- Are you freaking kidding me?
Am I sitting next to one of the coolest,
most iconic Japanese cars
in the history of freaking Japanese cars?
Don't answer that.
The answer's yes, I am.
I hope you got your beauty rest
because no one sleeps in Tokyo.
We're going Bumper to Bumper on the Toyota AE86.
Eurobeat intensifies.
Initial D, it's the manga slash anime that inspired
a generation of car nerds, myself included.
In the same way that Two-Lane Blacktop
and American Graffiti inspired our dads to get into
heavy American iron, Initial D introduced us
to the world of glorious Nippon Steel.
The show featured pretty much every standout Japanese car
you can imagine.
Mazda RX-7, Nissan GT-R, Subaru WRX STI.
But one car stands above the rest,
a humble Toyota AE86.
Kinda like this one.
Actually it's exactly like this one.
The car's driven by the protagonist Takumi Fujiwara
who uses it to deliver tofu for his dad.
Just like the show, this AE86
has the Fujiwara tofu shop on the side.
This car is owned by Vincent Chan,
and he went to extreme lengths
to faithfully recreate Takumi's car.
And it took a lot more work than you might think.
So the Corolla that Takumi drove in the show
never really came to America.
It was called the Corolla GTS over here.
It looked like an 86 but it wasn't quite like Takumi's.
The Corolla GTS we got came with pedestrian-safe
US-spec bumpers.
They're very ugly.
We also got some other
less powerful versions like the Corolla SR5.
The whole family tree in the US is all very confusing,
so let's just move on.
This car started life as a bone stock SR5.
Why not start with a GTS?
Well, thanks to drifting,
those are very, very, very hard to find in the US,
and you gotta pay a ton of money for what is still
a 35-year-old Toyota Corolla.
So why not build your own?
DIY Crew.
DIY Crew, bam-bam-bam.
The outside of this car is iconic as frick.
To any fan of Initial D, the stark white paint
accented with a black stripe and carbon fiber hood
is reminiscent of the third greatest animal on Earth.
You got your buff horse, you got your Zoom Doggy,
then you got your panda.
But that's not all Vincent had to do
to make this AE86 Takumi's.
Real quick, let's talk about the term JDM.
It just means Japanese Domestic Market.
When people talk about JDM parts,
what they're talking about is the parts
that were either installed in the factory
or sold only in Japan.
Saying something is JDM doesn't mean it's better,
just that it's unique to Japan.
Get it, got it, good.
Back to the show.
Up front are these JDM zanky bumpers.
They aren't all fat like the US versions.
They look really good.
These bumpers and this Trueno grille are worth thousands
to collectors.
You can get a Miata bumper for like a dollar.
These yellow lights right down here
cut through the fog of Mount Akina
like a hot knife through tofu.
Now you know Vincent is a real fan of Initial D
because of this hood.
Casual fans like Nolan might say that Takumi's hood
was black, not gray.
Well, Nolan is wrong.
Takumi's got the carbon fiber hood
like this one in season five.
You call yourself a fan, Nolan?
You gotta work from the bathroom today.
And the carbon doesn't end there.
Even the headlight covers are carbon fiber.
That's some real nerd (bleep).
This particular Corolla is wearing Konig Rewind wheels.
Now you real AE86 heads might be saying to yourself,
hey, oh buddy, that's not what Takumi had,
and you're right, good job.
Takumi's car had Watanabes or Wats on the show
but those are super hard to come by especially in the US.
And these Konigs look the part.
Vincent says that he would love
to get his hands on some actual Wats,
so if you have a real set for sale, hit him up on Instagram.
You know that's what's so beautiful about the car community
is we can all help each other build our cars
and then it's like it's all of our car.
And the JDM touches just keep on coming.
These corner and bumper lights, JDM.
Window visors, JDM.
Rear bumper, JDM.
The rear taillights, you guessed it, JDM.
Vincent didn't just make the outside of the car look good
like Takumi's.
He did the inside too.
The inside is maroon, just like on the show.
How cool is that?
And it has all the details that you'd expect
from a true Initial D fanatic.
The steering wheel is an Italvolante,
and as you might have guessed, yes it is very rare.
The wheel is attached to a MOMO quick release hub
which makes it easier to get in and out of the car.
It was kinda hard for me to get into it.
These seats are Recaro SPGs with Recaro seatbelt pads
just like the show.
And Vincent upgraded the shifter too.
The five-speed has a Toyota racing development TRD
short shifter kit for lightning fast shifts in the twisties
and a TRD shift knot just like Takumi.
To let Vincent know how hard he's going,
he's also installed water and oil temp gauges in the dash.
Speaking of water, no Initial D tribute build
would be complete with my favorite part of this build,
the piece de resistance, a lone water cup
because you gotta drive smooth.
You don't spill a drop of that.
You're all like bored, it's early morning.
You're drifting down the pass.
So tired, I wish I didn't have to deliver all this tofu.
Wait, driving's cool?
I can be a cool guy from driving?
And there's a drift.
And now, for my favorite part of every episode.
What?
It's playing Initial D, the live-action movie in the car.
(laughs) I want this so bad now.
Eurobeat intensifies.
When Vincent bought this car, it was pretty much
a bone stock, bottom of the Corolla line Corolla.
The engine inside was an anemic carbureted 85 pony power
mill that could hardly get out of its own lane.
Now that would not be good enough for my boy Vince
or Takumi.
A car like this deserves one of the greatest engines
Toyota ever built, the 4AGE.
This particular 4AGE is the silver top.
It's what I call my dad.
It has five valves per cylinder,
which makes it breathe extraordinarily well unlike my dad.
The engine is also equipped with Toyota's
variable valve timing system, basically VTEC.
As the engine increases in RPM,
the rockers will switch to
a more aggressive can profile on the fly,
which increases the amount of air entering the cylinder.
At higher RPMs, this is crucial.
Other engines without this feature
can be starved of air and lose power at the top end,
but not this little guy.
He does really good at the top end.
The 4AGE has a red line of 7600 RPM and it sounds amazing.
Now this little engine might only make about 130 hrspr
but it's a spirited 130 hrspr.
And the car only weighs 2300 pounds too,
so it's like a little power number like that
ain't a prob, Bob.
You're gonna be driving this thing downhill anyway,
so you don't need power baby.
Let the gravity do the work.
Like most aspects of this car,
Vincent didn't leave the engine stock either.
No, it's got individual throttle bodies
from a later version of the 4AGE.
It's also got an upgraded radiator, oil cooler
relocation kit, and a struck bar
to make the front end more rigid.
All the power from the engine goes through a five-speed
manual transmission and flows to the rear wheels
through a limited slip rear end.
Unlike a lot of cars of the era,
the Corolla did not possess independent rear suspension.
And that's one of the reasons it's so fun.
It was Toyota's affordable commuter car
and they saved money wherever they could.
The solid rear end and limited slip differential
make the Trueno incredibly easy to drift
as demonstrated by the original drift king himself,
Keiichi Tsuchiya.
Tsuchiya-san was a race car driver in Japan
who basically invented drifting.
He would take his Corolla into the mountains
and slide it around every turn.
His asphalt punishing exploits were captured
in a film called Pluspy,
which turned the tuner scene on its head
back in the late 80s.
No one had ever seen this kind of driving.
The film and Tsuchiya were direct influences
on the creation of Initial D.
He even consulted on the show.
He's like, mm yeah, slide more, mm probably slide less,
he probably turned his hands like this.
Oh yeah, e-brake here.
Great, it's perfect.
Let's go get a tiny weird coffee from a vending machine
at a rest stop.
The car's lightweight and simple suspension
make this Toyota one of the best drivers cars ever.
It is not fast by any means.
But it is responsive and it is forgiving.
Dad.
And when we were at the front of the car,
I know that you guys were scared that I forgot
my favorite part but I didn't.
Trueno means thunder,
and you can't have thunder without lightning.
And lightning means.
♪ Pop, pop, popup up and down headlights ♪
♪ Popup up and down headlights ♪
♪ Popup up and down headlights, pop, pop, pop ♪
The AE86, especially this one,
has a special place in the hearts of car nerds
all over the world,
and while this might not be a real AE86,
it might as well be.
Vincent put a ton of work,
bringing this car from the TV screen into the real world.
And that's a passion any fan can appreciate.
Thank you, Jimmy.
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And now, back to the show.
Thanks for watching Bumper to Bumper.
Every Tuesday, new episode until the day I die.
Also watch Wheelhouse on Monday
and my other show Up to Speed on Thursday.
We got a ton of new shows coming all summer.
If you like this episode, make sure you let us know
by hitting that Like button.
Follow me on Instagram @JamesPumphrey.
Follow Donut on Instagram @DonutMedia.
Wanna learn more about the 86, watch this episode.
You want a fun car for less than 10 grand,
check out this episode of Wheelhouse.
I love you.