Remembering Japanese cars from the past
About two weeks ago my fellow AE86 owner Robert forwarded me a Facebook video of a very special gauge cluster. The video contained a bespoke Motec screen installed in an AE86 with software that displays the OEM Toyota gauge cluster in various generations. I found out the video was shot at Tec-Art’s but it wasn’t an official video. Now Tec-Art’s released a video of a customer car that contains this gauge cluster!
You can watch the video (with English subtitles) below:
Continue reading
A few weeks ago I found a comment in the comments section of the AE86 gauge cluster trivia page that there was a Sleek Speed AE86 gauge cluster for sale on Yahoo Auctions. Unfortunately, I missed the auction, but fortunately enough the pictures were shared via a drive. I updated the original AE86 Trivia page and didn’t think of it until I spotted the same cluster for sale again!
The cluster is not for the faint-hearted as it’s for sale for 158,000 yen (just over 1000 dollars), which is steep. Then again, the digital gauge cluster already sets you back well over 300 dollars nowadays and it might be difficult to find another. The cluster is a modified GT or GT-V cluster as it doesn’t feature the door-warning and tail-light burnout warning lamps.
Continue readingI just found this mad Toyota Carina AA63 with an awesome set of gauges stacked on the dash:
It has an oil temperature gauge, oil pressure gauge, water temperature gauge, negative pressure (?) and an exhaust gas temperature gauge.
The handiwork started off by re-trimming the original dash with leatherette: Continue reading
Earlier I featured the AE86 GT-Apex Digi Dash and obviously, it raises many AE86 enthusiasts’ hearts. This time I’d like to feature the normal analogue AE86 gauge cluster versus the AE85 gauge cluster.
In case you feel you have a deja vu by now: you are completely right about that! I did post the AE86 gauge clusters earlier but reposted it once again with additional information.
If you ever owned an AE86 (or watched too much Initial D) these clusters should be quite familiar. There are two types of clusters for the AE86: left-hand drive (LHD) and right-hand drive (RHD). The layout of these clusters has been mirrored: on the LHD the tachometer is on the left side of the cluster, while on the RHD that spot is taken by the speedometer. Also, the warning lights, fuel, water temperature and oil pressure gauges all have been mirrored.
the GT Apex cluster and the GT / GT-V cluster. They appear to be identical, however, they do have subtle differences.
The zenki (early) AE86 GT Apex gauge cluster features the speedometer on the left and the tachometer on the right. As the Japanese government mandated speedometers to be limited to 180 km/h since the 1970s, the speedometer has a different scale than all export models. The gauge cluster features a fuel meter on next to the speedometer and oil pressure and water temperature gauges next to the tachometer. On the left and right we also find several warning lights, but I’ll get into that later. In the middle between the speedometer and tachometer, we find the two indicator lamps. Below the tachometer, we find the high-beam indicator light.
On the speedometer and tachometer scales we see intermediate steps about 2/3rds width of the full steps. Also the speedometer features the scale in yellow/orange on speeds above 100 km/h.
Disclaimer: I’m not selling this! I posted this because it MAY interest someone as it is a super rare object. Don’t ask me any questions regarding the object as I do not own it!
If anyone has 40000 yen spare (roughly about 300 euro) you can buy an original Black Limited gauge cluster for your AE86:
Four hundred Black Limited cars were made and one of the distinguishing items on the car was an orange gauge cluster. So if you are building your own Black Limited copy you can make it a bit more genuine by buying this cluster. A whole lot better than making your own using an orange marker on your original cluster… ;)
On a sidenote: I missed this one in the AE86 Trivia about the various gauge clusters, so I’ll add this one later on.
You can find the auction here:
Black Limited AE86 gauge cluster for sale at Auctions Yahoo.
If you need any help buying and importing this cluster to your country, you can use companies like Hayatonka to get them for you. Be aware that the total price can be a bit more than the 300 euros price of the auction. :P
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