GOT A MAIN B*TCH, AND GOT A MISTRESS: Takuya Takahashi’s AE86s

Most people who own a modified car have thought at one point that it would be nice to build two of them, one for the street and one purely for the circuit. Takuya Takahashi has done just that. Let’s have a look at his matching-opposite pair of AE86s.

Starting off with the more extreme of the two, this matte-white Levin hatch.

This is the unregistered , nastier track-spec of the two.

The body wears N2 flares with a TRD rear wing and stock front bumper. Takuya cut, welded and filled the rear fenders himself, and painted the body in white with a matte-white topcoat.

13in F9 R10 SSR MkII

Takuya says one of the only problems with this car is that it’s a bit faster than the average AE86 at the track, so he finds it hard to easily drift closely with his friends without backing off.

These action shots were all taken at the HARDCORE X CAR MODIFY WONDER event at Nikko Circuit earlier this month.

He put a fair bit of money into the suspension, with Aragosta-branded parts fitted all around. He says it handles brilliantly despite being quite low.

It looks a bit lower in the rear than it usually is in this pic, since the trunk space was still full of spare wheels and tools from track day he attended a few days before.

While the battery is charging, let’s have a look at the engine.

4A-GE with Weber 45 carbs and N2-style exhaust that fail the noise restrictions of just about every track he visits.

Thanks to the carbs, lightweight Braille battery and standard starter motor, it took about ten minutes to get the car started after I arrived at Takuya’s garage, but once it gets going, it’s one of the best drift-spec AE86s I’ve ever heard.

Here’s an Instagram of it at Nikko’s kousoku corner.

#NikkoCircuit #KousokuCorner

A video posted by Alexi Smith (@noriyarojapan) on Jan 11, 2015 at 9:45pm PST

82φ pistons, forged conrods, 312in 304ex.

The transmission is an Adelia close ratio with a dogleg fourth gear.

The dashboard is customised Tec-Arts’ fibreglass replacement with deleted HVAC and clock holes.

Check out the custom-cut key holder.  It says “yon ei jii kurabu”. 四鋭爺倶楽部‬（笑）

Thanks to how kanji works, this is phonetically read as “4AG club”, but the the actual characters used to write it translate as something like “lively middle-aged men’s shared interest society”.

Kanji, how does it.

Basically, it’s an AE86 team consisting of only middle-aged men.

The “lively” part is right, as Takuya and all the other guys in the team (including Kazuhiko Kojima and Manabu Mitsumori) always drive flat-out on every corner in every session.

The only time they slow down is to bunch up before running a big train.

In the same way that Japanese plates are cool overseas, USDM plates are cool here.

I used to run a California plate my R32 until someone stole it.

Here’s something you might not expect. Takuya’s current daily driver is a USDM FJ62 Landcruiser imported from California.

Having watched (and listened to) this car run at a few different circuits, I can say with certainty that this is one of the best “f*ck you, I’m here to have fun” AE86s I’ve ever seen.

OK, let’s move on.

Takuya’s second car is this street-legal Levin coupe.

“Street-legal” as in it has plates, and is only a little bit illegal instead of being blatantly unregisterable.

The body colour is a custom mix that Takuya described as “something an old granny would choose for her kei car”.

He also trimmed the grille slightly to retain the kouki foglamps.

Colour-coded 14in F9 R10 SSR Longchamps (or “Ronshans” as they are pronounced here).

Just like Kojima’s “subtle” mustard-yellow AE86, Takuya was going for a stealthy look, but it ended up still being attention-getting.

Even though it’s a street-car, it’s still more than set up to take on the track.

Altezza 6 speed trans and a TRD LSD with a 4.5 final.

Normal 111 4A-GE (replaced after the previous engine blew) with ITBs and N2-style ekimani.

Polished, because.

The engine bay was smoothed out by AE86 freak/driver Naoki Sato.

You can see this particular car being built in this video by SC Films.

Finally, even though this is a street-car, it can drift like a maniac! Here’s a video of Takuya enjoying while destroying at Tsukuba 2000.

Thanks again to Takuya for the chance to shoot his cars!

Instagram: @tmcta98

Youtube: takuren81

If you’re in the mood for a long session of 4AGE sounds, here’s a 10-minute cut of the Tsukuba video on the Noriyaro2 Youtube channel.

Categorised in: Feature Cars　車の取材

This post was written by Alexi