Tag: trueno (Page 1 of 2)

Hilarious: Inazuman

October 2, 2009 / banpei / 1 Comment

I found a part of really old episode of Inazuman on Youtube and tried to find out more about that series.

Somehow I think it was not the Grand Championship cars which inspired the bosozoku, but rather this series with this weird flying car called Raijingo!

On Youtube I found the hilarious opening of the series:

WTF? He is able to rebuild collapsed buildings and shoot ropes, like spiderman, and pulls the building erect again?

According to the reviews of the series I found out that the flying car called Raijingo actually has a psychic link with Inazuman. Raijingo is capable of shooting missiles from its mouth. The car looks like it was originally a Nissan Fairlady 1500 SP310. Raiji means thundergod in Japanese, so it would have been more logical if the car was based upon a TE27 Trueno!

This was the part of the video I found and be prepared for a thrilling car chase between Raijingo and a Nissan Gloria A30:

AE86 Trivia: Levin and Trueno meaning lightning and thunder?

May 24, 2009 / banpei / 2 Comments

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.

AE86 Trivia
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: lightning picture
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! :)

Rumor: Toyota Subaru 086A may feature two different body styles

April 16, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

I really found this exciting news by 7Tune.com: the Subaru/Toyota 086a compact sports car is rumored to have two different bodystyles based upon the Legacy floorpan. There are two styles: a very sleek look (Celica T230 lookalike?) and a more serious boxy version.

Toyota Subaru 086a sports car bodystyles

Why is this exciting news? Well, quite simple: the Toyota AE86 already featured two bodystyles! There was the more sporty Sprinter Trueno with the popuplights and the more serious Corolla Levin and both shared the same monocoque and bodystyle after the nose. This to improve the reuse of parts between the two cars. This caused a lot Levins to feature Trueno taillights and vice versa.

Then there was the Nissan S13 platform which did the same trick as well but differentiated between the two cars by creating a sporty hatchback and a sleek coupe for touring. After a short period people started to do swaps between the two different cars, mostly because of damaged frontends, and most of these swaps involved a Silvia S13 front to be mounted on a RPS13 180SX and creating the Sil80. The opposite of this was called the OneIva but was a bit more rare because it involved a bit more work. (I know: in the US the OneIva came rolling out of the factory, but it is Japan I’m referring to…) Nowadays we also see a lot of Silvia S15 fronts mounted on S13s and S14s as well.

Nissan Stagea C34/R34 hybrid
Also the Nissan Skyline GTR (R34/R35) front gets mounted on several cars, like the Stagea. Also let’s not forget the Bee*R R324 and R334 bodykits which allow you to mount a R34 on a R32 and R33. :D

So, what will these two cars sharing the same 086a monocoque bring to us? Hopefully we’ll see the hybrid bodystyles soon enough! :)

Picture of the 086a bodystyles belongs to 7Tune.com and you can find it here: 086a rumors on 7Tune.com

Perfect Initial D Sprinter Trueno AE86 replica

January 8, 2009 / banpei / 9 Comments

Impulse just finished their Sprinter Trueno rebuild and took a picture of it in front of the Akashi Kaikyo bridge (over the Seto Inland Sea):

Perfect Initial D Sprinter Trueno AE86 replica in front of the Akashi Kaikyo bridge
To me it looks like it is the perfect Initial D AE86 replica: it is a 1983 model, it is perfectly painted in panda white/black, it got a set of black Wantanabes, it got the yellow PIAA foglights and it looks like it just rolled out of the factory! What more do you need to make it a perfect replica? (A Fujiwara-tofu sticker? ;) )

I wonder what they will ask for this rebuild when they are selling it through Goo-net? :o

Initial D: Useless merchandising

November 24, 2008 / banpei / 3 Comments

Was browsing on Amazon and Ebay and it amazed me there was a huge amount of useless merchandising for Initial D fans. And I don’t mean useless merchandising like some tofu sticker to stick on your wannabe tofuboy Silvia S12 with panda paint scheme. Here is my top 3 useless merchandising:

On number three:
useless initial d merchandising on ebay: poker card deck
Initial D Playing poker card deck
Of course you can play poker with this, but not without being laughed at! And what is the deal with the Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 being the Joker?? Is this a joke??

On number two:
useless initial d merchandising on Amazon: plush 12 inch trueno
Initial D: AE86 Trueno Car 12-inch plush
A plush Trueno?? What am I supposed to do with it? Sit on it? Or sleep with it?

On number one:
useless initial d merchandising on Amazon: screw driver set
Initial D 86 Trueno Carbon Bonnet Mini Screw Driver Set
Amazing! A screwdriver set inside the Panda Trueno AE86!! Why? What has this to do with Initial D? Am I missing the link here?? And if this is the normal type, what other types do we have?? And the screwdrivers look like they will break upon loosening any screw! What is that good for?

My old AE86 is going to have a good destination!

October 10, 2008 / banpei / 2 Comments

It is clear what will happen to my old Trueno:

This Daihatsu Charmant A35 is owned by a friend of Eircamae86 and he was looking for an upgrade of his 4K engine. He decided to put a 5K engine in it, however given the opportunity of swapping a 4AGE with T50 made him decide to go that way.

Everything should be an easy plug and play: the Daihatsu Charmant A35 was based upon the KE70 chassis, so everything should fit. In the two pictures above the suspension already has been swapped upon the Charmant.

Eventually it will start doing this again:
Daihatsu Charmant A35 drifing

But then hopefully a bit better than this:

Too bad the shell can’t be saved, but at least this is a good destination for the usable parts of my old AE86. ;)