Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: AE86 racer

Car feature: Original AE86 cup racer from Holland Part 2

The AE86 driven by Mike van der Raadt was one of the cars used in the Dutch Corolla Cup. The Dutch Corolla Cup started out as a one brand only racing cup. All cars should be equal to each other and could only be modified under restrictions. This allowed drivers to show their skills more than the tuners could do with time and money. It made the cup very competitive and fun to watch. Of course, due to the equality of the cars, a lot of banging was done and not many of the cars survived.
Here you can see some pictures of the Dutch Corolla Cup in action:
Dutch Corolla Cup with three Corolla TE71 competing
Dutch Corolla Cup with four Corolla TE71 in the rain

When the Dutch Corolla Cup entered its second generation of Rollas it received a different engine as well: the 4AGE of the AE86 instead of the 2T-G of the TE71. With this new engine it became again the field of time and money. The more money put into the team, the better the outcome. Then in 1986, also probably due to the obsoletion of RWD Toyota cars, the new Starlet took over and the races were only driven with the new FWD Starlets.

Of course the teams and drivers still used their Corollas in different cups and races, like for instance the ETCC, BTTC or endurance races.

The AE86 driven by Mike van der Raadt was a very competitive car in the Dutch Corolla Cup and not only in the Corolla Cup, but also later on in the Super Touring Class (nowadays referred as Group A). Theo Koks said in his last interview that there were only two really big competitors: the AE86 driven by Mike van der Raadt and the VW Sirocco of the director of Zandvoort.
As you can see in the picture below the Corolla was competing in the Super Touring class:
Dutch Corolla AE86 tuned by Nobels

And it claims that the Corolla GT put the lap record of Zandvoort back into Dutch hands. IMO that is a bit impossible: Formula one just disappeared from Zandvoort back then and atleast those cars should be much much faster than this Corolla GT. Perhaps the lap record was set for the Super Touring class.

Back to the Corolla Cup: there are most probably still some other Corolla Cup or endurance racecars out there. I know for instance that the AE86 driven by Jasper Spaan stared its life as an endurance racer. It is RHD, non-European from origin and had a diff cooler in its axle. It was stored for 16 or 17 years when he bought it. Maybe this car was used in one of the endurance races on Spa as well.

I did find a bunch of pictures of Toyota Corollas (AE86) on Spa Francorchamps here, but no pictures of Jasper’s car. Anyone got more pictures of the old endurance races on Spa Francorchamps?

Car feature: Original AE86 cup racer from Holland Part 1

Some days ago Speedhunters posted some info about a 24 hours Spa Francorchamps AE86 and a BTCC AE86 Touring car. It made me remember that we still have an original AE86 cup racer here in Holland.

AE86 cup racer, image courtesy of Paul van Rooij

During the 80s there was an AE86 cup driven in Holland and Belgium. Most cars did not survive but some should still be hidden in sheds, just like this car from IJmuiden. After the driver( Mike van der Raadt) retired the car was cherished by one of it’s sponsors/creators put on display for almost 20 years. Only a short while ago it got sold to it’s current owner who is racing with it happily on Zandvoort.

Here is a video of the car starting:

More info about this car and the ae86 cup will follow next weekend. ;)

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