Tag Archives: Corolla GT-S

Taka Aono: It’s Not A Handicap. Period.

Campaigned from the very first race by Taka and his wife Yoshie, he is the only driver on the grid to have driven the same chassis in every race meeting of Formula Drift since its inception in 2004.

Yeah, you read that right. After almost 10 years, the only AE86 that still arrives every event to go up against the new talent in their modern cars is Taka’s. But it’s not easy to keep coming back. He’s constantly told the time has come to step out of his beloved AE chassis into something more modern to compete to win.

The reasons he’s given? Too light. No power. Wheelbase is too short. Too old.

What does Taka think? Like a true hachiroku ‘lifer’ he is pragmatic: “You know, I should say… the car is there, but I need to drive better…. I gotta catch up with the power. I need to be the big man, or I gotta get bigger balls or whatever… but the Corolla, it’s not a handicap. Period.”


USDM Done Oh-So-Right!

With what I believe is the perfectly blend of factory and aftermarket parts, Elvin Suico’s Corolla GT-S has that ‘OEM Look’ down to a tee.  Going for the JDM-conversion look on his USDM AE86, Elvin has, in my opinion, the perfect USDM ride.

Check out the entire article over at NW Built


Amp’d AE86

amped gts 1
Canadian mobile phone provider Amp’d was featuring an AE86 in one of their commercials before they filed for bankruptcy in June 2007. Recently this video was found by AEU86 member Ivan141 and immediately a discussion was started about all the parts the car was featuring…

It was clearly a zenki 2-door Canadian (USDM spec) C0rolla GT-S with some (badly fitted) widened FRP fenders. During shifting you can see the spin turn handbrake button fitted. The wheels are hidden away behind a cheap set of wallmart hubcaps, but as you can see in the screenshot they are at least 15 inch and 7J wide. At the rear of the car the original US-spec bumper was still fitted and where did we see that front bumper before? USDM Corolla FX AE92?

Check out the commercial after the jump.

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