Tag Archives: Australia

#festivalof86 Supported by Hachiroku.com.au!

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On August 10 you can meet the man responsible for creating the car we all love – Toyota 86 chief engineer Tetsuya Tada.

Tada-san wants to pass on his personal thanks to everyone who has helped make the car such a massive success.

Toyota is supporting this special 86/AE86 owners event by hosting it at their Sydney HQ, and they’re putting on a sausage sizzle along with A FEW SURPRISES!

Tada-san will be joined on the day by two big Toyota names – four-time national rally champion Neal Bates and national drift champion Beau Yates.

If you are attending ‪#‎festivalof86‬ with your AE86/86/BRZ, you need to register your car spot at this website: https://festivalof86.eventbrite.com.au and join the event now on the Hachiroku.com.au Facebook Page.

Only 250 spots available and being taken fast!

86’s and AE86’s are the only cars permitted on the premises. Everyone else will have parking outside the grounds.

 


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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Apple Isle Harvest

Nestled away down south on the island state of Tasmania here in Australia, there is a thriving community of RWD Toyota enthusiasts, one member of which is currently building this fine example. Keep your eyes out very soon for the unveiling of what will be one of Australia’s premier AE86 builds!


Exclusive: Australian 2012 86 Details Revealed!

Whilst in Japan in February, we made a trip to the Toyota factory in Nagoya (yep, that’s my ugly mug in the picture above) and were lucky enough to get a good hands-on look at a Japanese-market Toyota 86 on display.  Displayed in the ever popular orange metallic, it really seems a lot smaller in person: a real lithe looking lightweight sports machine.

It’s just as externally gorgeous with the interior even nicer than it looks in pictures. It really needs to be experienced in person to really get the true feeling.  The seating position is just like sitting in an AE86 – everything at the exact place you would expect it to be and super comfortable and low at that. Tall people need not worry, its got plenty of headroom, just watch yourselves in the rear seat – at 175cm, I was bumping the rear glass just sitting stationary!  Needless to say, after just sitting in the car, we we’re even more excited for the Aussie version of Toyota’s 2012 sportscar renaissance to be unveiled.

As it happens tonight, we managed to get an exclusive peek at the internal Toyota Australia sales brief document for their local release of the 2012 86 and it’s got some juicy info inside! Lets take a look:

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Beauman Jones’ SR20DET powered Trueno


Photo by Matthew Mead.

JDMST have just uploaded a new Featured Ride. This time it’s our own Beauman Jones’ head bangin’ SR20DET powered AE86.

Click here to view the feature


HachiRockin’ The Super GP

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Diehard drift addict & HR Member Sam Holz was once again ripping up the taxpayers tarmac at this years Super GP! The four days of Super GP were said to be almost dreamlike: drifting the main streets of the Gold Coast with the cops waving at you to speed up – not slow down!

After taking some time out to recover from the post-race ‘celebrations’, we caught up with Sam for a little insight into his weekend:

The car was fitted with a matt black BN body kit from Ant @ Kaizen Garage. It had to be fitted to participate in the on track demos at the Super GP and also for thee Friday night competition (where the pics are from). Basic stickers were added to ‘spice’ the car up a bit too. New diff gears were also added two weeks before the event due to damaging the old ones. With only limited choice of a solitary diff centre, I had to go with a somewhat odd 4.8 ratio which was a big step from the 3.9 I’ve been running for what seems forever. All in all, the car held up well and with high temps on track, a water cooling setup was added at the last minute. In typical 86 fashion, we just moved the windscreen sprayer lines to the front to cool the oil cooler and radiator. It was budget but it worked – and well!  The throttle was sticking on full throttle all night at the comp and making things interesting but that was fixed for the GP with some backyard spacing and adding a large return spring to the throttle.

We’re you there to see it? If not, the boys should be at it again next year, so keep and eye on the Super GP website.  Hit the jump for more pics!

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The Top Step

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Just like Sebastian Vettel at this weekends Japanese Grand Prix, Mark Rogers stood atop the winners podium having taken out the win at the fourth round of the Specialised Performance Garage Tasmanian Drift Series. Everyone here at HR congratulates you Mark, and are super proud to see that distinctive icon adorn the bonnet of your 3S-powered beast!


A Hidden Gem

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Thursday night, I was at home doing nothing special and a call came through from DK admin and HR blogger Mr Beauman Jones. “Hey what are you doing Saturday?” Nothin’.

“I’m going to check out this this guys sprinter with an SR20 in it. Its one of the first with an SR engine in it, wanna come?”. Cool I’m down for that!

So after a bit of stuffing around and going the right direction we end up at Bob’s house. Bob is a mature aged man, or as he puts it “An old bastard”, who has had his AE86 for the last nine years.

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Brisbane All-Japan Day

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Local Brisbane HR member and all round good guy Hao got down to the event last weekend to snap a few shots off (all before his camera running out of battery power…) and i must say it’s a pretty impressive turnout.  Catering to all kinds of Japanese cars, both young and old, the Brisbane All-Japan Day was a huge success! Good job on a fairly impressive turnout from the AE86 scene up in Brisbane. Represent!

Check out the photos here, or just the ’86 related ones after the jump!

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Interview: Adam & His ADM Levin

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Today we have the first of a few interviews on the people behind the HR blog.  Adam is one of the driving forces behind HR Blog’s editorial content and specifically the writer of the much loved AE86 Tuning Guide. We catch up and talk shop with a die-hard member of the ‘AE86 For Life’ crew.

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