Author Archives: Garth Ivers

Wanna Go To SEMA?

Yeah, you read it right. Toyota and Auto Salon are calling on all budding car designers to come up with a modified rendition of the awesome new look Toyota Corolla. It doesn’t matter if you want to use photoshop or even pens and pencils; this is your chance to come up with your own killer concept! And entry is free!

The winning designer will receive a true money-cant-buy prize, including a trip for two to the massive SEMA 2010 event held in Las Vegas, USA! The trip includes return economy airfares, accommodation and $1,000 spending money! Not only that, but they will build your creation and show it off across Australia in 2010.

So all you photoshop kings out there, get your asses over there now, boot up that Adobe CS4 and get in the draw to win big!


New Sh*t!: Rays TE37V

Mike and the boys over at 86ers have the drop on the new range of RAYS wheels that have just been announced before Tokyo Auto Salon next weekend.  The TE37V are to be sold with us old car lovers in mind. You see, the V stands for vintage and the wheels are of course 114.3 in 4 stud drill pattern and will be offered in 7.5 up to 10-inches wide in two colors only.  That’s not all, the total weight of the 10-inch variety are only a measly 5.3kg EACH!

More info? Get clicking to RAYS Japan.


AMMA Time!

Here at HR, we are all about gathering info and sharing the love of the global AE86 community.  So when we heard of the newest hachiroku community movement in Japan we were really excited!

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Hugo’s Hotness

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!


From Warsaw With Love

Lovely bit of video editing here. Hit the Vimeo page for HD quality! Thanks to the mad Polishman Mark Pakula for the heads up!


8-Second AE86 Duo

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)


LAWSON (Plus) Levin

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!


More AE86 Festivals!? Hell Yeah!

There’s nothing we like more than AE86 festivals,and as it turns out there is a MASSIVE race/showoff happening on December 26th at Tsukuba Circuit! Featuring official races of N2, N2S, N1, N1.5 and even Group A, there will be nothing short of awesome on the track all day!  They are giving away massive prizes to the racers too, not the kinda prizes you noramlly see either – A 5-speed TRD Cross-mission gearbox sound good? Hell yeah! And 2 sets of RS Watanabe wheels and a bunch of Koyo racing radiators too. Not a bad haul eh? Off the track theres a used parts flea market, a show and shine event and a Q&A session with the top drivers of the weekend!

With more being announced daily, check out all the latest details over at the MercuryEP site!


New Sh*t! Stance AE86 Coilovers

stance-ae86-coilovers

Just when you thought the GReddy was the only company making kits for the humble AE86, Stance USA comes along and presents us with this very smooth bit of kit.

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The Good Life!

impulse

Some people have the life eh? Chris Gray is an Irish lad living in Japan and living the life (sometimes the 86 life too!).  Chris recently got to hitup both the Japanese AE86 tuning powerhouses Carland86 AND Impulse both in the one week!  Talk about Luck of the Irish eh?

Check out Chris’ awesome (and regularly updated) blog ‘MoshiMoshi?’ here!