Racecar: ITA AE86 with provenance(history)

[oldeskewltoy]

Welcome...... after reading a few recent threads... I thought maybe it is time..............


It has been a number of years since I've began a build thread... and essentially this car is fully built, and more or less has been for nearly 30 years!!! So part of this thread will be to reveal some interesting information/history! And part of it will be to enjoy flogging a purpose built racecar

As some of you may know I tend to name my projects, and this is by no means any different. As this will likely be my one and only TRUE race car (carrying an SCCA log book for 90+% of its life), I introduce you to "Racecar", or "RC" for short

I'm undecided if I'll refer to it as she/her, or he/him, or maybe just it - that will develop as I own he/she/it


current livery...





The livery when built....




I will most likely returning it to her original livery..........



So, I have a 3" tall wad of papers I have to sift through, but what I can show you so far....




Racecar has 2 SCCA handbooks, that date back to 1988, this AE86 race car has been raced for many years.....



my plans: well I do have a local(about 5 miles away) track - Portland International Raceway...




... and I'm a member of a local car club that has track days a number of times each year. In addition, PIR also participates in Track Night USA.


I've already gotten Oregon "SP" license plates - which allows "limited" street use (under 2000 miles a year) - this will allow use @ events (Cars and Coffee, or cruises, or similar)

Temp plate in rear window



As some of you MAY remember... my bucket list was to take Surreptitious to the Nordschleife... well, my bucket list cost just doubled




more to come......

[aukword1]

very cool man! I didnt know that was your car, Ive seen pictures of it online a long time ago. Super clean, lets see some engine pics next

[oldeskewltoy]

very cool man! I didnt know that was your car, Ive seen pictures of it online a long time ago. Super clean, lets see some engine pics next

I just bought it......

the only engine pic so far......

[aukword1]

That engine bay is super clean. Nice find man. I hope you get some good years out of it. Since it is already pretty much built, do you have any additional plans for it or just take it to the track?

[Jayrdee]

This car is legendary.

I remember seeing it for sale on ebay once YEARS ago and thinking this thing is a gold mine of awesome parts/history. Turns out I grew up in the same town as the previous owner! Im 75% positive I know exactly where that first picture was taken Lol.

[KYHachi]

I am so happy to see this go to somebody on here! I've seen the car in person and met the previous owner once, probably 8 years ago or so.

Can't wait to see how you develop it!

[oldeskewltoy]

the only engine pic so far......

Let's have some fun...... in the above photo... how many "different from original" things do you see, or not see???

I have 6 in mind... but maybe there are more???



more to come......

[aukword1]

Strut bar, Air box, Battery bracket, Camber plates, relocated igniter, no windshield wipers, headers possibly. The rest I can't tell without being able to zoom in but that red thing on the intake manifold looks a little suspect lol. I'm also sure that the battery isn't original either

[Jayrdee]

Thats interesting how the strut bar looks welded into place!

[aukword1]

Yeah I do like that strut bar setup. Also, the vacuum lines being plugged on the TB.

[Deuce Cam]

Ive seen it before online and always felt it looked perfect. I personally prefer the current livery, but you gotta do what makes you happy

[oldeskewltoy]

the only engine pic so far......

Let's have some fun...... in the above photo... how many "different from original" things do you see, or not see???

I have 6 in mind... but maybe there are more???



more to come......

1) the "cold air" box - not an ARC box, but a simple box made from insulated thin board - inside it appears to be a K&N FIPK kit

2) the strut bar - the mounts for it are welded to the chassis

3) adjustable upper "hats" - also set a bit further back then OEM, or other adjustable top mounts (more caster??)

4) under the wiper motor - plastic catch can - when I dig into this engine, I'll look to add an intake side oil drain to minimize the need for a catch can

5) light weight batt hold down

6) absence of proportioning valve


The hood, and wipers are also good. Did anyone see the wiring/location for the kill switch - it is hanging out "above" the clutch reservoir.

Unseen: it does have headers, and it is missing a fan of ANY kind!! Yep this is a race car... so the fan was pulled because of power lost to it, and no electric fan was added because the car is typically @ speed when in use.



More to come......

[oldeskewltoy]

The rainy season is coming to Portland...... so before the winter comes, I wanted to get the car up and give it a simple inspection.

Took her to Jesse's, his shop is about 3 min from PIR......




Got her up....





...and we found...



pretty significant "heat checking" in the front brakes. David mentioned this happens a lot (race car). Front rotors will need replacement. The rear rotors are not checking, and still have some meat on them(measured 9.7mm)



In addition, we checked the lights, as you can see, there is yellow duct tape on the lenses, this is there to keep plastic shards off the track when(not if) contact occurs (race car). Since her use will be a bit less aggressive, and other sanctioning bodies keep the lights to help indicate to other drivers... we managed to get both head lamps, and both tail lamps working. We did find that there were no bulbs in the indicator lamps in the back (on shopping list), AND the driver side (left) turn signal assembly is broken .




I mentioned this to one of my younger friends here in Portland - he has a right hand drive coupe he rebuilt. Anyway, I mentioned to him that I needed one, and he directed me to an ad on Club4AG's facebook page he had seen a day before..... I messaged the person (Jason McInerney -
AE86IRL member) selling them and I bought my first parts for Racecar. I bought both front lamp assemblies, they are coming from Ireland!





more to come......

[truenorican]

Nice find, I'm loving it. Goals!! What's the wheel/tire setup in the current picture?

[oldeskewltoy]

Nice find, I'm loving it. Goals!! What's the wheel/tire setup in the current picture?

Car came with 2 tire/wheel combos.

Currently on the car it appears they are Revolution RFX wheels, with BFG Comp T/A R1 tires in 205/55/14. The second set are Panasport racing wheels, with Hoosier R6 tires, also in 205/55/14

[oldeskewltoy]

I personally prefer the current livery, but you gotta do what makes you happy

There is nothing wrong with it's current livery, and I do plan on keeping the back alone - leaving "Spinnetti" on the right rear of the hatch... but it's lineage goes back to early 1988, when a few TRD USA employees built an ITA race car... that won it's first 6 times out!

Grassroots Motorsports magazine - October 1989













Being a bit of a historian ( I have a B.A. in History), my thinking is such to bring it back to it's roots....



More to come......

[aukword1]

That is so cool. I wish my car came with a prevalent history lol. Was it hard to find this article on it?

[CloudStrife]

What an awesome history. I'm also a history buff, but no B.A. LOL. I actually am surprised, a lot of us tech/mech guys go BSE, etc.

Are you in the Northwest Hillclimb Association? When I move back to the PNW (trying to decide where) I definitely want to give it a shot.

[Jayrdee]

So this car was literally built by TRD?!?

I don't even want to think about how much of a gold mine that thing is with old/rare TRD parts

[truenorican]

Wow, definitely an awesome car with some great history behind it

[Deuce Cam]

That is so cool. Thanks for posting the article!

[Spinnett]

Wow, nice to see the "build thread" here.... Bitter sweet for me of course, but glad to see it go to a good home I poured many, many hundreds of hours into making it what I considered to be the "Ultimate" AE86 for its race class - important to note that I built it for the specifiec class, not for anything else, so those rules defined what I could and could not do. I was close to the class track record in my first SCCA driving school in it at Blackhawk farms never having driven on track before and I won the first road race I ever entered at IRP. Leaving out the bulbs was just me saving grams lol. Most interesting to me, is I bought this car 25+ years ago, and I now work for Toyota's corporate HQ in TX. Our chief Akio Toyota did a drift demo at work last Saturday in the Modern "GT86". I should have brought this car to the party <sad face>. Was hoping he'd do it in the original instead, but it was sort of a historic closure for my 25 year AE86 experience


PS, the car has ZERO blow by... Catch can is required by rules, but has never had anything in it... The red cap on the intake is to block that off so it doesn't suck hot gasses from the block into the intake, reducing HP....

[oldeskewltoy]

Wow, nice to see the "build thread" here.... Bitter sweet for me of course, but glad to see it go to a good home I poured many, many hundreds of hours into making it what I considered to be the "Ultimate" AE86 for its race class - important to note that I built it for the specifiec class, not for anything else, so those rules defined what I could and could not do. I was close to the class track record in my first SCCA driving school in it at Blackhawk farms never having driven on track before and I won the first road race I ever entered at IRP. Leaving out the bulbs was just me saving grams lol. Most interesting to me, is I bought this car 25+ years ago, and I now work for Toyota's corporate HQ in TX. Our chief Akio Toyota did a drift demo at work last Saturday in the Modern "GT86". I should have brought this car to the party <sad face>. Was hoping he'd do it in the original instead, but it was sort of a historic closure for my 25 year AE86 experience


PS, the car has ZERO blow by... Catch can is required by rules, but has never had anything in it... The red cap on the intake is to block that off so it doesn't suck hot gasses from the block into the intake, reducing HP....

I hope you will continue to follow along.......

[oldeskewltoy]

I now work for Toyota's corporate HQ in TX. Our chief Akio Toyota did a drift demo at work last Saturday in the Modern "GT86". I should have brought this car to the party <sad face>. Was hoping he'd do it in the original instead, but it was sort of a historic closure for my 25 year AE86 experience

If I had known..... ....it would have added a bit of additional cool to the history


I will be getting back to the history, but for now some repairs, and maintenance...



After having it up 2 weeks ago, I've gotten some of the parts ordered, and did a bit further research into the lights. First, I need to find something the removes dried on duct tape residue...




...... WITHOUT harming the plastic!!

Initial research shows this product...



but there are other methods I've heard, or read about - Vaseline, is one, WD40 is another - problem is I need them to work without distorting the lenses, so if you have actual experience with cleaning tape residue and not harming the lenses... I'm all


Part of what I found when the car was up was the left side front lamp was broken - the socket was missing from the lamp assembly. As I mentioned, I quickly found a pair, and they were sent to me - arriving unbroken




but here is the problem.... this is a race car... I learned after I bought the above lamps that the car had modified MR2 lamps instead (note the added brackets in photo below)




So... do I look for a replacement MR2 lamp... or go with the original zenki type (on right)




Additionally, the car has had a wonky (official term ) temp gauge for a long time. Shortly after start up (less then 3 minutes) the engine temp gauge "buries" itself to full HOT

Did the diag - the sender works along the lines of the FSM test procedure..... The gauge, on the other hand, I've not yet tried to diag it....



...as removal from the cluster may require some creativity?????


That(wonky temp gauge), along with the fact that there is no engine fan, mechanical driven or electric, has made me a bit uncomfortable. David (previous owner) said it wasn't a problem, after all this is a race car, it is used on track........

As this car's purpose has changed somewhat, besides the bits I've already mentioned, I'll be adding a thermo-switched electric fan to keep temps under control in less then perfect racing conditions.




More to come.......

[truenorican]

I think the original zenki type (on right) fills it out pretty good and looks better, IMO.

[oldeskewltoy]

WD-40 + a soft Scotch Brite pad + time + hot soapy water = ..........



front lamps finished... rear lamps left to do.......


More to come.....

[oldeskewltoy]

there is no engine fan, mechanical driven or electric, has made me a bit uncomfortable. David (previous owner) said it wasn't a problem, after all this is a race car, it is used on track........

As this car's purpose has changed somewhat, besides the bits I've already mentioned, I'll be adding a thermo-switched electric fan to keep temps under control in less then perfect racing conditions.




More to come.......

key part to getting the fan in, and operational is the proper parts. Below is a coolant inlet for an AE82. This will bolt in as the stock one does, and is even pointing in the correct place. The original Toyota switch is grounded, and when hot it breaks the ground(opens) and the fan comes on. This works as a safety as well, if the switch breaks, the fan stays on.



For Racecar I'm using a Honda switch, that will be open, and close @ temp (reverse of Toyota switch). This makes wiring the fan a bit simpler since the Honda switch is more conventional in operation.

BUT... the sensor doesn't quite fit. The hole for the probe is too narrow, and the threads aren't deep enough. So a few mods....




and the Honda switch becomes right at home....





with just enough of the sensor in the coolant to operate, yet not so far in that it seriously disrupts flow





more to come.....

[jdm86gtz]

Those Trueno front bumper lamps have been tinted as they should be a similar colour to the side repeater.

[Gino1X1]

The rainy season is coming to Portland...... so before the winter comes,



......

May I ask how/why the inside front tire lifted in this heavy cornering pose? I saw that many times in old race photos and archive footages of rallys and some Nascar races (Riverside) of the sixties and seventies.

Doesn't keep me awake at night but I don't know the dynamics.

[YoShImUrA]

A very stiff front sway bar and good enough rear compression stroke (comparatively soft springing too) will produce that effect