The unsuspecting stunt vehicle that has helped define Australia’s precision driving elite.
On a sunny October day the Isuzu Team D-MAX precision driving team took motoring journalist Peter Barnwell under its wing.
The intention of the day? Teach a bloke who has driven everything with four wheels, to drive on two. We won’t spoil the results from a day of stunt practice; you can read about Peter’s experience here.
One of the most interesting things on the day wasn’t just the dual cab utes all crossed up and flying through the air, it was this car, a humble 1983 Toyota AE71 Corolla.
Despite grim appearances, this isn’t just any old paddock basher. This car was made for one thing, giving the stunt driving elite a platform with which to hone their craft. For almost every Aussie driver capable of two-wheeling, this rust riddled girl is where they started.
Destined for a future Toyota engineers could never imagine, EMG Precision Driving took Toyota’s sensible compact sedan, welded a training wheel on the side, built ramps and went where no one was watching.
There is no secret trick to two-wheeling. You learn by doing. There are three options: stick it, lap the block and come home a hero, fail to fire and land four wheels down, or most commonly, roll on to the training wheel and wait in uncomfortable limbo for a kind soul to give you a shove back down.
The experience is counter-intuitive. Every earned instinct – steering, throttle and brake – are rendered useless the second the creaky Corolla lurches off the ground and leans heavily on the sidewalls of the Toyo Nano Energy 3s.
Line up, run up, ramp, slam, circle back, repeat. This is where the hours turn into days.
Drivers spend weeks repeating this process, over hundreds of runs. Slamming side to side in the tight cabin with every jarring landing, the boxy Toyota is a chiropractor’s dream.
You crack it, find the balance point and trundle five, 10, 15, 20 metres. You’ve made it, you have learned the secret. Nope.
According to the stuntmen who can lap the part-time animal nest around a large oval track with ease, this is where things get really hard. You have had a taste, and once you know the feeling the refusal to give up, and your capacity to take the knocks, increases exponentially.
You try, try, try again to regain whatever sixth sense kept you poised, crowd cheering. Practice enough, and one day you might trade up to the real thing.
Next time you see these stunt legends two-wheeling their Isuzu D-MAXs, whipping past you in an arena, spare a thought for the little Corolla that could, waiting patiently in a field somewhere to help create the next Australian stuntman or woman.
