Monthly Archives: August 2009

CBY @ Nikko Circuit

August 17, 2009 in Events by

cby-nikko

Slowly, like some kinda ’86 crack dealer, Alexi from Noriyaro is tantilising us with footage from the 8/6 Day @ Nikko Circuit. First up are these shots of the ‘record breaking’ CBY Trueno. It’s cars like this that really back up my reasons of loving white Trueno 3-doors with HUGE negative offset Watanabe wheels. It just looks so damn purposed and serious.

Check em out!

2009 AE86 Festival

August 14, 2009 in Events by

It’s happening again! 2009 marks the 10th anniversary of the event, and Okayama International Circuit will again host the N2-style Challenge Cup Race! There will no doubt be much more AE86 love happening over the weekend too! I love this video, it’s reminiscent of the crazy antics of our very own AE86 Annual, except on a much larger, Japanesey scale!

After you are smiling like an idiot from watching the video, check out last year’s coverage by HR Blogger Harley, and then fall off your chair!

The Endless Argument: EFI or CARBURETION

August 13, 2009 in HR Originals by

injection_vs_carburetion

Old school nuance against new-school high-tech wizardry. Complex head butting against simplicity. That is the battle that is EFI vs CARBS. 4A-GE engines have had both strapped to them in almost equal measure for as long as 4A-GE engines have been in existence.

Whether its multiple throttles or multiple carbs, Toyota’s venerable 4A engines have benefitted in hugely with either set up. A carb-equipped 4A-GE is as simple as bolting on a weber or mikuni manifold and getting the mixtures right, in comparison a running multi throttles correctly requires the softly softly approach and plenty of tweaking. Which is better?

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7TUNE Wallpapers

August 12, 2009 in Random by

more_drive_ae86_1024x768

Those guys over at 7TUNE have a few AE86 wallpapers available in a bunch of various monitor resolutions, amongst other JDM inspired shots not related to AE86 too. Check em out!

ONESHOT: Asayan’s AE86

August 11, 2009 in Feature Cars by

noriyaro_asayan_ae86_msc_maze_001

It’s a Coffee-inspired, Hayashi Street Finned, curb hopping maniac! Alexi @ Noriyaro has a couple of stories up about this creamy coupe.

This rather neat AE86 belongs to a guy who goes by the nickname “Asayan”. Asayan works at a body shop in Osaka called “Looking”, who are well known for their extremely stylish paintjobs. Not only that, Looking are obsessed with drifting as well, and run several “HitomiGo” events a year at Meihan Circuit, named after Hitomi, the other half of Looking.

So check out the statics (when it’s not hanging five @ Maze Circuit) and motion shots (when it is) over at Noriyaro!

More 086A Developments…

August 10, 2009 in Random by

086a_developments

It seems the 086A development team has been under pressure recently from Toyota and Subaru to shift the market focus of the car to suit current trends. Again it’s Justin from 7TUNE has more info:

With new reports though it now seems that the specification of the 086A will change slightly once again to meet other criteria, that being the dreaded “eco car” movement and a switch to a much older target market than what was first considered.

This involves apparently power output drop (but apparently more weight reduction too)

We should now expect the 086A’s FJ20 2000cc boxer four to produce 160PS, a good 40PS less than was previously quoted which is all due to stricter economy and emissions targets. Toyota/Subaru haven’t let this dilute the performance as we’re told the car has also lost some weight in order to keep a respectable power to weight ratio.

Not only this but a shift towards providing a car more mass-market friendly with the emphasis on ‘eco-friendlyness’.

The car that will be exibited will include styling cues that could very well be changed before the car goes to production giving show goers the opportunity to express their like or dislike of the design. It goes to show how serious Toyota is about the success of the 086A and the lengths taken to ensure that their development team are well aware of what the market is thinking.

Whatever all this means, one thing is for certian: Toyota/Subaru havn’t yet axed the project so with this shift to an older market, one who contains the older car enthusiasts who bought, or grew up with the original AE86, maybe all this talk is for the better for us AE86 fans? A lesser-powered, more-lightweight FR sportscar with a emphasis on tasteful design: It all sounds good to me so far. I guess all we can do is wait until the still unchanged release date of December 2011.

Happy Hachiroku Day!

August 7, 2009 in Community by

girly

Well considering my hachiroku is still in her rebuild getting body panels massaged and the enginebay pampered, I personally couldn’t celebrate Hachiroku Day by driving. Nonetheless, the AE86 community worldwide has come alive in celebration of our much-loved little twincam warrior.  Sites all across the web have posted up 8/6 Day content so we give you the rundown.

Speedhunters started with a Community Massive Image post which was so huge it spanned three posts! Part 1 Part 2 & Part 3. As well as features from all over the globe on the Driftmoto 86, Tec-Art’s N2 racer, the sweetest panda in Holland and the WKD Imports SR-86!

Antonio over @ MotorMavens kept to his eternal mantra and lived the 86 life to its fullest on Hachiroku Day with some history on its creation as well as two awesome classic Ueo videos and a sweet feature on the Artchis AE86 team cars.  Plus stay tuned for Alexi @ Noriyaros review of the Nikko Trackday celebrations we mentioned today!

A friend commented today on facebook about his old love, an AE86 he used to own. A fitting way to celebrate Hachiroku Day, for past and present drivers!

Dear Hachiroku, With you I found simplicity out of clutter, from discord i found harmony, In the middle of difficulty there always lay opportunity. In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence was your simplicity. With you gone I have come to learn that the simplest things are often the truest.

Hell yeah. Live the 86 Life! Roll on next year!

LIVE: 8/6 Day @ Nikko Circuit

August 6, 2009 in Events by

OFFLINE

What you’re seeing (or would have been, now the day is done and dusted) is the 8/6 Day celebrations from Nikko Circuit’s live webcam feed! It should be very different for every one who sees it as its a live updated image which will change throughout the day! So if you simply can’t wait until the photos from the event make their way onto the net tonight or tomorrow, just keep on refreshing HR all day to get your fix as it happens LIVE in Japan!

If you see an unusually tall Japanese person in the photo wearing a bright yellow shirt, don’t be alarmed! That’s not a Japanese superhuman bio-engineered mutant soldier, but friend of HR and all round good guy Alexi from Noriyaro.com who is @ the circuit capturing the event for us all!

So Fresh, So Clean

August 6, 2009 in Feature Cars by

tecarts

Tec-Art’s have another super-clean AE86 up in their ever expanding photo gallery and I think it’s fitting for the lead up to Hachiroku Day. In Japan, it’s written 8/6, which technically isn’t today for us Aussies (since its the 6th of the 8th here….) but the Japanese & Americans love it all the same! Anyway, who needs an excuse to drool over sweet ’86’s anyhow?

Check out the gallery here!

Hard F**kin’ Core

August 5, 2009 in Events by

pakula86

Again we have Mr Alvendia doing what he does best: shooting AE86s! This time a killer action shot of some dirt turbo at the Ziptied All Star Bash. Antonio writes:

I just found out that Orange County based AE86er Luke Pakula is originally from Chicago – in fact, while we were all catching up and getting our grub on at KBBQ in Koreatown, Luke explained that he went to high school with some of the Risky Devil guys. No wonder they were so friendly and happy to see each other at the track, haha! Luke was working on aggressively conquering the top of the fishbowl on the back section of Streets, but at one point, he slipped off the pavement, with his rear wheels kicking up tons of dirt! Looked dope though!

I can’t argue there. A sick hachiroku and a super agressive angle shot too. Lets hope Antonio reads this and gives us the wallpaper version!

Check out the rest of the series over @ MotorMavens