had a rough year last year nearly died and spent 8 months in hospital found this channel helped me get through it all back home now and still watching thank you very much sir

The most peppy and economical car I ever owned was the 1984 Corolla FXGT, the longest I ever kept the car too ( from 1993 to 2006!) . Thanks for the review,.

Here in Oz this was my favorite company car in the mid-eighties, my company had a policy based on the price of the car nothing else... So I could have had a pretty standard six-cylinder car, ie falcon or holden but I went for this, never had a regret. I wish I still had it..

gosh we used to have thousands of these little terrors buzzing around in NZ in the late 90's early 00's.. I had the NZ new models ae82 GT and ae92 Gti, so much fun ;)

i cant believe how solid this interior is! no flimsy stuff there! especially these switches

Had a similar era Mk1 AW11 MR2, that engine was awesome, revved to 7700rpm, great noise, combined with a slick gearbox, was a revelation after a Fiesta XR2.

My dad had the GT Twin Cam and looked the same spec as that one. It was a rapid car in the 1980s and often overlooked. It was the shape after this one that had the GTI Badging in the UK

Why oh why are Japanese cars of this era so bloody good looking? The boxy style is at its peak, and even the steering wheel is infinitely better than most European hot hatches of the 80s. A fizzy engine boxy boi. Who doesn’t like that? Nobody, that’s who.

Just needs to be on its bump stops and have a 4inch exhaust, and that is how these things rolled around Auckland in the mid to late 90s !

Awesome Cars, My brother had the 1987 Toyota Corolla FX GT, and it was superb, it just came alive, stunning handling, awesome engines!

Yay! just in time for coffee! I love the 80´ hot hatches! that one is high on the list!

I had a 1987. The American model. It was the fx 16-gts. 110 hp. It was my high school car and I remember letting people drive it and they would short shift and complain that it was slow. That is until I drove it back through the canyon running it out to 7 grand. It also surprised the big BMWs when I'd pull with them up the grades driving out to Las Vegas.

7:05 Those were Learner/New Driver stickers from Japan. There are also Old Driver stickers for people over 65 that are the same shape but orange & yellow in colour.

I had a red Ae82 back in the late 90s, reved forever and loved a bit of lift off oversteer... cracking motor 👌

We got these in the states, but for whatever reason ours were called the Toyota Corolla FX and Toyota Corolla FX-16 for the 16 valve. 4AGE was a 4th generation of the A series motor G=head design by Yamaha, E=electronic fuel injection. The T-vis is Toyota's vtec where it was variable valve timing on the intake valves only, vvti has it on both the intake and exhaust, the letter colors on the valve cover can also help with determining which version of 4age you have, one's with tvis are small ports, ones without tvis are either big ports, or have the Z which was the 4agze engine where z=supercharger.

I had one of these in New Zealand also. 1984 FX-GT same shape, blue-top motor, bought in 1992 for NZ$11000 when the NZ versions in 1986 were the best part of NZ$36000 new. Japanese imports got NZers into cars they otherwise couldn't reach. Car was a firecracker. NEVER had any problems and only sold it when children came along ......... wish I'd never sold it.

Great video about this car. When i was 20 year old year 2001, i bought light blue metallic FX GT with low mileage. I drove 3-4 years, also in Finnish winter. 4A-GE starts every time even -35C weather. It was very good car, and sort of fast at the time. It took all the beating without single failure. Good memories.

These had a cult following in the north of england, during the nineties, especially amongst asian youths. I had one myself a 1985 model in silver and drove the hell out of it. You could hit 120mph in it if you really tried but it was just a great handling lightweight tool for every occasion. Never broke down on me. Can't find the one for love or money in the UK now.

I test drove one of these, they go pretty well NO slug!! I think Yamaha were involved in the design of the cylinder head.

Watching this in 2024 from the UK. I have some fond memories of 80s and 90s hot hatches. I currently drive a 2005 EP3 Type R which is fun and engaging and a great little car compared to the clinical and dare I say dull feeling hot hatches of today

Former NZ F1 driver Chris Amon assisted Toyota NZ from the mid 80s with suspension tuning. I used to have an Australian built AE82 5 door liftback version of this car with the later red top 4AGE. Was a great little car, but sadly both age and rust did it in

One of my favourite cars, love these JDMs, love the engines and the sound and the looks of these cars, why cars aren't made like this anymore these were solid and high quilty interiors and well made easy to work on these, like the old 80s 90d toyotas AE86 was great car, supra of the 90s and these twin cam engines. Proper cars not the new crappy cars of today with just power and technology but you don't get that fun and feeling of working on your cars anymore becoz you really can't do anything to new cars always have to take them to dealer all the fun is gone. Cars of todays are just for Comfort and A to B with load of crap techy junks

These were so common in New Zealand, in high school two of my friends had one and I had the ae101 version. Was my first car owned it for 16+ years with basically no maintenance! Could redline it everywhere would beat a lot of euro cars at the lights.

I know Japanese car manufacturers loved taking their styling inspiration from European cars... and I can certainly see some Renault in there. That huge flat hatch and back window is very Renault 5. The interior reminded me of Renault too, like a late 5 or an early clio.

Looks amazing in white. Love the styling, especially the confident looking front.

What a delightfully dynamic, diminutive diamond of a motor. Love it!

Fun fact, nz had a specific model sold, which had leather seats in two door with black bumpers. Australia had the 4 door gti. Lucky enough to have owned both of those and an ae92 fxgt two door and an ae92 levin. Great cars, but the nz version being the lightest was the most fun. Loads of lift off understeer. And yes uk got a gti too.

Love these cars and the 4AGE! Have both an AE82 Twincam 16 Seca (Aussie 5 door liftback version of this) and the AE93 Seca SX (also 5 door liftback, 100kw 4AGE smallport), great fun, yet quite practical even 30 years on!

I had the five door fastback version of this model. It was the most reliable car I have ever owned. It had a 1.3ltr engine and I saw 130mph on a motorway. Great car.

Really enjoyed that mate! I owned this exact model back in the mid to late 90's loved it to bits..so many memories 😁 ended up putting in a 4-cylinder DOHC, model 2ZR-FE from a 1987 sprinter 3 inch straight through exhaust pipe which gave it a super deep sound ! Miss it big time! Cheers again🤙🏾

A great little car. I had a metallic light blue 1.3GL automatic for a time back in the day. I remember the dashboard & interior styling fondly. Great seeing one in that condition. Nice review & video.

IRCC, that green/silver "arrow" in "JDM as (blip)" is a "Novice Driver" sticker in Japan

I love that little car. To my eyes it doesn't look that dated either. Looks great to drive. And those seats 😍

There was short-wheelbase 5-doors as well as the longer 5-door, often badged specifically as a Seca, though that name was put on later swb Corollas from around 2000.

Legit my dream car. So very very pretty.

Many of us, during the 90's ; myself included, had the Japadisease for fast hatches. My joy was the 83 Mitzi Cordia 1.6 GSR, a lot of fun and didn't send you broke keeping it going. Nodays i have added a 1987 Toyota Corolla 1.5SE Limited, based upon these earlier FWD's it is also very punchy and reliable after several trouble free years of ownership.

They did do ergonomics and visibility very well in the 80s! It's a Nice looking little hatch. I don't go for FWD myself because of understeer, torque steer, diminishing traction under power, lack of stability during hard braking etc.. Driving a 90s Fiat was an education in all that's bad with FWD! Favourite layout is rear engine, I've also enjoyed RWD and found the layout to be well balanced, but have now had to settle for a small AWD hatch, which does help with some of the issues of FWD, including grip and balance. Excellent review, as always, your camera work and sound is spot-on. Gordon :-)

I marvel at your knowledge Ian, a real Oracle. Marvellous video.

Mr.HubNut , you really need to do a car history video. Like your first car to your current car , would love to see what gems you've had.

Lovely. I had a Civic Si back then, a VW GTI later, and a Fiesta ST now... so hot hatches tick all the right boxes for me, and this one’s a gem.

In 1984 I bought a new Toyota Corolla 1.6 GL Sedan. In 1994 I bought a Corolla from 1985 same color as this one , Hatchback 1.3 litre... 4 gears both fine cars Ian!!

This car sounds an absolute blast. Nice looking, too. As a Toyota fan anyway, I say well done Toyota! Thanks for another great review, Ian. Looking forward to the next one. Pppssssshh...

6:07 - Manual windows are my preference. Less to go wrong, less chance of trapping fingers, etc, but most of all, they work in an emergency if the electrical system has failed. Thanks for demonstrating that fun little car.

My dad bought one new. It has a Fujitsu Ten stereo, a quirky thing with saparate radio and cassette units. An amazing hi tech car for the time. Went like stink.

What a fantastic car - love that squared off 80's style. Great vid.... again!

I miss 80s Japanese cars. This one is gorgeous. I always regret not buying the coupe when I had the chance :(

Ah if only I was young again !! Hot hatches - I used to love them.

Thanks for your videos! 👍🏻👍🏻

Ooo.. Missed to this one. Coffee, croissant and a Hubnut vid. How everyday should start.

People have forgotten how to make fun cars like this. How brilliant. Cheers.

It's a Fifth Generation Corolla and apart from the engine is more closely related to it's younger brother the AE92 and YES .the AE82 did come to the UK BTW, the engine is called, 4 AYE GEE EE not age

I miss my Australian built ae82 csx. I had the 1.6 4ac and a 5 speed manual. It was hilarious when id turn on the air con id loose like 20HP!

Very enjoyable, thanks Ian.

What a lovely car, well done for sharing it with us.

brilliant video ian, of one of my favourite cars! i used to love the shape after that one,which we had in the uk, which had 130bhp by 1989!

I had an NZ new 1985 model. Cars were still being assembled in NZ at the time, and our ones had the same seats but covered in dove grey leather, with red seatbelts and carpet. It's many years ago, but I'm pretty sure the local ones did not have power steering, as I vaguely recall a lot of sweating and straining when parking. While the Golf GTI and 205 GTI were sold in NZ, they were rare and expensive. This was the closest concept we could get at a more reasonable price.

A wonderful car and review. This and the Nissan sunny/pulsar GTI-R (90-94) are both so fun to drive, and have a buzz that make you feel alive.

The Toyota Twincam is Ireland's national car. 😉

Remember these cars really well and as usual reliable and fairly fuel efficent to boot. Thanks Ian, great review.

I had one of these in rhe early 90s in New Zealand. Many a fun trip driving from Auckland to my home town Wanganui in the middle of the night. Usually doing around 160kmh but when possible winding it up to its max speed of around 215kmh. With some banging 90s grunge (Tribe - Abort the criminally underrated album). I loved this car - it just loved 160-200kmh and purred. Hard but good handling. Too much fun 🙌

Great review Ian :) Love 1980's hot hatches as they have such accessible performance as you said with this Corolla. I had the chance to drive a MK3 Ford Escort XR3 non injection recently. Very different to the Corolla as the Escort was all about torque with 97lb-ft at 4000 rpm. Both lovely cars though and the Escorts ride was very comfortable too. Both had a great amount of performance for the public road :)

Lovely car, remember these from the 80's. enjoyed the video

Another brilliant v log

14:49 That's the era of Corolla where Chris Amon was employed by Toyota to tune the suspension on their cars for the NZ, Oz, Japan, and EU markets. The models he worked on were noticeably better ride and handling than most other mass market cars at the time.

My best driving experience's were in these, wicked handling and that engine just loved to be red lined, had two, they were called Corolla GT twincam. The struts were standard and UK models didn't get ac. Worst thing about these was the rusting sunroof.

4AGE ❤️ Sounds like it drives very much like my AW11.

I think you call that a "Hot" Hot Hatch. Love the 80s cars telling you exactly what they are 2.0 GTI 16valve 4x4 turbo e.t.c. e.t.c.

I love these. My sister had a bright red one in the late 80s/early 90s, D639DPX (if only I could remember important stuff 🙄), then she chopped it in for the next gen which I also liked but it just lacked something from this generation. I'd love to own one today. Cracking vid as usual.

Interesting video Ian , that car looked as happy as F**k just like I was watching it 😂, it’s great to see you back on form even if it was a few weeks ago.

I had a few of these back in the days, the Uk version didn't have power steering but had an electric steel sunroof, they had over arch trim kits, the black ones were limited editions with different decals and interiors, cracking cars

Had to look up the Hubnut Thesaurus for the meaning of Bimbaling, but needn't have worried as it was on the first page. Great little car Sir, and another Hubnut adventure gets added to the history book 👍 Tam.

This takes me back.I was living in South Africa where it was marketed as a Toyota Conquest RSI 16 valve. The South African ones had that body shell but as a 5 door hatch.

For a car that's done 320k+ according to the cam belt change sticker its in amazing condition, goes remarkably well too. I remember these growing up but never had anything to do with them so didn't know they went so well.....missed out there!!

A mate bought the Aussie equivalent of this with the same motor when they were new and it still sticks with me as the best Corolla I had ever driven - until last month. Believe it or not the newest model Corolla Hybrid now takes the title for me. A different car for sure, but amazing on fuel economy, seamless transition between electric and petrol and still really fun to drive. It has a bit of a dual personality too, which I really liked and was a great steer and all rounder.

Had a ‘90 Corolla Gti , loved it! Very fast and the engine was like a Swiss watch even at 150k miles.

So cool!

My Mum had that shape of Corolla and it was fairly "sporty" but I couldn't swear to the exact model. She only had it a week, hence the hazy memory, before my brother wrote it off (put it on its roof no less) and, when the insurance paid out, she ended up with the five door version, which I wasn't as enthusiastic about!

I owned two Corrolla GTTwin Cam and a GTI. An 87 and a 1992. Absolute amazing cars and the 1.6 Twin cam could sure move.

Just 1 more thing: While the output for a 1,6 litre may initially seem really high, it wasn't unreasonably so. The VW 1,8l 16v in the Golf 2 and Scirocco 2 had either 139PS or 129PS with a 3-way catalyst fitted. In Germany, dependant on which vehicle it was in, the Toyota 1,6 16V had 124, 121 or 116 PS with the cats. Now the later Honda 1,6 VTEC with 160 PS in the CRX, that was a mindboggler 😉 Edit: Just remembered, there also was the 84-85 Celica GT notchback coupé with the popup headlamps that also had the 1,6 16V.

such nice corolla! i would LOVE me some of that!

The exhaust note sounds very similar to the 1994 Honda civic 1.5 LSI I once owned. Also the power kicked in just the same at about 4 and a half thousand revs : )

A mate of mine had a C Reg Toyota Corolla twin cam 16 valve here in Scotland back in early 1986 & it was

Hi Ian,another great video,this Corolla looks very similar to a Toyota Starlet,it’s a fat arched beast with the kit and nice choice of alloys,it don’t hang around at 4,000 revs.

Nice little hot hatch 😁👍

What a brilliant car! My sister and her ex had a C reg (1985/6) 1.3 GL in this body style in the early 1990s.

Never saw many of these about, a work friend had one for a while but definitely not a common sight, id love to own one now 👍way ahead of their time,cracking reliable motors, they're the Civic type r of the 80's

The engine was not too busy at higher cruising speeds - my AE92 was at 4800 rpm at 90 mph and it would do that all day without fuss and still be ok on fuel.

Used to own one back in the 90,s until an unfortunate lift off oversteer incident put a stop to my jaunt, absolutely loved it 😭

this car is super mega rare ive been loocking for that for years

Certainly gallops along a treat for a 35 year old motor! Very nice indeed.

5th generation . Australia had 4 door sedan 5 door hatch 5 door lift back called Seca . S , CS , CXS came with 1.3 & 1.6 carburettor single cam 4a engines.2nd fae lift came out with the 100kw called TWIN CAM. 4 speed automatic was alo an option over the 3 speed with the1.6 ltr.

in the us, this car was made only for a year or two from 1987-1988, even thought it was toyota, this model was made in the usa only , and it was badged the the corolla fx gts( there was a cheaper version without the 4age motor). in 1988 to 1991 the new corolla gts was introduced, the ae92 gts coupe and it was still using the 16v 4age but the t-vis system was removed in 1990 and 1991 model.

We had it as a GT twincam. I had two, both in white . Screemer of a engine.

Hope you're having a great time Down Under.

Reminds me of an 84 AW11 I used to own, that was a quick little car with it's 4AGE engine.

Fantastic cars !

Classic car. I remember these as being not advertised in AU. Few around though. Cool!

Wonderful little car, can't say the same as the sticker treatment. Always loved these. 👌

Great video, Ian. LOTS of comments, I see. Fx (8v econobox) or Fx16 in the USA as I’ve seen pointed out by another commenter. Could even be had as an Fx16 with low line trim: poverty spec black bumpers and chunky looking steel wheels. Typical USA, some were saddled with an automatic transmission. Rare then, non-existent now. Great visibility. It is so much more pleasant to drive a car that feels open and airy inside.

If iam right its the same engine which was in my Mk1 Mr2 and that was one sweet engine esp from 4500-7000 rpm.