To many, this unique Corolla Levin AE86 will need no introduction. It's been admired and talked about on the internet worldwide in AE86 circles and beyond, featured in US, Australian & English magazines, Speedhunters and recently appeared at shows in the UK, since being imported in 2012. Click here to see the recent Banzai magazine full feature.
Originally the build of this car started around 2005 as a Newera Imports demo project. The plan was to build a car that could be used for drifting or track days. It would be made to the highest possible specification with absolutely no limit on expenditure and the intention was that this car would never be sold. This set the precedent for making what would become the world's finest and best specified AE86, which in itself has begun to develop a niche as a cult car and will continue to gain credibility as one of Toyota's finest driver's cars. We see this as one example of the knowledge, care and attention to detail Miguel, owner here at Newera Imports - puts into his work & passion for cars...
The heart of this car is the engine. Built by Techno Pro Spirits, it's of full N2 race spec. - exactly the same as the engines they have used to race AE86's in N2 series in Japan. Miguel chose this company to make the engine, as 20 years of success in N2 racing and a reputation for fabulously engineered 4A-GE engines could not possibly be matched by undertaking such a build ourselves. This results in the components and spec chosen not from guesswork, but from 2 decades of experience of building & racing these engines at the highest level in Japan. Capable of a heady 10,000 rpm, but capped at 8,900 for safety - Hearing this engine work hard through the gears will leave any true petrolhead with a grin from ear to ear. It's ravenous hunger for air and ability to pump gasses through the intricately engineered exhaust system is like nothing you'll ever hear in a road engine. It actually sounds better from outside the car than within. When we heard it in Japan's forested touge roads, it made the hairs on our necks stand on end from half a km away. Final gearing has is changed to take advantage of the engine's apetite for revs and then every mechanical component on the car is modified for performance. Everything from a fully adjustable chassis, through steering lock to be able to hold this car at lurid angles when drifting has been beautifully thought out, combined with 6 piston calipers and an interior made for motorsports.
Make no mistake. This is not a car for having conversations in & relaxing drives! It's a full race-car in disguise that's well-mannered enough for road use. It wasn't just built for show, but for use not just on the circuit, but driving there & back too with trips to Japanese Touge roads to enjoy making mincemeat of supposedly greater cars.
In Miguel's words:
"This is the most fun car I have ever owned and that's saying a lot, as I have had & still have a fair few amazing machines. It's probably the  best showcase of what I understand & love about about cars, with every aspect carefully thought out and refined. This car can really assault the senses of emotion. There's a lot of passion and hundreds of hours of not just planning, but selecting and building the best possible AE86. You'll probably notice the attention to detail on it is incredible, most people who have seen it in the flesh have commented such, but when we build something it has to be the best it can possibly be!When I first built this car I did so because I wanted to go drifting, but was under no illusion from the beginning that a very good drift car is also a very effective time attack car with the main difference being in suspension settings & tyre pressures. Cooling for example - is an important factor, especially when sideways as less airflow gets through the front of the car. With the engine that cost a small fortune to build I wasn't prepared to risk damaging it, so I made sure everything was very well engineered. I enjoyed drifting it, it's a supremely well balanced car and actually quite easy to drive sideways. Being light and powerful with surprising torque (At higher revs) it will slide around corners quicker than most drift prepared cars, but I got to the stage where I'd have to risk damaging it if I wanted to get better and that wasn't something I was prepared to do. One day as I threw it into a corner at Ebisu's drift matsuri, I found myself going backwards after having run out of steering lock, dangerously close to a wall, having to clutch in and reverse at high speed to stay away from trouble. At that point I gave up drifting in this car, it's far too special to bash into walls.Fortunately with 5 minutes of adjustment it makes an amazingly fun time-attack / track day car too. On Fuji raceway I've scalped many a supposedly more capable car with this, from Lotus Elises, through Lancer Evo's and stripped out S2000 running on S tyres! Right from the beginning - For me it had to be a car I could drive to the track, enjoy all day, then drive it back home. Testament to how well it's put together is that it never let me down once. Many of the parts that were available in 2006 when this build was made, are now discontinued, although in most cases we can still source them as I remain well connected within Japanese AE86 circles. There's a video of me drifting it at Nikko circuit, many pictures and of course the recent Banzai article, but despite all of this, there's nothing I can say which will express the feeling of driving this amazing car.
It's not a car that bites unexpectedly. I could feint it into a corner (on the track only of course!) and adjust the angle through throttle & steering inputs, or make it flick the other way through releasing the steering wheel & throttle with ease. For track days it's a car that rewards precision driving with well-chosen gear shifting. Come into a corner in the wrong gear and it'll punish you for being ineffective by being slow, but get it right and it'll embarrass larger turbo cars by maintaining it's speed around corners and catapulting you out of them with anger. It makes ever increasing power from around 5,000 rpm then continues building right up to the rev limit. What's amazing is that a car with this level of performance will idle at around 900 rpm with only a slight lumpiness as a hint of the level of naughtiness hiding under the bonnet. You can sit in traffic in this car and it's not temperamental. Everything's been rebuilt. Less than 2,000km before it was shipped to the UK last year, I had the engine dis-assembled and refreshed with new bearings, piston rings, valve springs and gaskets, etc. by TPS. On inspection they found it to be like new. The gearbox was also rebuilt and the clutch replaced at the same time. New synchros, etc. The TRD differential, brake calipers, discs, etc. were all rebuilt & replaced too.As I have another AE86 close to completion which is even more extreme (A built from a bare shell track car only TRD wide-bodied & fully seam welded 3 door Trueno whose drivetrain was also built by TPS) I cannot really justify keeping two of these. So it's a big wrench on my heart to put it on the market to find a home that will give it the love, attention and use it deserves. I have to say, it's not a car for inexperienced drivers. It would be a vast shame to see it smashed to bits as a result of being owned by someone unable to drive it well."
Rather than discussing the specification further, as the spec is too great here's the full list of components that make the whole car. As you'll see there's a lot more than meets the eye from pictures alone.
Engine Modifications:Base engine - Late model AE92's 4A-GE engine strengthened / internally welded. Cylinder head and piston surfaces gas flowed. Inlet valves 3 angle cut, Exhaust 2 angle cut. Head skimmed. N2 Racing TRD Valve Springs with Toyota Yaris 1 piece bucket shims. Tomei Powered Procams of 304° Duration with 11.0m m lift. Valve timing: IN ATDC102°, EX BTDC104°. TRD Head Gasket 0.8mm, 82mm diameter Techno Pro Spirits pistons (Compression Ratio 11.5:1). AE101 conrods machined, lightened and balanced with oil hole processing. AE111 crankshaft with journal surface mirror polished. TRD bearings (0.054 mm of connecting rod bearing clearances &(0.060 mm of crankshaft bearing clearance). Machined AE92 oil pump with 3mm shim to enhance hydraulic pressure. Techno Pro Spirits uprated and (10mm) lowered engine and gearbox mounts. AE101 throttle bodies with 70mm stainless steel TPS bells (No. 4 is cut to clear the brake servo). 327cc Denso injectors. SW20 GT-S fuel pump. Freedom ECU - mapped by Asano of Techno Pro Spirits. Twin left side Cam covers refinished in Cackle paint. Jubiride lightweight alloy water pump pulley. TPS Anti Cavitation PAS pulley. Nology ignition leads. Kimizu Motors N2 custom equal length 4 into 1 stainless manifold with spring secured joints. Toda Power silenced stainless 60mm catalyst pipe. Toda Power 60mm bore 2 silencer stainless exhaust. Grex/Trust 13 row oil cooler - complete with custom carbon fibre shrouding & remote oil filter housing. Greddy alloy top hose. 3 x normal capacity Koyo Aluminium radiator. 1.3 Bar TRD radiator cap. Twin 12" Billion electric fans. Laile alloy radiator shroud. Custom built large capacity oil catch tank with 1 breather from each cam cover. Techno Pro Spirits Oil caps. Billion billet PAS bottle. All engine work was completed by www.tp-spirit.co.jp Total costs of engine components and specialist engine building work (Converted from Japanese Yen): £24,159.Transmission Specifications: T50 gearbox built by TPS. Late model rear axle (Thicker drive shafts and larger bearings). TRD differential. Racing Gear Copper clutch plate. TRD pressure plate. Toda Racing 3.7kg flywheel. Nagisa Auto braided clutch hose.Total costs of transmission components and specialist engineering work (Converted from Japanese Yen): £3,290.Suspension & Chassis Modifications: TRD Coilovers at the front with Cusco adjustable castor plates. TRD adjustable rear shock absorbers and uprated suspension springs. 20mm alloy upper spacers.(Jubiride) 4 x Pillow-ball arms. Custom made high strength stainless steel adjustable pillow ball lateral rod. Nagisa Auto fully adjustable pillow-ball front lower arms & tension rods. Cusco tension rod connecting bar. Cusco Type OS rear strut brace with OS-T strengthening bars. Nobby Booth Carbon & alloy 4 point strut brace. Nagisa Auto strengthening shakit plates for front suspension turrets. TRD front & rear anti-roll bars. Total costs of suspension components and specialist engineering work (Converted from Japanese Yen): £7,440.Brakes Upgrades: Greddy mini 6 piston front calipers. Oversized vented & slotted 282mm discs with Endless CC-Rg performance pads at front and rear. Earls braided hoses. Cusco brake master cylinder brace. Endless DOT 4 brake fluid. New master cylinder. Total costs of brake components (Converted from Japanese Yen): £2,790.Wheels & Fittings: Original RS Watanabe 15 x 8.5J with Zero offset combined with bolt on 15mm Kyo-Ei spacers front & rear. Stainless steel Watanabe wheel nuts. Total costs of wheels & components (Converted from Japanese Yen): £1,970.Exterior Spec: Crystal Body Yokohama FRP rear hatch with rear wiper removed. Jubiride rear bumper. Budou Nouki front bumper with aluminium honeycomb mesh. J-Blood Vented Carbon Bonnet. Trueno late model rear lights. Standard skirts and arch trims with carbon fibre stone chip shields. Privacy tinted glass in the rear. Carbon fibre side visors / deflectors. New front headlights, indicators and sidelights. All new trim for windows & new rubber seals for doors. Complete exterior respray to high quality completed in Japan.Total costs of exterior upgrades (Converted from Japanese Yen): £8,990.Interior improvements:Custom made Defi instrument panel housed inside original binnacle displaying Revs, Water Temp, Oil Temp, Oil pressure complete with LED's for warning lights and original fuel gauge and Defi link Controller. Apexi Rev Speed Meter with Ultra mechanical - electronic speedo output conversion kit. Apexi RSM.Webasto electric glass sunroof. Bride Exas III bucket seats with Bride seat rails. Custom made floor mats. Cusco Safety 21 8 point roll cage pro-trimmed in Cusco black foam. polished Cusco alloy door bars and diagonal rear bar making this a 14 point cage. Carbon leather gearshift gaiter. Nardi Classic steering wheel with quick-release Rapfix II Prodrive boss. ARC titanium gear-knob. Cusco pedal covers. J-Blood carbon sill trims. Total costs of interior upgrades (Converted from Japanese Yen): £6,840.
N.B. The total below doesn’t include many 100’s of hours spent by Miguel working on this car to build it from scratch.TOTAL BASIC EXPENDITURE: £56,479!
As you'll see from the Banzai magazine feature, this car was sold to our customer Steve last year. He's had the wheels refurbished, taken it to a few shows and enjoys a few drives to enjoy a pub lunch. Has done one track day with it but is afraid of damaging or chipping the beautiful paintwork so has barely used it. In total on a new drivetrain, it's done less than 3,500km (2,200 miles!).
Like Miguel, it's the best & most fun car he's had, but his wife's persuaded him to part with it after much reasoning and so he's naturally asked us to find a good home it can go onto. This is driving nirvana and is available for one lucky person only.  UK On the road price is £21,995 and will of course include alarm & immobiliser, new MOT and 12 month's warranty as our usual package. Viewing is possible for serious individuals by prior appointment only.  If you're serious about having the world's best modified road legal AE86, contact us.