RE: Toyota Trueno AE 86: You Know You Want To

[micawrx]

One of our mates traded in his beautiful Mk.2 Escort RS Mexico for a Toyota Corolla GT Liftback in about 1990.

We thought he was mental - 80 quid for spark plug leads? for a jap car?.. just silly.

In hindsight... how right was he! Bet he wish he still had it....

[RobinBanks]

Lightningman said:

...it is cool because it is in a cartoon... oh this has to be a strong contender for nerd-like man logic. I bet the car park at Comi-con is filled with junk like this

[Steamer]

micawrx said:

One of our mates traded in his beautiful Mk.2 Escort RS Mexico for a Toyota Corolla GT Liftback in about 1990.

We thought he was mental - 80 quid for spark plug leads? for a jap car?.. just silly.

In hindsight... how right was he! Bet he wish he still had it....

I'm a bit lost. The beautiful MK 2 Mexico would still be worth twice the price, would it not?

[dufunk]

micawrx said:

One of our mates traded in his beautiful Mk.2 Escort RS Mexico for a Toyota Corolla GT Liftback in about 1990.

We thought he was mental - 80 quid for spark plug leads? for a jap car?.. just silly.

In hindsight... how right was he! Bet he wish he still had it....

Sounds like the AE92 Fwd AE86 discontinued around 87, The high torque engine was fitted to AE92 pushed 136bhp out of the 4age before adding vvti around 92 and up 170bhp found in the levin BZ-G/R. AE86 were always very popular in ireland as alot of jap stuff got imported into dublin in NI you would have to spend 7/8k to pick up a good one.

Honda fans cry on about rev's but the trd formula atlantic tuned 4age 16v revved to 10-12k produced 250bhp from a 1.6 N/A in early 90's no variable valve timing needed.

Edited by dufunk on Tuesday 27th January 16:20

Edited by dufunk on Tuesday 27th January 16:26

[dapprman]

These had been big in Japan way before Initial-D - the latter just made them popular again. Keiichi Tsuchya (the 'Drift King') made his name in the Japanese touring car series at the time these were new by comprehensively beating far more powerful machines in poor condition races. By the time of the Initial-D game (then manga follwoed by anime and live-action) it had become a car of the past with a core following (much like the Chevette HS featured last week or the Lotus Sunbeam). It was the manga, then anime that brougt it to the fire again.

mrpushrod said:

Pricey but I want it badly, I was big into Initial D and the noise of the 4AGE will always resonate with me.

Only up to the start of season 3 (?) as he <spoiler alert> blows that engine and it's replaced - can't remember what with but I seem to remember it was not a 4AGE, oh and the new one was race tuned.

[JDMDrifter]

Wrong! Was still a 4age

[PK1987]

Yup, was this:

TRD Group A AE101 1.6L 20v Silvertop 4A-GELU 240 PS (2nd Stage onwards)

[soad]

Zero appeal for me - what an ugly duckling. Price is daft too.

[wywywywy]

headrush said:

Freely admits bought for £7k 6 months ago and now looking for £4k profit!

If you did read the advert you would have read that more than £4k worth of work has gone it since it was bought for £7k.

Anyway I think the seller will struggle to sell the car in this country. The fan base is too small here. It's like selling a Back To The Future replica DeLorean in China.

[BGarside]

Just don't like the look of these. They remind me too much of so many anonymous, mediocre, bland 80s Jap hatchbacks. Regardless of the handling it looks like a '90s pizza delivery car.

Give me the same engine in a Mark 1 MR2 instead.

[soad]

BGarside said:

Just don't like the look of these. They remind me too much of so many anonymous, mediocre, bland 80s Jap hatchbacks. Regardless of the handling it looks like a '90s pizza delivery car.

Give me the same engine in a Mark 1 MR2 instead.

[J4CKO]

s m said:

J4CKO said:

They weren't that well regarded at the time, just another Jap coupe, people were not quite so fixated on RWD then because quite a lot of stuff still was, I think Celicas were more desirable to more people and this competed with the Nissan Sunny ZX Coupe which was similar in looks but FWD and a bit forgettable.

Usually, in group tests of the time in the mags, the Manta GTE was picked ahead of these ( or the UK version of these at least ) which seems surprising now

Just had a look and C155 END, a black one I remember, looks like it died in 2006.....or went to Ireland.

Someone I know still has a white one in great nick - as said already, you either 'get them' or you don't

I had an 86 Manta GTE hatch in red, looked pretty good (not as good as the Manta coupe mind) but it wasn't exactly nimble and not all that fast, I kind of liked it but it never quite hit the spot, I think part of it was a big dollop of an iron block Bedford Van engine with fuel injection lashed on, the lesser versions got a much nicer, if less powerful Vauxhall OHC 1.8 engine that actually didn't have any fundamental objection to being revved, why they never put the 130 or 150 bhp Vauxhall 2.0 engines in them I will never know.

The Toyota was probably, engine wise more comparable to the BDA engine in the RS1600 but less fragile, and look what they go for !

Sideways retro things go for a lot of money nowadays whichever way you look at it.

[s m]

J4CKO said:

s m said:

J4CKO said:

They weren't that well regarded at the time, just another Jap coupe, people were not quite so fixated on RWD then because quite a lot of stuff still was, I think Celicas were more desirable to more people and this competed with the Nissan Sunny ZX Coupe which was similar in looks but FWD and a bit forgettable.

Usually, in group tests of the time in the mags, the Manta GTE was picked ahead of these ( or the UK version of these at least ) which seems surprising now

Just had a look and C155 END, a black one I remember, looks like it died in 2006.....or went to Ireland.

Someone I know still has a white one in great nick - as said already, you either 'get them' or you don't

I had an 86 Manta GTE hatch in red, looked pretty good (not as good as the Manta coupe mind) but it wasn't exactly nimble and not all that fast, I kind of liked it but it never quite hit the spot, I think part of it was a big dollop of an iron block Bedford Van engine with fuel injection lashed on, the lesser versions got a much nicer, if less powerful Vauxhall OHC 1.8 engine that actually didn't have any fundamental objection to being revved, why they never put the 130 or 150 bhp Vauxhall 2.0 engines in them I will never know.

The Toyota was probably, engine wise more comparable to the BDA engine in the RS1600 but less fragile, and look what they go for !

Sideways retro things go for a lot of money nowadays whichever way you look at it.

Just shows how light cars were though that they managed 8.5 to 60 and a genuine 120mph out of a measly 110bhp though - Corolla was about the same performance but a lot 'revvier' than the CIH Opel




Shame they didn't put the 2.0 XE in as you say though - with 156bhp it would have offered modern day GT86 perforrmance.

They did sell pretty well, the Corollas were a lot rarer. 2700-ish sold in total over here

Edited by s m on Tuesday 27th January 18:36

[angelicupstarts]

Steamer said:

micawrx said:

One of our mates traded in his beautiful Mk.2 Escort RS Mexico for a Toyota Corolla GT Liftback in about 1990.

We thought he was mental - 80 quid for spark plug leads? for a jap car?.. just silly.

In hindsight... how right was he! Bet he wish he still had it....

I'm a bit lost. The beautiful MK 2 Mexico would still be worth twice the price, would it not?


yep the mexico mk1 or 2 .. would be an easy 20,00 and upwards ! .. and as you say it actually looks nice ... and drives better ...and dosnt have some geek cartoon about it !
i really don't get this car ...and isn't drifting just a slower way to race front point a to b ?

[s m]

BGarside said:

Just don't like the look of these. They remind me too much of so many anonymous, mediocre, bland 80s Jap hatchbacks. Regardless of the handling it looks like a '90s pizza delivery car.

Give me the same engine in a Mark 1 MR2 instead.

And indeed they did

[SMcP114]

angelicupstarts said:

Steamer said:

micawrx said:

One of our mates traded in his beautiful Mk.2 Escort RS Mexico for a Toyota Corolla GT Liftback in about 1990.

We thought he was mental - 80 quid for spark plug leads? for a jap car?.. just silly.

In hindsight... how right was he! Bet he wish he still had it....

I'm a bit lost. The beautiful MK 2 Mexico would still be worth twice the price, would it not?

yep the mexico mk1 or 2 .. would be an easy 20,00 and upwards ! .. and as you say it actually looks nice ... and drives better ...and dosnt have some geek cartoon about it !
i really don't get this car ...and isn't drifting just a slower way to race front point a to b ?

The Toyota drives 10 times better than the Escort and is a far better car standard, which is to be expected.

[angelicupstarts]

SMcP114 said:

angelicupstarts said:

Steamer said:

micawrx said:

One of our mates traded in his beautiful Mk.2 Escort RS Mexico for a Toyota Corolla GT Liftback in about 1990.

We thought he was mental - 80 quid for spark plug leads? for a jap car?.. just silly.

In hindsight... how right was he! Bet he wish he still had it....

I'm a bit lost. The beautiful MK 2 Mexico would still be worth twice the price, would it not?

yep the mexico mk1 or 2 .. would be an easy 20,00 and upwards ! .. and as you say it actually looks nice ... and drives better ...and dosnt have some geek cartoon about it !
i really don't get this car ...and isn't drifting just a slower way to race front point a to b ?

The Toyota drives 10 times better than the Escort and is a far better car standard, which is to be expected.

not sure about that , ford escorts from mexico to rs have made it into top lists for many years as one of the best rally cars ever . won a lot of international competitions ... so x10 better ..nope
which is why mexicos and rs are worth far, far more ..as they have better race history .. drive better

[SMcP114]

The Group 4 and World Cup Escorts are not road cars.

In standard form, the AE86 Corolla is 10 times the car of an Escort. Faster, handles better, more comfortable and more up to date, which is to be expected as it's a newer car.

[randomeddy]

My son had one not too long ago.Big end bearings went on the engine so he did a full recon of the motor.
He was gutted when he sold it.A young bloke travelled on the train from down south with £5k in cash and drove it home.
Spunky little thing to drive.

[HorneyMX5]

Speedhunters have a good writeup of a carb fed AE86 here: http://www.speedhunters.com/2015/01/taku-n-style-c...