TOYOTA AE86 SPRINTER Trueno

HERE’S A QUICK brain teaser to get you warmed up. How many cars can you think of that were offered – in the same generation – in both front and rear-wheel-drive guises? True anoraks might well be able to identify the Rover 75 or, if they have a real left-field view, the Renault 5/Clio. Then there’s the Mk5 Toyota Corolla, another model which, for the most part was a front driver but which reached its rear-drive apotheosis in the form of the AE86 Corolla Levin and the iconic Sprinter Trueno.

For a car that’s so delightfully ‘correct’ in its engineering, the Trueno has long carried a capacity to divide opinion. Many can’t understand why a live-axled 96kW car with, let’s face it, barely enough power to get out of its own way, has become such a cult hero. But there are others who fully appreciate why this car is held in such esteem. To trace its lineage, we need to go back to the start and a man called Shinji Ohira.

Ohira-san had been at Toyota since 1968 and was transferred to the Product Planning department