Get Your Drifting Dreams Started With This $2600 AE86 Corolla SR5

The AE86 Corolla has become the poster child for drifters of both extensive and minimal experience. As such, most listed for sale fall into two categories. Category A is full of cars used and abused by those learning the art of driving sideways. They may or may not run, may or may not have all body panels, and almost certainly show signs of repeated impacts with immovable objects. The only real saving grace is you can usually buy them cheap. Category B, as you might expect, is just the opposite. These cars are decidedly not cheap because they’re already built to drift, and look damn good doing it.

What we have here, however, is something from category C, and that’s a big, rare deal. Category C is where we find clean, decent looking, inexpensive Corollas that actually work. To that end, we have this 1987 Toyota Corolla SR5, in all its rear-wheel drive glory, looking remarkably clean and collision-free. Granted it’s not the desirable GT-S, but it is a five-speed manual. More importantly, it’s currently selling in Southern California on Craigslist for the tantalizing low price of $2600.

The listing is pretty thin on detail, with the description not much larger than a Twitter post. The seller says the car “runs like a champ” with good paint, a clean interior, and new wheels with fresh tyres. That bit of info is interesting on a car that’s best known for turning with the front wheels in full opposite lock, but the pictures do suggest a fairly clean car until you get to the engine shot. Remember this doesn’t have the sought after 4AGE engine, instead having the weaker 4A-C unit; prime for an engine swap, then.

So that explains why it’s so cheap, coupled with the fact that a few of the exterior shots just don’t look right to me. Dark colors can easily hide flaws in photos, and what’s the deal with the fuel door?

The seller says the title is clear and it’s passed smog testing, which is a huge deal in California so the engine must be decent at the very least, should you wish to keep it. Still, it would be nice to know some maintenance history, or at least the mileage. Then again, I’m not the typical AE86 shopper so perhaps those things don’t matter as much, especially if you’re only going to chuck a different engine under the hood.

I’ve never had much interest in these cars, but then again the only ones I’ve seen for sale fell into categories A and B. This one is talking to me though; it could be a great buy for someone looking to sample the drifting scene, or to just have a neat piece of Toyota history. Offer $2300, buy a one-way ticket to SoCal, and drive home a tidy little winter project.