Opinion: why this 40-year-old hatchback is better than a new sports car

There’s a pub fact that often gets thrown around with a hint of nostalgia; how the computer that sent man to the Moon was far less powerful than the smartphone in your pocket.

The same logic applies here, because where a modern sports car is a complex scientific calculator, the AE86 generation Toyota Corolla is the trusty old Casio that got you through your secondary school exams – without pressing 15 buttons to get the result you’re after.

And I’m hardly exaggerating, as it’s often harder to put a car into its rawest sport mode than it is to drive it enthusiastically these days. This Corolla has no menus and sub-menus to stiffen the suspension, turn off the traction control or add weight to the steering, but here’s the thing… you don’t need to.

An afternoon with this immaculate, low-mileage Corolla GT Coupe (it’s actually a hatchback) was a breath of fresh air. You just get in, twist the key (remember those?) and away you go, with a throaty engine roar and an exhaust note that barks like a German Shepherd.

Blip the throttle and the engine responds surprisingly quickly to your input, and a total lack of power steering means you feel every inch of the road through your hands. Refined it is not, with plenty of wind noise and harsh vibrations over bumpy roads, but my word is it exciting.

Skinny window pillars provide excellent visibility, encouraging you to turn your head when merging instead of relying on your side mirrors, and the Corolla’s square corners make it a doddle to place on the road.

It’s far from fast, having only had 128hp from new, and who knows how many horses have escaped the stable in the 39 years since this Corolla was produced. But weighing in at a lowly 970kg, the small Toyota is quite peppy; a joy to drive on country lanes.

Jumping in fresh from a modern car will have you alarmed at how much input the bus-sized steering wheel needs before the Corolla starts to turn, but you quickly get used to it. You really have to work the 16-valve, 1.6-litre engine to get up to speed too, but it just gets better the more you rev it.

At the risk of sounding too profound, the joy of a car like the Corolla GT is that it genuinely gets better to drive as you put more and more effort into driving it. The steering is heavy, the gear change needs to be thought out to avoid slipping into the wrong cog – but it’s oh-so-satisfying when it all comes together.

Aside from the venerable Mazda MX-5 and the no-longer available Toyota GR86, there are almost no manufacturers making simple, well set-up sports cars to get in and enjoy. In many ways, this 40-year-old Toyota is a better all-rounder than most cars on sale today.

And for the equivalent price of £26,000 when it was new? What a bargain.

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