Throughout highschool everyone wanted como's and falcons, and I wanted something that I could modify myself and make into a more spirited driving sort of car. My solution: a manual gemi.
Now my mechanic, who was fixing up a red spirit for his daughter, and his neighbour/best mate (both in their 40's/50's) offered to get me parts for the gem. The neighbor (main guy to this story) had a heaps of spares lying around as his son had a tweaked one.
Now this bloke had these two cars that were his alternating daily's, and they happened to be 2 adm sprinters, still 4ac with upwards of 300 on the clock, both with 14x6 performance wheels and konis, sensibly modded. He also had another 3 in his backyard, which were for wrecking. Even though i spent a lot of time driving them in nfs underground, they got me! and I wanted to know everything! Stories a many, turns out he used to have an ae71 panel van that he had pretty dialed but got written off, so the suspension was in the blue adm.
Say what? Corolla stuff fitted sprinters and vice versa?
So not be able to afford an 86, i started looking for an e7 and the rest is history. Along the years he has let me borrow them (like when the rolla blew a head gasket) and go for little fangs (I recall a clutched u-turn and lost my shit on how it responded and handled) and he still has them. Hopefully I will own one of them one day.
Here's a pic of one (sorry bout shit phone darky)
Will.