[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

No. One's a sports car. The other is just some dumpy econobox that people who couldn't afford the real thing at the inflated sports car prices of the late 80s and early 90s inherited from their moms and pretended was a sports car. RWD wasn't anything special back then and didn't turn an econobox into a sports car. It only served as a concession to people who still wouldn't buy a FWD car.

I was 13 when the AE86 first came out, just about the age where boys started to get seriously interested in cars, since we could get learner's permits at 15. Absolutely nobody was dreaming about a fucking Corolla. That was the car your dad bought to save gas going to work, then handed down to your older sister until she got a new car for graduation. Then you inherited it reluctantly (hey, at least you had a car) and had to scrape the stupid flower decals off the windows so people wouldn't think you were a pansy. When you went out with friends, you piled into someone's Cutlass or Regal so you wouldn't have to be seen out in the shitbox.

Nobody considered it a sports car or a performance car of any kind. It wasn't until translations of Initial D hit the US in 2002 that people started concocting these imaginary backstories in which you envision us drifting rice buckets on Saturday night.

I had never heard of nor had any clue than an AE86 existed until I read the history on this very forum. No idea. None. Never heard of it.