The value of an AE86 Corolla

Harris Lynch is the GM at a Porsche shop called Modern Air Cooled. His other car is a stripped-out, plexi-window’d street-driven Porsche 993. And his other, OTHER car is a bagged Panamera Turbo S. Yet here we are… featuring his 35-year-old Toyota Corolla because we’re broken lol.

But there’s a certain poetic beauty in that… right? The fact that neither S3 or Harris Lynch particularly values a 993 or Panamera any more… or less… than a AE86 Corolla. Maybe, just maybe, we’re actually the UNBROKEN ones.

See, surface car enthusiasts…

Hell the entire masses in general are caught up in a seriously deeply engrained web of materialism. Instilled since birth. It’s subconscious, but as we grow, the ‘dollar-association’ illusion becomes the reality we adhere to. And so we go through life accessing dollar signs to everything & everyone. This is worth more than that, because it’s more expensive. The guy with the BMW outranks the guy with the Honda. Therefore they… must be more successful than them.

It has nothing to do with reality…

It’s just how we perceive reality when we place… monetary value > heart value.

But you know what’s cool about passion?

Passion counterpunches all those standards, and breaks the illusions. Passion cannot be controlled or leveraged easily, because passion feeds your spirit, and your spirit lives by a different system of value.

One that’s not man-made & based in dollars, envy, or comparison. But rather, one that’s soulful… and based on spikes in raw, untranslatable emotion.

How do you put a value on memories & personal experiences that literally shaped you?

For Harris Lynch, Japanese car culture in the early 2000s was a huge inspiration. It sucked him in, shaped him, and set a path for him. His lifestyle, his hobbies, his passions, his career, his coworkers, his friends… they’re all one & the same today. And it’s because of the impact that drifting & JDM car culture had on him back then.

Therefore the true value of something like a ‘911 vs Corolla’…

Has absolutely nothing to do with clout, or the KBB value of the cars. It has everything to do with how both those cars struck chords in his soul. They inspired him, excited him, & ignited his spirit. Therefore, his spirit stepped-in & put a value on them that’s bigger than cars, or anything material. And that value is equal between the two.

Text by Wooley Photos by Jason Scott