AE86 Nights 2014

 

 Its a wonderful place, full of old Corollas with a sprinkle of riced tricked out cars old and new. It's a place where old corolla owners catch up and reminisce on the good ol' days.  While the next generation of corolla owners listen stories of old geezers.  If you're a corolla owner or even a corolla aficionado, this a meet that should be attended at least once.    
 

Rare Club4AG

Back in the early days of Club4AG, parts for the AE86 was difficult to come by.  If you wanted some cool parts, you had to look to the other side of the pacific, Japan not China.  One of the big things at the time was doing 20 valve swaps.  The only down side was a proper header or lack of.  But Moto from Club4AG contracted Techno Spirits boss Kumakura san to a make couple headers for the left hand drive cars.  I forget how many went into circulation but I do remember 16v and 20v versions being made. 

Back to the roots..

Way back in the day, there were a few enthusiasts that liked Corollas and motorsports. With Moto's idea, Club4AG was born. Since then it has spawned the Corolla and drifting craze ten fold. Now it's 2009 in Primm, Nevada, right at the Nevada/ California stateline. Going back to it's roots of Corollas and motorsports, the dedicated people from Vegas drift, Drift Association, and AE86 Nights bring back the ideals that is Club4AG.

A 2 day event bringing the car show, autocrossing, and drift.


Day 1 was the autocross, which i'm sure everyone knows if gripping through sets of cones. Some may balk at the idea, but like everything else, it takes skill to do this sport. Anyways there's was tons of seat time. I decided to use street tires since I really didn't want to use up r compounds. The surface was slippery since there was fresh dust from the newly constructed course. I did a bunch of mornings and posted up high 38's. After that, I decided it was time for a beer break. Don't worry I didn't drive after that, I wanted to get the party on early.


Since the following week was SEMA some cars destined for Vegas decided to stop by and check out the event.

mmmm Turbo.

The celebrity of the weekend

Moto

Day 2 which I'm sure many were looking forward too, the drift and car show event.


The drift course was tricky. It was laid out with a 3rd gear entry if you have enough power accelerate. With a decreasing radius right turn so you'll need to scrub speed before then so you don't wash out. But too much loss of speed means not finishing the course. So drivers needed to find the balance.

The car show brought out some nice Corollas.

Coupes

Hatchbacks

Props to the people who were able to bring out their rides out to the middle of nowhere. No queen mary or orange county lakes up in here.

At the awards ceremony I won 2 trophies.

I was very happy. Hey Naoki where you going??

And very wet.

The event went really well, but of course when you have a collaboration of Vegas drift, Drift Association, and AE86 Nights, you wouldn't expect anything less from their hard work. Kudos to them and the many others who helped support the event. And of course to the owners themselves who came out to party and show their spirit. This is what Club4ag is all about.

Next year: ?


As the event ended I think about what's next. Due to low turn out, it maybe the last Club4AG sanctioned event. I hope it isn't so, but for now the future is a blur if there will actually be another event.

Now for the rest of the pics click here.

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AE86 Tip #86-7: Check ur stroke

Yet another simple use of the zip tie. Now that you got your suspension together and ready for some action, it would probably good to check the position of the stroke.

A very simple method of checking is to wrap a zip tie around the shock shaft. Install near the bottom of the the shock shaft at full extension. First we'll check when the car is not moving. This should give you an idea of where it's sitting at before you head out to the track. If it's too high, you lose compression travel and will kiss your camber plates. On the other end if too low, you lose rebound travel which could result in wheel lift and losing contact with the asphalt which isn't good when the whole goal of your suspension is to gain traction.

As shown with Moto-P's crude drawings from Club4ag

After a couple of hot laps pulling +1.0g corners at you favorite track, you may be wondering or maybe even suspecting that your suspension may be bottoming out. Using the above method take your car for another couple hot laps. Then park it and lift the car up. The zip tie will be pushed up, to it's highest point, as the suspension compresses. With this information you can decided weather you need softer/stiffer suspension or readjust the height etc.

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Restoration with AE86

As the years go by, many AE86 parts become discontinued by Toyota. With the popularity of the car with drift hooligans, and show car aficionados, the amount of original cars becomes less. I'm not knocking on anyone, but let's face it, Japan import cars, aside from the Z, doesn't have much of a following when it comes to restoration compared it's American counterpart. I still have a hard time looking for parts for my S124 Mazda RX-3/ Savannah.
I found some really awesome replica decals made by a Club4AG member. I must admit these decals are definitely the best knock offs i've seen so far.

Comparing these with the originals off my car it's it's very close to stock. Even down to the dots on the side door decals, which can't be seen in the photos.
It's unfortunate that Toyota has decided to discontinue parts, but hopefully there will be people who will step up to the plate and create parts that are worthy for use in restoration.

At Musing's End

A short film made by Wongfu productions. I found this on Club4AG during my morning internet stroll. At first glance, I think chick flick. The only reason why I actually sat through it was because it had the Corolla in it. But afterwards I thought it was a really well made film. If i was a movie critic Wong Fu Productions gets thumbs up.

Camarillo revisited

It’s been a few years since I’ve been at Camarillo airport for a drift event. The last time I was here was probably around 2002 maybe 2001. Memory is fuzzy, but I guess that’s what tire smoke does to a brain. During that time, not many really knew what drifting was all about. Mainly enthusiasts who drove RWD vehicles from Japan could relate to you, more so if you were an AE86 driver. Now it’s 2008 and I had an opportunity to once again drive at one of the birthplaces of drifting in mainland U.S.A.
Photo courtesy of Wes H.

An early photo of me and Moto (Club4AG) gridding for some tsuiso practice at the first Camarillo Drift Day. Not really, at the time the art of tsuiso wasn’t utilized at the Drift Day events.

Not much has changed, this plane still sit in the same spot.

Drift Day staff checking on surface condition.

The surface itself has changed. It’s been repaved to be much smoother. Hence more tire friendly. If you’ve been here back then, you’ll know that the surface was really rough and consumed tires with a vengeance. To give you an idea, in my mild na corolla I had at the time, went through 4 tires with time to spare. Usually I’d go through 1 pair in a whole day at the old Irwindale parking lot.

Unfortunately my day was pretty much cut short, due to a blown engine. The gods have spoken with an iron fist. So it’s time to bust out the camera again and take some random shots.

No they didn't drift the Hertz Mustang. Though it would have been cool to see.



Many of the flying bill boards come from this airport. It's actually cool to watch how they actually attach the bill boards to the planes.

I even brought out the same helmet I used at the first event.

Even with my engine mishap, it turned out to be a great event. The low number or drivers, provided lots of seat time I wish my car ran right so I could have utilized the time. Thanks to Steve for letting borrow his car for a couple runs. Naoki and Drift Association staff for putting together another awesome event. If you're interested in drifting or even learning how to drift please visit the Drift Day website for more information.

For more pics, click here.

Specialist T #2

At the shop, there was this corolla race car that the owner acquired not too long ago. I've seen the car in pics online. It's hard to miss a spoon colored corolla. I never truly knew the history of the car itself. On Club4AG a driver by the name of Scott Webb had posted an in car video. On his avatar there was a pic (shown above) of the car itself which looked like to one at the shop. I showed him the shop car and he confirmed that was the one. He gave me a very brief history of the car, it was owned by Paul Goduti and was featured in the Toyota Performance Handbook published in 1990. It's the silver hatchback with the mesh wheels. So it's been a race car most of it's life. Truely, amazing the car has survived for this long. If only it can speak, and tell us of the many battles it has faced over the years.



It's been through a couple of owners since then, and now sits in hibernation waiting for the call to do battle once again.



Here's a video Scott duking it out in a Cal Club SCCA enduro race at Buttonwillow in 2000.

Do you remember Toyota?

This past weekend was the 13th Annual Toyota Fest held at Veterans Stadium in sunny Long Beach. This year was different for me, rather than spectate this year, I decided to show off the beast this year. So the past few days i've been changing the car to be show worthy. Well at least presentable. No primer spots or broken bumper today.

Paint in progress
Added JDM Wise Square crystal tail lights. No it didn't come with a bowl of rice.
Cleaned up the wheels by Boyd. You make the slickest set of wheels for my Corolla.RIP
Unfortunately, I couldn't finish off my wiring to show hella dope electrical skills.

Enough of that and back to the show itself representing Toyotas new and old.


From youth market Scion


To the luxury driven Lexus.

A very rare Toyopet Crown.


2 roadsters were on display. One built by a privateer using pretty much all Toyota parts. The 2nd built by Toyota using what looks to be a V8 from their NASCAR program. Both are very well constructed and simply amazing. I could spend hours going over these vehicles.

Toyota displayed a few of their race cars.



This year they paid homage to the Corolla and the Landcruiser. Which have been Toyotas longest running models since the beginning of Toyota's quest for world automotive dominance.

Real deal RHD JZA70 and U.S. spec JZA80, well kept by Brian 'Good Lookin' U.

The reason why I didn't win was Andy sabotaged me. Damn you. But WTH is that orange AE92 doing in the AE86 section?

Old is good as long as you keep them clean like these 3 fine examples.

A never imported Soarer precursorto the Lexus SC300. This one is equipped with the anemic 1GGTE engine. Though last I saw, it was equipped with a slushbox. Now it sports a 5 speed transmission.


Vans need recognition too.

Each year the show is growing, from it's humble beginnings, at the Queen Mary parking lot, to the stadium parking lot in Long Beach. It's great to see the enthusiasm for Toyotas is growing. As these cars get older, rest assured there we'll be a Toyota nut who is willing to keep these rolling pieces of history alive for the next generation to appreciate.

For more pics click here.

I didn't take as many pics cause I split my time between this and the Spring Fling 22.


More on this soon