Saturday, December 13, 2008

Toyota Corolla AE86


This is the legendary drift car that was once the main character in the Japanese world of hashirya (street racers): The Toyota Corolla AE86. The last ever build Corolla models that were RWD are still being raced today by enthusiasts. It is said that it offers an incredibly exciting ride, something which you would not expect.
The AE86 is also known in Japan as the Hachiroku, which is basically nothing more than a translation of 86, where "hachi" stands for eight and "roku" stands for six.
Actually all of the Corollas that came out before the E80 series are RWD and so, perhaps with some drift modifications they are all good enough for drifting.
The AE86 had, and still has a massive cult status in Japan and was once even the main star in the popular anime series Initial D. This made it more famous and today it has actually become a pretty rare and expensive car. Expect high prices for a plus 20-years old model. And your chances of finding a stock AE86? Small!
The Corolla comes with pop-up lights (Trueno) or regular headlights (Levin) and is available in many styles & trims. It handles very well and doesn’t flatter the driver at all. It shows all your mistakes and doesn’t allow much room for error. Therefore it is a very hard car to really become good in. Generally speaking it usually seems only to be appreciated by enthusiasts that know of the car’s capabilities.
The power output is more than enough, as this 940 kilo Toyota features a twin-cam 1.6 liter 4 cylinder and 16 valves 4AGEU engine. It’s known to be rev-happy and it delivers about 130hp. Still though, most of the competition that consists out of turbo-powered cars are usually holding more than twice the amount of power.
The 86 it is not so much about power, it’s much more about balance! And because of that it’s a very good car to learn drifting in. It comes with a learning curve, but once that curve has been overcome......
And the AE86 still drifts in the D1 competition today, even winning from much faster and newer competition. The AE86 is still today most definitely one of the finest Toyota drift cars available!
There are many Toyota drift cars out there, not listed here. Only the important ones are shown on this page, you know that the only requirement for a drift car is of course it to be RWD, so with a little research and creative work there are many variations of Toyota drift cars available.

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