A rare dog from Toyota | Drive flashback

Toyota’s Corolla-based T-18 was anything but the ‘Macho Machine’ promised by the Japanese carmaker’s marketing types.

Story by Tony Davis originally published in Drive on 30 May, 1997.

Considering the vast number of Toyota models launched on this market, there have been surprisingly few out-and-out dogs. Sure, there have been some deathly dull Toyotas, a few styling exercises which should have stayed on the Japanese market, and a few models which just didn’t seem to make sense.

In this last category came the T-18, a listless, slightly misproportioned “sports” model launched in December 1979 and heavily promoted as the “Macho Machine”.

Why? Who knows. If anything, this limp offering should have been pushed at commuters who wanted a little more dash (just a little!) and better equipment levels than found in the standard littlie.

The T-18 was a three-door, four-seater with a “semi-pillarless” side treatment and a sloping rear window which hinted at fastback styling.

“Strong gains will be made in the youth market,” skited Toyota, which was claiming it as new a vehicle which was such a major parts-bin effort that the steering wheel still bore a “C” (for Corolla) in its centre.

In the middle of a heroic bucketing, Barry Lake from Modern Motor said the T-18 didn’t “stop effectively or safely from any respectable speed”.

Rival Wheels concluded: “It’s a car to please posers and disappoint drivers.”

If you were feeling insecure, the T-18 might have been the car to push you over the edge.

The semi-pillarless design was achieved at the cost of rigidity, and rough roads made for very shaky rides. Modern Motor again: “The entire side of the car shakes when the doors are closed with anything more than a gentle touch.”

The T-18 was propelled by a four-cylinder carburetted engine from a previous Celica, bored out from 1.6 to 1.8 litres to produce a fairly unspectacular 54kW. It had what was called “conventional rear-wheel drive” and a five-speed manual gearbox.

Its zero to 100km/h acceleration time of a shade under 12 seconds was in no way going to flatten the chest hairs of any hairy macho men. In fact, any hard acceleration was more likely to dislodge the average buyer’s scissors, combs and blow-drying equipment. But it was light (855kg), economical with a keen $7000 price tag.

When the model received an upgrade, Toyota used terms like “exclusive” and “limited availability”, pushing versatility rather than macho-osity, partly because the powertrain was the same and the stigma still hadn’t died. But by then who cared. The end was imminent.

So, what happened next?

While the T-18 wasn’t the commercial success Toyota’s marketing types hoped it would be, it did give rise to another altogether more heroic small car from the Japanese brand.

Introduced in 1983, the E80 fifth generation Corolla featured in its range line a two-door liftback version called the Sprinter. Better known today as, the Toyota AE86 Trueno, the little liftback has become a genuine performance classic, much revered for its agility and performance.

Powered by Toyota’s now legendary 4A-GE 1.6-litre inline four, the AE86 has since attained cult status thanks to its drifting heroics. The AE86 name is derived from Toyota’s internal code: The “A” designates the car’s engine (4A series), “E” designates Corolla, “8” designates fifth generation (E80 series) and “6” designates the variant within this generation.

There was also a lesser-known AE85 model, which while visually similar, is packed with a less powerful 1.5-litre inline-four.

The AE86 would, of course, go on to inspire Toyota’s current generation sports car, the GR86, And we have the humble, asthmatic and altogether uninspiring T-18 to thank for it.

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