Ahh, the Toyota AE 86. Brings back memories. Rear wheel drive, a free revving Yamaha tuned DOHC, EFI engine that was virtually unbreakable, made this car a boy racer’s dream car. Make no mistakes, however the AE86 is a very talented car. Due to its light weight and high power, it is capable of high speeds of up to 120 mph (193 km/h). And by the way, in standard form, the car does 0-60 mph in slightly more than 8 seconds! What there not to like.
To be frank, I never did get a chance of owning or even driving an AE 86. But I did have a KE 70 Corolla transplanted with a 4A-GE engine. With around 120 bhp at 6,600 rpm, the car was really fun to say the least. In first gear, stomping on the loud pedal can easily cause the rear wheels to break traction.
Made famous by manga and the movie Initial D, the AE86 won fans around the world with its drifting ability. Off course, in the movie, the car won over more capable and expensive sports cars like the RX-7, EVO IV and GT-R.
There are rumors Toyota will revive the AE86, create an AE86 type vehicle under 4m long and 1.7m wide and 1.35m tall. Apparently engineers have been told to keep weight below 1,000kgs. Power will come from a 1.5L 2NZ-FE good for 120 horsepower. If you are not familiar, the 2NZ-FE engine uses an Atkinson cycle rather than the Otto cycle which produces less power but is more efficient.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. So far all these are rumors. We’ll have to wait a little longer to see. It could turn out the AE86 is a Celica. Who knows.
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