Author Archives: Garth Ivers

Okayama AE86 Festival 2009

September 8, 2009 in Events by

okayama09

Just when I thought the ’09 event had dropped off the face of the earth, Justin @ 7TUNE saves the day with their late (but still very much appeciated) coverage of the AE86 Festival in Okayama International Circuit. I’ve spent the last week scouring mixi, minkara and a selection of Japanese ’86 blogs from Hiroshima and not a single decent (ie non camer-phone pic) from the event has been uploaded. Lucky for us, we have 7TUNE in Japan doing the ’86 community worldwide a favor by getting these up. Maybe 2010 will be the year I finally get to this hallowed gathering?

I must say the event, which in 2009 celebrates it’s 10th anniversary, is getting even more polished and professional the older it gets. Just the sheer quality of the cars presented to race is simply phenomenal, not to mention the minters in the carpark!

I must say, that BANKING Levin in bronze had to be my favorite of the day. Simple and unique! Check out the huge gallery over at the 7TUNE site. … and once youre done there, i suggest reminicing with our 2008 coverage of the event here!

Jono Bennett’s F20C Weapon

September 4, 2009 in Videos by

The stance on this Levin is just pure sex, and the decals are some of the freshest and most unique I’ve seen on a racecar in a long time! No less that it’s powered by two liters of VTECs!

Something Different: OSTC ’09

September 2, 2009 in Events by

11rzrxs

With over 300 retro rides parked for a day in the sun, the Old School Toyota Car Club Classic Import Car Show last weekend was a huge hit!  With people coming from all over the Eastern States of the USA, it was surely a day of steel and chrome appreciations with not only Toyotas represented, but also a selection of Datsuns, Mazdas and even a few domestics too!

Go have a look at the variety of rides (including more than a few AE86s!) over @ AEU86 Forums!

AEVO86?

September 1, 2009 in Feature Cars by

polish_4g63_ae86

Those crazy Poles are at it again! This time turning their attention to the hachiroku and deciding to ditch the 4A-GE in favor of a 4G63 Evolution engine! Not only that, but the entire rear cradle and independent rear suspension setup from an S13 Silvia has also been tucked under the little AE86!  Nuts!

See the entirety of the build up pics and finished images too over at racingforum.pl

Run Free Nostalgia

August 31, 2009 in Feature Cars by

runfree_levin

Irish lad James has some cool photos of Yamashita-san’s Levin Coupe from waaay back in 2005 when he was lucky enough to visit the Run Free workshop.

Check em all out over @ AEU86 Forums!

Tec-Art’s Wallpaper

August 28, 2009 in Random by

tecartswallpaper

Over @ Noriyaro. Get it now!

Enemies Then Friends

August 27, 2009 in Community by

hachirokuguys

It’s that moment of apprehension when you see someone agape at your freshly washed and shiny ride, staring in envy. You think to youself, ‘What’s this joker up to?’ and run over one million ‘worst case senarios’ in your head. Before you have a chance to get paranoid, you realise they’re just another AE86 owner (or admirer) who will shortly introduce themselves to you and, no doubt, start you into a lengthy chat about how and why our little hachiroku is so damn alluring.  Being a pretty damn harcore ‘hachiroku guy’ himself, Antonio over at MotorMavens has no doubt been in this situation before, and recently found himself in Seattle on the flipside of this exact kind of encounter:

So here I was; standing inside Goods; checking out some sneakers, when low and behold, a bright red AE86 hatchback pulls up and parks right in front of the store. I couldn’t have even timed it more perfectly, it was funny. I obviously stepped outside the store for a closer look at this red kouki hatchback, and immediately two 86ers got out of the car with strange looks on their faces (you know, one of those “why the hell is this weirdo staring at the car” faces).

However, as soon as I introduced myself as a fellow AE86 owner from Los Angeles, it was all good. No problems. For some reason, no matter where you are in the world… when a hachiroku guy meets another hachiroku guy visiting from out of town, they seem to form some sort of instant connection. (Not in a gay way)

This is probably the biggest reason I started HR in the first place. The hachiroku community worldwide just seems to be full of friendly and genuinely cool people. I’m not an expert on the matter, but I’d say it plays a big part of why some people are ‘hachiroku guys’ and never anything else. I know for sure, I’ll be a hachiroku guy for the rest of my days and damn proud of it too!

But I digress, you should check out the rest of the encounter over at MotorMavens now!

Panda Party

August 24, 2009 in Community by

pandaparade

All white and all rocking smooth and clean mods, these fairly standard-bodied rides are a refreshing change from the ever-increasing madness we see coming out of Japan and the USA sporting all kinds of wide bodied, flared, blistered, pumped and who-knows-what-else body work. Chester Ng has these great shots of a crew of AE86 lovers from Hong Kong up on his website.  Sometimes less is more and for this selection of hachiroku it couldn’t be more true. I love the ‘Takumi’ and ‘Keiichi’ copycats, they’re almost perfect!

86 Day @ Nikko

August 20, 2009 in Events by

86day2009

Finally we have the photo coverage from the 86 Day event at Nikko Circuit last week. Alexi @ Noriyaro has put up a mixed bag of the cars that attended the celebrations.  I particularly like the black KDS coupe and this lovely white hatch pictured above… so clean.

Check out yesterday’s Part 1 here while you wait for todays part 2, which should be up in no time!

Don’t Judge

August 19, 2009 in Feature Cars by

NTO

It’s not what you expect…..

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