ALL WEATHER FIGHTER: Tadashi Yanagawa’s AE86 Levin three-door
April 2, 2009 12:30 amThis car belongs to an unassuming bloke by the name of Tadashi Yanagawa. The interesting thing about him is that he can drift as fast in totally wet conditions as he can in the dry. I saw him at a recent track day at Nikko Circuit and had to have a look at his car. Surprisingly, there’s not much more to it than many other AE86s out there, but it’s still pretty damn cool.
Simple Good Line aero and fender flares are the only exterior mods, but still suit the car perfectly.
That’s a nice lookin’ stack o’wheels ya got there, mister.
Neovas work really well in the wet too, so that may have had something to do with it.
The exhaust manifold is a TRD copy, which Tadashi says was made up by a skilled mate of his, and he reckons it’s just as good, if not better than the real thing.
The engine is made up of a AE101 block and AE92 head with high-compression pistons.
You don’t need much more than this.
The dash is a custom Defi job with centre-mounted tacho, and retains the factory fuel gauge.
Insert Allan Parsons joke here.
According to another driver I talked to on the day, Tadashii is as good as any pro driver (he even managed to pick up the expert-class trophy at this event’s mini competition), but I was also told that he’s one of those guys who just doesn’t really have the head for tandem competition. You could have fooled me though. I was in the same class as him, and he had no problems riding my tail all the way around the first few corners at Nikko Circuit!
Tags: AE86, Corolla, Levin, Nikko Circuit, ToyotaCategorised in: Profiles プロフィル
This post was written by Alexi
14 Comments
Great post on a cool working-class type of car! It’s cool seeing unassuming cars (and drivers) that really rip! He should practice tandem more and go pro!
sick! love his wheel choice!
really interesting
i’d love to see a video of him drifting
Green valve covers make me want to eat candy.
Brand new Neova’s might have something to do with his speed.
I wonder if his name has the same Kanji as ‘correct’
I think they are origin flares. Cool rig 🙂
good shit as always !!
glad you write about 86’s! hard to drive and hard to own one !
not too many people still drift these hardcore !
nice write up!
Sounds like this guy would rip on the touge.
dp2 has been around for years right? who else is in that crew? i wanna say ken maeda but im not sure. i remember seeing DP2 in old BM mags
cool rolla. id love a 86.
@dousan
Yeah, it’s Maeken’s old team.
i love how there is no speedo guage on the dash… XD
DP2 had this one dude forgot his name ! saw it also in the old Autoworks mags I had back in 2001 ..theres a pic of them ripping thru touge when Maeda went Maroon at around the last season of 2001 D1
hey aaron..too bad no more CSB
anyone who wants to see it in action 🙂 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n0rICKhHHY
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