Convienience stores in Japan, or as the natives refer to them ‘konbini’, are a staple part of any Nihon ’86ers life. Be it late night stops while on the road between mountain passes, talking shop in the carpark or stocking up on snacks for that long trip to the circuit, they certainly come in handy. With names like FamilyMart, AMPM, CircleK, MiniStop, 7-Eleven and Lawson here, these dens of super-consumer-heaven are no shortage of cheap and tasty eats and super bizzarre drinks (Pepsi Ice Cucumber anyone? Bleh!) plus heaps of other particularly Japanese services (post office courier service anyone?).
Rod over at RoadsterDrift snapped this tough kouki Levin coupe on it’s way to Motorland Suzuka sitting pretty in the Lawson Plus (yet another konbini variation!) parking area. Make sure to hit up his site for the rest of the set and bookmark his site too: he’s not just a Miata fan you know!
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!
The majority of average-height western hachi-roku drivers know how short the Japanese actually are: if you are below 6 foot you can still sit okay in the GT seats Toyota put in the AE86 BUT If you are over 6 feet tall, you seriously need to think about low mounted bucketseats or modifying your current seat rails.
Apparently a Japanese man (probably about the size of Ken Nomura) not having this problem thought a roof chop would look great on his AE85 Trueno Coupe:
It’s a Coffee-inspired, Hayashi Street Finned, curb hopping maniac! Alexi @ Noriyaro has a couple of stories up about this creamy coupe.
This rather neat AE86 belongs to a guy who goes by the nickname “Asayan”. Asayan works at a body shop in Osaka called “Looking”, who are well known for their extremely stylish paintjobs. Not only that, Looking are obsessed with drifting as well, and run several “HitomiGo” events a year at Meihan Circuit, named after Hitomi, the other half of Looking.
So check out the statics (when it’s not hanging five @ Maze Circuit) and motion shots (when it is) over at Noriyaro!
In regards the AE86, Europe is a diverse mix of all different styles of modifying. In Germany, the classic “European” styling trend is to take a Levin coupe, make minimal modifications and fit a set of Atiwe or Ronal wheels. On the contrary, in England and Ireland the style is more of a copy of the Japanese trends with each countries little touches thrown in.
It seems somewhere half way between these two points, around the Benelux countries, these styles clashed and the result is something unique. One such car which reflects this perfect combination, taking something from both parts of the world, is this Kouki Levin from Luxembourg.
There are lots of Hachis out there that look amazing, but personally I feel most of these lack the finer details (yes my own lacks it as well)Â that set a good Hachi apart from an amazing one.
In my day to day internet browsing I regularly check out a blog called OG-made that is run by the guys who manage Endless in the USA. They featured a car built by Andy Yen Ex-Forumla D driver and current judge. This car has been around for along time and from the pictures I have seen it has been through a lot. However, its one of the best Levin coupes in the USA at the moment.
The little features of this car make it so special to me, such as the Stack Dash, Watanabe spare wheel, the air vent headlight, the amazing cage and the fancy little Three Link suspension set-up. Little things like this make an ’86 stand out in my mind.
Today we have another Aussie feature car/interview for you. One of my favourite AE86′s, Robo’s simple yet effective Levin coupe is certainly tough as nails.
Background on yourself?
Well I was born in Brisbane in 1990, grew up around cars & motorbikes so I guess that was the start of it all! I have been into drifting/ import scene for a while now and i started going out to Queensland Raceway for photography back in late 2003 at the age of twelve or so!
History of your car?
From what I can tell my ’86 was driven around daily in Tokyo, Japan (where it came from), it had an easy life, I was very happy to see it as clean as it was! Being a grade 3 auction car, it was better than expected to be honest. When I got it the modding began from day one, I remember running inside to grab the dildo shifter to put in. Then came suspension/ wheels and as they say the rest is history!
UPDATE 2 MAY 2008: We have managed to find the elusive little car and have some better shots of the FUTO after the jump. It handles like a dream and is quite zippy in comparison to the other smaller cars in the game. We found it in the ‘Meadow Hills’ area of ‘Dukes’ for those who are yet to drive it.
It only took a day but an AE86 has been discovered in GTA4! Called a Karin FUTO (tofu reference?) in game, the car is obviously modelled on an AE86, a Levin coupe to be exact, and has the kouki clear fog-light grill and what looks like some 8-spoke RS Watanabe rims.
Even the engine bay got the perks as it sports a quad-throttle equipped 4A-GE and the interior is almost identical to a USDM AE86! Apparently it even has a sticker saying “Inline 20v Twin Cam” on the side! Looks like someone on the team was an AE86 fan! Thanks to you Mr mystery modeller!
Still, there has been no word on how it handles in-game yet or where it commonly turns up. We will let you know as soon as someone can tear themselves away for long enough to tell us!
Katsuhiro Ueo is the undisputed god when it comes to drifting the AE86. This video was from the D1 Street Legal Sekia Hills round where he was piloting a Levin Coupe powered with only a 90hp blacktop 20V. Not many people can steer like that. Simply amazing!!!!!!
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