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The AE86 is widely considered by enthusiasts as the greatest Corolla of them all.

The Toyota Corolla AE86 is a cultural icon regarded by those in the know as the ultimate Toyota Corolla of all time. Why would pundits pass over the fan favorite 2019 Toyota Corolla, equipped with a bunch of standard competitive features such as emergency braking, steering assist, forward collision warning, and lane departure warning; or even the 2010 Corolla with a blessed reputation of fuel efficiency and reliability, but instead crown the 1980s Toyota AE86 as the greatest Corolla of them all?

Ultimately, AE86, nicknamed ‘Hachi-Roku,’ is a raw example of a product that earned its value, full stop. It wasn’t supposed to be famous, and not even Toyota expected it to overtake the then-newly introduced FWD Corollas on the market. It reminds you of the sheepish lad at school everyone thought would cower at a corner at the slightest provocation only to amaze everyone by squaring up to the dreaded bully and kicking his behind.

The Toyota AE86 is that sheepish lad! Its potential exploded like a dynamo, leaving everyone amazed and elbowing their way to the frontline at the Toyota dealerships, just like everyone at school jostled to be friends with the wonder kid.

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The 1980s folks can be forgiven for initially chucking the Toyota AE86 into the pile of generic '80s Japanese cars. However, the model has since evolved into something far from generic, a true icon and legend. Much of that legendary status is thanks to its fantastic exploits in the Japanese street racing manga series, Initial D, but the AE86 is a real-life Hachi-Roku.

Nevertheless, Hachi-Roku is so rare that you’d be paying an obscene price for it if you are lucky to find one in a roadworthy condition. Toyota offered the AE6 with two versions; the Corolla Levin and Sprinter Trueno, both of which were available as coupe and liftback. Both were small, front-engine RWD models, which brings us to an interesting background on these cars.

You see, it was immediately clear to the Japanese automaker that it had hit the jackpot when it launched the first Corolla in 1966, exactly thirty years from the launch of its first production car, the Model AA sedan. For this reason, Toyota wisely ‘maintained the magic recipe,’ which meant it hesitated to switch the model line from its original RWD to FWD, despite improving the model with every generation.

Finally, Toyota could no longer ignore the benefits of FWD and decided to switch the Corolla to front-wheel-drive in its fifth generation. Unsurprisingly, not everyone at Toyota was happy with this switch. FWD makes sense for family cars in terms of fuel economy and interior space but at the expense of drivability. So, what did Toyota do? It flipped the figurative coin.

Toyota's engineers were instructed to build two completely different versions of the Corolla, on two completely different platforms. The family-friendly 5-door hatchbacks and 4-door sedans would be FWD, while the 3-door liftbacks and 2-door coupés would remain RWD.

Here's the thing, Toyota knew it was moving on from RWD, as far as the Corolla was concerned. So, it compensated its engineers - who were RWD fans - by giving them unlimited freedom to build the coupé and the liftback versions of their dreams, as long as they are a couple of sporty commuter cars.

So, what did the gearhead engineers do? “This is going to be the last RWD Corolla we ever build,” they said. “Let’s show them what they’ll be missing out on! Let’s throw everything we have at it!” That’s the kind of kitchen the Corolla AE86 was cooked up in. As for their christening, the Corolla Levin was named after the old English word, 'Levin,' meaning 'lightning,' while the Sprinter Trueno got its name from the Spanish word for thunder.

Related: Holy Horses! Watch This Toyota AE86 Hit 1,883 Wheel HP On The Dyno

What drivers loved about the Toyota AE86 (besides the cartoon character fame) was the surprisingly exceptional handling, quick throttle response, and mind-blowing steering precision. Of course, it wasn’t perfect, but it’s how it used imperfections to its advantage that made the car far better than the sum of its parts.

Take the live rear axle, for instance. It was outdated, even by the standards of the '80s era. At least, American drivers know short IRS (independent rear suspension) is much better than live rear axle configuration. You’d have to admire how this seeming imperfection worked to AE86’s advantage at the Touge, the Japanese alternative to the British Back Road that sweeps through a mountain with various S bends.

The AE86’s FR layout, optional limited-slip differential, MacPherson strut front suspension, high revving 4A-GE, and near-perfect weight distribution helped it dominate the mountains as those young drivers realized they could easily make the car’s rear end lose grip, and force it into a controlled slide, thanks to the IRS.

The Hachi-Roku is an annoyingly expensive car, but it earned it. It was a favorite of the modified production car racing Group A and Group N racing categories, especially rally and circuit racing. Many private teams continued to race the car even after Toyota stopped making them, and it’s still a preferred choice for rallying and club racing to this day.

The Japanese street racing anime Initial D, in which the main character, Takumi Fujiwara, used his dad’s AE86 Trueno GT-Apex Hatchback to make deliveries of tofu and for street racing, helped turn the Corolla AE86 into a cultural icon in Japanese pop culture. The AE86 is also a playable vehicle in the Initial D Arcade Stage series.

While it also made cameo appearances in the Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and the Fast and Furious 4, and could be spotted by observant eyes in the background waiting in line to enter the Race Wars in the first-ever The Fast and the Furious movie, Initial D’s popularity is the main cause of the car's high resale value.

The cars’ high resale price is popularly referred to as "Takumi tax" or "Tofu tax", after the main character and his tofu delivery occupation. That’s a major irony right there, considering this was a model line that Toyota conceived as a small, sporty, affordable commuter.

Philip Uwaoma, this bearded black male from Nigeria, is fast approaching two million words in articles published on various websites, including toylist.com, rehabaid.com, and autoquarterly.com. After not getting credit for his work on Auto Quarterly, Philip is now convinced that ghostwriting sucks. He has no dog, no wife- yet- and he loves Rolls Royce a little too much.