BTCC Corollas Quarter-Mile Battle: 1986 vs 2021 vs 2022

Jack Sears won the first championship title back then, and he was driving an Austin A105 Westminster. Fast forward to 1968, and Frank Gardner scored his second BTCC title in a Ford Escort Twin Cam. Moving on to the '80s, Win Percy took two titles behind the wheel of a Mazda RX-7! Then, Chris Hodgetts drove the Toyota Corolla GT to victory in both 1986 and 1987. Ten years later, the Audi A4 Quattro took the spotlight.

Vauxhalls and Hondas dominated the scene between 2001 and 2015, but for the past two years, Ashley Sutton was quite successful in winning behind the wheel of an Infiniti Q50. If you're wondering how much cars have evolved over the past three decades, today's video is just what you're looking for. Drag racing a 1980s race car against a modern-day one can only go one way, but that's not the point.

All three vehicles have been built up to BTCC-spec. All three of them are Corollas. The 1986 one is the car that won the championship back in the day. The 2021 version was only good enough for 7th place overall, while the upcoming, 2022 model is a hybrid! Yes, even when it comes to motorsports, electrification is going to take over soon. Just look at Formula E, MotoE, the Dakar Rally, and so on so forth.

The 2021 GR Corolla is powered by a turbocharged, 2.0-liter engine. That has a maximum output of 370 horsepower and 295 lb-ft (400 Nm) of torque. You might not be as excited to hear that this is an FWD vehicle, but at least it has a six-speed sequential gearbox, and it only weighs 2,800 lbs (1,270 kg). The 2022 model is fairly similar, but it does have an electric motor that's good enough for an extra 40 horsepower. That should come in handy for today's race.

On the far end of the start line, the AE86 looks more like it was built by someone who is highly passionate about Japanese cars, rather than an actual race machine. This was highly competitive back in the day, but it's at a serious disadvantage for today's challenge. The naturally aspirated 1.6 engine is only good for 182 horsepower and 140 lb-ft (190 Nm) of torque. To make things worse, it has to do with a 5-speed manual gearbox.

But there are two exciting parts to the AE86: it only weighs in at 1,763 lbs (800 kg), and it's an RWD car! Not that this is going to make a difference against its modern siblings, but it should be exciting to drive around the racetrack! Run after run, the AE86 gets left behind, and it's all down to figuring out which of the two modern cars is going to be faster.

The Hybrid GR Corolla comes out on top, with a quarter-mile (402 meters) time of 13.5 seconds. The 2021 GR Corolla is just 0.1 seconds slower. Finally, we get to see how things have changed over the past 35 years. The AE86 is 3.5 seconds slower to the quarter-mile than its 2022 counterpart. Does that come close to your expectations?