Meet The Owner – Gemma Wade and her Toyota 1000 Publica

Young people today, eh? When I was 12, I was working hard at my SMP maths booklets, listening to Madness and realising that a career in woodwork was unlikely to be a possibility. Meanwhile, when Gemma was the same age, she was learning to restore a 1976 1000 ‘Publica’ that goes by the nom-de-Toyota of ‘Olly.’

For those unfamiliar with the Publica, sales of the two-door saloon version began in late 1974. It occupied a niche below the Corolla for drivers who wanted a cheap runabout with a 993cc engine “designed to keep you in comfort, keep you in pocket and keep you on the road”. The fact it used two-star petrol was a bonus in the aftermath of the OPEC Fuel Crisis.

By 1976 the 1000 cost £1,412 - four pounds less than markedly Spartan Ford Escort Popular Mk.2. When What Car tested both cars the Toyota’s list of equipment impressed them: “It has a heated rear window, a radio and tinted glass as standard. It also has carpets – unfortunately their location left something to be desired – hazard flashers and a cigar lighter”.

Autocar found the 1000 “in many ways the nearest present-day equivalent of the old Austin A30 (though even the Toyota is rather bigger and a good deal quicker)”. They also found the “willing engine is linked to a typically smooth Japanese four-speed gearbox with light and positive movements”.

Toyota replaced the 1000 Publica with the Starlet in 1978, and since then, it has seemed to fade from public memory. In any case, the 1975 VER - Voluntary Restriction Agreement meant that Japanese imports were limited to 11 per cent of the UK market, and Datsun had a far more significant share of the quota than its Toyota rival.

However, by 2007, Gemma had embarked on an early career in classic car restoration. Her father, Harvey Wade, is the Treasurer of the Toyota Enthusiasts’ Club - https://www.toyotaenthusiasts.com/ - and Gemma recalls the 1000 Publica was to be ‘her car’. As for the challenges of working on an old Japanese car:

My dad always made me aware that it was next to impossible to find parts for many of these models - unlike the famous’ blue oval’ Fords and BMC vehicles. So many repairs had to be fabricated or adapted from the next best thing - which did involve looking around scrap yards around 18 years ago when you could still find older cars there. More recently, the process involves looking at period cars at shows and wondering if some of their panels are closed enough and potentially obtainable!

Finally came the great day when Gemma finally took to the road in one of the rarest surviving UK-market Toyotas. In her words:

I didn’t get properly behind the wheel of the 1000 until I was 21, and I can remember the first night I had my solo voyage, and it wasn’t without a few hiccups. I drove down to the local shore, and about 5 miles from my parents’ house, a spider came down from the driver’s side window and gave me the fright of my life! It was just enough of an adrenaline rush before I discovered the extra notice for braking at the roundabout a quarter mile ahead. However, we successfully made it to the beach, where I promptly opened the door and tried to locate and remove the eight-legged passenger. Then, on the drive home, the sun was setting, and I realised the headlights had decided to stop working...

Malfunctioning lights and unwelcome arachnid hitchhikers are, of course, familiar aspects of the joys of old car ownership. In any case, 1000 Publica owners are renowned for their fortitude, and the following day, Gemma embarked on a journey to the first Retro Toyota Day in Carlisle:

There is nothing like getting a good few miles under my belt straight away! Other than my white knuckles from tightly gripping the steering wheel and being anxious about every other road user, despite being in the middle of the convoy, it was a lovely drive. That said, I did have a little bit of shakes from the excessively tight grip and the undiscovered unbalanced steel wheels! The rest was history - I already loved the car, from the process of restoration to being my dad’s car show buddy and then finally being behind the wheel. The lack of a rev counter, clock, and all other distracting modern gadgets make for a very mindful driving experience, if I do say so myself!

Today, the 1000 is awaiting work; as Gemma explains, it was taken off the road with the intention of having the restoration work done over the summer of 2020. But:

Sadly, Lockdown derailed that. The sills need serious maintenance, as do the bottom corners of the window. In Olly’s early years on the road, he required a windscreen replacement, which subsequently scratched the paint and led to some slow rot. This was supposed to be part of the original restoration 15 years ago; however, at the time, there was no way of getting a window rubber that was the correct length. The right-angle corners do cause a bit of a problem for sourcing alternatives. We didn’t want to go down the route of bonding the screen. So, we made do at the time and put it on a to-do list for later as they weren’t terrible at the time. In recent years, we did manage to pick up a new old stock windscreen rubber for a bit of expense!

And while Olly awaits a return to the road, Gemma has kept up with the Toyota ‘KP’ lineage:

The dominant KP model was the Starlet, which spanned from 1978 to 1998 before being retired and relaunched as the Yaris, achieving great success for Toyota. My first daily car was a 1.0 MK1 Yaris, which was upgraded a few years later to a Y-reg Yaris TSport, in the best and matching colour to the 1000, which is gold.

You never forget your car – especially if you are 12 years old and helping to restore one of the most unusual Toyotas in the UK.

With thanks to Gemma Wade for her time.

With thanks to Gemma Wade for the permission to use the images in this blog.