Tag Archives: Kiyonori Imai

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!

 

Flashback: Akira Iida’s $100k AE86 Build

July 18, 2008 in Random by

One car. One man. One hundred grand. This AE86 is the result of one of the most expensive semi-street, semi-race AE86 projects ever undertaken.

JGTC GT500 driver Akira Iida’s “Passion of the Levin” is to build the ultimate AE86 which included a full TRD Group A AE101 with dry-sump, MoTec M4, generating 217PS and complete body restoration. Estimated cost for the project was 10million Yen ($100,000) to complete!

The centrepiece of the build is the TRD 20 Valve 4A-GE. With the VVT on inlet eliminated, the engine runs IN/EX: 288/294 duration (10.2 lift) camshafts. Although the TRD race engines with 304/312 (10.8) were capable of 250hp revving to 11000rpm, Iida’s is limited to 9000 redline @ 210hp for engine preservation and improved street suitability.

But why did a champion GT racing driver choose to start such a project? Doesn’t he get enough from driving 500hp circuit monsters at 300 km/h day in and day out? Love for the AE86! Check out the whole build article over at Club4AG.

The Iida AE86 project was featured in many volumes of Video Option in Japan throughout 1999. The car took nearly one year to complete with many of the processes labored by Iida himself between his busy race schedule.

The VHS series was originally titled ‘Akira’s Work Box’ but is now available on DVD from Video Option under the title of ‘V-Opt the Best #2: Tuned AE86 by WORKBOX’.

An upload of the original VHS are on YouTube in two parts:

(Check out Bee-R’s youthful Imai-san!)