My First Ae86!

[T BALL]

although im only 20 ive been looking to get hold of one of these rwd legends for a few years now. finally bought a uk one in very good nick for £3500. its done 100,000 miles but seems mechanically strong. the interiors a bit rough and the rear trim panels have holes for the rollcage, it has bonnet pins and boot catches too but there all minor problems. im very happy with it , just cant wait to insure it and start goin sideways. what cruises/events do you other 86 owners go to, ive only ever seen two up close in my life apart from mine.

[Treuno]

Well done matey, for finding a AE86 in this country!

Sonuds like it has been used for a bit of drifting or competiton already!

I dont think there is a particular event us '86 owners go to, but i reakon we should try and make a AE86 only event, and get as many as possible! Would be hard work to find all the owners, but would be great to see loads of tricked up '86's all together!

[guglielmo]

Sounds nice! Good price as well considering what they're worth now.

There's always a few of us AE86ers at drifting events and always a load at JAE at Billing.

Surrey isn't too far from me, in fact I'll be there tomorrow (Dorking), could meet up and talk AE86's if ya want?

[T BALL]

i havnt picked the car up yet so i cant get about in it for a few more days. i thought id be picking it up today but the funds wont be clear till monday.

ive been looking at wheels for it as its on the standard 14's at the minute. how much should i expect to pay for say 13" superlites not too wide, about 6". ive seen a few old jap wheels but theyre way too deer!

also what do you guys pay insurance? im 20 no no claims been driving two complete years. my best qoute is 1400 in my own name, fully comp.

[guglielmo]

The facelift 14's look lovely but are a bit narrow (6J), !Removed! offset (+21) and very heavy for what they are (~7kg).

13x6 looks a bit **** to be fair; you need at least a 7J with around 0 offset, especially on a 13" rim. AE86's have to have deep wheels. It is mandatory.

I'd go for 13x8 in a Revo or Minilite/Superlite if you wanted 13's, with a stretched 175/60 or 185/60 rubber.

You could maybe get a used set for about £250 if yer lucky, but they're rarely for sale as they're so popular with the Irish AE86 lads and Starlets as well.

Insurance was never a problem for me - even when I was 17 with an '84 AE86 I was paying ~£700. Now I'm on about £380 TP a year, but I'm 25 with no accidents etc and full NCD.

[T BALL]

thats not much rubber for a wide rim! would look wicked though. is that whats been done to that really nice blue one in the other post? im gonna have to start savin...again. i cant drive it on the stock rims for long, they are ugly!

[guglielmo]

The stock rims aren't that ugly - they'd be OK if they were wider with less offset, so they didn't sit so deep in the arches.

If you want to sell the stock rims, I'll buy them and collect them off you!

[T BALL]

my ones are the !Removed! looking ones not the multi spoke ones. i wouldnt mind if it was them. my ones an 85 is that with 13's. anyway theyre not nice, not the ones you want.

[guglielmo]

The UK cars only ever came with the multi-spoke 14" wheels or the rounded disc-type 13" wheels.

If you've got the 13's, keep 'em for your Starlet!

Any pics of your new Corolla?

[lsd addicted]

ya the 13" type r superlites look the business cause they come wit a polish finish.over ere a brand new set rubber is bout £400

[T BALL]

my starlets a long way from finished yet. i havnt finished my escort yet and im not even starting the starlet till my mk1 escy fully built. i want to build them both at the same time but id end up always working on the starlet.

is a mini 100 pcd- same as a rover, mini wheels are cheap and theres a few million of them about.

the moneys cleared in my bank now so im gonna pick it up tomorrow night. ill try to get some pics up asap but i dont have access to a digital camera so ill get my mate to do it.

i saw a site which had an ae86 on it yesterday and he was sayin it was runnin qaurters in 18 ish, that cant be right can it, i was expectin mid 16,s? anyone know what a stock one should run.

[Treuno]

I take it you mean the mini wheels for your starlet! Cuz dont forget that AE86 have 114.3mm PCD unlike other Toyotas!

I would imagine late 15's if your lucky up the strip!

[T BALL]

i didnt realise ae86,s have a different pcd, does this mean there arnt any other cars with the same fitment?

also the one ive bought doesnt have electric windows, is this the normal spec for uk models?

[guglielmo]

KP60 Starlets and AE86's are both 4x114.3 PCD.

Other cars with this fitment are old RWD Datsuns (eg Z's), Triumph and MG (4.5" PCD), Mitsi Sapporo's, 4-stud (early) Starion etc etc.

Newer stuff like Nissan 200SX S13's have 4x114.3 studs but too much offset. Look to get offset around 0.

MA61 Supra wheels are OK for cheap at 14x7, ET8.

No UK models had factory electric windows as standard. And if you're lucky, your early car (A,B or early C reg) won't have a sunroof either.

[Dan_Q]

Dont know if its any use yo you RWD guys, but the gen 4 honda prelude has that PCD (4x114.3) but no doubt the offset will ba all to ***** cos its a front driver :(

T BALL> nice to see another escy MK1 lover on here B)

[Treuno]

I run old supra rims on my '86 and its not a bad offset or width! If you compare the piccy below you can see how much more the supra rim sits out in the arch!

Tball, when you get some piccy's of your '86 on here, could you get some of your mk1 escy! I was always planning to fit one of my spare 4AGE's in my mk1 but had to sell her to fund the '86!

Here is a piccy of her anyway! Was almost in tears when i sold her!

[T BALL]

i could try to arrange some pics of my 4agescort, thats what im gonna call it, but its a work in progress, so it looks alot worse than it is, it was a terrible Shell when i bought it, it was as good as i could find, i wanted a rwd starlet at the time but couldnt get one anywhere. a couple of months after i started work on my escort i was offered a really good starlet, no rot!!! i bought that anyway so im storing that till my escorts finished, i bought an 18rg for it too. the engine for the escort is mid rebuild but ive run out of money so its on hold at the minute. ill try to get some pics though, ill do some of the starlet too.

picked op the 86 last night in heavy rain which was a good excuse to test the diff, no insurance so i was being very cautious, i thought it broke away quite snappy but well easy to correct, only rwd experience ive got is a few mk1 mr2's a mk3 mr2 rev 2(lsd), the two starlets and a few vans. i found the 86 had alot of traction even in the wet but it was a bit unpredictable, i think its down to the stock suspension- very boat like! the tyre pressures look a bit off too.

over all yhough im well impressed with the corolla, goes off the line really well. the gearbox is a little bit notchy, but a wicked car, dont regret giving £3500 for it.

[T BALL]

turned out the tyre pressures were well off, sorted them out yesterday and now im well happy with it, done all my fluids, new plugs and modified an old induction kit today, didnt change lsd oil, couldnt get any. the bloke said it had just been serviced but its always a good idea to do all the servicables when you buy a car, dunno what craps in there. with everything as it should be the back slides very smoothly and predictable, the suspension makes it kick quite hard when it gets traction so first on the list is fensport springs about £100 i think, anyone got them, are they any good?

[Treuno]

Sounds like your having fun already! Fair play :) !!

When i first picked up my GT it was the worst thing i had ever driven!! Worst than my first one!! Very unpredictable, quite alot of understeer and excessive amounts of body roll which made the tyres almost fall off the rims!

I then fitted a set of billy's to it with fensport -35mm lowering springs and +20% stiffness! This absolutly transformed the handling, and i thought i wouldnt need to do anything else to it, until i took it out on the track!! And it felt like it was std again!!! Due to the excessive grip on the track it had really bad body roll!

So the next track sesion i fitted wide rims(the supra rims) with TRD antiroll bars and whiteline strut braces, this setup was unbelivable but it gripped so well i wouldnt go sideways and felt less powerful due to this!

I then fitted some offset roll centre adjusters which give a fixed 2 degrees neg chamber! This made the car the most awesome thing i ever driven! Maximum oversteer which for the sideways point of view was exellent! But now its time for stiffer springs!!

Its all down to trial and error and your own prefrences!

[whitecrx]

Dont know if its any use yo you RWD guys, but the gen 4 honda prelude has that PCD (4x114.3) but no doubt the offset will ba all to ***** cos its a front driver  :(

T BALL> nice to see another escy MK1 lover on here  B)

Preludes (and some other FWD Hondas) are 4x114.3, but you're right, the offset is way off - about et45 :(

[Jezza]

It's been a while since I've posted. I bought my AE86 back in July and am still paying it off. She will hopefully be on the road mid January but she does need a whole new suspension set up. I dont want to have to fork out too much but I dont want it to feel like i'm controlling a boat. Hence I have no idea where to start.

I know that I will need new bushes and springs no stiffer than 6kg for front and 4.8kg/mm for the rear if it's mainly for road use. I will want support struts for both front and rear but I dont know what the estimated cost will be on this and where my best options lie.

I've looked at Stage One Imports for Spirit springs and dampers yet I cant help but think the Spring rates are a but much for general road use (6 / 5kg). I will probably do track days on the odd occasion so I do feel tempted but like I said im in urgent need to get my Hachi on the road with a tight budget (for now at least)

Also where are most people getting their Insurance quotes from? I'm in ridiculous figures here. I'm a Surrey Lad like T BALL so any help from you mate would be appreciated. Once im up and running I could probably come chat with you about set up and tuning.

[T BALL]

im paying just under a grand fully comp for my insurance which i think is good compared to what my mates pay, im insured with elephant, ive got 0 no claims and held a licence for a little over two years. only thing about it is ive read the smallprint and it says that if it get nicked i will recieve compensation for a similar make model and year which im takin as a b reg corolla-£500 if im lucky. i keep meaning to ring and clarify because i put the estimated value at £4000?

since last time ive fitted fensport springs to the rolla, fitted a central locking kit and an alarm with remote locking, mainly cos i snapped a key in the divers lock!

[Jezza]

Ahh that could be the problem you see. Since this is my first car. I'm doing everything at once (havent passed the old test yet but confident I will come january the 20th) so I think thats possibly the reason i've got shoddy quotes. Did you update anything else with the suspension (shocks etc) or just the springs since i'm interested in any input just to get a rough idea on how much I have to spend to stop the car grounding out at the site of any bump in the road.

EDIT: Also whereabouts are you in surrey? Maybe we could meet up at some point, it's always nice to find another enthusiast. Not many in the woking area.

[T BALL]

i live near croydon if you know where that is. let me know when your on the road.

i want to replace the shocks to tighten it up a bit more but im skint after the bits ive bought. the springs were fensport +20% £100. they stopped alot of the dangerous kick back! whats your budget, theres people on here who know loads about suspension set up for them but alot of it is eally deer.

i built a full glass fibre induction system for it over the last couple of weeks too.

[Jezza]

Yeah I know Croydon. Not too well mind. Been there just the once, may end up going again once I can drive. My budget for all round suspension is upto about £500 I'm also looking at insurance quotes. The best fully comp is £2186 I'll continue my search for the holy grail tomorrow however as I am now off to bed. Thanks for the info matey