Remembering Japanese cars from the past
Even though the HACHiRoCK festival 2008 was only 9 months ago the upcoming HACHiRoCK has already been sold out!
HACHiRoCK festival September 13th 2009
250 entries were allowed to the premises of the HACHiRoCK 2009 edition and they already reached this number of entries! :)
Also several AE86 related companies like Impulse, Run Free and Tech-Arts already confirmed they will be there with exhibitions. Can’t wait till see the pictures of this event on the 14th of September! :)
As being an admin of AEU86 I’ve seen a lot of questions, facts and fun stuff about the Toyota AE86 (hachi roku). I also see a lot of questions returning even though we documented it on the FAQ already.
So I thought: why not share it in a returning item on my personal blog as well? Be prepared to encounter silly trivial facts about the hachi roku you probably never heard before! ;)
This week we’ll start off with the Levin and Trueno naming. Where did it come from?
Toyota started using the Levin and Trueno designations already back in 1971 when they created the high performance TE27 models. The TE27 Corolla was called Levin (and SR5 in the US) while the TE27 Sprinter was called Trueno. This naming scheme for both cars lived on till the AE111: the Sprinter line ended with the AE111. The Corolla line still lives and still carries on the Levin badge for the more sporty models.
Classic TE27 Levin trunk emblem
There was a rumor that the Levin means lightning and Trueno means thunder in Japanese.
The Japanese part is not true: look it up in the dictionary, there are no such words listed in Japanese.
Classic TE27 Trueno trunk emblem
Then we started looking into this on AEU86 and first found that Levin meant lightning in Middle English.
Levin/lightning part confirmed! So, if Levin means lightning, does Trueno mean thunder then?
TE27 Levin grille emblem: clearly lightning!
As you can see at the end of the topic I sent an email to Toyota Japan asking where the naming came from.
Yes it does: before the Initial D hype flushed google with references to the Sprinter Trueno I already found the name Trueno matching a lot by El Capitan Trueno on images.google.com:
El Capitan Trueno deriva al rescate
Note the lightning arcs in his name! ;)
So it was not difficult to look up trueno in the Spanish dictionary.
Trueno/thunder part confirmed!
TE27 Trueno grille emblem: is this supposed to be thunder?
Funny story is when I had a dinner with a couple of friends in a restaurant and gave a few of them a ride in my old Trueno (featuring the AEU86 reproduction decals). One of the friends was a Spanish girl and she couldn’t believe the car actually was called Thunder and she was having a ride in the Thunder! :D
AEU86 Reproduction stickers of the Sprinter Trueno AE86 trunk decal
In the end I never received a reply back from Toyota Japan. So the decision why they took a Spanish and Middle English word still remains unknown!
Next week another AE86 Trivia! :)
Well it’s the big news of today anyway and I already put it on the AEU86 twitter, so why not place it here again:
Toyota and Subaru have announced that, due to the financial crisis, they postponed their joint development of a small FR coupe (also known as the successor of the Toyota Corolla AE86) till at least 2012 while the originial plan was they would start with building late 2011.
Reason for this can be sought in the shrinking market for cars in Japan. The market has been shrinking for years now due to reliability of cars, but it became worse because of the financial crisis.
My gut feeling is that it will probably be postponed till 2013, but of course this does not mean it will never meet the market at all. At least it should temper the expectations of the car since it was over-hyped anyway.
This is how the car probably would look like:
Artist impression of what the small FR coupe should look like
Original source:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aCU1OZuheIys&refer=japan
I found the news already copied here (in order of time):
http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/blog/2008/12/22/rwd-toyobaru-on-hold-nsx-dead/
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/22/report-toyobaru-delayed-until-2012-or-later/
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2008/12/23/news-gt-gt-toyota-subaru-fr-project-delayed-until-2012.aspx
Found this on HR Blog yesterday:
Waltzing hachi rokus in Ireland!!!
I think it is a very memorable achievement! I already think dancing an AE86 is wicked, but revving the Emperor Waltz by Johann Strauss is simply amazing!!
I posted this video a few days back on AEU86, but in my opinion the video is misunderstood.
2 Toyota AE86s vs Nissan R34:
In this video featuring Keiichi Tsuchiya and Manabu Orido taking on a “nerd” in a Nissan Skyline GTR-34. Ofcourse the two hachis win and making the piss out of the GTR. Often this is directly translated into the Hachi still being capable of beating other cars.
In my opinion this interpretation is wrong. First of all the two hachis have been modified a lot (165hp and 200hp) and drive against a bone stock GTR. Don’t forget Keiichi had over 15 years of experience with the hachi-roku when that video was shot. He modified his 165hp hachi to the max, giving him the optimal advantage.
Then both Keiichi and Orido are very experienced AE86 drivers and know the car pretty well. This against a total inexperienced GTR driver is like stealing candy from a baby. To illustrate how experienced Keiichi is: Orido can’t even pass him with a 35hp difference. Then take in mind how Keiichi drove with a R32 in the past and draw your conclusion: the driver of the R34 just sucks.
In my opinion this is also the conclusion of the video in Japanese. The “nerd” boasting about his R34 and Keiichi and Orido showing him that even if you pick the fastest car you’re nothing without skill
© 2024 Banpei.net
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑