Evan already posted these videos on HR blog, so I'll just repost them here! They are videos from Toyota shot on several European circuits:

Probably an exhibition video by Toyota to see how well the new AE86 was appreciated in the old world, so this has got to be between May and August 1983.

As you can see they did not use the Euro Levins (aka Corolla GT) but took their own. Both Levins are early GT Apex models: apart from the decals you can see both have the rotating grille and the white coupe has a black moulding on the trunk.

The white Levin shows some nice action when it goes sideways on the Nurburgring before heading over to Spa and Zandvoort. Funny detail is that both Zandvoort and Spa were Formula One circuits at that moment while the Nurburgring was working hard to make a comback with the Eifelring. On Spa they really go wild on the long corners and on Zandvoort they do some faint drifts on consecutive corners. :)

The Corolla sedan in Europe Scenery is a bit of a letdown after all that action! ;)

Tomorrow a follow up on this video, so stay tuned for more! :)

As being an admin of AEU86 I've seen a lot of questions, facts and fun stuff about the Toyota AE86 (hachi roku). I also see a lot of questions returning even though we documented it on the FAQ already.

This week we feature the rotating grille found on the zenki Corolla Levins!

First of all you probably think something like rotating grille? What is that? Well, it is exactly what it says: a rotating grille!

zenki Corolla Levin GT Apex with rotating grille

During the 80s Japanese car manufacturers were packing their cars all sorts of gadgets and to keep up with the competition they had to come up with the latest inventions! One of these things was the rotating grille as found on the Corolla Levin AE86, but only in the GT Apex trim. It is just another thing like the side mirror wipers found on the Toyota Mark II X80 series.

Rotating grille in opened and closed position

Basically what it did was having a closed grille when the engine is under normal operation to improve the drag coefficient and when the engine is under stress it would open up to give it more cooling. It had a thermostat which opened the grille when the water temperature was hot enough. Then the grille would open up and show the twincam 16 logo instead of the Levin logo when closed.

If you want to mount one yourself you definitely need the grille itself and the hoses and thermostat as well! As far as I know these parts are not available anymore at Toyota, so you will have to get almost all parts to make it work!

Rotating grille assembly as in the EPC

Then you need to hook it up between your engine and radiator like this:

How to hook up the rotating grille

As said before: it only operates at really high temperatures, so you really need to push the engine far to have the grille open up! Remember that the GT Apex trim was meant as a luxury trim and not a performance trim: therefore the GT and GTV trims got the louvre grille instead of this the much heavier rotating grille.

So is it worth its money then? Well that's a bit hard to tell: it does serve a purpose to decrease the drag coefficient but it won't save you much in fuel, especially if you push the car hard to get it open! ;)

As being an admin of AEU86 I've seen a lot of questions, facts and fun stuff about the Toyota AE86 (hachi roku). I also see a lot of questions returning even though we documented it on the FAQ already.

This week we feature the digital dashboard of the AE86!

If you are unfamiliar with it, this is what it looks like and how it operates:

If you want one you can get them either from a first generation (zenki) AE86 3 door with the GT Apex trim or find them through auctions.yahoo.co.jp in Japan. This version of the AE86 got the digital dashboard installed, unless you really didn't want one and ordered one without it. That also means that Bunta Fujiwara ordered his Sprinter Trueno without digidash back in the 80s. ;)

The 2 door zenki and both 2 and 3 door kouki GT Apex trim didn't get the digital dashboard default: you had to order it as a special option. It was also a Japan-only feature: it wasn't even available as an option in the US like it was on the Celica and Celica-Supra! That was a weird decision taking into account that 1984/1985 (launch of the AE86 in the US) was the peak of the popularity of Knight Rider!

Digital Cluster in a Japanese zenki Sprinter Trueno catalogue

The digital dashboard was, like it implicates, a digital variant of the normal, analogue, gauge cluster. It displayed almost everything digitally:
everything except the mileage was digital. This also meant some signals feeding the cluster had to be digital: the fuel sender should give the signal digitally while the oil pressure became nothing more than a "warining" light for too high pressure.

In case you want to convert your analogue cluster to a digital cluster you arein need of two parts:
- digital oil pressure switch (one of a EP71,82,91/SW20/AE92/ST16x will do.)
- digital fuel sender (part# 83320-19725)
Especially the digital fuel sender is hard to get by!

Even though the digital dashboard has the same connectors as the analogue cluster you need to convert them to the digital cluster. You can find the wiring schema here:
Wiring conversion schema for the AE86 digital cluster

Is the cluster worth it? Personally I wouldn't care more or less if the digital dashboard had featured in my Trueno. In some ways it would even be a set back since you would lose the oil pressure gauge!
On the other hand it does have a certain coolness factor!