Junkyard Find: 1990 Toyota Corolla GT-S
You’re not going to find a rear-wheel-drive AE86-platform Corolla GT-S in a low-priced self-service wrecking yard, not these days. The later front-wheel-drive Corolla GT-S FX16 shows up in such yards every now and then, but the AE92 version of the GT-S that followed isn’t seen quite as often. Here’s one that I found in the San Francisco Bay Area last month.
The 4A-GE engine was up to 115 horsepower by this time. These cars were quick for their time.
The Geo Storm GSi had 15 more horsepower and weighed about the same as the Corolla, but there’s the whole Isuzu-versus-Toyota build-quality thing to consider there.
In Japan, where this car was known as the Sprinter Trueno, the marketing seems to have been focused on, what, ballroom dancing?
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
I have a 1990 gts "red top". I picked it up for $500, put a new clutch in, installed timing belt, and put new brakes on it.I have been driving it every day for 2 years now. It will do 100mph in third gear, not bad for a 32 mpg car. Mine also red lines around 8500.
I was a big fan of the AE92 GT-S. I even tried to locate one years ago and even then they were rare to find used, good luck finding the later 130HP version. I ended up with an MX-6 GT Turbo. This car, like another of my favorites, the late 2.0L Sunbird or Skyhawk Turbo, were slow sellers when new, impossible to find now because they were never worth preserving.