Curbside Classic: 1971 Toyota Corona Mark II (T60) – Rusting Gracefully, Artfully And Carefully

Fashion and niches are just as popular here as they are anywhere, despite some of them clashing with the Japanese way of life. For example, there are just as many folks who go for the grungy, torn jeans, Nikes and leather jacket post-punk look here as there are in, say, London. But here, their torn jeans are impeccably ironed, the leather isn’t smelly, the hair is scientifically coiffed and the shoes are brand new. I think this Toyota’s owner is playing a similar game with patina.

Not a dent in the bumper, not a trim piece missing or even askew. If it weren’t for the oxidized body (chiefly the roof, trunk and hood, indicating a car that probably sat in the sun for a good number of years), this first generation Toyota Mark II could have come straight out of the Nagoya museum.

Oh, it’s a ToyoPET, of course. Silly me. And silly them for picking such a stupid name. That’ll teach them to ask the public about what anything should be called. These things ought to be left to the professionals – you know, the geniuses who came up with Edsel Citation, Renault Duster and Daihatsu Naked, among other gems.

This first iteration of the Mark II was very much a trial balloon from Toyota, an attempt (successful, as it turned out) to find enough room between the Corona and the Crown for an intermediary model to exist. Nissan did the same thing at the time with the Laurel.

Not surprisingly, the Mark II kept a lot of the Corona’s styling cues – especially that peculiar shovel-nosed snout – when it appeared in the autumn of 1968. But it did get a couple of facelifts, which is a lot for a single generation, but does show that the company understood the Mark II needed to stand out a bit more.

The initial Mark II grille (top left) was a little too close to the Corona. It was superseded by the grille-within-a-grille design of 1970 (right), which only lasted a little over a year. In early 1971, the final grille (bottom left, colourfully nicknamed “Eagle mask” in Japan) was implemented. And, no so incidentally, we can also see the Mark II’s body variants here, which included the T70 coupé, the wagon-van and, based on the latter’s chassis, a pair of pickups. Those were strictly a first-generation thing, though they outlived the other T60/70 variants by a couple of years.

The engine situation was most confusing. Several were available – all of them 4-cyl. and comprised between 1.5 and 1.9 litres, i.e. precisely between the 1.3-1.6 litre Corona and the 2-litre Crown, but they changed with alarming regularity within the JDM lineup, with different power outputs from one year to the next. Our feature car seems to have had a little tinkering done, so there’s no telling what engine that stovepipe of an exhaust is connected to. Export cars usually got a choice of the 1.6 or the 1.9.

The interior mirrors the outside, with a mixture of mods (that A/C unit especially) and well-worn originality, as exemplified by the driver’s seat’s patched-up upholstery.

Toyota put a “Deluxe” script on the rear end, but precious little of that deluxury made it inside. By 1971-72, the higher-trim, faux wood console, mini-Crown variant was obviously called something else.

With an extra 9cm between the wheels compared to the T40 Corona, the Mark II was decent enough in the rear legroom department. Looks like that door card was just replaced – soon to be followed by the carpet, maybe. I see a couple of patches in that seat’s near future, too. We’ll call it a work in progress.

The 1^st generation Mark II was a hit. I’m not sure about export numbers, though these were certainly shipped far and wide – not just the usual Toyota markets like the US, Southeast Asia and Australia, but also many markets in Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle-East. In Japan, the Mark II tallied over 430k sales in four years, prompting Toyota to graduate the model to its own platform from the second generation onwards.

For the next 30 years, the Mark II would remain one of Toyota’s best-sellers, keeping Toyota dominant in the 2-litre RWD saloon/wagon niche. It’s a big niche, too – in the Mark II platform’s late ‘80s heyday, Toyota were selling close to 10,000 a week domestically. That’s a lot of metal.

The “Toyopet Corona Mark II” name was a little confusing, though, so it was adapted for foreign consumption. Under the Cressida nameplate, it also made its presence felt in export markets throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s.

It all started with this modest and now rusty mid-sizer, but that first try was well aimed. It’s amazing how little Toyota had to tinker with the formula to find its groove – all the Mark II needed was a small 6-cyl., more gingerbread and a bit more character.

Said character is heightened by the cautiously curated patina present in this example. Not quite rat rodded but definitely modded, gray on the sides and red in the middle, meticulously cleaned but patched-up seats: this car is trying to emulate something, but it’s really doing its own (very Japanese) thing. And I kinda love it.

Curbside Classic: 1971 Toyota Corona Mark II – Some Things Never Change, by PN

In-Motion Classic: 1972 Toyota Corona Mark II – One In A Million, by Eric703