Author Archives: Andrew

Saxspeed – The Garage Feature Part 1.

March 18, 2009 in Feature Cars, HR Originals by

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A while ago we promised a closer look at some of the cars Finnish Rally Champion Ari Saxberg had built in his frequently snowed-in rally workshop located in the scenic area of Jyvaskyla in southern Finland. The town itself is a mere 3 hours north of Helsinki and that’s where this story takes us. Let’s take a look at the specs on some stunningly prepped rally hachi’s aswell as some great action photos.

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HATCH vs COUPE! The complete AE86 spectrum.

November 25, 2008 in HR Originals by

A question that has plagued AE86 enthusiasts since the dawn of time. “Should I get the hatch or should I get the coupe?” Do they have different merits? Do they handle and drive differently or is it all just aesthetics and whilst on the topic of aesthetics… which one actually looks better?Well It’s high time I sat down and attacked this rather difficult question.I’ll do my best to answer it!

In case your questioning my merits to; the cars in the photo above are both mine. Though it almost seems rather trivial to argue with myself over what in actuality is just a choice of what type of boot you like I’ll take it a few steps further. Both these cars are/were at the complete opposite spectrum. What do I mean? Read on!

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RB Drifting World Championship; Politics Over Substance?

November 18, 2008 in Events by

I must admit my interest in the drift scene was re-ignited a few months back with the announcement of the Red Bull World Drifting Championship. A competition that would ‘bring together the worlds best drivers’ and bid them to do battle on a custom-made circuit so that no one would be at an advantage.

I keenly checked the website for news of which new drivers had accepted the invitation, and I was counting down the days when I learnt that two Aussies; 2008 Drift Australia champion Leighton Fine (An AE86 kid at heart) and Luke Fink (2008 runner-up) would be attending. NZ, Norway, Ireland the UK and a string of other countries were also represented. I take my hat off to the organisers in the this sense. They really went all out and tried to make the tournament live up to its title. But hold on…. it all looks to have gone a bit fishy according to some?

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HR AE86 Annual 2008 – The Wrap Up!

November 12, 2008 in Events by

It was 8pm the night before I was set to drive 1100km+, crossing a state and traversing through 100’s of far-off towns on the way to Brisbane, Queensland from Sydney, NSW. I’d gone over everything on my trusty (though unproven over long distance) kouki Trueno coupe the day before; All the fluids were checked and pretty much everything was packed including tools and random spare bits and pieces.

Fellow HR Blog writer Harley was riding shotgun for the trip when I suddenly realised we’d be listening to the incessant ding-ding of the ‘Takumi chime’ (JDM AE86’s have a speed triggered warning chime) So for the 5th year running for our HR Annual, I’d be fiddling with something on the car (though very minor) right before we left. But this made me realise one thing was clear. HR Annual, the weekend that comes around only once a year.. was only just about to begin!

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Taniguchi Touge!

October 29, 2008 in Videos by

Nobuteru Taniguchi (or N.O.B aka No One Better) is probably best known outside of Japan for competing in his red HKS S15 Silvia in the D1GP and winning the championship in 2001. He later finished 2nd in 2002, 4th in 2003 and 2nd again in 2004 by that time switching to an SXE10 Altezza. However he’s also piloted some amazing machinery in some hotly contested compeitions from Super Taikyu to 24 Hour Nürburgring and even JGTC (for team R.E Amemiya no less!)

He apparently began his career racing minibikes (interesting…) amongst a list of achievements though what sticks in my memory the most is; basically he ‘set the bar’ for drift competitors at the inception of the D1GP compeition in Japan. That red HKS S15 was rather menacing. So a few years ago when I came across this video I was shocked to learn that someone who seemed to have always been a Silva driver actually learnt to drift in an AE86.

And heres the oldschool video to prove it (it’s been around for awhile) but it’s worth watching again… just to hear his commentary on what shoes not to wear while drifting (lol). Enjoy.

What are your favourite drift shoes? Hit the comments.

Irish Meet Prequel!

October 24, 2008 in Community, Events by

A few months back we posted up some awesome photos of a huge AE86 meet in the land of the shifty leprechaun. It turns out that was the second such meet (or 3rd?) of 2008. Our Irish HR brothers like their meets, and thanks to HR forum member ‘JamesAE86’ we have now got a huge list of photos of the other meet(s) that went down. There are some nice cars on show for sure. My question is where is the love for the stocky clover AE86 rims? Where’s the patriotism! (only joking guys!)

Below is a fine selection of photos, naturally there is the obligatory ‘wet carpark’ photos (lol, no that’s not a euphemism) I think after seeing a bunch of photos of how the Irish lads do their thing it can safely be said that whenever you see a rainbow it doesn’t lead to a pot of shiny precious metal it actually leads to a carpark of several pieces of precious metal doing circle work! If you have any more photos feel free to hit the forums to share the wealth and also check out more of these pics.

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Czech Please! Team Charouz AE86

October 17, 2008 in AE86 History, Feature Cars by

About 35km West of Prague in the Kladno province of the Czech Republic lies the town of Lany. With a population of approximately 1610 people you would think there would be nothing of interest to find in this small country township, that’s exactly what I thought when I drove past there a decade or so ago. How wrong I was, because besides the rolling acres of grass and gorgeous picture-postcard scenery there is something worth stopping over for in Lany. And I’m not talking about the local castle that plays summer-vacation-host to the countries President. It’s a building that houses something even more important.

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AE86 vs JZA80 Supra Touge CRASH!

October 13, 2008 in AE86 History, Videos by

Is this a sequel you ask? Well almost, it appears to be the same mountain road featured in an earlier blog we posted a mere few days ago. Another oldie, is it the same AE86? Perhaps.

The JZA80 Supra stretches its legs early on but the Hachi pilot reels him in (a pretty good effort on the uphill section) before there’s an ubrupt (though by the lines of the Supra driver, almost expected) sad end to this pursuit! Thankfully the speed of this video hasn’t been edited, nice sound quality too!

Jussi Tiippana: AE86 Boy-Wonder

October 9, 2008 in Feature Cars, HR Originals by

He could rally and slide a car through the dangerous twisted forest/hill roads before he was legally allowed to own a license. His father carefully overlooked his sons progress with planned input and nurturing leading to a steady incline of progression. Whilst still in high school he then made his debut in his trusty AE86 and won his first real competition against drivers of all ages and experience. Then came the switch to a WRX and.., Ok so before I go any further and tell you that Jussi Tiippana also delivered tofu up a mountain every morning at 4AM…. wait no, I’ll stop this childish Initial-D analogy right here.

Jussi Tiippana is an upcoming rally driver and one to definitely look out for in the future! This year at merely the age of 19 (b. 10-10-1989) he competed in both the ‘Neste Oil Rally FInalnd’ and the ‘Sweden WRC Rally’ (Yes both rounds of the WRC) with a nicely prepped WRX. But as already mentioned he paved the way and had tremendous success in his previous competition car; an AE86 Coupe. So we here at HR Blog thought we’d contact Jussi and talk all things AE86.

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AE86 vs Honda Touge! Fake?

October 6, 2008 in Videos by

Here’s some rather old footage worth digging up. It comes from a Drift Tengoku VHS and the main reason I’ve posted it? Well do you think the footage has been sped up artificially? It does look rather quick at times, perhaps too quick!

The engine notes however sound on-song and don’t sound like it’s been doctored. The AE86 in front sets a pretty good pace for the driver of the EG6 (or EK9) Civic in hot pursuit. I’ll leave the verdict up to you guys; leave a comment with your thoughts!

UPDATE: The video’s uploader changed the embed restrictions on us, so here’s a link to the video instead. Apologies to those who couldn’t play the embedded vid. :)