Category Archives: HR Originals

HR Original Features. Only the best in AE86 Related News!

HR Visits: Carland in Kyoto, Japan

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Back in February, I took a trip to Japan with a bunch of friends including tuner Anthony Kellam from Kaizen Garage and Queensland AE86 drifter Sam Holz. We braved the cold morning in Osaka, jumped on the Shinkansen and set off to find the shining star of the Kyoto AE86 scene.

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Brothers In Arms: HR Interview Vu & Van Quach

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It’s not often that you see two street-driven cars this well presented and tastefully modified. It’s even more uncommon that they originate from the same family garage.

But in this case, where brotherly admiration and excitement for one car has spiraled out of control, you have possibly the two most succinct, and complete pair of hachirokus Australia has seen in years.

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Some of you 86 die-hards reading this have choosen to stick with one car and toil away, others are up to the count of ‘several’ chassis of chopping and changing, swapping panels and engines and buying whole projects just for parts and papers.

However, these brothers from Melbourne’s south-east have seen over 10 different AE86s between them since 2002, and have now reached, what they consider, their final ‘masterpiece’ hachiroku builds.

So we thought to ourselves, ‘What inspires dedication this intense? What drives two guys to search endlessly for the perfect AE86?’. So we asked them!

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’86 Essentials: Identifying AE86 Tail Lights

We’ve covered it before, but thought it was deserving of a improvment! Redlines, Whitelines, Fullfaces and Sprinters, we’ve all heard these terms before but do you really know the differences?

Hit the jump for THE definitive guide to identifying the different AE86 tail lights!

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2012 Toyota 86: HR Interviewed for Drive

We got a call late last year about an article Drive was putting together to put into The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. They were writing an article on the new Toyota 86 being released in Australia and wanted the feeling from the AE86 enthusiast community about Toyota’s new car, so we happily obliged.  Drive Journalist, Matthew Campbell and I spent a while in a lengthy interview, so long that they cut a bunch of it out of the final article (pictured above), so here it is in it’s entirety.

Matthew Campbell: What made you get involved with AE86s?

Garth Ivers: They are a fun car with endless types of modification paths you can take. The guys and gals who buy them are usually very much into self-serve, DIY mechanics and fabrication and down to earth, great people.

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Ten AE86s That Influenced a Generation

Back in 2009, Jeroen Willemsen from SPEEDHUNTERS asked us to write a guest blog for their massive site about the AE86. Jeroen writes:

“Rod asked me to make a top ten list of the best and most influential AE86’s. I’m no expert on everything Hachi, so I decided to ask some of my friends from Australia who run HR – the best hachiroku blog on the web – if they could help me out and they happily obliged. So here you have it, the top ten most influential AE86’s through the eyes of Adam Hocker and Garth Ivers.”

We tried to make the article as international as possible so there might be certain cars you guys think should be in there. So don’t hate us for leaving out your favorite car :) As for Akira Iida’s ’86, Hasselgren, etc they were up there with the others but when there’s only 10 to choose from… well you know!

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The Second Big Leap…

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After the first big step comes the second big leap. Big leap? Yep, a massive leap of faith in trying to find the right engine tuner and having faith in trusting they will do the right thing by you and your car.

Finding the right tuner for you and your ECU of choice is like treading a mine field while being blind folded and people bombarding you with directions. There are some great tuners and workshops out there and some not so good ones.

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That First Big Step..

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What is that first big step im talking about? Is it just getting a 4A-GE engine in your car? Is it your first track day? No this is that one big step that not everybody embarks on and only very few can really say they got it right.

It’s the engine rebuild.

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Not Just JDM!?

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You mean there are other parts out there? not just from Japan? And dare I say it just as high, if not higher, quality and… cheaper!?  Thats right boys and girls, the hachiroku motherland is not the only place to get top quality parts for your AE86!

This came about when I was searching for parts (specifically pistons) for my car and I didnt want to wait two months to have stuff shipped from Japan by boat or pay hundreds of dollars for EMS shipping. So I started looking at other parts of the world like the US, Europe and of course our home Australia. You’d be surprised what is available right in our own back yard and for a damn sight cheaper than having to import from Japan.

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The Endless Argument: EFI or CARBURETION

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Old school nuance against new-school high-tech wizardry. Complex head butting against simplicity. That is the battle that is EFI vs CARBS. 4A-GE engines have had both strapped to them in almost equal measure for as long as 4A-GE engines have been in existence.

Whether its multiple throttles or multiple carbs, Toyota’s venerable 4A engines have benefitted in hugely with either set up. A carb-equipped 4A-GE is as simple as bolting on a weber or mikuni manifold and getting the mixtures right, in comparison a running multi throttles correctly requires the softly softly approach and plenty of tweaking. Which is better?

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HR Dictionary: Engine & Electrical

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Have you ever looked at a forum, tech guide or catalogue of all those shiny bits you want for your car but the terms and abbreviations got you confused? Well with the HR dictionary you’ll never have those problems again!!  In this edition we cover the finer details of the engine and electrical segments of the car with all the techncial and slang terminology you could ever want!

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