Prelude or AE86

Ive been given the coice by my parrents of either a '87 Prelude or 86' Corolla GTS. Im interested in a nimble light car that will be fun on the twisties, I coulden't care less about 1/4th mile times.

So, readers of this thread, in your opinion which car in stock form would fit what im looking for better?

oh my god i would go with the ae86 even tho i own a prelude i rather go with the ae86 since its rwd and the drifiting potential it has, if i were u id get the 86.

jump on that ae86 man, i would love to drive one of those around.

yea i agree with the previous 2 posts.......i heard that car is a drifting monster....youll have a blast with that car

ae86

hands down.

Heres the thing, we may have found a prelude but finding a resonably priced AE86 is going to be an uphill battle. Its not like I found a hot deal on a AE86 and im debating about buying it, That would be an easy decision.

whats ur parents opinion of a resonable price?

The 87 prelude is a nice car, but compared to the AE86 its a bit heavy and sulgish.

If you can find an AE86 then deffinitly take it over the prelude. Its not only faster, but also has a lot more tuning potential when you get the bug.
Don't get to fussed about setteling for the lude though, while not as fast as the AE86, they are a lot more comfterble as a cruising car.

good pice on a GTS would be under 3K. Correction on the Prelude, probably a '90 or '91.

About this thread being moved, sorry I didnt know I was off topic, I have never really looked in the cars in general forum so I had no idea what was in there.

About this thread being moved, sorry I didnt know I was off topic,


I wouldn't worry about it, AF is a pretty damn big place :)

If its a 3g lude your looking at then as long as its an Si and not an S model then its actualy a bit of a hard choice between it and an AE86.
A manaul Si should be faster than the AE86, and despite IMO being a lot uglier (and yes I own one) is the better car. Im not to sure how well equiped the US models are, but Im sure they will have more extras than the older AE86.
Do not however bother with an S, or an Automatic. Both are so slow its not funny (I have the Japanese equivilant of an S and its embarssingly slow, but its a tempory car).

The AE86 however is still some thing to strongly consider.
They are much simpler in design and construction than the Prelude, and so much easier to work on. They also have much much greater aftermarket support, and there is a certian something about a RWD car that gets a lot of people excited.
If its your first car, and you want something you can easily learn to work on yourself, and prehaps modify in 6mnths then the AE86 would possibly be the better car.

If you can find a good example of each I highly recomend driving them, and see for yourself which one you feel the most happy and comfterble in.

I got a little confused on the begining of the 3rd gen preludes, my dads got an '87 3rd gen Si. The only mods I might want to do to the prelude are suspension mods, and maybe alot later a H22 swap.

I know there are almost no aftermarket parts for the lude, but that dosent bother me too much.

There is usuialy 1 or 2 GTS's that get sold here a month, usuialy there expensive, but I'll try test driving one to see if I should be interested in the car. Im not too interested in drifting, so I dont see RWD as too important, am I wrong?

So guys, heres the final question.

3rd Gen Prelude for $3000
-or-
AE86 for $3000

All things being equal which one.

Corolla, just for the aftermarket and RWDness. They aren't drift monsters stock. You are looking at an engine swap and suspension mods before you get it to that point.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are looking at 110HP in a stock AE86. It probably will not be as reliable as a prelude, at least that's what I have heard from a couple owners of them.

You could give it a panda paintjob, get a Takumi haircut and impress a ton of ricers though.. :)

BTW: If I were you.. I'd get a 240sx.. best of both worlds.

I know there are almost no aftermarket parts for the lude, but that dosent bother me too much.

There is usuialy 1 or 2 GTS's that get sold here a month, usuialy there expensive, but I'll try test driving one to see if I should be interested in the car. Im not too interested in drifting, so I dont see RWD as too important, am I wrong?

So guys, heres the final question.

3rd Gen Prelude for $3000
-or-
AE86 for $3000

All things being equal which one.
i'd go with the ae86 even if i wasn't into drifting..you said"Im interested in a nimble light car that will be fun on the twisties, I coulden't care less about 1/4th mile times. " i think you should try drifting i think it be alot more fun on the twisties but don't crash