Shane is a reserved character. Like I said in the recent video about this car, he keeps to himself. On social media, the odd post here or there about his car pops up, and he’s never actively posting the cool stuff he’s posting in his shed at home.
When I saw his Levin pop up online, it instantly caught my attention. Inspired by the Young Version / Run free collaboration car that famously graced the pages of Hyper Rev magazine and was done pretty much to perfection, I had to reach out and chat.
We take a closer look at this very cool street style AE86 Levin, inspired by the millennium era of Japanese drifting.
The Dream AE86 bumper lands at JDM Distro from Japan. Here’s a little mash-up of a work day in the life, unloading dream parts with a remarkable history.
Not everything goes to plan. Unfortunately, our exhaust mission didn’t work out, I sort of forced josh to make an exhaust for me, and realistically I should have got one made up elsewhere. It’s one of those situations where you have a friend who can weld, and suddenly everyone asks him to do work.
This was a productive weekend of sorting the dash, realising the exhaust is fucked and requires a whole new system, painting the little metal piece on the car’s frame to match the life, and sorting the headlight brackets.
I hadn’t been to the shed in a few weeks due to covid lockdown nonsense, so seeing Josh balls deep in his s15 resto and Flip doing some bits on his FC was a pleasant surprise. We usually get more stuff done when there isn’t a crowd!
We visit our friend Mikey’s house, to see my old AE86 shell, chat about the Corolla addiction and check out his pride and joy.
After a month of awful brakes on the Trueno, we finally figured out the problem.
We take the AE86 out for its first drive with the new engine set up around the business park, no panels, lots of noise and lots of laughs!
Here are a few of Flip’s photographs from our last drift video, a rare occasion where we all got out drifting. This day was right after the first ease of restrictions in Ireland during the never-ending sea of lockdowns. It was great to get together and enjoy some skids. Flip took some epic shots that day, so I’ve thrown them up here for people who still appreciate photos on a blog. I’ll keep the words to a minimum. I hope you enjoy it – Neil
In this episode, we update you on the AE86, enjoy some misery with the March, and have fun with a Rusty Micra.
Jumping over 4A-GE’s and the Trueno wiring begins. There is plenty of immature action in this episode, with some interesting information about AE86 production numbers.
Let’s take a closer look at Kevin’s AE86 from the last video. We were lucky the sun came out that day to show off its incredible blue paint. Kevin had been building this car for over seven years and had just picked it up a couple of days before we called out to visit. He was very eager to show me the Levin. Continue Reading
A Hidden shed Tour! We take a look at a freshly built AE86 Levin and a shed full of Japanese classics.
We are very fortunate to have people like MR X in the car community. For years, he has been supplying the AE86 community with much sought after parts. He has been breaking Corollas for parts for well over ten years, and it is a necessary evil, sometimes it’s sad to see cool cars he has killed, but most of the time, every last piece of that car ends helping another.
If my younger self could see me now! That young freckly fucker obsessing over Gran Turismo 2, sitting in his room listening to that smooth jazz menu music, looking at cars he had never heard of in the used car garage. Here I am, many years later, still chasing the dream, still into the same stuff I was back then! I think my younger self would be buzzing to see the space I have in the shed with sound friends, a few rusty Japanese shit heaps, a few bikes, skateboards and silly bits pushing on into my 30s. It’s not much, but I try not to take it for granted, best to enjoy the ride. This night made me incredibly happy.
We are back at it in our shed with the Trueno progress and updates on where to go next, with a few surprised along the way.