Remembering Japanese cars from the past
Usually, I would say a typical Japanese salaryman would contrast heavily with a Toyota Corolla Levin AE86. However, the photo below proves me wrong: the salaryman is just as panda as the paint scheme of the AE86!
The only thing off is the grey tie: this should have been a black one like the black stripe on the Levin!
Via DivinaPapaya
Seeing a rusty AE86 is always sad, but seeing five makes me wonder whether this place in Japan is AE86 heaven or hell. Welcome to another Japanese Rustoseum post!
Let’s start with the first one. This is a presumably late-1984 or early-1985 white panda zenki Trueno GT Apex 3-door that has suffered from some accident damage. The front has been caved in, which means it’s probably a write-off. I think it’s a GT Apex as it does feature the bucket sports seats, and panda paint and doesn’t seem to have an areal on the right fender.
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Just like last time Levin Delta Integrale, we have another face-swapped example: an AE86 with the face of a Skyline HCR32! Even though the tail lights seem to originate from a Trueno AE86, I’ll just call it the SkyLevin. It may look a bit weird as the R32 Skyline is almost a decade ahead in design, but does it look good? That’s up to you to decide!
Let’s start with the builder of this insane car: Autoworks Nipponshi. They called their work the AWN 800. I can understand the AWN abbreviation, but I have no idea what the 800 means. I wasn’t able to find out much about this garage. I’ve tried searching on both Romanized and Katakana, but nothing turned up except for this Motor Fan article. My guess is this was done by a small garage in the Nipponshi area without a website or any presence on the web. I’ve also tried to go through all the garages in the Nipponshi area but to no avail.
Someone sent me a picture of this Lancia Delta Integrale with a Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 front end crafted on it. I don’t remember who sent it and I’ve searched to no avail through my WhatsApp history. So if you are the person who sent it to me: very much appreciated and you deserve all the credit!
The Delta Integrale is about the same red as the panda-red AE86 colour scheme. I love the previous owner retained the panda-paint scheme on the front bumper. It would have been even more radical if the whole Delta Integrale had received some panda-paint as well. However, the Delta Integrale doesn’t feature the necessary lines to support that.
The photo is a typical Japanese car auction photo, so my guess is that it went through auctions some time ago. I’m not a big enough expert to distinguish the 8V from the 16V Integrale. All that I know is that it looks mad enough! So, what do you think? Blasmephy or the perfect marriage?
There are so many questions I have about this Levin AE86:
So what’s going on here? The traditional Chinese writing on the wall would place this car either in Taiwan, Macau or Hong Kong. Cars drive on the right side (so LHD) in China and Taiwan and on the left side (RHD) in Hong Kong and Macau. I could explain the LHD headlights if this person lived in mainland China or Taiwan. So my best guess would be that this Levin used to be owned by someone living in China mainland or Taiwan and he was visiting Hong Kong or Macau.
That still doesn’t explain the GT-S door sticker and the zenki bumper though.
What is the most comfortable place of your Levin AE86? What’s the best intake on your Levin AE86? Flat out in your engine bay of course!
Sorry for these bad puns, but I just had to make them!
This nearly brand new kouki (facelift) AE86 from Osaka is one up with its 87 license plate in February 1988! Now the big mystery is whether it’s a 1987 car or that the 87 license plate is a coincidence. Next to the license plate, it has got a double set of fog lights: über rare OEM GT Apex fog lights in the grill and two Cibié 35 / Airport.
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