Author Archives: Matt

86 Style: Natsumatsuri

August 18, 2008 in Events by

The Ebisu Circuit Summer Drift Festival (aka Natsumatsuri) was held last week and the humble 86 was out in force. The event is non stop track action for 36hrs and is held on the many different track layouts found at Ebisu Circuit. Our friends over at Speedhunters have full coverage of the event here and we have posted up some pictures after the jump, enjoy.

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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

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!

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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Wear Your 86 Close To Your Heart

July 30, 2008 in Parts & Accessories, Random by

Every day i usually just do some random surfing of the internet and i happened to stumble upon an aspiring clothing designer, Jaidan Watson, who happens to have a luv for the humble Hachi Roku. Jaidan has used his design skill to come up with a collections of different car related t-shirts, but you can clearly tell he is an 86 fan!!!

Here is a link to Jaidans website where you can see the t-shirts for yourself:

https://www.redbubble.com/people/dori86/clothing?page=2

Body Work: Tsuchiya Style!!

July 28, 2008 in AE86 History, Videos by

Thinking about doing a ground up rebuild on your humble little 86????

Dont know where to start???

Watch this youtube video to see how Tsuchiya’s personal Trueno was prepped:

As the user has disabled embedding of the link please find the link here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHEdtAVlbBw

350hp Turbo F22C Formula D AE86

July 22, 2008 in Feature Cars, Parts & Accessories by

First there was high powered NA 4A-GEs, then turbo were thrown in the mix for when you began to feel you needed that little bit more. But when the 4A-G no longer cuts it, people go in search off other manufactures to power the heart and soul of their own little hachi roku. Some decide a dirty Nissan engine would be perfect, but the new craze is the “VTEC yo!” F20/22C powerplant from the Honda S2000. Combining a 800kg ’86 with a 250hp powerplant that revs to 9000rpm and you have a reciepe for something really amazing.

However, this was not the case for John Russakoff, Formula D competitor and owner of JSP, who after competing in a Standard F22C found that it just didn’t cut the mustard. This saw him implement some changes to boost (pun intended) the output up to 350hp by bolting a Garrett GT28RS turbo. However this was no simple “bolt on” procedure. For the details I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

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VIDEO: Irish Prodrift

July 15, 2008 in Videos by

Prodrift Ireland is now posting up podcast for the world to see. Ireland happens to have some of the best 86s in the world competeing in this series, so be sure to check out the following link to see all the action from this amazing series.

https://www.vimeo.com/prodrift

Source: Prodrift, Vimeo

Video: Have You Ever Wondered?

July 11, 2008 in Videos by

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be sitting on the starting grid with 30 odd cars around you, getting ready for the red lights to go out. But imagine what it would be like with 30 Hachi Rokus lined up around you?! The lucky 86 owner in this video has lived my dream!!! (and yes… the Japanese share a different taste in music compared to us westerners…)