Shall I get an AE86?

saitrix · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:06

Hi,

Well hopefully soon I will have 1NCB, I am thinking about whether I should sell the 1.6 Focus for a Trueno AE86, opinions?

Anyone have any experience with the AE86 at all?

great advice · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:07

Might need a little more than 1 years ncb mate, those things are rockets that like to ride sideways - Im not even sure if they do straight lines

If you can afford it then your gunna have a hell of a lot of car for little money though.

UKDTweak · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:08

Looks like an older toyota carolla to me ? is this an import version ?

saitrix · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:11

UKDTweak said:
Looks like an older toyota carolla to me ? is this an import version ?

Yup. It has the 1.6 4AGE engine in it producing 125-130bhp.

great advice,

Yeah i have to really check out the cost of it, i didn't expect them to be too bad, but i suppose with them being imports thats not going to help.

ramirez · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:14

Expensive, overrated. Better cars out there for the money. They are fun to drive but it wears off quickly when you realise you've paid £5k for a 1987 Toyota

Mechanical Arts · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:14

There not worth the money now. The prices have rocketed but if you really like them then go for it. Expect to pay £5000 - £6000 for a decent one. There was a rotten ae86 shell beyond repair with no engine, gearbox or documents that sold for £900 on ebay :rolleyes:

They are not fast if thats what you are wanting from one. The reason they cost so much is because people want them for rallying, drifting and its become a bit of a cult car in Japan.

Confused · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:14

Lots of people are currently buying them and trying to drift them (they're not even particularly good at drifting as standard, but it's due to Initial D), and are crashing them, pushing both the purchase, and insurance price upwards.

The same thing that happened to Civics when TFATF came out. The same thing that will ultimately happen to other good, RWD driftable cars when The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift comes out!

ramirez · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:15

Apparently fast and furious made Supra prices rocket in the US.

Zip · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:19

ramirez said:
Apparently fast and furious made Supra prices rocket in the US.

and made them have a cheap and tacky ugly image

saitrix · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:19

ConfusedTA said:
Lots of people are currently buying them and trying to drift them (they're not even particularly good at drifting as standard, but it's due to Initial D), and are crashing them, pushing both the purchase, and insurance price upwards.

The same thing that happened to Civics when TFATF came out. The same thing that will ultimately happen to other good, RWD driftable cars when The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift comes out!

Yup unfortunately i think your correct.

I can see when the new F&F is out the S2000's insurance will go up quite a bit.

I really do wonder why they have stopped doing RWD hatches now really.

MrSix · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:21

If you've got the cash and you'd like one - why not?

Only thing i'd say is that really they are more suited to being stripped and put sideways around racetracks and airfields - not sure i'd want to be driving one around town.

ramirez · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:22

cheaper to build FWD econoboxes, then make the sportier versions a modification of them.

plenty of older cheap RWD cars that are fun to drive though. Mk 2 RX7s are a particularly good buy at the moment, you can get a nice un for under a grand and they're super for dorifting if you put an LSD on them (or get the turbo model which has one as standard.)

saitrix · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:28

Unfortunately i seem to remember the RX-7 being really bad on the old insurance.

Mk1 MR2? Mk1 MX5?

SKILL · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:29

I'd say go for it, i'd love an ae86 to sit on the drive next to the mk1 mr2

There's one on ebay at the moment, £5k which is a lot, but it looks great, and it's the right colour (white and black), just needs the tofu shop writing like the pic you posted

Mk1 MR2 will be a similar speed (possibly slightly faster), similar handling, far cheaper and you still get the benefit of pop-up headlights \o/

Siliconslave · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:33

for 5k you could happily get a really decent, possibly turboed, mx-5

the ae86 is a nice chassis, with proper suspension and engine tuning there very very capable cars, as as stock they are pretty fun. But they have become such a sort after car, mainly due to the initial D manga, and now film, that the prices are far in excess of their value.

Still they are a very cool car

i'd just follow my head a little more and get something better alround for the money

saitrix · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:36

How strange is that, the 2 cars i mentioned in my last post, you 2 own 1 each.

I have always like the mr2 and mx5, just didnt realise quite how mad the pricing would be for the AE86.

Siliconslave,

I know you have the Mk2, got much info on the Mk1 or any links to where one could find out more?

Mr_Sukebe · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:37

As already stated, it's basically an old Corolla with a mk1 MR2 engine in it and rwd. As standard the engine produced 122hp, though I'm guessing that most will be a bit down on that by now.

The good news is that apparently they're well balanced, the bad news is:
- Most will be a pile of rust by now. I remember going to look at one over a decade ago, and that was ready for the scrap heap
- Straightline performance really wasn't any great shakes. 0-60 was around 9 seconds
- It's heavier than the fwd equivalent (AE82), though still a good 100kg lighter than say an S13
- The interior was typical 80s Japanese, reasonably well made, but far from nice
- They are massively overpriced.
- Key performance options would be a supercharger. The mk1 MR2 in Japan has an s/c as an option, so it would be viable, far from cheap though.

Personally I'd not touch one. If you want something like that, I'd suggest either:
- S13. Heavier and not as well balanced, but LOTS more power even as standard, easily tuned for even more and dirt cheap. Of course one option on the S13 is to rip out excess weight, which is a whole lot cheaper than adding an s/c to the AE86
- MX5. Before you laugh, have a think a bit more about this. The MX is around 50-100kg heavier, 50:50 balance, 15-20hp more and generally don't have more rust than the titanic. IMO the MX is the soft top equivalent of the AE86.

Lashout_UK · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:40

You got 4-6 grand to blow on a not-particularly-fast, fairly uninspiring, bland, plain interiored Japanese car?

Erm, yea....Go elsewhere! They're not good cars comparitively - they only have a large rep due to Initial D, where the driver had to use that as that was all that was availiable....not because it was the best

saitrix · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:45

Mr_Sukebe said:
Personally I'd not touch one. If you want something like that, I'd suggest either:
- S13. Heavier and not as well balanced, but LOTS more power even as standard, easily tuned for even more and dirt cheap. Of course one option on the S13 is to rip out excess weight, which is a whole lot cheaper than adding an s/c to the AE86
- MX5. Before you laugh, have a think a bit more about this. The MX is around 50-100kg heavier, 50:50 balance, 15-20hp more and generally don't have more rust than the titanic. IMO the MX is the soft top equivalent of the AE86.

Don't worry I like the MX5 so i wont laugh.

What engine was it in the S13 then?

[TW]Fox · 28 Mar 2006 at 16:45

saitrix said:
I really do wonder why they have stopped doing RWD hatches now really.

Is if they really ever made RWD hatches anyway? You say that is once upon a time all hatches are RWD now they are nasty FWD.

The first proper, mainstream hatchback, the VW Golf, was FWD. FWD makes perfect sense for hatches - they are smaller, compact cars, and suit the FWD configuration perfectly. As soon as you start making them RWD you end up with something like a 1 Series, totally pointless as the hatch practicality is reduced by the need to have a diff etc at the back, a transmission tunnel, etc etc.

Shall I get an AE86?

Man of Honour