We all know the BMW E34 is the best Bavaria ever offered, so I think the owner of this Dutch AE86 thought it was a good thing to complement the AE86 Haslbeck trim with some E34 goodness!
Welcome to another AE86 Wall of Shame and this week, we feature a Dutch AE86 with a BMW 5-series complex! I found this car for sale in The Netherlands about six years ago and saved these images for later use.
German two-door Corolla GT Twin Cam 16 AE86
As a basis, a German two-door Corolla GT AE86 was used. We know this is the case because only in Germany the combination of a two-door car and Haslbeck trim was sold. We can still see the Haslbeck trim present in the form of the front spoiler, side skirts and boot-lid spoiler.
The front and rear bumpers have retained the red and black panda paint scheme. However, the side mouldings have been deleted and the black bottom part is painted over with red. This makes the side skirts in black the only panda leftover.
Redneck Lexus-style
At the rear we find two tail lights that had some sort of redneck Lexus-style treatment. At least they are symmetrical. Another eye catching feature is the tow hook. I know an AE86 with tow hook is controversial, but I actually know someone featuring one on his AE86 for well over 25 years!
We also see a big Remus Sportsauspuff sticker. Remus is a German tuning company that manufactures sports exhausts. However, at the rear we see the normal AE86 exhaust. I’m not stating it never had a Remus sports exhaust, but then a previous owner must have passed it on with an OEM exhaust. At least now you have learned that an Auspuff is German for exhaust!
Bavarian treatment
As said earlier: this AE86 got the Bavarian treatment! This might have happened after a slight frontal accident. You can see the front bumper has a slight wobble near the right hand side (so left on the photo). The headlights and indicator lights were replaced by a set taken from the BMW E34 5-series and they even retained bits of the E34 grill. Due to the roundness of the Levin AE86 bonnet, the headlights even look angrier than usual.
On the grill, the GTi emblem appears to consists of the generic charcters you can buy at the cheap autoparts store, but the 1.6 badge is taken from an E10 Corolla GTSi.
Liquid Petrol Gas
Finally, in the back we find a big liquid petrol gas (LPG) tank. Judging from its size, this is a generic tank which can hold about 60 litres of liquid gas. Driving on LPG is much cheaper than on regular petrol, but keep in mind that it also robs some additional horses. Given the state of the car, some of the horses already might have escaped before the LPG conversion.
Conclusion
Headlight or face swaps can work out brilliantly, just like the Skylevin or the Levin Delta Integrale. However, the E34 swap isn’t as brilliant as those two. It looks flawed and totally out of place. The swap wasn’t skillfully done and probably a stop gap solution for a minor front end collision. It’s a shame as this AE86 appeared to be relatively rust free.
Photocredit: BMW E34 by Rutger van der Maar
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