Newest Corolla Dream Car. 1974 SR-5.

One day in early October, Nick Morris and I were out riding and filming near Glenhaven skatepark. From there we headed to downtown Portland, but construction at the highway forced us to take a long detour down side streets. As we turned off 82nd ave, I naturally scanned the lot on my right. What! That can't be a Corolla?! Apologized to Nick about having to stop and look at the car. "Sorry, I didn't think there were any of these in town, just have to take a quick peek."



As I get closer, my jaw drops farther.

I see the fender flares sticking out, the new paint job and I think to myself "this must be the owner's car, I wonder if he'd sell it?" I walk up to a possibly Cambodian or Vietnamese mechanic (this is a repair shop, not a car dealership) and he's on the phone but I ask anyway.

"Yeah it's for sale."
"How much you askin'?"
"Um... ... $****.**, it 1974 car." (You don't need to know how good of a price he said.)
"Eh, ok. Is it open?"
"Yeah."

I'm doing a good job of looking not impressed or overly interested. Discreetly snap a few more pictures of the car, start checking the body for rust. Wait, could this be a real SR-5? My mind immediately drifts to the cover of Japanese Nostalgic Car issue 2.


This magazine tells the story of the rarest and most sought after nostalgic Corolla. What made it unique, how to tell if one is original and not a replica, what they're worth on the east and west coast. The SR-5 was the closest thing the USA got to a Japanese hot rod. It had stouter suspension, swaybars and rear end, along with shorter gearing and fender flares to accommodate the wider wheels and tires. Like all Japanese nostalgic cars, they are rare because of their age and susceptibility to rust. This car more-so because it was the cream of the crop, only made in 1973 and 1974.

I didn't remember all the unique details, but I did know that even a poor condition car shell with no engine was known to be worth more than the man's asking price. The wheeler dealer instinct told me to go home and do some more research. As I walk back to my car, the mechanic comes by and says

"So what you think?"
"Eh, it's a little out of my price range."
"Well. Make a offer."
"Ok. I'll ask my wife about it and talk to you later."

As Nick and I drove off, I was very excited about the possibilities.

Later that day I read over the magazine and started kicking myself for not taking more pictures of the car or looking closely at it. How could I have not checked it the transmission had 5 speeds? I can't make another trip up there tomorrow, the guy will think I'm interested and there goes my chance at haggling. I also called my best friend from the Toyota3tc forum who lives in southern Cali and is pretty much my authority on the Corolla markets. He was immediately very excited for me.
"OK here's what you look for bro, it's real easy. First of all if it's a 5 speed, that narrows it down to 2 rare cars and you've gotta buy it. Also the SR-5 interior had red piping on the seats, all other models had black. I bet you've got a real SR-5 there bro. I just don't think that in that area someone would go through the trouble of bolting on fender flares and trying to make a replica. Man either way, at that asking price you're stealing that car bro..."

He told me some other details to look for, but they were more mechanical and sounded harder to verify discreetly. In talking to him and reading the magazine, my selling instincts were waning, and my collector instincts started digging in. I told Atika, if there's one car that would ever be worth collecting and hanging onto, it's this model. The more I learned, the greater the opportunity seemed, and I couldn't wait to find my answers. I called the repair shop and asked if I could stop by tomorrow and take the car for a drive. The guy adamantly said yes.

I drove back the next day to do my research. I walked up to the car and started looking around. 5 speed transmission, check. Red piping, I think check? I guess that's not black.

Next I walked up to the mechanic's bay, where there was one guy busy in the bowels of an engine. Sweet! It wasn't the same guy I talked to yesterday!
"Hey can I take that thing for a test drive."
"No, that car don't run. It sold as is."
"Well what's wrong with it?"
"I don't know, ask the boss."
"Well is he here?"
"I donno."
"Well can I try and start it?"
"No, the battery dead."

I didn't see him around, so I went home with my spirits high.
"Advantage, Piff."

I really wanted the car to not run, it would mean infinite haggling power. This car uses the same engine as my other 2 Corollas, and I've got these engines comin outta my ears (I had a $50 complete low mileage engine ready to put in, and friends who could help me do it.)

The next morning, before calling the boss I called my bank to get info on a small loan. Luckily I had some sales coming together and a car that was worth a large part of that asking price. I only needed $500-1000 dollars, and expected to have that paid off in about 2 weeks. I found out that banks don't really do small loans any more, they told me that my best option was to get a new credit card with 6.9% interest to buy the car. In the mail that day, guess what came. An offer from my other credit card (with a zero balance), it said that I could make three purchases and pay 2.9% interest for a year. I called them to make sure it wasn't a scam or anything, and found out it was just what I was looking for. I called the boss and asked him what was wrong with the car, since it was being sold as is.

"Oh nothing wrong with that car."
"Really?"
"Yes it fine, good car. Come drive."

So I drove to the shop and proceeded to wait for the bosses friend or brother to deliver a small part that was necessary for starting the car. The boss told me he took the distributor apart so the car couldn't be stolen. After they brought out a new battery, they worked to get the car running. Dry carburetor+mechanical fuel pump+hasn't been started in a while=patience with starting.



“This car not been started in long time.”
“Oh yeah, how long?”
“Bout, 2 years?”

Finally the engine kicks over and sounds good, groggy but good.
“This engine totally rebuilt.”
Took the car out for a drive, and basically just wanted to know if the steering was shot or if there were any other major problems. Apart from the new tires being too big for the car and rubbing, the car had no problems driving. The only bummer was that I found typical rust under the battery, and it's going to need some surgery there.

“I like the car, but that rust is pretty serious. So what can you do about the price?”
“I think for you, since you serious about the car...I can do $****.**” ($500 less than original price).

I took his offer and showed him the check from my credit card. Luckily it was through US Bank and that was the bank he used.

“Can you come to my bank?”
“Sure, when?”
“Now.”
“Yeah let's go.”

After that he told me the title was at his house in Happy Valley, a good 30 minutes from where we were (without traffic) and we were just approaching rush hour.

“OK how about you follow me in the blue car and we park it at my house, and then I take you to pick up the title and drop you off at the shop?”
“OK, I follow you? Which car you drive.”
Ben points at red Corolla wagon.
Boss chuckles.

The next hour and a half was spent with him showing me awesome shortcuts on back roads from Happy Valley to his shop, certainly saving us another 30 minutes of sitting in traffic. We chatted a little about cars, jobs, housing.
“So do you like the work? (Being a mechanic)
“Nobody like the work!”
“Haha! Really?”
“Really, everyone always ask if I'm happy, NO I'm not happy but I'm making money.”

He handed me the title and it had a sale date of 1/23/2007. Rather than me paying $50 for registering the car late, he changed the date with a pen to 10/23/2009. So the car has sat in my driveway apart from a couple small errands, waiting till I can take it to be registered and get current tabs.