Story by Alan Cesar
Toyota has hyped their new Scion FR-S to the skies. The brand is trying to reignite its sporting torch—one that has stayed relatively unburned for some time. Sure, many of the FR-S’s parts are from cars with the Pleiades in its logo, but we’re not going to over-scrutinize this gift horse. We’ll simply appreciate that there’s …
And just to be extra clear, when Americanizing the Japanese “hachi-roku” for this model, it is pronounced as “eight-six”, not “eighty-six”, in which Matt Farah of the smoking tire has a sad habit of saying all the time and sounds like a complete buffoon for doing so.
In Ireland if you said Twin-Cam it meant only one car no matter how many other manufacturers had engines with twin-cams. Kinda obvious since most had a giant sticker on the side saying...Twin-Cam. Still having your own iconic nickname is the mark of a cars stature. 
I love my GT-S. Except its boisted so not much of the oringinal power delivery is there.
I remember shopping at a Toyota dealership in the late summer of 1985. I'm not even sure what kind of car I was looking at, but I asked the salesman, "What's that Twin Cam 16 Valve thing over there?". He said, "It's a great little car, but it's way out of your price range."
And so I left and bought a new Chevy Cavalier that afternoon.
Bastard.
Still kind of kicking myself for not buying a former-TRD racecar I had offered to me around 2000, but the lack of title, and my lack of a truck/trailer/money sort of killed the deal for me.
I never even considered the Corolla. Test drove an MR2 (same engine) and decided "I'm buying this car" before I even got out of the lot.
Woody said:I remember shopping at a Toyota dealership in the late summer of 1985. I'm not even sure what kind of car I was looking at, but I asked the salesman, "What's that Twin Cam 16 Valve thing over there?". He said, "It's a great little car, but it's way out of your price range."
And so I left and bought a new Chevy Cavalier that afternoon.
Bastard.
Having owned a Cavalier (albeit a 1994) as well as a 1980 Corolla (TE72 chassis, the AE86's predecessor), I feel sorry for you Woody. At least I feel sorry for 1985 Woody.
Part of me would still love an 86, the part of me that knows the Miata world has far more potential and aftermarket support just can't see it happening. Still... it's an experience I want in my life, knowing just how much fun these old Corollas were.
yes..... 
My AE86 experience began a bit later than Woody's.... mine begins in 1994. I had just finished restoring a 1970 SCJ 428 Mach1, I was working in the restoration field @ the time (A-1 Original and Obsolete Mustang - long since gone) and I was getting very annoyed at the Mustang Club of America (MCA). The "rules" they imposed were arbitrary and often times found to be wrong when researched. Anyway... my disappointment with the whole burgeoning field of "properly restored" was really turning me off. That is when I stumbled across the AE86....
At the time, I decided I no longer wanted a car of increasing value(older Muscle/Pony cars, and Euro sport models) , I wanted a car that I could have as I wanted without the collector car market telling me I would should, or shouldn't do.......... little did I know then what the AE86 would become.... I've now owned 4 AE86's, the newest is the TRD built ITA racecar. And now as the AE86 has also become a collector model... I've also moved on and built an AE71.... because it, when I began it, had no collector value.... little did I know..........
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