Today, we know Toyota as the most successful automaker in the world, moving massive volume, making the big bucks, and still finding time to make killer enthusiast cars. It’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always this way. Cast your mind back nearly 60 years, and the brand was still finding its footing in North America, with fresh product after a launch with the Crown Toyopet that didn’t go perfectly smoothly. However, serious promise existed even in the 1960s, because the original Toyota Corolla Sprinter was delightful down to the last little details.
Yesterday, I had a chance to pop into a little informal show and shine Toyota Canada was throwing as part of its 60th Anniversary celebrations. There were some excellent cars in attendance, but the star of the show was this lovely red E10 Corolla Sprinter, the first generation of Corolla specced in a rakish coupe body style. It’s a great-looking car, although it did spark an interesting question — where the heck is the fuel filler?
Believe it or not, it’s not under the license plate. While that was once a common place for American carmakers to hide their fuel fillers, Toyota decided to make the trunk lid come almost all the way down to the bumper line in an era when many didn’t. It’s a thoughtful touch for the time, but it also meant that the team behind the Corolla Sprinter had to hide the fuel filler elsewhere.
You certainly won’t find it on the right hand side of the vehicle, as this Toyota Corolla Sprinter is an older Japanese car, and those tend to have their filler flaps on the left side for safer roadside refuelling in their native right-hand-drive market.
As you ponder the location of the marvelously hidden fuel door, let’s take a look at some of the badges on this Corolla, because they’re nothing short of lovely.
To start, you’ll find the Corolla name in script on each front fender, the sort of clean and legible font that’s somewhat fancy, yet still would look period on a Corolla from the 1990s. It’s a relatively timeless badge, but it’s not even the best script on the car.
That would be the Sprinter badge on the trunk. There’s just something flowing yet rakish about this font, implying an exciting lifestyle that a two-door car fits into perfectly. As far as image goes, this badge hits the nail on the head in an almost Italianate manner. Job well done, Toyota.
Up front, you’ll find an emblem featuring a crown motif, with three five-pointed stars over a C that probably stands for Corolla. “Corolla” is Latin for “small crown,” indicating that this compact sat below the Toyota Crown in the brand’s lineup. It really is a shame that outside of a few notable models like the Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Mustang, we don’t see many model-specific badges on the fronts of cars rather than manufacturer logos. Someone, somewhere spent a lot of time designing this, a little piece of art to take everywhere this Corolla goes.
I can’t help but admire the badges on the quarter panels, patinated from decades of existence. At some point in time, all of those squares were filled in to complete a silver-and-red checkerboard, while the Sprinter text has a certain zest to it, even if it’s not as elegant as the script on the trunk lid of this Toyota Corolla Sprinter.
Now let’s get back to that fuel door.
Moving around to the left side, we see what appears to be a quarter panel that’s uninterrupted, save for a little badge and a thin strip of trim. If you look a bit closer, you might find that things aren’t quite what they seem. Behind the grillework just aft of the left quarter window sits a cleverly disguised fuel door, clearly meant to disguise the shut line of a fuel door behind something more stylish. You know what? It works pretty well, and it’s weirdly not without successors of sorts in the modern age. Several electric vehicles like the Hyundai Kona Electric and Genesis G80 Electrified attempt to hide their charging doors behind false grillework. Did Toyota start this trend back in the 1960s? Probably not, but the execution on this Corolla gets a perfect score.
Right down to the details, this Sprinter really is a lovely car to gaze at, which makes it all the more saddening that so few survived in North America. Thankfully, this one’s still alive and kicking, because it really is a treasure.
(Photo credits: Thomas Hundal)
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What a beauty, would drive 1000%.
Also the font on the 2nd Sprinter badge, with the checkerboard, is very wrong somehow. It actually reminds of the font you’d see on a pale imitation of an English pub, or Medieval Times or something.
If you fit. It may not be apparent from the photos, but those things are bean sized. I have a 3rd gen Corolla (late 70’s) that is slightly larger, I’m 6’2″ and with the seat all the way back I barely fit.
I’ve sat in 2nd and 1st gens and I don’t fit. The giant steering wheels don’t make it better either.
This one is a sharp little car. I think that old 60s/70s/80s Japanese car designs have aged incredibly well. They’ve aged far better than the domestic brands (what I typically drove back then). I didn’t really appreciate them too much at the time but as the decades roll on, I really dig old Japanese cars, pretty much all of them.
RE: gas cap; My ’79 Cutlass Supreme Brougham had the nifty behind the plate gas filler. Not nearly as cool as this Toyota but at least some small effort by GM was made. It was nice that you could pull up to the pump, either side of car, and you were good… but, also a pain that you needed to position your car so that the rear end could be reached from the pump, depending on where other, normal cars with side flapped gas fillers were parked. Reaching that fill-up point with a short gas hose could also be a challenge.
That is quite the survivor. I knew where the fuel filler was because a girl in my neighborhood had one when it wasn’t that old. It was a hand-me-down from her grandmother, so it was fairly low miles and great condition.
Lovely car. The polish wax/residue makes my OCD tingle.
My aunt and uncle bought an early Toyota Corona in the light greenish color. My aunt could never pronounce Toyota properly. It was always Toyoto.
That’s it. If Jason can hang out in tail light bars, I’m opening a bar called the Fuel Door, for the rest of us with finer tastes.
No need to feel sadness for missing model-specific badges! Toyota in Japan still uses them on many of their cars.
Look up japanese Corollas and you’ll see they still use the C with three stars on their front grille.
Centurys, Crowns, Estimas, Corollas, Vitz, and more all have unique badges.
My father owned a 1967 Toyota Corona. He bought it used, I think about 1973. I learned how to drive in that car. It was a three-on-the-tree manual transmission. There was a huge gravel lot out back where he worked. I drifted that thing around every chance I got! Yep, Fast and Furious, back in 1973..lol….with all 60hp, or whatever it’s little engine made. It was a great car! He caught a lot of hell for driving a Japanese car back then. There were a lot of guys around that had fought in WWII and they hated that car.
It’s a neat detail on a car loaded with detail.
On an unrelated note, was Volvo the first to put a gas cap holder on the inside of the fuel door?
The 3rd gen Corolla of the late 70’s had an all metal fuel cap with a flap hiding the lock and the cabin air vents just under it (on each side). It wasn’t hidden by any means, but it still showed that Toyota’s attention to detail back then:
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562ff836e4b05cda5f7ab9a5/1461842867984-HWQKNPSI1K9LEJF19TTW/image-asset.jpeg
The Sprinter was a classic roof chop job, great to see, but little room for the heads of westerners whose “tall” landed above 5’6″ and that’s in the front seats, the backseat was for headless children only.
I had a friend with one, the 1100 engine was willing and the car felt light, which I guess it was, expectations were less back then.
I seem to vaguely remember the front suspension was weird, maybe struts and a transverse leaf spring weird, not sure.
Lamborghini did something similar with the Espada. Hidden behind what looked like a vent behind the C pillar.
Ditto the Ferrari 328.
Is there a matching piece of trim on the other side?
Yes, there is. The other one is actually a vent to allow air pressure to equalize when you close the doors.
Had it been a Jaguar, not only would it have had a matching piece of trim, it would have been a matching fuel door leading to another fuel tank.
This goes into my top 5 fuel doors, along with the Ford Focus one where it integrates perfectly with the body panels and taillight
I had a ’69 Corolla for a time. It was an absolutely lovely car that I regret selling. Even then, it was a big step up in quality from other economy cars.
Had both a 70 Corolla coupe, 71 Corolla wagon and a 72 Carina in the very early
1980s. When I was poor and barley able to afford food, etc.
Best cheap cars I ever owned. I wish Toyota would try this again with RWD, please.
This location is also used for the more-or-less shared body shells of the DAF 44/46/55/66 and the Volvo 66 DL/GL. In this case the design was intended for European plates and doesn’t work for with taller US-style plates, as mounting the plate either centered on the flap or low on the flap will prevent the flap from hinging downwards and mounting it high on the flap will put it in the way of the trunk lid. Sigh.
Don’t forget the Opel Kadett C!
Modern EV’s generally attempt to do this with varying degrees of success. Tesla has had charge ports integrated into the drivers side tail light for ages. Nissan has the LEAF charge port under the emblem on the front for a long time.
Neat details on an important car for Toyota.
Back when Corollas were rear-wheel drive.
If I ran Toyota, I’d return to that layout for its small cars, and offer the Camry V6 or possibly a Lexus V8 up front as an option. And the stripper model would come with no touchscreens, roll-up windows, and manual locks, priced around $20k.
Don’t know about the 20k price tag though.
Not sure that is possible anymore.
Same with lots of GM T-bodies based on the Isuzu Gemini, both on sedans and fastbacks. I forgot about that until I saw Marty’s Gemini being restored on Mighty Car Mods.
https://www.rgautoaccessories.com.au/product/holden-isuzu-gemini-tx-tc-td-sedan-metal-fuel-flap-lid-cover-door-with-free-freight/
That design is at least practical. When I was a kid working at gas stations (the 1970’s), there were quite a few cars with fillers in strange places – like GM cars with the fillers under the license plate, Those used to suck because the fill was barely above the tank so they had to be filled slowly and the nozzle would often fall out. It also always filthy and packed with snow under there.
And the plate springs would either be weak ass or so strong you left a few fingers behind when filling
Back in the 1950s on GM cars it wasn’t uncommon that you had to flip down the rear taillights to get to the filler cap. Some British cars for some reason kept doing this almost into the 1970s.
Even worse, some French cars put them inside the engine bay. Y’know, right next to the very hot thing that’s likely leaking oil. The Renault R10 had the fuel filler right above the exhaust manifold. How Renault and Panhard survived the sales loss from most of their drivers self-immolating while refueling is beyond me.
And don’t forget earlier air-cooled Beetles, with the fuel filler inside the frunk. My 1972 has a fuel filler door on the right front fender, released by a handle from inside the cabin. Given how basic the rest of the car is, it almost feels like a luxury feature.
we were going camping in an early Beetle. The frunk was packed. The gas pump handle refused to shut off and it overflowed, wiping out a bunch of sleeping bags and a case of beer. We argued that we should be reimbursed, but nada was done for us. Loved my 68 with outside filling.
Such a handsome little car. I love it when compacts have just a little bit of fun associated with them