Even since I was very young, cars have always been THE thing. Like most people of my generation, Japanese cars have always been of special interest. One car in particular has always been my favourite, the AE86. With its lightweight, nimble chassis and the high revving 4age that emits such a beautiful sound, it just screams ‘drivers car’. Of course, no surprises here, when it came time for me to get my licence it was the only car I was interested in buying. With passion for cars comes passion for motor sport, this is especially true for me. I love all forms of circuit racing, rally, motorkhana, and drifting. The plan was to build it up for hill climbs and other forms of track racing, unfortunately at the time, clean Ae86’s for sale were sparse to say the least, and I didn’t have the contacts and knowledge to find one. I had to settle for something else.
Skip forward about a year and I found myself a spectator at a drift practise day at Queensland Raceway in Australia. While watching with some friends on the pit wall a small matt black 4-door car roared out of the last corner and straight past us. The engine noise was unmistakably 4age. I was immediately confused, the car was a 1984 ke70 which I happened to know are complete buckets. One of my good mates owned one, which was previously his parents, and we always gave him crap for it being so pathetic. This day had given me much to think about. The prospect of owning a second car was unthinkable before that day, but the fact that ke70’s are so cheap and that almost all ae86 parts are interchangeable (including the 4age) was too good to wave off. After some research and some forum for sale browsing I quickly found the perfect car. It was a 1984 Ae71. It came with minor suspension parts, the standard 4ac motor and was going for $500. Without hesitation I bought it.
Old, rusty, bent panels, AE chassis… perfect. Like many others I had caught the drift bug, and this was exactly the intention for this car. Not concerned about the 4ac’s painful lack of power I set straight out to the track for as much fun as possible. My complete lack of regard for the motors well being made my track time much more enjoyable. Considering the motor usually valve bounced at 4500rpm, I was very happy to see it hit 8000rpm while entering one corner on the downshift.
After my first track day though I quickly realised I should lock the diff to help the car slide, so I pulled it out and got someone to do this for me. This certainly made things even more fun.
But the time quickly came for me relieve the ae71 from the horrible boat anchor I call a 4ac, and perform the much needed upgrade to a 4age.
Being an ‘at home’ engine conversion, it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing for getting the whole thing completed. However, despite all the problems I managed to pull through and get the thing running and back on the road. Gaining the 4age and more power meant the car would require better suspension. The car quickly received ae86 front struts and power steering model ae86 steering arms, which are shorter and give loads more lock. Along with this the car already had longer lower control arms from a Mitsubishi Sigma, cut down RS-R Soarer springs in the front, cut springs from a Ford Falcon in the rear and Suzuki Sierra rear shocks. By this time I had met some good friends that were doing this same as me with ae86’s. Together we made a team called the Midnight Mechanics.
One of the things that quickly got changed on the car was the front end. The earlier model ke70, in my eyes, is much better looking so I changed all the front panels and lights on my car for the early model.
I should point out too at this time I had sold my daily and this was now my primary car. This meant I had a fair bit more cash to spend on the car. Over the next two years or so, while casually drifting when I could, I was spending money on much needed bits to make the car better in the looks and performance department. The car gained bits such as 8kg Tein coilovers, T3 adjustable rose jointed lca’s, a half cage, rose jointed 4link, Bride Low Max, adjustable panhard rod, 6kg TRD rear springs, 8 way adjustable TRD rear shocks and a TRD 0.5mm head gasket. This is just to name a few things that are now in the car. I also sourced out parts to make the car look much more like a JDM model KE70, as well as adding my own twist to it. This included the quad headlights, a chin spoiler and, one of my favourite purchases for the car ever, a set of old school 14x8 –12 Hayashi Streets.
This last photo was a spur of the moment drift day just before I took the car to a mate to have it painted. I took my time to choose the colour for the car, spending several days getting different variations of red made up and then test sprayed on panels. I wanted to stray as far away from the bland generic colours that are so often seen in the Australian drift scene. I also wanted to show that I was still confident to go as quick into corners as I can, regardless of how pretty my car is. During the time the car was being painted I also bought a set of bumpers off a JDM ke70 to further the image I wanted for the car.
The Result:
I was very happy with how the car turned out after paint. My mate Lee who did all the prep and paintwork is simply a magician when it comes to cars. Who would have thought that this car is the $500 piece of crap I bought so many years ago.
In the above picture you can see that my front lip is all smashed up, unfortunately that happened from a previous track day, but I had a spare for the car, which is now being used. I think it would be fair to say that I haven’t really slowed down too. I still love barrelling into corners as quick as I can and powering out of them.
Once I had the car all painted and clean I asked one of my friends, Hao, to take some photos of my car. I wanted to have some good clean photos of the car saved before I put the thing into a wall (fingers crossed I don’t). Hao is an excellent photographer and certainly captured some amazing photos of the car.
As much as I love a naturally aspirated 4age and their inability to die, it is quickly becoming apparent that I need more power. Particularly with the tracks in Australia, which are usually one extreme or the other – massive touring car tracks or small go-kart sized courses. There are many options I could consider to get the power I want for the car, but I decided the best solution for me was an ae101 4agze. For those that don’t know, this is the supercharged version of the 4age that came out in the Ae101 Levin. The beauty of this motor is that it bolts up the same as any other 4age, and should I require more power I have the perfect base for a turbo set-up.
This is where I have been working on the 4agze since I bought it, out in a small shed at the back of my house. I’m in the process of replacing as much as I can before it goes into the car so that it is pretty much a fresh motor. I’m also collecting parts to go in with the motor including a oil cooler relocation kit, 3 core alloy radiator, cusco engine mounts and a TRD 0.8mm head gasket. I’m really looking forward to having the extra power from the motor when it is in.
The thing I love about this car so much is that it’s purely fun, I have no need to pursue sponsors for the car as I love just going at my own pace and doing what I feel like. If I don’t feel like drifting, I don’t. If I feel like drifting I go out and give my motor hell.
Specs:
Engine, Exhaust & Drivetrain:
Aw11 4age 16v Bigport - Corolla Purple spec
Ae101 4agze on engine stand
- awaiting Trd 0.8mm gasket
- Ke70 triple core alloy radiator waiting to go in
- New relocation oil cooler on the way
Trd 0.5mm Metal Head gasket
fresh seals, bolts and stuff
Trd copy 4-1 extractors
2 1/4" exhaust piping and Axle back 3" megaphone (track) and $25 sports
muffler (daily)
excedy 4 puck clutch - Its gay
Oil cooler kit with braided lines
Standard ke70 rear end locked (eww 3.89!!!!!)
K&N Filter - garbage bin spec
10m Cressida Throttle cable
Suspension:
Cusco Camber tops
Front strut brace
8kg Tein Ae86 coilovers
T3 rose jointed LCA's
Power steering arms
Adjustable panhard rod
Rose jointed 4 link - Apex Engineering
TRD 6kg rear springs
TRD 8way adjustable shocks
Inside:
Good old australian early 80's styling - green dash and blue panels
Some old school saas wheel
Bride Low max
Cusco 6 point
The insides of a zzzzzzeebra
Lucky red dice
A (singular) doraemon
Rim collection and brakes:
14x8 - 12 Hayashi Streets (Old school ones, not off the shelf stuff)
Vented jdm disks up front
Genuine ADM drum rear end!!!
Exterior:
Quad lights
2 Chin lips (one held together with fibreglass paste and zipties, another thats good... for now)
5000k front lights that dont give enough light to see 5 metres in front of you and burnt out both my plugs.
The other great thing about cars and drifting is the friends you make. I’ve met some great people through going to the track and just having fun. I owe a great deal of thanks to my friends and family for helping me with this car over the years, I’m sure it sounds cliché, but I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today without that help.
A lot of the friends that I have met have been through the two forums www.secretdrift.com.au and www.ae86drivingclub.com.au. Both of these two forums combined have helped me with priceless information on these cars, finding parts and generally increasing the amount of fun it has been to build this car.
The funny thing is, in the time I have had this car, I have also owned an Ae86 and the 71 is far more fun. I definitely want to build up an ae86 down the line, but I feel there is not much point while I still have the ae71. It would be great to build a purely N/A monster Ae86 with big cams, quad throttles, all the gear, just as a weekend car to go for a bash through the hills and take to the occasional track day.
I think one of the funniest things when I reminisce about this car, is I remember telling some friends many years ago that although I love drifting, I would never get into it purely because it would be like pouring money down a drain. Well here I am now, and I have spent countless amounts of time and money on this car, and I don’t regret it in the slightest.
I love driving it to the track and seeing the expressions on faces as I drive by, I love the smell of tire smoke after sliding through a corner and I love kicking the clutch at 140kph in third gear to make it manji down a straight. But I think the most rewarding thing about the car though is looking back at it after working on it and saying ‘I built that’.
-Grant Scott
