I think it was back in 1995 that I had my second Toyota but my first Starlet. It was 1.0 KP in gold, cracking wee car that I never really wanted to get rid of. My sister passed her motorbike test and after announcing to my Dad she was buying a bike, he made it clear he didnt want her anywhere near one. On offer to buy her a car she told him the only car she would drive was mine, knowing fine well I would not easily give it up. So I got the offer of an interest free no length of term loan from my Dad to buy another car, provided I would give my KP to my sister.
I didnt really want to give it up but scanning through the adds to see what was about I seen an add for a Starlet turbo. I called the seller to ask a few details and all he asked was "what age are you", after I gave him my answer he gave me his address and told me come and see the car. A few days later I called to his premises and he directed me round the corner to show me the car, in white with a set of white alloys on it. I took 1 step towards and thought to myself, I am fucking having that! There was only 1 other in N. Ireland at that time, and it was owned by his mechanic who was doing a manual conversion on it, when I called the seller back a few months after buying it for some more info about the car, he told me his mechanic wrote it off about 2 months after getting it finished, making me even more chuffed as it was now the only 1 about.
After 3 years I traded it for a 1990 MR2 and always regretted letting it go. When the GTs started to become more popular here and we had our second child, I convinced my wife the 96 Sportif she had was to small for her and she needed something bigger, so she took my Corolla and I took the Starlet. 1 year later it was running a 4efte and 155bhp, which was quite a bit way back then lol.
So really it was my own car that got me back into Starlets, and even more now I still wish I still had it.