Photos Unboxed: A Trueno For The Weekend - Juiceboxforyou

I must admit it was such a nice feeling being handed the keys to a freshly imported ae86. The fact I was going to have this car for the next four days was exciting. Up until this weekend, I had never actually driven an 86 for longer than a couple of hours. As you might have remembered from the last vlog, Dave threw me the keys while he stood there in full Nicholas cage attire.

I was like a small child driving the car back to Waterford. I instantly wanted to bring it out to one of my favourite spots where I have been shooting photos of vehicles and grab a couple of snaps.

That funky wedge shape looked great through the viewfinder. Its modest exterior styling had grown on me. Black bumpers on a white car with full OEM body styling. As pure as it gets. It was a late evening, and the sky lightly reflected off of the Truenos simple side profile. I’m not sure what it is about these cars, but I was in love. If mine turned out anything like this car, I would be a happy man.

Later that evening, I called into Duggie to rebuild the T50 gearbox. I decided to stick with the original gearbox and try to keep this build as authentic as possible. There were talks of a J160, but we eventually decided to rebuild and refresh everything that came with the car or replace if necessary.

I managed to pick up a Syncro set online and tried my luck at disassembling what appeared to be a reasonably complicated lego set. Eventually, Duggie stepped in to take over; he’s rebuilt his fare share of T50s and made it look pretty simple.

We scrubbed it, and a quick degrease and tried to remove 30 plus years of grime from the ribs. It didn’t look too shabby when we left. We decided to go sealing the gearbox for another time as second seemed to be a little crunchy, this might be something we will have to deal with at a later date.

I can almost hear Reubens scream from this picture.

The next day (Sunday) we took the 86 for a drive to the coast. We are super fortunate here in Waterford to have such a gorgeous coastline. We grabbed some food and brought the Trueno to the Atlantic ocean to give it a little scare.

I’m not sure what exactly captured my heart about this little chassis, but I couldn’t stop smiling as we snapped photos against the calm backdrop of Newtown Cove.

The white has grown on me. Maybe its because I’ve spent many years watching Keiichi Tsyuchia in his white 3 doors with black bumpers, but this is a look I would have formerly never set out to acquire. After four days with this car, this colourway left an impression on me.

Unfortunately, I can’t paint the car in the classic Panda colour scheme as three of my friends have already claimed this colour and their cars came that way from the factory.

Either way, this effortless original look, with the Koukie bumpers, no side skirts and small offset wheels, was food for thought. I love a wild-looking Japanese car as much as the next guy, but in this case, Less is definitely more.