AE86 Corolla ‘trackday’ build
Not all the cars we work on are classics with chrome bumpers or LS V8s, we can also turn our hand to more modern, appreciating classics, including the Toyota AE86. The AE86’s evolution from mass market, vaguely performance focussed car to the realm of automotive legend is well known, so it shouldn’t be that surprising that one has found its way into the Retropower fold.
Imported from Japan some years ago by a committed, AE86-mad owner, the car was pretty much driven directly to us and stripped. The brief was fairly simple, to build a suitably uprated car with plenty of power, a well realised chassis with custom suspension and stunning paint. In short, an AER86 saloon in which to monster highland B-roads.
As these photos show, the car still has a way to go before it’s ready to head north of the border, though they do at least show its stunning coat of Jaguar Ultimate Black. It’s a shade which appears to change colour depending on the amount of light being shone upon it yet appears, to those merely glancing in the car’s direction, to be a traditional, pure black affair.
One of the biggest advantages to building a car like this, one firmly entrenched within the heart of the global tuning industry, is the amount of ‘off the peg’ hardware available, including high end suspension. Various, performance focussed coilovers, arms and mounts will eventually find their way onto the AE86, as will as highly modified, re-sized and relocated Hilux axle.
Power will come from a suitable tuned version of one of Toyota’s finest engines, the 4AGE, a known quantity and therefore ideal for a build of this nature. We’ve yet to decide on its ultimate specification, but you can bet a forged bottom end and Individual Throttle Bodies on standalone management will make an appearance somewhere.