16 January 2014

Round 3, a new challenger emerges!

While some things like bad events come in 3's, Lionel Richie may beg to differ. And in my case, some good things happen in 3's too.

After speaking to Paddy at JDMAuctionWatch for a few weeks and eyeing up some potential candidates in the auctions, this specific car kept coming up. It never met the reserve which was higher than my maximum so I never gave it much thought. However on the most recent occasion the car popped up, the decision to put a bid in was made. 

Waking up the next morning to see that we had won the car put a huge smile on my face. We knew the car was clean, but not much else other than it was very stock. After getting a friend to translate the auction sheet, it developed that the car had 163 thousand KM, only one owner from new and the car came with evidence of services and registration for the duration of its life! This is almost unheard of nowadays, with most AE86's passing through as many as 10-20 owners throughout their near 3 decades since production.

A few days after the auction was won, the car was transported to the agents yard where I received the photos below. Now the agonising wait has begun, with me checking the ship location on a daily basis, with the ship currently sat off the coast of Mexico.

I've already started amassing parts for the car, but make no mistake, the originality of the car was a big drawcard. Any parts removed from the car will not be sold on, but rather labelled and boxed so that the car can be returned to stock condition in the future again. The car currently only has 13in Watanabes and an aftermarket exhaust, which I believe to be a HKS one. From the factory it came with Aircon, power steering, electric mirrors and a sunroof, which will make it a great car to use daily in summer.

The car will not be as hardcore as my previous N2 Trueno, but will see both road and track/drift use. In anticipation of this, I have so far purchased two seats (more on these later as they have some neat history) and a rebuilt TRD 2Way LSD, fitted with thicker clutch plates and a 4.7 ratio to go in. On the way from Japan in the next few weeks hopefully are my new wheels, 14x8.5-13 and 14x9-19 RS Watanabe wheels in gold. In the next few weeks I will hopefully have sorted coilovers and RCA's, with an adjustable panhard rod being made by Neil over at Driftoy.

Anyway, onto the photos.. I will hope to keep a build thread updated for this car both on the blog and the various forums:


AE86 001

AE86 002
AE86 003
AE86 004
AE86 005
AE86 006
AE86 007
AE86 014
AE86 013
AE86 012
AE86 015
AE86 016
AE86 017
AE86 019
AE86 018
AE86 022
AE86 024
AE86 025
AE86 023
AE86 020
AE86 011
AE86 010
AE86 009
AE86 008

More soon....

Chay

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