Factory stock Corona sedan and wagon
Later on Toyota also offered the Corona as a taxi with a LPG engine. This Corona was basically a mix and match of the Corona and Carina: front looked like the Carina while the mid and rear section were Corona. Later taxi models featured the Carina taillights.
The Corona hardtop Coupe was targeted as the grand tourer edition of the Celica and positioned between the Celica and the Soarer. It offered great luxury above the spartan Celica and Celica XX models while it had less luxurious options as the new Soarer.
All varieties of the Toyota Corona hardtop coupe
Toyota had borrowed some styling cues for the Corona T14 from BMW: the nose had a slight wedge in it, its rear section featured a BMW style rear door and its boot and taillights were slightly borrowed from the BMW 7 series of that era:
This Corona sedan shows its BMW lines
The Corona offered, like the Carina, a great variety of engines: from the 1.5 liter 3A-U till the 2.4 liter 22R. Of course it featured the sporty 135hp 18R-GEU and 130hp 4A-GE in the GT and the performance 160hp 3T-GTE engine in the GT-T.
The mighty 3T-GTE twin cam 16 turbo engine
After this series the Corona and Carina models merged, the platform changed to FWD and started to feature a bit more dull styling. The Corona T14 series is the last great Corona.
by banpei with no comments yetRare Bosozoku cars: Toyota Corona RT132
This week we don’t feature a popular bosozoku car, but a rare bosozoku car! We thought that featuring popular bosozoku cars each week would get a bit boring after a while so we want to alternate between popular and rare from now on. 😉
This week we have a rare bosozoku styled Toyota Corona RT132:
Rare Bosozoku styled Corona RT132 coupe
Big fender flares, deep dish wheels and an oil cooler on this baby! Would the number 55 refer to an old Formula Silhouette racer?
Rare Bosozoku styled Corona RT132 coupe
You may ask yourself how do I know it is a RT132? Quite simple: this Corona features the DOHC logo in the grille. The only engine with DOHC the Corona was delivered with is the 18R, so it can only be the RT132. Unless the owner rebadged the grille of course!
This car is the facelifted coupe version, which in my opinion is the best looking Corona T130.
Factory stock photos of the Toyota Corona coupe
The Corona T120/T130 was the successor of the Corona T100/T110. The T120/T130 got a new floorpan and got an increased 25mm in wheelbase. The bizarre thing is that the successor of the T120/T130, the T140, decreased 25mm in wheelbase!
The Corona was placed against the Honda Accord, Mazda Capella, Nissan Bluebird and Toyota’s own Carina/Camry. The Corona itself was, compared to the Carina and Camry, the more upmarket car offering much more luxury and options than the Camry and Carina.
Almost factory stock Toyota Corona RT132 coupe
The Corona T130 got a large variety in engines and gearboxes, but the main engines in Japan were the 12T-U, 13T-U, 3T-U, 18R-GEU and the 21R-U.
I did see a TT132 (3T-U) for sale some time ago and thought about getting that car instead of my own, but personally I do like the styling of my Carina a bit better. However the Bosozoku styled example is more tempting than that 4 door Corona TT132 I saw back then…
by banpei with no comments yet