Although the production of Toyota AE86 has only last for five years from 1983 to 1987, the car has unfinishable story to tell. It has been more than two decades since the production stopped but there are still many people sought after this car crazily today. If you own an old Toyota AE86 with or without any modification, one door may open by itself when you go through a hump; the interior smells like cockroach; the car hesitates when accelerating; several mosquitoes flying around inside the car when the door is opened, it doesn’t matter at all. The car is still able fetch a good price with all these defects.

Toyota AE86 rear view with ducktail spoiler

Why? The main reason is because the Toyota AE86 has several stories that make it so popular and sought after by car collectors. In 1983, Toyota launched the AE86 as “yet another Toyota Corolla” without expecting that the car will become so famous. The AE86 comes in two body styles – Toyota Sprinter Trueno and Toyota Corolla Levin. The word Trueno means thunder in Spanish and it has a retractable headlight which is more popular compared to Levin. Levin means lighting in Old English and the headlight is fixed just like the Toyota Corolla E80. They are often called Toyota AE86 Trueno, Toyota AE86 Levin, Toyota Levin AE86, or whatever you call it.

Toyota AE86 Levin

Under the hood, the AE86 is powered by a four-cylinder 4A-GE engine producing 130 PS and 150 Nm of torque. The lightweight body, high torque engine, rear-wheel drive setup and LSD make it one of the best cars to drift. Thanks to the anime and manga Initial D, the AE86 Trueno becomes more and more famous. In 2005, Hong Kong released an Initial D film featuring Jay Chou as Takumi. The film once again makes the AE86 Trueno more popular. See: Toyota 86 drift around two Toyota AE86

An original Toyota AE86 gathering

Other than Initial D, an important person who makes this car popular is our Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya. Tsuchiya creates many motoring series featuring the AE86 and often the AE86 outraces many other famous sports cars including Nissan Skyline GT-R, Mazda RX-7, and Nissan 180SX.

An original Toyota AE86 seat

Today, we can almost see the AE86 in many drift shows and competitions. It is one of the best drift cars ever since the 80s. Don’t blame if your father or grandfather didn’t buy a Toyota AE86 20 years ago because you can now buy a Toyota 86 which inspired by the AE86.

Now here are some of the Toyota AE86 pictures. You can see some of the cars are painted in different colors although most of them are painted with the famous panda color (black and white). You can also see different types of engines under the hood including 4A-GE 16V, 4A-GE 20V, and 4A-GZE. Some of the engines are NA, some are supercharger, and there is one in the pictures here is powered by a 3S-GE turbo engine. Enjoy!

Toyota AE86 gallery

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