Classic comeback: KZN outjie’s 1972 Toyota Corona is turning heads
When Bobby Nitro hears of a Toyota Corona his ears prick up. You see, Bobby’s car when he was a teenager was a kwaai 1970s Corona Mk2, with a two-litre engine and the go-fast stripes. What a cabbie.
So when Jacobus Jacobs from Richards Bay turned up at the KZN spin event recently with his 1972 Mark 2 Corona bakkie, Bobby had to know the deal.
The 20-year-old Jacobus says he has always wanted to build something that stands out and, growing up with a father who worked cars, he gained that early experience and love for cabbies that builds the discipline to finish projects.
He says: “I got the car from a friend in Joburg and it took some work. We mostly did body work, lowered it a bit, actually a lot, put some genuine 17-inch Volk Racing Drift Kings and did some work on the suspension. The engine bay got cleaned up to look factory again and the interior got the extra goodies.”
The engine remains the stock 12R with its original carburetor. Jacobus says: “We didn't want to go all out and build something insane. We wanted to keep it mostly original and just add some extras like all the polish work that was done to it. It was all done by hand and let me tell you it wasn't easy but it was worth it in the end.”
The interior needed reupholstering and the bench seat and door cards got leather as the material was broken. Jacobus added two JBL mids and a Rockford Fosgate p300 10-inch sub with built in amp.
As you can imagine, this Corona can pull some attention, especially for the classic fans. Jacobus says: “I usually take it for a little Sunday drive and people pull up, take photos and generally ask me a bunch of questions. I honestly enjoy that part of owning a car like this.”
Jacobus talks about how much likes this particular shape of car, saying: “We had a Mazda Capella at one point, and I really like the Mazda RX3 shape.
Bobby gets that, the shape. The Capella, Cornona and RX-3, these cars kind of sit back rustig, like an obnoxious uncle at the braai, yet they have the krag to taunt other drivers at the robots with their compact cheekiness.
Only annoying thing, says Jacobus, are speedbumps. He says: “I was driving home one day and the road was quite bumpy so I was jumping around in the car and I forgot about one part of the road where there is a bad bump in the road and I went over it and I knocked my head against the roof and that roof, you should know, is quite far from my head.”
Asked about the car he would love to drive, Jacobus says: “One car I would really like to drive is a Mazda RX7 as my dad actually used to have one. I’ve just always been a big rotary fan and I would like to own one or even drive it.”
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