Toyota Sprinter ae86 - Early 90's style

That's a honey, love that spoiler!

Shouldn't there be some suitably funky Celica or Supra seats available cheaply that would suit its 80's style sooo much better than comparatively generic Recaros.
The modifications so far would transform it from the mundane local spec; great find.

I have looked into those options - the best is the JDM ae86 seats which are super comfy, but unfortunately tend to get a bit of a wobble on in their old age. It seems to happen with Toyota seats of that vintage (I had an ae71 previously, stock seats wobbled, Celica seats were even worse). Recaros are available for sensible (ish) money and hold well. It's going to be used properly on the track so I don't really want to skimp on safety/comfort for the sake of looks.

As for the drive, it is outstanding! I had my heart set on something from the 70's originally but to be honest, after driving an ra40 Celica and the ae86 back to back it was no contest. I considered buying a rusty ae86 and swapping the running gear into something earlier but I don't really have the time or facilities

Been a little while since I have updated. Not much to report, only real work has been a service but I have spent a bit of time driving! First event was a drift night on the Peanut Track at SMSP. Shredded a pair of tyres and had a lot of fun.

Next up I did a couple of hill climbs at our local track at Ringwood. In my previous s13 Q's I managed a 37.49 second run, best to date in the ae86 is a 36.82 which I am pretty happy with considering the small amount of driving I have done with it. Really I need to find another second to be on the podium in my class - the car is capable of it, just a matter of stringing it all together. Here is a video from Sunday's hill climb, I appear at 3:50



The Ringwood Hill Climb in the video is the 2nd round of our Tri Series championship, run between Newcastle MGCC (my club), Tamworth and Kempsey Sporting Car Clubs. I missed Kempsey, but will be hitting the next two rounds - Lap Dash at Tamworth's Oakburn Park next month and the Mattara Hill Climb at King Edward Park in Newcastle in October.

Also took a couple of photos after giving it a polish. Apologies for the low quality, I couldn't find the camera so used my HTC. Looks so much better with the lower profile tyres and the correct hatch.





So next jobs, in order:

- Replace valve stem seals (you can see a bit of blue smoke puff in the video)
- Fit swaybars (solid front, adjustable rear)
- Compete in Tamworth Lap Dash at Oakburn Park
- Buy new seats (thinking Bride Digo Type R's) $$$$
- Buy new steering wheel (current Momo is flaking and the grip is a bit thick for my liking)

Loving being in an ae86, never owned a car that gets such universally positive feedback. Event the scrutineer at the hill climb told me it was tidy! Thanks for reading my ramblings, will hopefully post up more photos/news after the Tamworth event

So I ended up missing out on Tamworth - we pulled the head apart and didn't get it together in time. I also bought the Brides and found they weren't comfy for my build and sold them on. Also bought and fitted a Luisi Griffon 370mm steering wheel which is just lovely.

OS having missed Tamworth I set my sights on our premier event for the year, the Mattara Hillclimb at King Edward Park. The event runs once a year on a public road, and has done since the 60's. It is fast and scary and beautiful. I didn't go as quick as I'd have liked but nothing got broken so I am very happy about that! Car ran perfect all day. I ended up fitting the new swaybars prior to going drifting, but found that having the rear full hard made it a bit tail happy for hillclimbs. Backing off the rear swaybar helped corner exit speed but unfortunately this was offset by my corner entry speed!

Biggest time loss was the pinch - it is totally blind until you are right at the bottom of it and, although I held it flat longer each time, I just couldn't get past that psychological barrier. But enough of that - what people really want is pictures!


Day before the hillclimb - after racing both days of the BMX State Titles I came home and made sure the car was ready to go. Numbers and battery triangle? Because race car!


Calm before the storm - up top in the pits at 6:30am with my mates jza70

And a few from my runs:







Nice. Unfortunately no video which is a shame - had the little 4age wound all the way out in 2nd and 3rd so would be nice to know what it sounded like! haha

So where to from here? Well I have purchased the following items:

Mesh headrest Recaros
PS arms
Cusco RCA's
Dizzy Heatshield (TODA brand, no TODA markings - but now its fitted I can stop replacing the dizzy cap every three weeks after it melts onto the headers)
TRD headgasket

So the plan is to fit up the Recaros in the near future, and run the final hillclimb for the year in November. After that the engine will come out for a freshen up and we will fit up the RCA's and steering arms. The current head is shot, so have a second bigport head that will be reconditioned soon, so its ready to go when we pull the bottom end. Hoping there are no nasty surprises in the bottom end, but we shall see

I have also lined up a set of 13x6 wheels, so once my wallet recovers from the engine freshen up I will buy a set of "proper" tyres (possible 185/60r13 r888's)

Next year the plan is to compete in all rounds of the Tri Series Championship (Kempsey, Tamworth, Ringwood and Mattara if it runs again)

Very neat 86 good to see its over here too