Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: levin ae86 (Page 2 of 7)

AE86 Trivia: the amazing Levin & Trueno AE86 drag-coefficient

With the arrival of the fifth Corolla and Sprinter, the Levin and Trueno AE86 featured two distinct body styles: a sporty looking two-door and a slippery looking three-door. This was different compared to the previous generations. In the fourth generation the Levin and Trueno were only a (top of the line) trim level on the three-door. The new Levin and Trueno had a very different appearance where the Levin retained fixed headlights and the Trueno gained popup headlights. I wondered how this would influence the drag-coefficient of both models and both body types. Time for another AE86 Trivia post!

Fixed or popup headlights

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Friday Video: two hours non-stop 90s drifting

Mr Yumio at Youtube just uploaded his private drift videos from 1990 till 1993. Half of the content takes place at local drift events but the other half is shot on various touges. You really can see how things evolved since this early 90s drifting!
Friday Video: non-stop 90s drifting
It is interesting to observe in this video that most cars at the touge are old “disposable” cars. For instance the Nissan Skyline R30 and Toyota Corolla Levin/Sprinter Trueno AE86 are popular cars. At the circuit a lot of new cars can be seen: Mazda RX7 FC, Nissan Silvia S13, Nissan 180SX, Eunos Roadster and a Toyota Soarer Z30. Still the AE86 is ubiquitous at the circuit as well.

Other extraordinary cars seen at the touge are: Nissan Skyline GT-R PGC10, Isuzu Piazza, Isuzu Gemini PF60 and a hot Nissan Sunny B310. At the circuit the most odd thing is a second generation Honda CRX SiR drifting in reverse!

I bet you can’t wait to spend the remainder of your Friday afternoon watching this video: Continue reading

Picture of the Week: Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 at Paris-Dakar in 1984

In 1982 and 1983 Masahiro Uchida and Masaru Kubota joined the Paris-Dakar rally in a Toyota Carina ST A60. The year after they chose a different beast: a Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 coupe. And they stuck to that formula the next two years as well.
Picture of the Week: Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 at Paris-Dakar 1984
I have no idea who is posing next to the AE86, but surely that is neither Masahiro Uchida nor Masaru Kubota.
This is a zenki Levin, so it is not the same as the kouki the team used in their famous 1986 video.

Now there are a couple of things odd in this photo: first of all the exhaust is modified in a way that became fashionable in the mid 90s on Opel Calibras and Volkswagen Golfs. Probably they tilted the exhaust tip upwards to prevent it hitting rocks and bumps.
Second of all the rear axle appears if it is IRS and leaning on the stack of tires. Could it be they converted the live axle to IRS to increase ride height? I watched the 1986 video two times in a row but could not see a similar modification on the kouki Levin AE86 they used in 1986…

Via: Forum-Auto

Brilliant: collection of Showa scale model cars

Now this was a big jaw-dropper: two videos of a Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 literally covered in Showa scale model cars. This must be the largest personal collection of scale model cars I’ve seen!
Brilliant: Showa scale model cars
Now if you look carefully enough you can see that each and every scale model car has its own special paint job (mostly kaido racer, race car livery or kyusha kai) and set of (rare) JDM rims! If you count the number of hours it took to make them look this way alone it already is an amazing job!

Now the list of cars, mainly from the late Showa-era, is going to be a lengthy one, but I’ll try to sum up the most important ones:

  • Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 (duh)
  • Toyota Soarer GZ10/MZ11/MZ12 (including the Shakotan Boogie Soarer twice)
  • Numerous Toyota Celica XX GA61
  • Toyota Celica GT RA45
  • Toyota Corolla Levin TE27
  • Toyota Corolla Levin TE71 four door sedan
  • Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 hatchback
  • Toyota Corsa AL11
  • Numerous Nissan Skylines C10, C110, C210, R30
  • Numerous Nissan Cedric/Gloria 230, 330, 430
  • Numerous Nissan Fairlady S30
  • Nissan EXA
  • Hasemi Skyline KDR30 Super Silhouette kaido racer replica
  • Nissan Silvia S110 Super Silhouette kaido racer replica
  • Isuzu Bellet GT-R
  • Mazda RX-3

And the list could go on for another 20 or 30 models that I overlooked…

Watch video number one: Continue reading

Friday video: Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 “Next One” campaign

Just hot from the press: Toyota released three mini movies (3 minutes each) called The World Is One in their Next One campaign featuring the Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 in three continents: Japan, Africa (South Africa) and Australia.
Toyota Corolla Levin AE86
The movie really feels like following the Initial D vibe: two high school students, the nerdy one falls in love with a girl, works his ass of to get a license and a car and then buys a kouki zenki Toyota Corolla Levin AE86. They both go for a ride in the AE86: drifting/hooning off and then cruising along the shores. There the girl is found with another guy and see for yourselves the ending in all three parts. It is really well made!

Japan: Continue reading

Japanese Rustoseums: Overgrown Levin AE86

Sometimes you get lucky and bump into the original source of an earlier rustoseums post and find additional photos, just like this Toyota Corolla Levin AE86:
Japanese Rustoseums - Overgrown Toyota Corolla Levin AE86
The first images are an overgrown Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 but below that I found the photos I posted earlier (found at a different source) of an overgrown Toyota Carina AA63. As you can see the Levin is just as badly overgrown as the Carina and even worse in terms of its rustyness. It still has one good thing: the gigantic ducktail spoiler.

As you can see even the supercharged 4A-GZE has been overgrown: Continue reading

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