The hachiroku is an all time favorite in many different motorsport competitions, therefore we look closer at driftracing today. This particular car I’m talking about is maybe the first ever winner of a drifting competition in Japan. Yes, for all the maniacs we are talking about Katsuhiro Ueo’s famous AE86. With this car he won the D1GP in Japan in the year 2002. Unfortunately the D1GP is now in sake of more smoke and higher speeds and so his car tends to be underpowered and uncompetitive. Today the AE86 is still the car which has won a D1GP the third most time, the Nissan S15 and the Mazda RX7 FD are just pushing it to 1st and 2nd on the podium.
Until 2001 UEO’s AE86 could have been a daily driver or lets say the car for spirited driving on weekends. It had a very simple engine Setup containing AE92 smallport 4A-GE with Toda pistons and a set of Toda 264/264 cams, the intake was removed in favor to common AE101 ITB setup. The suspension setup incorporated a set of custom made coilovers with a 9/6 spring setup (Greddy 8/6) and various other goodies including swaybars, lower control arms and the rear 4 links. The body preparation was the secret of the car so far, it was intended to be a proper racecar, seamwelded chassis and stripped to the fullest!
In 2002, his overall winning season, the car was still the same small AE86 and had to fight opponents like the HKS S15 or the green Kazama S15. The engine got a mayor overhaul and with Tomei as a new partner things looked promising. The new engine was „the engine“ you know from videos all over youtube. Rated to 170bhp and a little under 200NM torque it was just a mediocre tuned example. As the hachiroku cannot be measured in numbers, the engines power output isn’t saying anything. The real impressive number is 10’000. Yes, 10k RPM was the revlimit of the small 1.6l engine, that made the car fly.
Until today the Tomei 4A-GE is a secret, rumor has it, that it had their own pistons and crankshaft. No further infos are available for this piece of art. As I mentioned before the 170bhp engine was not overwhelming powerful, to be a real competitor against all the turbo powered cars. The other secret is, the car was setup individually for every race. He carried to every race 3 – 4 pumpkins with ratios in 4.3, 4.5, 4.8, 5.1 range and also all 3 different TRD gearbox setups. The OEM setup, the Gr. A one with the short 3 gear ratio and the Gr N2 suited for 5.3 final gears and with even closer gearing. Fact is, the 4.8 ratio with the OEM box was used most!
Chances are very low, that we will see such a car in international racing again. But in our minds, the AE will rest a star of untouchable state!
(Photos unknown source)The hachiroku is an all time favorite in many different motorsport competitions, therefore we look closer at driftracing today. This particular car I’m talking about is maybe the first ever winner of a drifting competition in Japan. Yes, for all the maniacs we are talking about Katsuhiro Ueo’s famous AE86. With this car he won the D1GP in Japan in the year 2002. Unfortunately the D1GP is now in sake of more smoke and higher speeds and so his car tends to be underpowered and uncompetitive. Today the AE86 is still the car which has won a D1GP the third most time, the Nissan S15 and the Mazda RX7 FD are just pushing it to 1st and 2nd on the podium.
Until 2001 UEO’s AE86 could have been a daily driver or lets say the car for spirited driving on weekends. It had a very simple engine Setup containing AE92 smallport 4A-GE with Toda pistons and a set of Toda 264/264 cams, the intake was removed in favor to common AE101 ITB setup. The suspension setup incorporated a set of custom made coilovers with a 9/6 spring setup (Greddy 8/6) and various other goodies including swaybars, lower control arms and the rear 4 links. The body preparation was the secret of the car so far, it was intended to be a proper racecar, seamwelded chassis and stripped to the fullest!
In 2002, his overall winning season, the car was still the same small AE86 and had to fight opponents like the HKS S15 or the green Kazama S15. The engine got a mayor overhaul and with Tomei as a new partner things looked promising. The new engine was „the engine“ you know from videos all over youtube. Rated to 170bhp and a little under 200NM torque it was just a mediocre tuned example. As the hachiroku cannot be measured in numbers, the engines power output isn’t saying anything. The real impressive number is 10’000. Yes, 10k RPM was the revlimit of the small 1.6l engine, that made the car fly.
Until today the Tomei 4A-GE is a secret, rumor has it, that it had their own pistons and crankshaft. No further infos are available for this piece of art. As I mentioned before the 170bhp engine was not overwhelming powerful, to be a real competitor against all the turbo powered cars. The other secret is, the car was setup individually for every race. He carried to every race 3 – 4 pumpkins with ratios in 4.3, 4.5, 4.8, 5.1 range and also all 3 different TRD gearbox setups. The OEM setup, the Gr. A one with the short 3 gear ratio and the Gr N2 suited for 5.3 final gears and with even closer gearing. Fact is, the 4.8 ratio with the OEM box was used most!
Chances are very low, that we will see such a car in international racing again. But in our minds, the AE will rest a star of untouchable state!
(Photos unknown source)