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.

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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Tec Art’s ‘Street-Spec’ Trueno

June 23, 2008 in Feature Cars by

Some shots of the Tec-Art’s Street Spec Trueno from the D1 exhibition round at Odaiba last weekend to start your working week of AE86 style – It’s pretty nice for a drift car. Certainly a pity they don’t make more drift cars this nice here in Australia.

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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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Powersports AE86

June 6, 2008 in Feature Cars by

Our mates over at 7Tune have got a mini feature on the Powersports Levin Coupe. A mental track car in its own right, there is an entire write up with heaps of pics at 7Tune. Here’s an excerpt from the article to pique your interest.

The Powersports Levin looked and sounded great out on the circuit, it was revving noticeably higher than a lot of the other cars with its MSC Ignition Module governed 9,400rpm rev limit. The main contributor to that special sound were the Keihin FCR Carburetors. Normally found on motorcycles, the four in line FCR carburetors use flat slide throttle valves for the best in throttle response and flow control.

Check out the Entire article over at 7Tune.

AE86 Wins @ Rally of Canberra!

June 4, 2008 in Feature Cars by

Remember Ben Cullen with his Group A Rally TTA Levin coupe Replica we showed you last month? Well at the Rally of Canberra on May 10-11, his trusty little Sprinter took out the F16 Class win! I’ll leave you with his comments after the jump to full summise the weekends trials and tribulations that got them to the top of the podium.

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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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A Danish War of Attrition

May 26, 2008 in Feature Cars by

If you live in Scandinavia you will be used to all the snow and the cold. You will also know that salted snowy roads make safer roads and that safety comes with a price. Jan Pedersen’s personal war of attrition with his Levin Hatch is awe inspiring. The beautiful restoration work to bring this hachi back from the cancerous death it was inevitably going to see, is simply crazy to put it quite bluntly.

Starting from a street registered incognito AE86 just like any other, his two year rebuild saw him battle rust, sandblast jobs, finding even more rust, making his own rotisserie, hand stripping the entire chassis of all bog and soundproofing, finding and fitting new pressed panels and so much more.

The end result I think you will agree, is simply amazing. Topping that off with a congratulatory tour of the Nurburgring is the perfect end to an awesome story. Thanks goes out to you Jan for saving one of our precious cars from the junkyard.

Check out his entire thread over at Club4AG. Plus a few pics after the Jump.

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AE86’s at Oran Park

May 15, 2008 in Community, Events, Feature Cars by

Initial Drift held a practice day last sunday at Oran Park, on the North Circuit. This saw three of our forum memebers, Brad (Steriodchicken), Andrew (DVS81N) and Indi (indi86) thrashing their treasured Hachi Rokus around the track.

To find out detailed information about their cars please check out their members rides on the forum.

More pictures after the Jump:

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AE86 Hill Climber of DOOM!

May 13, 2008 in Feature Cars by

You might be interested in what a Ukrainian man has done to a certain Trueno AE86 over in Europe.

The AE86 has a 1JZ in the front to begin with and the engine cooling setup to flow to the boot as a comprimise to the longer engine up front. It sports an IRS system under the back and also one heck of a body-kit. The car’s styling i think speaks for itself.

Pics after the jump.

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Video: NZ AE86 Rally Car

May 11, 2008 in Events, Feature Cars, Videos by

If you guys haven’t realised yet, I’m a bit of a rally nut….. Anyway I found this video of a New Zealand AE86 getting thrashed through the forests. This guy’s a really good steerer and I’m sure the car has lots of choice bits under it. The driver, Lyndon Galbraith, ended up finishing 1st in class, 1st 2WD and 15th outright, which is a pretty good result considering he would have been taking it easy as he just spent $20g refurbishing the car with a brand new drivetrain.

Here is the in-car footage from the first stage:

Also i found a newspaper article about the event:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4495924a6434.html