This is globalisation working its strange voodoo.  1: AE86 craze in Japan jumps the Pacific to the USA to be popularised by the Need For Speed Underground franchise bringing the humble hachiroku to the masses. Step 2: USA goes hell for leather giving the ‘Corolla GT-S’ their own unique flavor, adding on key items like huge wheels and ground-effects kits – Just think ‘Jada Toys’. Step 3: USDM-Style gets picked up in Japan coming full circle with a Japanese take on the American way of like (similarly called Yankee-Style in fashion circles) and you get something like this monster! 17″ wheels wearing 215×40 tyres and a big-single SR20 under the hood.

[HACHI ROKU RECIPE: Small car, big turbo via NoriYaro]

Sorted. What would yours be?

Check out the rest of Asayan’s Levin @ Noriyaro

You know you are doing your project car right when you unexpectedly win a prize as No. 1 JDM car on a carshow. At least, that’s what happened to AEU86 member Oldskull after taking his almost finished levin project to a car show to promote his buddies shop Raceminded.

He did put some stickers of his webshop on my car so I was there with him and other club members. I parked the car and we got chilling at his tent where we would sell all his stuff. Suddenly later at that day someone came to me and let me know that I need to pick up my prize as my car had won “No. 1 JDM car”. Really funny to know that I won the prize.

Then imagine this car won the best classic youngtimer prize on the Japanese Classic Sunday only one year before when it looked almost bone stock in OEM panda-red scheme and only a set of Konig Rewinds.

Something of an enigma, Yamashita Koichi’s red Run Free trueno is certainly a hachiroku I, like many other AE86-heads hold in high regard.  Anontio @ MotorMavens is also one of these guys:

It’s just crazy to think that after all these years (13 years to be exact), this red AE86 Sprinter Trueno 3-door from Running Free still inspires me.. and I hope that’s a feeling that stays with me forever.

Antonio has a full rundown feature of the car, going part by part, from his time spent with machine in 2005. Jump on over to MotorMavens and have a read. Some pretty interesting parts you may have missed from our previous story on the car from SPEED magazine.

MotorMavens

Good friend of NZ AE86 maniac (and HR’s buddy) Keisuke, Hug-o at GarageRS is equally as crazy about hachirokus and evidently also as talented with getting things sideways. Hug-o’s Levin hatchback wears some pretty tidy dress–up parts for what most people would deem ‘too-nice’ for a drift car, but we love any AE86 that looks this clean and goes this hard!

Hug-o has compiled a bunch of his best photos of a recent trackday venture over at his blog, GarageRS – so check it out and let him know which one is YOUR favourite!

It’s not everyday in the AE86 world you see hachiroku drag cars, but today is a special day. Mike over @ SPEEDHUNTERS has the downlow on a pair of very quick Truenos from the Dominican Republic.

With a lightweight, rear-drive chassis the AE86 makes a fine drag machine, and Isidoro and Mike of the Domincan Republic have used the AE86 chassis to create two of the coolest import drag cars I’ve ever seen.

With 2JZ power, its not surprising these hachirokus are rockets on the quarter mile.

Speedhunters (via Boostiao.com)

Some of you may already have seen a couple of rad pictures featuring an orange hachi from Luxembourg, but for those in need of more pixels best hit the jump!

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Grassroots drifting at its best. Rod from SPEEDHUNTERS blog has a sweet featurette on one of the local Canadian drifters Chris Scremin. Finishing third in the 2009 Drift Mania West Canadian series, he is one of the top drifters from the Canadian ‘West-Coast’. As a result, the hachi he masterfully pilots week-in week-out is a pretty rough and tumble affair. Rod writes:

As you can expect at typical North American grass roots drift event, the majority of the cars competing were S chassis of various types. But one drifter chose to break the mold with his choice of car and went in a more old school direction: his name is Chris Scremin and this is his 1985 SR-86.

Check out the full article of the destruction over @ SPEEDHUNTERS.

Photo: Rod Chong

In contrary of Itsuki’s voice actor, Takumi’s voice actor is actually a proper AE86 lover hachi owner and lover. Together with Carland86 he turned his old Trueno GTV into an Initial D Sprinter Trueno replica back in 2003! After that Carland86 built the “original” cars used in Initial D The Movie.

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Just when you thought you had seen every possible engine swap so far, here we are to prove you totally wrong! MasCor, a new member at AEU86, is a Turkish AE86 owner who did one of the craziest swaps I’ve seen so far. Can you tell what this hachi is hiding under its hood? Hit the jump to see the answer!

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