Newera Import's Corolla Levin.

[Miguel - Newera]

There have been other threads about this car:

Drifting in Tokyo on a Saturday night.

Newera Media's Corolla AE86 - Progress Report!!

Techno Pro Spirits 4AGE 1.6 Engine Build. Progress!

Newera Imports AE86 Project - 1st Trackday, Tsukuba.

Pictures from the Corolla AE86 Celebration 5 - Nikko Circuit. Not 56K friendly!!!!!!!

Well, it's finally finished!!

Here's some recently taken pics. We resprayed it, to perfect the bodywork and I spent last weekend painstakingly putting it back together with all new trim parts, etc. Whatever could be replaced as part of re-assembling, was. I figure these parts won't be around much longer, so it was wise to replace them whilst I could. Even the rubber seals for the window / trim on the interior were changed. Note also the carbon wind deflectors and carbon panel below the windscreen. New items recently released here.

I've also recently fitted a few new parts in the engine bay... The PAS bottle, combined oil catch tank / expansion tank replaced the old ones - I hated that plastic reservoir tank. Also fitted a new screen washer bottle as the old one had turned yellow over 22 years or so, KMS Manifold (Fitted last year, but I have't posted a pic of it fitted till now - it's holding up very well - not cracked or given any problems but noticably improved top end power). All suspension is pillow ball now, too with Greddy's new mini 6 pot kit at the front. I've got a set of new TRD Anti roll bars to fit next weekend, as I've been running a Cusco rear with standard front till now. Might also fit a brake bias valve sometime, but it doesn't need one - might only improve brake performance a little, I guess..

I can't think of anything else I want to do to it now, except drive!
So it's pretty much finished...Sure there will be small improvements to be made as I find the need for them, but I'm pleased with the results after 3 years of work during spare time on some weekends & evenings.

It's proving to be totally reliable, and despite the work that's gone into it, I'll still use it hard on the track, and have fun with it on Japan's mountain roads toying with much more powerful, but heavier cars.. I've only had to do regular maintenance on it. All the parts chosen seem to be lasting well with no quality issues and notably it's not needed any re-mapping at all. Engine still runs sweet as a nut. Aside from regular oil changes and occasionally squirting the ITB inlets with carb cleaner to remove carbon deposits and restore correct idle - I've only had to balance the throttles once, when they went slightly off tune.

Thought about cutting out the arches and making it wider, but in the end I couldn't bring myself to butcher a completely rust free body.

It's huge fun to drive. Can't get enough of it

Cheers for looking!

[Miguel - Newera]

Some more pics

Nikko Circuit, 3rd drift track day I'd attended...



Wheel is well off the ground, car's at 90 degrees to the corner. Wheels are partly behind the summit of the banking.



Wet circuit...

[Miguel - Newera]

I've not got any decent video clips of it shot in the last year... I'll have to get around to making some, I guess. For your entertainment - here's some that may have been seen before anyways:

We were commissioned by 5th Gear for a weekend as fixers - making filming arrangements & teaching them a bit about Tokyo & Japan. Unfortunately they wouldn't interview me directly, as Newera was being paid to work for them and that would be free advertising (Against broadcasting rules apparently - They even blanked out the neweraparts.com sticker as I passed by in the video! ). After being inspired by Dan's BeeR 334R burnout, I gatecrashed the party a little. Tom Ford's quite a funny bloke.

YouTube - Daikoku Fotu Futo Japan Street Race Car Meets Fifth Gear

Here’s an old clip where it was chasing a 450 bhp R34 GT-R on a mostly long sweeper road. Jstylecars.com .::Japanese cars by Dino Dalle Carbonare::.

Another clip from the Fuji Mountain GT-R day last year.

Video of Miguel - Nutcase - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Another old video clip: Newera's AE86 in action at Nikko drift circuit!!! - Video

I'll try to shoot it on the circuit next time. Keep meaning to video a late night drive through Tokyo as a sort of mad guided tour of Tokyo in this car, but haven't got around to it... Too many ideas and a case of not a lot of spare time! Maybe soon.

I think it sounds best from outside the car - hearing a friend from the GTR register here in Japan driving it on Fuji's mountain roads (Hard) towards where we waited in the parking area sounded so sweet it brought little tears of joy to my eyes, lol.

[Pharoahe]

Really nice Corolla, I allready posted the car on my blog

Newera’s Hachi Roku « Kultivate’s Weblog

It got alot of attention

[bkvj]

beauty...they sound amazing aswell!

[alex2005]

Awsome little car!!!!!

[Lamb]

I have been in this car and its amazing!!.....the pictures dont do it justice!!

Without a doubt the best AE86 around!




Harry

[digitalboy40]

gorgeous car i was at tsukuba the other day testing our race car and there were 2 hachi's that were pretty quick...it made me want to get one real bad.

[digitalboy40]

p.s. they don't nail you on shaken for not having a speedo???

[Kanzen]

I really like this car, awesome AE86 and so much fun

Shame the lighting at Daikoku isn't better, too dark on Wednesday to really see the recent work. Great pics though

[Miguel - Newera]

Kanzen, wasn't it you who drove it on our day out in Fuji? So many of us were trying out each other's cars that day I can't remember for sure, but it sure sounded good, being pushed through those twisties as it came screaming towards us

I'll never forget driving your car that day too. That's the sweetest street prepared GT-R I've ever driven and I've certainly been behind the wheel of a fair share the last 10 years!

We'll have to organise another event like that soon, don't you think so?

[Miguel - Newera]

Originally Posted by digitalboy40

p.s. they don't nail you on shaken for not having a speedo???

It's got a Speedo.... The RSM in the middle (Adjustable, so I calculated the speeds based on the gearing). It's 100% spot on - according to the 40 km/h Shaken test..

I had a little trouble last time persuading them I couldn't reset the "Trip" meter and it was actually the true odometer now in use....They let it go through (Because they couldn't cause it to reset either!)

It's actually recently reset itself somehow (I've still got no idea how to do it, honestly!) so I need to put on 3,000 km or so over the next 10 months. That's no hardship. A few trips to do some drift Matsuri's this summer at Ebisu Track will see to that, lol

If the worst comes to the worst, I can always fit a standard instrument cluster in 30 minutes or so. It'll just plug straight in and I have to remove the electronic speedo drive and refit the speedo cable which is still zip tied out of the way, but in position

Funniest is getting it through emissions. Just pull an injector connector off slightly and raise the idle. Voila - An air pump to dilute the nasty gases from use of 304 cams. Easy peasy!

[Wanabee Kiwi]

Miguel, im going to start building a hard tuned 4A-GZE soon. Can you tell me what the reason for having two left hand rocker covers? Just to get more oil to the cams??

Originally Posted by Miguel - Newera

[Kanzen]

Originally Posted by Miguel - Newera

Kanzen, wasn't it you who drove it on our day out in Fuji? So many of us were trying out each other's cars that day I can't remember for sure, but it sure sounded good, being pushed through those twisties as it came screaming towards us

I'll never forget driving your car that day too. That's the sweetest street prepared GT-R I've ever driven and I've certainly been behind the wheel of a fair share the last 10 years!

We'll have to organise another event like that soon, don't you think so?

I drove the FD, and let you drive the AE86 as I was just loving the ride in the passenger seat too much to move

After my trip to Fuji yesterday I'm going to make the GT-R a little more track focused now. Not going to make any drastic changes, it doesn't need them. Just a few things here and there. You have mail

[Miguel - Newera]

Wanabee Kiwi,

Lots of people ask this question

It has a breather coming from each cam cover, as this is a high reving engine and I figured it would be better to have 2 tubes to allow pressure to escape more easily (With slower air speed coming from each valve cover). I used 2 left covers, but apparently the AE92 engine has the filler cap on the other side as standard....I learnt that too late - as by then I'd painted it all, etc.

There's the oil catch tank of course. The air then goes out of that (You can see the braided tube in the pic with the front bumper removed before I re-assembled it from the respray) & into a 1.5 litre coke bottle, filled with bits of old car washing sponge (Hidden behind the bumper). The sponge absorbs any remaining moisture (Mostly water with a bit of oil mist collects over time) and stops it spewing out as the air escapes. This means there's no oil mist attracting dirt under the car, nor any oil mist collecting in the engine bay. The coke bottle can be easily removed, turned upside down and squeezed to empty the residue out from time to time and is re-secured with a couple of cable ties I guess I could have only used a coke bottle for the same results, but the catch can also looks pretty - and half of it is the coolant expansion tank too. BTW - I switched from plastic hoses to braided as the plastic ones turned yellow pretty quickly and the unions leaked a bit, which then attracts dirt... Note the Aero fittings aren't secured above the engine. I figure the engine moves on it's mounts and they stay put by themselves anyways.

4AGZE is a possible way to more power of course, but the penalties are weight and loss of the N/A character of the car. You'll also not get a high reving engine (Which is useful for stretching the speeds at which you can stay in gear), unless you want to spend a lot on rebuilding, fitting a turbo conversion, etc. I guess this might be what you mean by "hard tuned" though. If so, I look forward to seeing the results, but be mindful that drive shafts and gearbox on an AE86 can't take massive power.

The Black top 20V may be worth considering, perhaps - depending on your intentions. With these you can have a screamer of an engine:
It's the N/A character than people seem to love about these cars, especially in Japan. We've one drifter friend (Race prep'd car - no longer street registered) whose power upgrades are nothing more than a set of 304 Cams, a KMS manifold, massive oil cooler, throttle trumpets and Freedom ECU who (As the blacktop engines themselves aren't expensive or hard to come by in Japan) revs it regularly to 10,000 rpm!! It hasn't broken in over a year's weekly track abuse and makes approx 180 bhp.

We've just completed a 20V conversion on another AE86 - It's a little involved as there are wiring loom modifications and waterline re-routing as well as distributor re-siting to be done. The results are definitely worth it.