Rise against the storm: Love for supposedly dull, old AE100 Toyota Corollas

Why the love for AE100s?

Some said it's a Corolla, it's affordable and exciting. Others agree on that it can be anything from an affordable, cheap to run daily driver to a fun street-car which won't require you to sell off your organs if something goes wrong. The 100 corolla was a big success in this country, everybody either liked them or accepted them. They were the car you'd pass on to the young ones when they were old enough to drive.

By storm I don't mean the rain, there was plenty of that, but in general the harsh environment of this country. I can see why this such a great platform: 25 years in this country, it has seen many pot-holes and scrape-bumps, crashes, rush-hour traffic almost all day long, and yet they don't give any impression of tiredness. They are the unsung hero, truly, serving day in and day out for more than a decade now.

Aside from the reliability of the Corolla, this particular generation is a little special, because of the endless options this chassis offers. You get to choose from a catalogue of exterior bits, interior trims and drivetrains to make it truly your own. This is why each car in this meet is a little different from the rest.

The highlights:

Starting with Farshad Bin Aziz's AE101 Factory GT. The BZ face is hard to miss, the car is exceptionally clean, powered by a 4AGE and it's a perfect example of "less is more". This car came with everything from factory, parts that a Corolla enthusiast would look for when building their project car.

Khandakar Tahmidur Rahman's Corolla had the GT treatment done, 4A-GE blacktop 5 speed M/T swap and full GT spec interior. On the outside, he decided to take a simplistic approach, a beautiful blue paintjob, dropped height and a set of 15" Rays alloys. It's elegant and shows that you don't need to do a lot to make a 100 Corolla look good.

Zain Md Abeer's awesome Sprinter was a part of the herd too. Fully stripped out, and the only car there running aftermarket cams, and some serious performance modifications. It was also the only Sprinter there, mainly because there aren't many people that do projects on100 Sprinters due to its rarity. Look out for a full feature on this car next week on Shift.

A more powerful 1.8L 2ZZ-GE VVTLi engine sourced from the newer 9th generation Corolla T-Sport powers Omar Shah's grey bullet. He previously had a 4A-GE in the car, but he got bored and in search of more power, he decided to do the very first 2zz conversion in the country. Look out for an exclusive feature of this in the near future.

Dr. Moonsun's Ceres GT is certainly a looker; the Corolla Ceres featured low-roofed, sporty proportions, with unobtrusive center pillars that were virtually invisible when the windows are rolled up. This particular car also packs enough power for Dhaka streets with its 4A-GE 20valve heart.

Last but not the least; this is where everyone goes to look for rare parts on their sedans, the BZ Touring Wagon. Rafayet H. Jamil has had this car since 1997, it's been sitting around in his factory for a long while, and when the opportunity to restore this presented itself by the means of a BZ Touring half-cut, how could he not do it? We certainly approve.

The meet.

The 7th generation Corolla is one of the few cars that had an actual meet. This is probably due to the unity and bond of the AE101 community. The usual suspects of the AE101 community, Ahsan Al Farad, Intekhab Zaman, Quazi Raheeb Hossain and Mohammad Ashraful Huque came to the meet, along with a few new faces and a couple of other cars.

If you are planning a similar car meet in Dhaka, let us know by messaging us on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/thedailystar.shift) or shoot an email to shift@thedailystar.net and we'll be there!