RE: Toyota Corolla Levin AE86: Spotted

RE: Toyota Corolla Levin AE86: Spotted

Author
Discussion

dinkel

26,951 posts

258 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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Lexus 2 litre in. Beast!

sr.guiri

479 posts

89 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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Al U said:
POA?! - I'm thinking like £3-4k max...
In the 59 months you have been on Pistonheads, and after nearly 1500 posts, you still know jack biggrin

s m

23,231 posts

203 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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406dogvan said:
Some moons ago, over on the Evo Forum, someone picked-up a UK Corolla GT (pretty much what this is but without the smell of fags and miso) and proceeded to ruin it rather badly.

He thought it was the Initial D Drift Missile and so he threw away the interior, threw in a load of "because racecar" and took it to a track where it was - erm - not that fast and not that much fun (amusingly, he had a Retro car magazine along to document his disappointment)
You mean Mick I think although there were about 4 on there at one stage

pete.g

1,527 posts

206 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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Coincidentally, I saw one yesterday - fitted with the obligatory pair of Cibies, I don't think you are allowed to drive one in Ireland, north or south without the spotlights fitted!


dapprman

2,323 posts

267 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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Zinyzang said:
To me that looks like a 85 not a 86
Engine looks fine - you sure you're not just getting confused with the fact that Itsuki accidentally buys an AE85 in Initial-D? - engine was available in both the Trueno and Levin (we only got the latter in the UK as the Corolla GTi).

P-Jay

10,566 posts

191 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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chappardababbar said:
Isn't this comparable to an E30 M3 / Integrale / 190E 2.3 in terms of driving experience / handling / provenance?
Nah, it’s got about half the power of most of them and I don’t believe it was ever conceived as anything more than a ‘fun little runaround’ by Toyota back in the day.

IMHO it’s a good car with a GREAT cult following that’s to the Japanese drift scene where they’ll held in the same sort of esteem as we give Mk1 Escorts in the UK. It’s no coincidence that when Toyota wanted to build a small, affordable coupe with a onus on fun handling over ‘on paper’ outright power and grip it was called a GT86.

e30m3Mark

16,205 posts

173 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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P-Jay said:
Nah, it’s got about half the power of most of them and I don’t believe it was ever conceived as anything more than a ‘fun little runaround’ by Toyota back in the day.
This is about the best review I've seen about the AE86.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjKN0Ummc6M

Edited by e30m3Mark on Thursday 19th April 10:47

s m

23,231 posts

203 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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e30m3Mark said:
P-Jay said:
Nah, it’s got about half the power of most of them and I don’t believe it was ever conceived as anything more than a ‘fun little runaround’ by Toyota back in the day.
This is about the best review I've seen about the AE86.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjKN0Ummc6M

Edited by e30m3Mark on Thursday 19th April 10:47
Yeah, I linked that one as well Mark

It's the Spanish guy - really nicely filmed isn't it

There's some other good films on that channel

Have you seen the E30 one?

e30m3Mark

16,205 posts

173 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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s m said:
e30m3Mark said:
P-Jay said:
Nah, it’s got about half the power of most of them and I don’t believe it was ever conceived as anything more than a ‘fun little runaround’ by Toyota back in the day.
This is about the best review I've seen about the AE86.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjKN0Ummc6M

Edited by e30m3Mark on Thursday 19th April 10:47
Yeah, I linked that one as well Mark

It's the Spanish guy - really nicely filmed isn't it

There's some other good films on that channel

Have you seen the E30 one?
I have, yes. I think I watched them all after seeing you post a link some time ago?

I think labelling it a 'fun runaround' is being a bit unfair and it didn't need big power as it was so light. Some models had 16v twin-cams, nigh on 130 brake, an LSD and only weighed 950 kgs. Sounds like an attractive and fun combination to me.

s m

23,231 posts

203 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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It has been accused of being slow but it offers same performance as a current VW UP GTi ......which many say is fast enough to be fun

blearyeyedboy

6,298 posts

179 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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I can see why an AE86 is prized. What I don't get is why people who do engine transplants, suspension mods and update the brakes don't just start off with an AE85. As far as I can see, all the important different bits between the two are being replaced by parts you're going to upgrade to anyway.

Have I missed the point?

J4CKO

41,567 posts

200 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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Anyone else think a "Levin" sounds more like a nocturnal, tree dwelling South American Mammal ?

s m

23,231 posts

203 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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Sort of car that would be interesting to see given the "Harry's Garage" treatment.

Bet I see one this weekend....the sun brings them out and I saw a few nice old 80s cars today/this evening

e30m3Mark

16,205 posts

173 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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I was hoping the sun would be out on Sunday as it's the Federation of British vehicle clubs 'Drive it Day'.

dufunk

182 posts

123 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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Thumbs down on the F20C vtec comes on way to late for going sideways and isn't great for balance. Its all about the Beams swap you have a spread of power and torque and it starts to pull hard from 4k up more character also as it has a carby noise similar to the 4AGE 20v which is hard to beat. Not worth going over to the dark side!

InitialDave

11,912 posts

119 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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I really want one, but I want one that's pretty much standard, and unfortunately it seems most of the ones that crop up have been messed about a lot.


Levin

2,027 posts

124 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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J4CKO said:
Anyone else think a "Levin" sounds more like a nocturnal, tree dwelling South American Mammal ?
Tell me more biggrin

Krikkit

26,529 posts

181 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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blearyeyedboy said:
I can see why an AE86 is prized. What I don't get is why people who do engine transplants, suspension mods and update the brakes don't just start off with an AE85. As far as I can see, all the important different bits between the two are being replaced by parts you're going to upgrade to anyway.

Have I missed the point?
Nope, I agree.

I suspect it's the itchy feet syndrome - buy an 86, find it's not quite quick enough, do the usual cams/ITBs etc, suspension, then more power again so engine swap.

Before you know it everyone just skips to the end, when they could start with a different car.

Blayney

2,948 posts

186 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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Levin said:
J4CKO said:
Anyone else think a "Levin" sounds more like a nocturnal, tree dwelling South American Mammal ?
Tell me more biggrin
:haha:

For reference I think Levin is lightning in old English, trueno is thunder in Spanish.

J4CKO

41,567 posts

200 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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Levin said:
J4CKO said:
Anyone else think a "Levin" sounds more like a nocturnal, tree dwelling South American Mammal ?
Tell me more biggrin
Do you have massive eyes, roll in your own piss to attract females and spend 99.6 percent of your life in the tree canopy ? biggrin