Monthly Archives: August 2008

Wanye Bell: 86 Rally Hero

August 15, 2008 in Videos by

With the demographic of most 86 owners between 18-25 years old, most of  you wouldn’t have a clue who Wayne Bell is. Wayne Bell is a Aussie rally hero who use to punt around an AE86 in the mid 80’s in the Australian Rally Championship. He was able to steer his humble ’86 to ‘top three’ finishes on the dirt roads around Australia against a lot of more powerful machinery. Here is a highlight package of Wayne doing his thing:

Source: Youtube, Motorsportmemories

New AE86 F20C Parts Out!

August 14, 2008 in Parts & Accessories by

JSP Fabrication have caught the F20C AE86 bug and have apparently made up the first and only bolt in engine conversion mount set for installing the Honda S2000 engine into the ’86. The kit sits the engine and gearbox into the car with no need to cut the firewall or modify the hood to clear – a massive benefit for those without a welder!

The result is an F20C which sits very low in the engine bay lowering the overall centre of gravity of the car and keeping the very agile feel of the original AE86 configuration.  An added bonus is the factory 4A-GE and S2000 rubber engine mounts keeping the engine vibration to a bare minimum. They also offer a 4A-GE turbo manifold and various other model bits and pieces too.

Check ’em out here.

Get Sideways!

August 13, 2008 in Events by

Here are some of the photos that I took of some of HR forum members out drifting at an Initial Drift Practice day. There was three sprinters, redsprinter in his 4A-GTE powered Levin hatch, Steriodchickens in his CA18 powered Levin hatch and James Small in his NA 4A-GE 20 valve powered Levin hatch.

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Do You Dare To Think About It???

August 12, 2008 in Random by

On Sunday I was out taking photos at Oran Park, for an Initial Drift practice day. Brad aka Steroidchickens, was out there kicking ass in his CA18 powered Levin Hatch like he normally does. All was going well until the end of the day, where Brads car was part of an incident where an S15 Silvia ran into him. Although the damage was not that bad, and surprisingly Brad was not too worried about it, the moment of the point of impact actually made my heart cringe.

This brings me to the point of this blog entry. Have you ever thought about how you would react if your beloved Hachi was involved in an incident and heaven forbid written off? I felt sick inside just seeing another ’86 getting hurt let alone my own pride and joy.

Personally, I probably would have went crazy. When a random guy reversed into my sprinter while it was parked on the side of the road, I went absolutely nut case at the guy..

So that brings me to the all important question: How do you think you would react if your hachi got damaged? Please use the comment function and let us know!

Takumi Project Reunion

August 11, 2008 in Community by

Some of the guys across the pond took it upon themselves to re-open the history book and re-live the fun they all use to have at the Takumi Project shop before it closed down. Check out some of the rigs that turned up at the reunion over at Club4A-G Forums, all looking amazing I might say!

NAPREC Nagoya Precision

August 8, 2008 in Parts & Accessories by

Some days you stumble onto the most useful things and today was no different.  In the midst of scouring the web for various parts for Project HR, I came across a company called NAPREC. Short for Nagoya Precision, this small but busy workshop in Hachiouji has turned out various engine parts for the veritable 4A-GE since its establishment in 1997.

Whilst lacking the bling of other major brands like TODA or HKS, the NAPREC gear is no fuss, offering cheaper products whilst retaining top quality production. Especially interesting is their custom cast aluminium sump pan, it’s design and finish is just so alluring, even though it’s only a sump pan!

Check the rest out, it’s certainly worth it!

Yahoo Auction’s Japan

August 7, 2008 in Random by

Every now and then I like to look at Yahoo Auctions Japan, just to see what cars are available currently in Japan. It’s interesting to see the different approach to styling the Japanese 86 owners take. Some times you get some amazing examples, other times you just see rubbish. I also enjoy looking at other Toyotas from the era such as TE71s and KP61s (truth be told, I would swap my Hachi for one in a heartbeat…) as I wish deep down Toyota had brought these cars to Australia way back in the day.

Anyway, I use to never look on yahoo auctions as I could never navigate my way around the site, due to poor layout and the language barrier. However, I found a website that makes my viewing of Yahoo Auctions so much easier and it also attempts to translate the Japanese into English too!!! Score!!

https://www.rinkya.com/

The whole point of this entry is to create a regular blog that will show you guys some of the hottest AE86s we dig up on Yahoo Auctions.

See a sweet example after the jump.

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Tec-Arts D1 AE86

August 6, 2008 in Feature Cars by

When it comes to building awesome AE86’s for both the street and the track, there a few shops more skilled than Tec-Arts which is located just outside of Tokyo in Saitama Prefecture.

Besides building numerous top level street cars, Tec-Arts AE86 racing experience also includes their famous N2 race car which has achieved great success at the N2 races held at Tsukuba Circuit. Tec-Arts also has an active D1GP project which has been in competition for a few years now. T

he driver of the Tec-Arts D1 Trueno is Kensaku Komoro and is currently competing in the D1GP. It helps set the standard for competition AE86 drift cars around the world and shows that the 25-year old chassis has plenty of life of left in it.

Check out the entire writeup @ SPEEDHUNTERS.

One Shot: Shake of Worker

August 5, 2008 in Random by

MSC is a grassroots drift series in Japan which features some of the hottest privateer driftcars around. This tasty morsel is from a drift team called ‘Shake of Worker’… Is this not the coolest team name you have ever heard? Classic!

Keiichi Scares TV Presenter!

August 4, 2008 in Videos by

With some of the worst subbing I’ve ever seen on a video, this clip is an excerpt from the Initial D Live Action Movie’s ‘Bonus Disc’ showing a very lucky yet shit-scared TV presenter getting a ride with Dorikin.  You don’t really need the translation to understand what happens. Reminds me of a scene with Takumi and Itsuki in the actual movie…

Check it out here.