Category Archives: Feature Cars

HR Feature Cars. The Best AE86’s we can source and snap! In depth interviews with the owners and drivers of these machines.

Trueno vs The Corkscrew

December 5, 2016 in Feature Cars by

leguna-seca

Durk Edwards carving up the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca in his awesome N2 Trueno.

Russian Itasha: Alexei Omenyuk’s AE86 Levin

October 5, 2013 in Feature Cars by

3

Despite hailing from Abakan, a remote city in Russia, Alexei Omenyuk is no stranger to the quirky trends happening in car styling in Japan. In this case itasha.

If you’re not familiar with the term itasha, it’s a play on words in Japanese. Let’s refer to our friend noriyaro to explain:

The word sha means “car”. They cram this word together with another word to describe the origin of a foreign car. Ameshameans “American car”, and itasha means “italian car”.

In this case however, they use the kanji character for “pain”, which is also pronounced ita. What you have then is a car that is painful to look at for most people.

That is unless of course, you’re a big fan of anime, manga or whatever else the car is themed around.

em4bqfwiyey

That’s the man with his car above.  It’s packing a 140hp 4A-GE 20 valve Blacktop, a pretty intense roll cage and a TRD 2-way amongst many other mods. A good thing too as he’s a regular competitor in the Russian GT4 Drift Championship and has sometimes takes quite bold and sometimes reckless manoeuvres earning him quite the reputation.

hajxmphn9wu

The graphics and Gulf-inspired design were developed in St. Petersburg by the guys from the infamous VinylMadness and manufactured and applied by russian car wrap specialists Graffiko CarStyling.

bhpmxs8fiqa

We love it. Follow Alexei on his Drive2 Profile page here. More pics after the jump!

(more…)

OEM Fresh Trueno With a Turbo BEAMS Twist

December 22, 2012 in Feature Cars by

6251586107_fd3ea15891_b

Illmotion has a unique grasp on some of the Canada’s cleanest builds. This time it’s Orlando Tan’s 1986 Corolla GT-S, otherwise known as a Sprinter Trueno outside of North America – but this factory-spec minter has an ace up it’s sleeve…

(more…)

Brothers In Arms: HR Interview Vu & Van Quach

December 19, 2012 in Feature Cars, HR Originals by

ae86-levin-2-door-trueno-3-door-hatch-coupe-brothers-1

It’s not often that you see two street-driven cars this well presented and tastefully modified. It’s even more uncommon that they originate from the same family garage.

But in this case, where brotherly admiration and excitement for one car has spiraled out of control, you have possibly the two most succinct, and complete pair of hachirokus Australia has seen in years.

ae86-levin-2-door-trueno-3-door-hatch-coupe-brothers-5

Some of you 86 die-hards reading this have choosen to stick with one car and toil away, others are up to the count of ‘several’ chassis of chopping and changing, swapping panels and engines and buying whole projects just for parts and papers.

However, these brothers from Melbourne’s south-east have seen over 10 different AE86s between them since 2002, and have now reached, what they consider, their final ‘masterpiece’ hachiroku builds.

So we thought to ourselves, ‘What inspires dedication this intense? What drives two guys to search endlessly for the perfect AE86?’. So we asked them!

(more…)

Uchibori / Works KitoKito N2 Levin

November 29, 2012 in Feature Cars by

You might recognise this red and silver glitter paintjob from the Uchibori / Work’s KitoKito Trueno sister car driven by Hideyuki Uchibori in the N2 series in Japan, but the N2-spec 1983 Levin GTV you see above is owned and driven by Akira Takahashi.

(more…)

Hawaiian Style: Al Ramiscal’s Trueno Coupe

November 1, 2012 in Feature Cars by

Perfect weather, beautiful women and amazing AE86s. What can’t Hawaii provide to the world?  Rolling on TE37V with those trademark gold bumpers, Al’s Trueno 2-Door is just oozing with style.

Read the full story and more images at The Corolla Brotherhood blog.

Bee-R Style: Imai-san’s Personal Levin 2-Door

October 19, 2012 in Feature Cars by

So we’ve seen a lot of Imai-san’s Blue Bee-R ‘Scion BRZ’ in the fast few weeks, but we still love his personal AE86 Levin 2-Door!

The first of a few ‘car feature’ blogs from our trip to Fuji 86 Style in August, Imai’s Levin is a unique hachiroku with lots of his personal flair.

The bodykit is immense! The Work Equip 03 wheels are housed within custom widened front guards which compliment its stealth fighter look.

Certainly unique, this rather vertical ‘highway racer’ wing suits Imai-san’s wild style perfectly!

When we were chatting to Imai, he let us have a secret peek under the hood. A nicely fitted 4A-GZE with a turbo kit. Can you spot the rarity?

This might help you work it out! A customised original HKS 4A turbo kit..

With beefed up electronic spark control via a custom setup using S15 Coil-On-Plug units. An unusual choice, as the normal route is to use 1ZZ-GE ‘COP’ units for 4A powerplants!

I managed to grab a quick photo with Imai. He’s holding one of the very first Best Motoring VHS videos in which is he on the cover! Legendary!

 

A Tribute To The Past: Team Tekno

October 18, 2012 in Feature Cars by

The Levin trackcar you see here is the result of two hachiroku-mad Irishmen who couldn’t bear the downtime of their own projects keeping them off the track.

An all-out tribute to the early days of Japanese drifting, this green and silver, battle-scarred Corolla owned by Team Tekno members Killian O’Brien and Kevin Reilly is a way for them to push to ten tenths without the fear of wrecking their other beautiful AE86s.

Check the full feature out at Driftworks

True Grit: Mechanics Before Aesthetics

October 12, 2012 in Feature Cars by

Brian Egan’s mantra seems to be based around this mentality – and his car certainly shows it. Having taken 9 trophies already in various events this year, to call it ‘spartan’ would be quite fitting.

Hit SPEEDHUNTERS for more photos by legendary photographer Paddy McGrath.

Holy Trinity: Rocket Bunny. TRA Kyoto. FR-S.

October 12, 2012 in Feature Cars by

Kei Miura of TRA Kyoto may have already fitted his now unmistakable ‘Rocket Bunny’ kit to Fredric Aasbo’s drift-maniac 2JZ Toyota 86 as well as BeeR’s Imai-san’s blue BRZ, but now his very own (full imported) Scion FR-S is complete.

The Toyota 86 is quite the handsome car from the factory, but with the addition of the ultra sculpted aero, it brings those subtle hints of agression into a fully fledged shouting match for attention.

Feast your eyes on it over at SPEEDHUNTERS.