Let’s have a look at another one of our fearless drivers, this guy playing at and over the limit in a car that’s exactly as old as himself..
who asked for that tofu delivered extra fast?
Meet Martin S., the guy with the red hachiroku. But let’s start a little further back in time. After finishing school, Martin started with a stock S13, wasting no time and going the RWD route right away. Although the S13 was a nice start, he soon realized that the most fun part of driving are the bits between the straights and therefore went in pursuit of a real gem for these territories. As he’d meanwhile started studying mechanical engineering it would still have to be affordable, street driveable but fun.
2008 he made the perfect find in a nice red 1987 Toyota Corolla AE86 which at the time actually belongt to Tobi, our big kahuna. 😉 And it was first registered during the same month Martin was born, a clear signal if there is one..
cars without tape on their front splitters haven’t been used right.
Martin immediately fell for the 1,6L 4A-GE engined Corolla and therefore got right into adding the little things that would make it perfect for what he had in mind, streetability and the occasional track action thrown in.
<
picture of totally awesome scooby ruined by guy fiddling with a corolla.
As his goal for the car was for it to be a nice underpowered way of really getting to grips with the art of driving as well as drifting, he concentrated mainly on the stuff that would make the car handle even more like the gem a AE86 can be and not so much on infinite horsepower numbers. Parts installed included Greddy Type-S suspension, a Cusco RS 2-way differential and a TRD 4.8 final drive, making the car quite the little drifter.
hell yeah, smoking tires at Anneau du Rhin!
Having been a mountain biker as well as a scuba diver for years might help Martin to have the strenght to throw the non-assisted steering Toyota into corners for hours after hours. But of course, even with the best, learning something always includes a little bit of trial and error 😉
Spied: Toyota evaluating AE86 Corolla for next year’s WRC.
The Corolla’s now already been to a number of racetracks across europe, including the Nordschleife, Dijon, Oschersleben and Hockenheim. Asked which of the tracks he’d been to was his favourite, Martin mentions the Nordschleife due to it being simply the most astonishing and demanding track there is.
Tackling Wehrseifen, one of the trickiest turns of the Nurburgring Nordschleife.
The track he’s been to most is of course Anneau du Rhin, he’s been to most of Speed Industries events, getting it on with the track, the scenery and a few BMW’s.. 😉
Testing the car’s and maybe Chris‘ limits.
One thing that’s always aboard with him is his old Mountain Biking helmet, which while maybe not being quite FIA spec makes sure that even when he’s not in his red Hachi for once you’re still sure it’s definitely him.
Unfortunately, during 2010 at one of the Anneau du Rhin events, his engine decided to no longer cool its big end bearing, resulting in a engine failure. But Martin, as every good petrolhead, took this failure as an opportunity to upgrade, got a complete new engine with a nice OST head including HKS 264/256 cams as a cherry on top. The swap was a bit of a test of the team’s endurance but with help from everyone it was finally completed, if not without the usual setbacks associated with such undertakings.. 😉
Us Martins at work.. and out is the old engine! (all chris did was taking pics.. j/k!! )
TEAMWORK! The Boss applying his special magic engine healing skills, me having a glass of white wine in the background. (actually that’s a piston.. 😉 )
Not the most fun part of our hobby.. but these hours will be worth it later!!
This means that Martin can now once again go back to pounding along racetracks and roads across europe.
warping ‚round anneau.
Martin’s great to have on the team, he’s always a good friend who helps you out when needed. He’s got a lot of knowledge we can all profit from.. For example, he’s probably the only one who knows how that electricity thing works.. while I myself still can’t work out why that stuff doesn’t pour out of the cables when I cut them.. 😛 He’s also great to have along on trips, with him aboard there’s always the guaranty that unexpected and hilarious things will happen! 😀
Keep going strong, mate! 🙂
A stash of tires in front of a door.Let’s have a look at another one of our fearless drivers, this guy playing at and over the limit in a car that’s exactly as old as himself..
who asked for that tofu delivered extra fast?
Meet Martin S., the guy with the red hachiroku. But let’s start a little further back in time. After finishing school, Martin started with a stock S13, wasting no time and going the RWD route right away. Although the S13 was a nice start, he soon realized that the most fun part of driving are the bits between the straights and therefore went in pursuit of a real gem for these territories. As he’d meanwhile started studying mechanical engineering it would still have to be affordable, street driveable but fun.
2008 he made the perfect find in a nice red 1987 Toyota Corolla AE86 which at the time actually belongt to Tobi, our big kahuna. 😉 And it was first registered during the same month Martin was born, a clear signal if there is one..
cars without tape on their front splitters haven’t been used right.
Martin immediately fell for the 1,6L 4A-GE engined Corolla and therefore got right into adding the little things that would make it perfect for what he had in mind, streetability and the occasional track action thrown in.
<
picture of totally awesome scooby ruined by guy fiddling with a corolla.
As his goal for the car was for it to be a nice underpowered way of really getting to grips with the art of driving as well as drifting, he concentrated mainly on the stuff that would make the car handle even more like the gem a AE86 can be and not so much on infinite horsepower numbers. Parts installed included Greddy Type-S suspension, a Cusco RS 2-way differential and a TRD 4.8 final drive, making the car quite the little drifter.
hell yeah, smoking tires at Anneau du Rhin!
Having been a mountain biker as well as a scuba diver for years might help Martin to have the strenght to throw the non-assisted steering Toyota into corners for hours after hours. But of course, even with the best, learning something always includes a little bit of trial and error 😉
Spied: Toyota evaluating AE86 Corolla for next year’s WRC.
The Corolla’s now already been to a number of racetracks across europe, including the Nordschleife, Dijon, Oschersleben and Hockenheim. Asked which of the tracks he’d been to was his favourite, Martin mentions the Nordschleife due to it being simply the most astonishing and demanding track there is.
Tackling Wehrseifen, one of the trickiest turns of the Nurburgring Nordschleife.
The track he’s been to most is of course Anneau du Rhin, he’s been to most of Speed Industries events, getting it on with the track, the scenery and a few BMW’s.. 😉
Testing the car’s and maybe Chris‘ limits.
One thing that’s always aboard with him is his old Mountain Biking helmet, which while maybe not being quite FIA spec makes sure that even when he’s not in his red Hachi for once you’re still sure it’s definitely him.
Unfortunately, during 2010 at one of the Anneau du Rhin events, his engine decided to no longer cool its big end bearing, resulting in a engine failure. But Martin, as every good petrolhead, took this failure as an opportunity to upgrade, got a complete new engine with a nice OST head including HKS 264/256 cams as a cherry on top. The swap was a bit of a test of the team’s endurance but with help from everyone it was finally completed, if not without the usual setbacks associated with such undertakings.. 😉
Us Martins at work.. and out is the old engine! (all chris did was taking pics.. j/k!! )
TEAMWORK! The Boss applying his special magic engine healing skills, me having a glass of white wine in the background. (actually that’s a piston.. 😉 )
Not the most fun part of our hobby.. but these hours will be worth it later!!
This means that Martin can now once again go back to pounding along racetracks and roads across europe.
warping ‚round anneau.
Martin’s great to have on the team, he’s always a good friend who helps you out when needed. He’s got a lot of knowledge we can all profit from.. For example, he’s probably the only one who knows how that electricity thing works.. while I myself still can’t work out why that stuff doesn’t pour out of the cables when I cut them.. 😛 He’s also great to have along on trips, with him aboard there’s always the guaranty that unexpected and hilarious things will happen! 😀
Keep going strong, mate! 🙂
A stash of tires in front of a door.