10/05/2026
Of Nostalgia and Childhood Dreams: Revisiting my childhood through my first foray into the project car life
For many of us, our enthusiasm for the automotive stems from the cars that helped shape our childhoods. Perhaps it was the car that you helped your dad wash every weekend, or the family van that brought you and your cousins along on family road trips.
For me, that passion stems from the car that my father started his medical career with: a 1995 Toyota Corolla 1.6 GLI that his father bought for him as a gift shortly after becoming a licensed physician. A few years later, that same car brought me home from the hospital, welcoming me to the world for the first time. Much of my early childhood was spent bonding with my parents over taking care of that car, with many photos in the family album showing me as a little boy helping my dad wash the car in whatever way a little boy can (see last photo). Unfortunately, circumstances dictated that my dad had to sell the car in 2004, after 9 years of ownership.
Even as a five-year-old boy, that affected me significantly. Whenever I’d see the car parked, I’d ask my mom over and over why we couldn’t use the car anymore, not quite understanding the idea that we no longer owned the car no matter how hard my mom explained. Although my family has owned multiple cars since then, some of which I had become very attached to emotionally, there was one car that I still deeply desired: my father’s 1995 Toyota Corolla that we no longer owned and had practically no chance of ever owning again. My emotional attachment to that car was deep to the point that I still remember its plate number: GHU435, and its many quirks like the broken RH AC louver that my father never got to fix.
Fast forward to 2022, now as a fresh college graduate, I had the privilege of entering the world of grassroots racing through a friend who happened to be an active member of the Cebu motorsports community at the time. I entered with my Hyundai Santa Fe, the car that was handed down to me when I got my license a few years back. This was good for a start, but clearly this car was less than ideal if I wanted to push things further. My friend suggested I buy a car better suited for the local time attack. His suggestion: a Toyota Corolla GLI, just like my father owned.
Almost instantly, I found myself scrolling endlessly on Facebook Marketplace looking for cheap Corollas that I could use. A good friend from Manila offered me his be**er GLI for a great price, but given that I live in Cebu, it was more cost-effective to find a car local to me instead. Meanwhile, in a funny, almost poetic turn of events, I found my dad’s Corolla for sale on a Mindanao-based Facebook group, all beat up and looking like it would have begged to be euthanized had it been sentient. No bueno, I thought to myself, for the same reason that I didn’t buy the Corolla from Manila.
I then found a mint Corolla GLI local to me that had been used in the same time attack series that I was planning to enter. It was a 1993 Corolla GLI that had been repainted Conquest Blue, newly restored and refreshed for both street and track use. The catch? It wasn’t cheap. Ultimately, I decided to shelf my Corolla dreams for a while and put the money into pursuing further education instead. I then entered medical school and limited my participation in motorsport events to spectating as an amateur photographer, covering the events for Cars of Cebu and making a name for myself in the media community instead of actually racing.
Fast forward once again to 2026, now in my last few months of medical school, my beloved Hyundai Santa Fe had unfortunately become a headache. It quickly became evident that it was time to let go, given the difficulty and cost of sourcing parts for an old Korean car in Cebu.
I hopped on Facebook Marketplace once again to search for a replacement when lo and behold, I stumbled upon a familiar car: a 1993 Toyota Corolla GLI that had been repainted Conquest Blue. This time, it now wore a Touring Wagon face conversion and had an interesting heart transplant: a 4AGE Blacktop mated to a C56 five-speed.
I messaged the seller who had become a friend through the years and asked if the car was still available given that the listing was posted quite some time ago. As soon as he said yes, I joked to my dad that maybe I should get a 33-year-old Corolla to replace my relatively modern SUV. But you know what they say: jokes are half-meant, and that’s exactly what this was.
Surprisingly, my father was okay with the idea, opening up to me that he misses his Corolla just as much as I do. And with that, everything began to fall into place. He agreed to buy the car for me as a graduation gift to celebrate the forthcoming start of my career in medicine — the same way his dad bought him his Corolla to celebrate the start of his career in medicine over 30 years ago.
After a few months of waiting and back-and-forth communication, I brought the car home with my parents. And in that moment, I was 5 years old again, laughing and having a good time in the company of my family and the Corolla.
People often say history repeats itself. I always took that with a grain of salt and dismissed it as just an old adage. Yet here we are, just two months shy of graduating again, now with a Toyota Corolla GLI of our own, just like I had always dreamed of as a little boy.
With much gratitude to my family, friends, and God Himself, this officially marks the start of a new journey — one that I hope and pray I won’t regret.
J.V. | Cars of Cebu
