Monthly Archives: April 2009

Toyota Love You Long Time

April 30, 2009 in Random by

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Today I saw this on 7TUNE and just had to post it… it’s just too damn funny!!

I’m still not quite sure what to make of this. While visiting a parts export company in Minoo, one of the staff handed me this small plastic bag containing what looked like a wiring loom bracket from Toyota Genuine Parts. He asked me to look at it closely while trying to hold back a big grin. After a few seconds wondering what he was talking about, there it was right above the part number…

It’s got to be a joke, right? Surely the person who printed out the label added the “offensive” (depends on who you ask!) word was doing out of pure amusement. Although considering the amount of parts being sent out every day, this must’ve been printed automatically? If so, could this be a genuine code used by Toyota Motor Company? I’ll give them a call on Monday and find out!

Ahh that Justin… what a crack up! Only in Japan!

Rockstar Drifter RC

April 29, 2009 in Random by

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It’s Eric O’Sullivan’s Rockstar Energy Drink sponsored AE86 in micromachine scale! Well not quite, but this RC drifter comes pretty damn close to the real thing.  Do any of our readers have drift RC AE86s? Drop us a pic of yours and your name and we will feature a gallery of the best submissions!

Check out the rest of the pics of this yellow bandit here.

Hibino Qualifies First in Autopolis D1GP

April 28, 2009 in Events by

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Over the weekend it was a special cocktail of AE86 community love that brought everyone’s favourite Ebisu-jumping-drift master into the number one qualifying spot.  Driving Toshiki Yoshioka’s old red NOS-assisted 4A-GE, now painted in a striking coat of matte black (and sporting some wicked bolt on flares), Hibino worked his way into the top spot in preparation for Sunday’s showdown.

Unfortunately the race day was not as kind to him, as the final standings saw him in fourth position, knocked out in the semi by the eventual round winner (and AE86 legend himself) Youichi Imamura driving the Team BOSS Potenza-backed S15 . Fourth isn’t the win but still a position worthy of some praise – especially considering the calibre of top-notch sponsored teams up against him! Well done Hibino! Can’t wait for the exhibition round in Tokyo!

NA Vs Forced Induction

April 27, 2009 in HR Originals by

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Yes its that age old battle which has become increasingly heated as the internet flame wars rage on. And its not just the us AE86’ers either…The NA vs Forced Induction debate has been raging on race tracks and at street meets for a number of years starting early with hot rods and street machines.

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The Man Behind DriftKulture

April 24, 2009 in HR Originals by

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Possibly the most outspoken and in your face person in the Aussie AE86 scene, Beauman Jones, son of legendary hot-rod builder and multiple-time Summernats Champion Mark ‘FAT57‘ Jones, gives HR Blog a few minutes to fill us in on his new project: DriftKulture.

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D1 Flashback!

April 23, 2009 in Random by

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Dino over at SPEEDHUNTERS has some drifting flashbacks to get us into the mood for Autopolis D1GP next weekend!

I thought it would be appropriate to take a look back in history. Well, only 6 years at least! This is one of the first D1 events I covered, back in November 2003. Armed with my new Canon 10D I headed to check out what these pro-drifters could do, little did I know that I’d be covering drifting for many years to come!

Check it out now!

New Initial-D Manga Translations

April 22, 2009 in Random by

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More updates by those very keen Initial D fans have been busy at work translating the latest happenings of the Project.D team. Check out Issues 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 if you haven’t already and newly released 37 and 38 over at ClubCarisma. Thanks to all the translators out there who do the fansubbing of our favorite manga and anime free of charge!

AE86 Tuning Guide: Crazy Conversions!

April 21, 2009 in HR Originals by

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So we’ve looked at your basic mods, some hard tuned NA, supercharged 4A’s and turbo 4A’s, but what do you do when you want (insert Jeremy Clarkson here…) MOAR POWAHH!?!?!

Well, as the old adage goes ‘There’s no replacement for displacement!’ so what if you want to fit a bigger engine in your AE86? What engines are available? Has it been done before?

Here we will look at what has been done before and what works when it comes to bigger and badder engines!

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How-To: Rear Over-Fenders

April 20, 2009 in Parts & Accessories by

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So you’ve finally got those 10.5-inch, negative-offset R.S. Watanabe Eight-Spokes you were drooling after for so many months but now you have to face that question: How do I make them fit?

There’s a few ways to sort it out but the most popular solutions are blister-fenders or ‘bolt-on’ flares. Depending of your choice of flare (N2 TRD, CBY, RunFree, J-Blood, Origin) there are small but very important steps to fitting them perfectly and making sure your car isn’t left open to structural rusting because of it!

Courtesy of Crystal Body Yokoyama, we have the definitive guide to fitting those rear over-fenders.

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Whoops! We Were Wrong

April 20, 2009 in Random by

Back in March we posted some info about a matte black car owned by Toshiki Yoshioka. We were misunderstood about which certain AE86 it was as it seems there is two red demon AE86’s owned by TOSHIKing. Even though Toshiki himself said to Alexi from Noriyaro, that the car was one and the same and that it was also ‘the one he took to America’ there was more to the story. Apparently the confusion is with the ‘blue’ Espelir car and the ‘red’ one as we have been contacted by The Tuners Group, the Australian dealer of Yoshioka’s ‘Red’ AE86 to which he requested we post this:

“The black AE86 which is pictured in the article is NOT the red AE86 driven by Toshiki Yoshioka which is currently for sale and being advertised on The Tuners Group’s website.

The author of the hachiroku.com.au article and the operators of the hachiroku.com.au website apologise to Toshiki Yoshioka, Works Bell and The Tuners Group for any confusion created by the incorrect information published in the article about the red AE86 advertised at The Tuners Group Website.

The red AE86 advertised on The Tuners Group website and the black AE86 pictured in the article are completly different cars.”

So there you have it! Sorry intrepid readers, we were apparently wrong! The black car in shot was once red (notice the door jambs and radiator support) and the images on The Tuners Group site show a Red car featuring blue door jambs! The devil, it seems, is in the details!