Mwa hah hah ... after 2 years of development, I have decided that my Panda AE86 should take a break - she's just too good to crash drifting now!

Therefore, I have embarked on another AE86 project in the meantime which will follow in the paths of SimonAE86's and MR2drift's cars using similar setups (prior to the current engine upgrades which both these cars are undergoing ATM) - just little amounts of cash spent sparingly in all the right places basically.

Whilst my Panda will continue to be my road car along with the yellow KE20 pokemon, this will be a different beast altogether - hardcore drift stuff for the track as its main purpose! As such, there shall be no flash paintjobs / bodykits rather just good fruit on board, stripped interior and no stereo.

Many parts which were originally to go on the Panda 86 have now been reserved for this car (see below).

As I have spent heaps of $$$ and have overcapitalised on the Panda too much, I am making amends by planning to do this project on a base budget for the essential stuff. Many thanks to the Witzl for his inspirational 4AG KE70 project to get this one going.

Anyway, here goes:

1) The car



My Silver crappy was acquired with a spare 20v silvertop 4AG motor! I also got a few spares thrown in along with that too.



Bought originally as a parts car, the modding bug has been biting me more for every extra day it remains unmoving in my mate's backyard.

It's never been involved in an accident but you can see it's had a hard life (300+ km's) and rust has taken its toll. The previous owner has attended to some of it but there's still more to remove!

Anyway, as it's a little crappy there will be no tears shed if I hit a gutter or crash it - it'd just be a matter of finding another shell provided I survive.

It doesn't look like much but that's what I thought of MR2drift's yellow 86 when I saw his for the first time the week after he bought it (no offense Josh - goes back to those ol' 4AC days) but look at his car now!

2) The motor (included in car price)

Well, I have decided to go up a different path and carb the 4AG bluetop motor that will go in - got all the parts lying around so I might as well use them!

I could use the 20v motor but being on a budget, it would be too time consuming & costly to get an aftermarket computer, even if you can get 2nd hand Wolf ECU's for $350 these days.

As such, I have since exchanged the 20V which came with the car back for my old Bluetop which I gave to a mate for installing my other rebuilt 4AG (it sounds confusing but it gets like that when you've played with about six 4AG engines to date).



He also gave me back the 4AG bigport manifold + linkages for the carbs and will be giving me his webers 40's off his Datto 720 rally car for free provided I let him work on the car.

May consider saving up for some 272 degree camshafts & adjustable cams in the meantime - it'd be a pity to put the motor back together and not do something special with it.

3) 2 way KAAZ LSD



Been sitting on my floor gathering dust for a while now. She'll be going in one day yet. It's brand new from the states and I only paid $990 for it including the LSD oil can. Probably could have saved about $300 getting a 2nd hand unit but I decided to spoil myself a bit.



Check out the break-in instruction guide!

5) 5600K Xenon HID kit



Hmmm ... some natural daylight at night will be good. My positive Ebay ratings have now shot past the 70 mark.

6) 14x7 Globe Centreline alloys



The Panda will probably be losing her wheels to this car ... just waiting for the other set of alloys to arrive soon. One of my best buys off Ebay yet. There's a little KE10 in Parramatta with similar rims painted gold and they just look awesome!

7) Momo steering wheel



Something cheap and useful I bought from Just Japs Imports - it's extended so I won't have to worry about hitting my indicator stalk. AE86 boss kit available cheap anyone?

Suspension

The most important part!

My good mate at Pedders has custom made me a set of front coilovers which consist of HKS cambertops (thanks Simon!) and custom made shocks based on similar characteristics as the TRD AE92 shocks off Shane's drift car. These aren't the standard factory parts available off the shelves. I am not sure what the rates of the springs are but I know they will be no less than 6kg each.

No pics yet as they are still at Pedders on a shelf just waiting to be installed.

9) Zenki Levin Tail lights



Luxury item once again - just something to make it stand out a bit.

New parts are also being acquired each day but it's all falling into place now.

Some of the other stuff yet to come include:

a) steering wheel boss kit
b) cheap bucket seat - OBX Daytona fixed for $250 or perhaps Sparco Sprint for $350?
c) headers + exhaust
d) rego, compliance cost, insurance etc
e) roll cage
f) another set of 185/60/14 tyres
g) cheap paint - so many choices of colour though!
h) T-18 rear diff
i) better brake pads - bendix?
j) Sigma + Celica control arms

Plan is to get everything I need first, get the car running & rego'd then do the whole thing all in the one go.

As it probably won't be happening for a while I shall only update the thread when things progress (in other words, probably next year!) but I'm quite sure it will get there - some day eventually ...

Just some light reading for people in the meantime with nothing else to do.

[Updated on: Wed, 19 January 2005 00:37]

[Updated on: Sat, 28 August 2004 09:04]

Wow ... so many replies - don't get hopes up fellas ...

I get the feeling this one could take a while to put together, probably over the Christmas break or something. That's what you get when you expect your mates to lend a hand and you pay peanuts in return.

Couple of comments:

1) Yes, I am fortunate to have access to some car space - I just have to remain on good terms with the missus.

2) Skaney - yes, it is hard to take your car to the limit on the public roads. I have a few times and then realised soon afterwards how badly things could have turned out if something did go wrong ... keep things on a track where the danger is minimised.

3) Monkeymajik - Middle Earth is actually New Zealand (LOTR). Get in touch with Deane Buist who will be able to hook you up with the part. His email is:

deaneb@palmside.co.nz

I don't have the actual part number but you can grab that from the product catalogue off the Quaife UK website. Just remember their AE86's are referred to as a Corolla GT, not a Sprinter.

4) Satoshi - that notorious yellow AE86 has been featured in all the newsagent car mags lately. I have seen it go from a $900 4ac purchase to a real $5k drift warrior in about 3 months. It's going to be painted pink now I think:

http://www.initialdrift.com.au/forums/viewtopic.ph p?t=1712

I have not spoken with the owner directly re his setup but know it's similar to what SimonRX7 uses as well as a mate of mine - Sigma arms on the front and he uses cut Falcon GT springs at the rear. Not exactly parts you'd get straight off the self but a bit of a custom job.

5) Simon - I am so spewing that the LSD is not in there. You are right in that you can only get it to really slide in the wet however since going to the skid pan, I am learning NOT to use the handbrake in the wet.

Handbrake's are like an on/off button in the wet. I can see myself using it in the dry however a fast entry in the wet is just asking for some oversteer fun however if I go too fast, my current setup results in understeer - blaming the huge whiteline swaybar + soft shocks / springs for it.

6) Garth + Simon - colour not decided but will be el cheapo. Definitely not black but it will probably come down to either orange or yellow.

Cream did cross my mind either doing it similar to the Dropout Racing coupe as per the pic or doing a levin version of Ueo's infamous Sift / Revolver / Yukes trueno however I doubt I can be bothered spending time to come up with the vinyl graphics!

It certainly won't be a panda this time for sure!

[Updated on: Sun, 29 August 2004 12:42]

Heh heh ... finally got some pics of the front coilovers - they'll be going into the Panda 86 tomorrow and will remain in that car until this silver crappy gets rego'd.



Thanks go to Simon for the HKS cambertops. As you can see, they're short strokes with 7kg HKS springs from a supra model (which particular one, I don't know) and my mate had a sense of humour to even colour code it Pedders red and stick on some stickers.

All up it cost me about $1,050 ($900 setup + $150 cambertops which were part exchanged for some levin tail lights) including a set of rear springs which I'm yet to lay my eyes upon however I was told they might be coming off a subaru liberty? Don't know if he was pulling my leg but I'll find out early tomorrow morning.

Got some pics too of the 20 valve motor which has now been striped apart and the heads / valves cleaned. There is talk now of putting this motor into the silver crappy instead - my mate is happy to do it as long as he gets to play with the tuning etc.




I also got my other mate Shano to source me a set of blacktop quads / manifold / injectors which only set me back $150 - apparently they are bigger than a silvertop.

It'll take a while for the quads to arrive from Japan but hopefully everything else will be rolling along then.

This means I'll have to go thru the whole EFI conversion / water piping / aftermarket ECU shanigan however it will have ample power which I am looking for without the need to splash out more dough on adjustable cams + camshafts.

Now ... who's got a 2nd hand Wolf / Motec ECU for sale cheap?

[Updated on: Fri, 03 September 2004 13:04]

[Updated on: Wed, 08 September 2004 07:10]