1982 Toyota Corolla Sports Hardtop Delivers the Sportin' Life

The E70 series Toyota Corolla was sold in the United States from the 1980 through 1983 model years, and a slick-looking hardtop coupe version was available for those who wanted to live the sportin' life. Here's a magazine advertisement for the just-below-the-SR5 version of that car for 1982.

With the very sturdy but not so powerful overhead-valve 3T-C engine under its hood and a 2,346-pound curb weight, this car couldn't have been called quick even by Malaise Era standards (Americans had to wait for its successor, the AE86, for actual performance). The use of the term "Sportin' Life" in this advertisement is interesting; the term is most often used as slang for the world of boozing, gambling, and prostitution.

The character in George Gershwin's 1935 musical, Porgy and Bess, who sings "It Ain't Necessarily So"was named Sportin' Life, though the term originated long before that. Blues musician Brownie McGhee wrote a song by that title in the 1940s, though we can assume the Toyota Motor Sales USA copywriters were more familiar with the 1965 Lovin' Spoonful version.