Author Archives: Banpei

AE86 in At Musing’s End

September 10, 2009 in Videos by

At Musings End
Zemosh from 86ers.org found this short film, At Musing’s End by Wesley Chan, in the Cannes 2008 short films selection. It is a short film about daydreaming and the highs and lows of the relationship between Adam and Robin. One of the most important scenes in this movie includes a US 2-door Corolla GT-S coupé owned by Adam.

This narration by Robin especially caught me:

His new car… It was the oldest new car she had ever seen. Why he wanted such a thing completely escaped her. A work in progress he claimed. She hated that car. Not because he spent more money on it than her, not because nothing inside worked, or because it always smelled like sweat and grease. She hated it because it was red. An ugly red, like an unflattering sweater he insisted on wearing all the time…

Why do I have the feeling all the above just hits the nail on its head? Personal experience? Seen it too often at other hachi owners as well? :D At Musing’s End from Wesley Chan on Vimeo.

Down On The Street In Japan

September 7, 2009 in Random by

onthestreet

Last Wednesday Japanese Nostalgic Car blog posted a link to a photogallery containing a lot of rusting and rotting J-Tin. Personally I like watching photos of those desolated cars and went reading the blog of the person making those photos. Then I found out that he doesn’t only shoot rusted cars, but he is taking snapshots of all interesting cars he finds, a bit like the Japanese equivalent of Down on the Street by Jalopnik.

Let’s see what hachi rokus you can find down on the street in Japan in the months February 2009 till May 2009. (may not be suitable for the faint hearted!) ;)

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FR Or MR?

September 3, 2009 in Random by

toyota mr86 panda

What if you like the looks of an old retro Toyota, like for example the Toyota Corolla Levin AE86, and you would like the car to have the engine in the back for better handling? You create the MR86 of course! :D

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Too Much Headroom?

August 26, 2009 in Feature Cars by

AE85 Trueno Coupe chopped roof

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:

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The First Rally AE86!

August 21, 2009 in AE86 History, Videos by

Probably the first AE86 used in motorsports!

The picture above is showing the first usage of the Toyota AE86 in Rally sports and possibly also the first use of the AE86 in motorsports at all!

The screenshot was taken from a collection of videos (13 in total!) of the first AE86 to be entered the All Japan Rally Championship B Class. This particular round was held on June 4th and 5th 1983.  Since Toyota first started the AE86 production in May 1983, these brand new hachis must still have smelled like a typical 1983-era Japanese Toyota showroom when they rolled up to compete in this rally!

Hit the jump for the videos and more history!

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Dutch Trueno Feature @ Speedhunters

July 30, 2009 in Events, Feature Cars by

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August 6th will be celebrated as the official Hachi-roku day! Speedhunters will do this, just like last year, with a couple of hachi-roku features. This year one of the features will be a stunning Dutch Trueno owned by AEU86 user Mike N and photographed by Speedhunter Jeroen Willemsen on an industrial background.

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Goto-San In Action

July 29, 2009 in Videos by

Okay, we all saw pictures of Goto-san’s insane boro AE86 by Alexi Smith at Nori Yaro and we all saw videos of him drifting near the sidewall on several drift events and circuits but what you probably didn’t see yet (unless you read this article at 7tune.com) is what it looks like to sit next to him!

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Why You Should Keep Your 4A-C

July 24, 2009 in Videos by

What is the first thing asked by a ADM Sprinter or USDM SR5 owner on the forums? 9 out of 10 will ask what it takes to do a 4A-C to 4A-GE swap… Why? Is it really necessary? We show you the unpopular (yet super cool) alternative!

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