Author Archives: Matt

Flashback: T3’s Drift ’86

July 9, 2008 in Feature Cars, HR Originals by

Here’s a blast from the past!. Back in ’04, one of the first in depth track oriented Hachiroku build-ups from the USA was that of the TechnoToyTuning (T3) Trueno on the Club4AG Forums. It consisted of the development of an already running car, then a full ground up re-shell when previous car experienced the wraith of the notorious Irwindale banks at a Formula D drift event.

The car was also driven by Tsuchiya himself at Willow Springs Raceway for the filming of “Best Motoring: American Touge 2″ . The build up was lost when Club4ag was refreshed but has now been reposted on the Al Lagura’s (the driver of this beast) personal website for the world to see once again.

Click HERE for the thread.

Source: www.phuckdrifting.com, Club4ag, TechnoToyTuning

Flashback: Runfree Kouki Trueno

July 3, 2008 in AE86 History, Feature Cars by

Back when I was pimply faced teenager I use to religiously buy every modified car related magazine that was available on the local newsagent shelves. A real favourite of mine was magazine called SPEED (which unfortunately no longer exists), and they happened to feature a car that was previously unknown to me. Once looking over the 4 page spread of this unknown car and reading every word over and over, I knew that one day I would have to own one of these cars.

The car happened to be a kouki Trueno hatch owned by the founder of Run Free, Koichi Yamashita and ironically the article and photos were written by Antonio Alvendia, the person responsible for bringing the original (not the current knock-off) AE86 Driving Club to the western AE86 scene.

See the amazing article after the jump:

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How To: T-50 Refresh!

June 30, 2008 in Parts & Accessories by

The trusty T-50 residing in most of our 86’s are reaching the 25 year old mark. Where most people have treated their 25 year old 86s with some nice and tasteful modifications,  i’m damn sure that the good old gearbox has received nothing more than a lot of hard years of clutch kicks and flat changes if not much worse!

So we thought we would give you the know how to show some much needed love to your gearbox, with an in-depth “how to” showing everything from replacing worn out syncros and bearings to refreshing the gears themselves. All this magnificent knowledge is thanks to Andrew (aka assassin10000 on most 86/Toyota forums)

Click here to see all things T-50.

Source: Assassin10000, ectoyotas.com

Can You Feel The TE37 Love?!

June 19, 2008 in Parts & Accessories by

Are TE37s the hottest wheel to be put on the AE86? We think they are and so we have got a gallery of the hottest AE86’s wearing TE37 for stompin’ boots.

Hit the jump for the Gallery.

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Hill Was Conquered – 86 Style!!!

June 17, 2008 in Events, Feature Cars, Videos by

A car that we recently featured on this blog (click to see) has shown some of its potentional at a recent hill climb in the UK. The event was completely new to all the competitors, but no one would of expected the little hachi roku to take out the honors of fastest time of the day. The 86, known as Black Betty, was up against some stiff competition such as ‘Super 7’ Clubman’s, worked WRX’s and many different Evo’s. The highlight of the day was the battle between the 86 and a 450hp pulsar GTir, each taking the fastest time of the day run after run.

However in the last run the pulsar went all out to try and win and ended up into the trees. The driver was ok, but the same can’t be said about the car (see picture after jump). It was a great result for Black Betty and I hope this will lead to even better results in the future!

Pictures can be seen after the jump as well as a video.

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Yates With Podium Finish At Mallala

June 7, 2008 in Events by

In the most recent round of Drift Australia, a fortnight ago at Mallala in South Australia, Beau Yates drove the wheels off his TRD backed BEAMS 3S-GTE-powered AE86s to stand on the podium in second place.

This is a welcome return to the podium that Yates has been fighting for after having some bad luck and poor performances in the first two events of the season. The win at Mallala may be the kick start that Yates needed to return to the form he showed in 2006 which saw him take out the Drift Australia title. With Yates sitting in 3rd spot on the table hes sitting in a strong position to take out this seasons title.

Good luck in Eastern Creek Beau, you have the support of all the AE86 drivers in Aus behind you!

Photos from the event after the jump.

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Team Mouse!!

June 3, 2008 in Videos by

Here you will witness the best AE86 drift team currently still together… The one and only Team Mouse in full flight… man i love the team drift action!! (taken from Drift Tengoku #37)

Can 600HP Impress Tsuchiya???

May 30, 2008 in Videos by

What happens when you slap a T88 to an SR20 to form the heart of an AE86??

You get this monster:

Conquering One Hill At a Time!

May 28, 2008 in Feature Cars by

What an amazing example of an 86! And no less that it gets used and abused exactly like an AE86 should. This hill climb 86 is from a fellow UK enthusiast who has devoted alot of time and money turning a UK GT-spec AE86 (i know you irish luv him) into an all decimating hill climbing machine.

This car has received a complete pull down in the past to which made the car look like it just came out of the factory and most recently had most of its drivetrain rebuilt. For example, it now has a ford Type-9 close ratio dog box, lots of little rose joints in all the specialised arms and a complete ground up rebuilt 20v black top that sounds simply amazing.

To hear and see this thing conquer a mountain (or three), check out not one but three youtube vids after the jump.

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Jap Fest 2008

May 22, 2008 in Events by

Jap Fest 2008 is a event setup to cater for Japanese car enthusiasts from england. This event saw thousands of UK petrol heads join together to create an amazing display of unique and rare Japanese rides. The guys over at eight-six.co.uk did their thing by setting up a club display and showed of some of the best AE86s I have seen outside of Japan. Good work guys!!

See some hot AE86s after the jump…

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