Everyone has their vice. It may be alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, or perhaps something best kept to themselves. But in my case, it’s Toyota AE86s.
These 1980s Toyotas have had a grip on me for over a decade now. I bought my first AE86 – a Levin three-door hatchback – in Australia and wasted no time stripping it down to the metal and building it up in a rented garage at the back of a Chinese grocer. It was exactly the sort of project to keep me busy in my early twenties. It took a little over a year to piece that car together. It was by no means show-level, but it was mine, and I made sure to enjoy it whenever I could. That meant going for drives most nights until the early hours of the morning.
Eventually, the swapped 4A-GE 20V engine developed a bad knock, and I parked it up on the side of the road, where it became a storage bin. A new 20-something-year-old owner ultimately found their way into the car, and once again, it was cruelly torn apart.
I used the money from the sale to buy an S13 Nissan Silvia, which didn’t scratch the itch. I traded up to an S14, which was faster but still didn’t have what I was looking for. The idea of being back in the driver’s seat of a rattly old Toyota was inescapable, so the S14 was listed on Facebook Marketplace, and the hunt for another AE86 began.
Welcome, AE86 number two. This time around, it was a two-door notchback Levin, in much better condition than my first, and with the bonus of a full interior. This was the perfect natural progression in the Hachiroku world – a more complete chassis and extra comfort, making it slightly more acceptable for daily driving. This car lasted a good couple of years before meeting its inevitable fate of being sold.
I wasn’t trading it in for something new in Australia, though. A move to Japan meant it was time to replace it with another AE86 in the car’s homeland.
There’s nothing more daunting than buying a 40-year-old car in a country whose language you barely speak, but that was all part of the experience. Luckily enough, I was able to purchase the car through Garage Infinity – an AE86 specialist in Gunma that also happens to run the 86-only Gunsai drift events I’ve shot several times before. This made the purchase a world better and gave me peace of mind. Here it was, my new-to-me, 1986 Toyota AE86 Levin notchback.
Driving the car home with two years of fresh shaken (registration) and a sh*t-eating grin, I began to envision what would come next.
As with most old modified cars, however, trouble wasn’t far around the corner. The car already had a decent amount of work done to it – from basic 4A-GE 16V engine upgrades to suspension and RS Watanabe wheels, to a sparkly red home paint job that left little to be desired. After a couple of visits back to Garage Infinity and a few thousand kilometres of enjoyment under the car’s belt, it was time to make the Levin my own.
Working alongside J Beat Custom Shop, a well-regarded bodywork outfit in Saitama, we decided on a new exterior colour. Having a black AE86 was always a dream of mine, so with that and the addition of some blue pearl, the respray was finalised. After adding in a few Yahoo! Auction Japan pickups and some paint thinner to remove the spray-can gold wheel finish, the Levin was refreshed.
Since then, the car has sat fairly idle, with only a couple of additions – namely, a Defi single-DIN gauge set and some outrageously-priced grille fog lights. Until a special delivery in the form of four RAYS wheel boxes recently arrived at my door.
I love classic Watanabe wheels, but there is no denying their higher weight and lower rigidity in comparison to state-of-the-art Volk Racing offerings. While the Watanabes weigh in at around 7.5kg (16.5lb) per corner, my new TE37V spec-SR (Supreme Radiance) wheels weigh less than 5.5kg (11lb) – an almost 30% reduction.
The Volks measure 15×9-inch -15 (L rim, Face 3) for both the front and rear. That’s a lot of wheel for an AE86, but with the spec-SR’s light weight, you wouldn’t know it. And as the icing on the cake, the ‘Shining Bronze Metal’ finish on the wheel centres (the rim sections feature RAYS’ ‘Forged Diamond Mirror Cut’ or FDMC) perfectly complements the bodywork’s blue pearl, shifting colour depending on how the light hits.
That brings us up to the current day with my AE86 – both my fun car and daily driver in one.
