Taka Aono: It’s Not A Handicap. Period.

Campaigned from the very first race by Taka and his wife Yoshie, he is the only driver on the grid to have driven the same chassis in every race meeting of Formula Drift since its inception in 2004.

Yeah, you read that right. After almost 10 years, the only AE86 that still arrives every event to go up against the new talent in their modern cars is Taka’s. But it’s not easy to keep coming back. He’s constantly told the time has come to step out of his beloved AE chassis into something more modern to compete to win.

The reasons he’s given? Too light. No power. Wheelbase is too short. Too old.

What does Taka think? Like a true hachiroku ‘lifer’ he is pragmatic: “You know, I should say… the car is there, but I need to drive better…. I gotta catch up with the power. I need to be the big man, or I gotta get bigger balls or whatever… but the Corolla, it’s not a handicap. Period.”