Lauren's AE86

[Lauren 2259]

All MOT'd, taxed and insured and finally back on my drive. Mark's face after driving it home! 

 

 

We had a bit of an oil leak from the cam covers which I noticed hadn't been tightened, but that seems to be sorted now. It's now done 60kms today, don't forget the engine needs to be run in, so not gone mad with it.

 

What's it like after a three year break? Well it's noisy, diff whine, gearbox whine, various rattles and the usual vibrations at idle, but it is thirty years old so it feels worlds apart compared to the GT86. 

 

It's feather light though, the controls are really light too, so there is something of a recalibration required after doing 70k miles in a GT86! 

 

That said it's thoroughly enjoyable and even the aircon still works. Doubtless there'll be a few snags to iron out but hopefully we'll get it sorted before undertaking longer journeys and JAE. The engine feels keen and though I've not revved it too much, looking forward to getting it on cam which is 5500rpm upwards.

[Lauren 2259]

And at RRG when we picked it up this morning.

 

I have to say a just huge thanks to Richard, Gary and the team for getting the final jobs ticked off and getting the car through the MOT. They have just been brilliant as always.

 

[Lauren 2259]

I decided to have a day out in my car today. Opted to drive to Chester to pick up some vape supplies and pop in and see my old work colleagues. I was a tad nervous as it's the first 'big' trip the car has done since being back on the road all of a day! 

 

Well, I stopped a number of times and checked under the bonnet, but the car felt strong and I've begun to acclimatise to it again. There is a fair bit of differential whine as is the way with these cars and they are inherently noisy, but that's what it was like some 30 years ago. 

 

I've been careful to run the car in, so no high revs, generally not going over 4000rpm, but making sure the engine has some load. Well I took it to nudging 5000rpm a few times in third, fourth and fifth gear and you can really feel the engine come on cam, just after the TVIS opens. The engine feels really strong and in such a light car with it's terribly short gearing, it moves along at a decent rate alright. At the lower end of the revs the engine is typical torquey 4AGE, so it's a synch to drive really. 

 

The controls all feel very light and this has taken a bit of getting used to compared with the weightier controls of the GT86, but really as I have been driving the AE86 since yesterday I'm starting to get used to it all again. 

 

I must admit, I was sitting there on the motorway on the way to Chester and I was just thoroughly enjoying myself being back in the car again. That smile lasted all the way to Chester and all the way home again as I took the A roads on the way back. I even loaded the chassis a little to get a feel for the car again. Sure it doesn't have the precision and mega grip that the GT86 seems to pluck from nowhere, but it felt all of a piece. The suspension is a bit mismatched on the AE86, but it's okay as long as you know how to manage it. I haven't tried booting it out of slow corners as I want to ease the running in of the engine, but the diff locks up just as it always did.

 

Overall it's just great to be back behind the wheel again and the charisma of the car is winning me over all over again.

 

Here it is, parked outside my old work in Chester:

 

IMG_4739 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

[Lauren 2259]

Went to pick up a new set of wheels yesterday. 

 

This was the first really long trip for the car, so a real reliability test. We had to drive from Manchester to Rugby and back. The wheels I bought are Work Meister S1's. I had this funny idea that when we met up with the seller, we'd change the wheels over on the on spot. Sounds a bit crazy I know, but why not eh? 

 

So we drove down, no problem, the engine feels really good and though I've not given it more than a third throttle and still haven't ventured much farther than 5000rpm, it's running really sweetly. A bit less sweet is the mismatched suspension. It just feels horrible, but the ride is bearable. Much work is definitely needed here. I had a relatively quick drive back on a familiar road on Friday night following a meal out. 

 

The front suspension has stock replacement KYB long stroke dampers. The car sits on TRD Blue springs we think and had TRD short stroke blue dampers that are adjustable. When I got the car it had TRD green shortstroke dampers in the front and the ride was well, just terrible. These are seriously stiff! 

 

So the car wallows about, roll control is not good, I think the whole suspension needs polybushing, as the bushings are likely 30 years old! Still, as I said, it really needs sorting out as whilst it is possible to settle the car and when the suspension loads up it feels okay, there is no precision at all. 

 

We met up with Zack from the Corolla Brotherhood in a pub car park and set about swopping the wheels over:

 

Work Meister S1 for AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

We lined Zack's car up with mine. His is a bit more serious 20v on Watanabes. Very nice. 

 

Work Meister S1 for AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

Work Meister S1 for AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

Work Meister S1 for AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

Close ups of the new wheels:

 

Work Meister S1 for AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

Work Meister S1 for AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

The new wheels have differing offset. The fronst are 0 and the rears -5. They are 15x7.5" running 195/50/15s.

 

So after we put the wheels on we noticed there wasn't much clearance on the rears. Zack suggested we put the zero offset wheels on the back to help, but I thought we'd try it with th -5's. It took to the first set of services to realise they were rubbing badly over pretty much any mild bump or dip on the M1. I should point out the excitement had led us to miss the M6 turning off the M1, though I entirely blame not having sat nav! 

 

So we stopped at Leicester Forest services and it was clear that on the offside the tyre was getting shredded by contact with the wheel arch. So we swopped the -5 offset wheels to the front and the zero offset wheels to the rear. The weight of four stock wheels in the boot wasn't helping our cause of course. As I started jacking the car up two young guys came over and wanted to take pictures, I had a chat with them whilst Mark went off to find drinks. Once the wheels were swopped over we were on our way again, albeit it a different way home to what we had planned, but never mind. 

 

The rubbing was less but still present. So in the end we just drove home very slowly avoiding all bumps. The car looked so cool, but we couldn't drive it properly. So frustrating. My car has the GT Apex wheel arch extension trims, but all this does is reduce the clearance you might have. So rolling the arches is not a straightforward job really. The extensions bolt through the wheel arch lip too, so you can't just take them off and leave them. Weirdly it is only the offside that is catching but I think the car being lowered on a stock panhard rod has shifted the axle to the offside by a bit. 

 

The plan is to remove the inside material from the wheel arch extension and hope we'll have no more rubbing problems. 

[Keethos 842]

Looks nice Lauren, would changing your suspension for coilovers and adjusting the wheel alignment help stop the wheel from rubbing?

[Lauren 2259]

Putting on coilovers and polybushing, i.e. changing the whole suspension is what it needs. Lots of £££'s though. So it will take time to get the money together. An adjustable panhard rod would help align the rear axle properly too. 

 

I am likely to go for Bilsteins on the dampers and new springs and then polybush with adjustable lower and upper arms and an adjustable panhard rod as well too. 

[Lauren 2259]

Took both cars out tonight for pics:

 

AE86 % GT86 2 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

DSC_2640 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

[Nicebiscuit 655]

Disloyal though it is, I prefer the old one. Toyota made some good looking cars in that era.

[Lauren 2259]

It's funny but I honestly think most people would choose the AE86. Most people have never seen one in the flesh, it's that whole nostalgia thing and all that pedigree stuff. I like both. The GT is more accurate and quicker everywhere, but there is such a sense of occasion to driving the AE and the looks you get......

[Nicebiscuit 655]

Older cars just look so delicate now in a way that a new car just cannot with the need for crash protection etc etc. the GT86 manages to get close though.

I miss my old Saab 900 for the same reason. Was brilliant to tool around in...

[Lauren 2259]

Went to Curburough Sprint track yesterday with no intention of running my car. But, seeing as it was pouring with rain, I thought I could, perhaps have some fun with the low grip conditions without hammering the car too much. 

 

https://youtu.be/noByXy12Tt0

 

My suspension leaves a lot to be desired so all I could do really was second gear powerslides. I'll be honest, for those moments I got it properly sideways it was the stuff of absolute nirvana. Nothing feels better! 

 

Also the noise of a 4AGE on full chat!

 

In action yesterday. I should also wish my car a happy Birthday, 30 years old this month!

 

[Nicebiscuit 655]

That does sound lovely. Remember that sound from the Yorkshire forests in the late eighties very early in the morning...

[Lauren 2259]

I've been wanting to sort out the AE86 suspension since I bought the car, but making the decision in regard to what way to go with it has been difficult. This is in part due to the lack of choice to a point. It's also the issue that most of them seem to be slammed to the floor with very high spring rates. I remember following the AE86 guys on track in my GT86 round Castle Combe at Japfest in 2015 and how stiff they looked on track. The irony was that they bounced around too much in the corners and I could just drive round them in the GT86. 

 

Now my thinking is, if the GT86 weighs in at 1250kg and has a spring rate of 5kg front 6kg rear, that an AE86 must be way too stiff with the popular spring rate of 8kg front 6kg rear. My AE86 is not a track car, it's a car to be enjoyed on a fast B road. So I really wanted a setup that wasn't going to bounce around on the road. Also we have to remember that the AE86 has a live axle on the rear and mid corner bumps are much more of an issue than they are with the GT86's double wishbone which is far, far superior. 

 

The AE86 has an old school fairly crude setup with MacPherson Struts up front, live axle rear with four links and a Panhard rod. 

 

When it came to suspension, I didn't want Taiwanese parts on my car, so the off the shelf options like BC coilovers were not in the running, even though I know they work alright and are fairly good pricewise. There is also the CS2's from Driftworks which are HSD's from what I can work out. These are not cheap but are based on a budget brand and again are Taiwanese. I want Japanese parts on my car and I wanted something different. My AE86 now has an agreed value of £10K and it's only going to go in one direction. My thinking was that whatever I do needs to add value to the car and to be careful not to detract from it. 

 

I've been having a long chat with my friend Yukiko who is the UK and Europe manager for TEIN UK. I became friends with her when I worked with her on the development of a UK setup of TEIN's streetflex coilovers and EDFC Active Pro on my GT86. I had custom spring rates specified which have now become known as the 'Lauren spring rate'. That's what they tell me anyway! So, following a number of conversations with Yukiko, I asked if they could do me a custom setup for the AE86. TEIN do not do an off the shelf setup for the AE86, but they do have a 'Specialised damper programme'. This is good. But what is not so good is that they do not supply (like BC and the CS2's) the complete front strut/leg with the spindle on the bottom. The AE86 suspension is very 1970's in it's design! 

 

This meant that TEIN would need a pair of front legs and they would cut them off and weld on their struts. This is not the work of a moment. It also meant that if I didn't want to lose the front legs already on my car, I'd have to source another pair. I managed to get a pair off a friend and got him to ship it over to Yukiko, just in time for one of her trips over to TEIN in Yokohama. She took them on as luggage on her flight! 

 

This was one of them. Though these have had collars welded on, the leg would be cut near the spindle and the rest thrown away! 

 

AE86 chassis legs by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

Here’s what OEM legs look like, but given it was only the spindles at the bottom of the leg that were needed it doesn't matter:

 

Old AE86 front legs by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

I was asked to measure the ride heights as they were on the car so that TEIN had a datum point. 

 

Front: 

Measuring ride heights AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

The problem I had was that the rears were measuring 25mm lower than the front. I've always thought that there needs to be a bit of rake in the opposite direction as the car has always understeered. Now this is in part due to there being no camber adjustment on the AE86, which is never going to help, but with those crazy wheels I have with their low offsets of zero on the front and -5 on the rear, I needed to lift the rear a bit anyway. My thinking also was that the suspension needs to be able to move in order to work and whilst it may be cool to have an AE86 dropped on the floor with only the possibility of inserting a silver Rizzla between the tyre and wheel arch, I just couldn’t cope with any more wheel arch rubbing, so up it had to go! 

 

After some discussion and bear in mind that having suspension made to your specification does increase the price, I opted for TEIN Street Advance with a 6kg front and 5kg rear spring rate. In my experience I don’t like that much variation in spring rates front to rear. I had been suggested an 8/6kg and 5/3.5kg spring rate, but I felt something in the middle would be more what I was looking for. I also specified adjustable pillow ball mounts on the fronts to get some camber adjustment which the car so desperately needed. 

 

Four months after those old front legs went off to Yokohama, look what arrived by air freight:

 

TEIN AE86 Suspension by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

Mark went off to see a friend to get them fitted and they were inspected by TEIN UK at their base in Milton Keynes. 

 

So this is what happened with the ride height

 

Before

FR:301mm

FL:305mm

RR:285mm

RL:280mm

 

After

FR:298mm

FL:299mm

RR:305mm

RL:305mm

 

Here’s how the car looked before:

 

AE86 old suspension by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

AE86 old suspension by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

If you look carefully, you can see how low the rear is. The front though, was about where I wanted it. 

 

 

Here’s what the suspension looks like on the car;

 

Here’s the front left. If you look carefully you can see the ‘specialised damper’ branding:

 

Measuring ride heights AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

The rear:

 

Measuring ride heights AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

Whilst we were there we fitted a Techno Toy Tuning adjustable Panhard rod which makes it nice and easy to get the rear axle aligned as any change in ride height from stock puts it way out:

 

Techno Toy Tuning Panhard Road AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

And on the car: 

 

Measuring ride heights AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

Adjustable top mounts:

 

Measuring ride heights AE86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

Camber here is maxed out at 1.75 degrees. We think the adjustment is limited as my car has roll centre adjusters on the bottom of the legs. Still, it should be enough for the road. 

 

We also took the opportunity to fit Techno Toy Tuning tension rods on the front as I picked these up nearly a year ago from a friend. 

 

AE86 TEIN suspension by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

The other thing I really wanted to change was the tyres. The Work Meister S1 wheels that I had bought a year previously had Direzza Z2’s on and these are a track orientated tyre and very grippy indeed. But, for me I wanted to balance the grip with the level of power the car has and 122bhp is not a lot, so with the Direzzas it felt like you just had too much grip and couldn’t move the car around in the corners. 

 

With a 15” wheel there is not much choice when it comes to tyres. I took the best option I could for a road tyre which was a Michelin Pilot Sport 3. These were put on at the same time as the geo setup was done as RRG Macclesfield Toyota who did the geometry setup for me. I really wanted to get the front toe back to parallel and importantly square up that rear end. The irony was, is that it wasn’t far off as it turned out, but never mind! 

 

Old tyres off:

 

Old Direzza by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

New tyres on:

 

AE86 new tyres by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

We had to replace the rear spring seats and this was done after we installed the suspension. This had the effect of lifting the rear a little making the front look a bit lower compared to the front. So we had the front raised by 5mm to get the rake right which is a 5mm drop from rear to front. Here’s how it looks:

 

AE86 suspension testing by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

AE86 suspension testing by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

 

In the above photos I was on a testing run with the new setup. The first thing I noticed after changing out the old Direzzas to the Pilot Sport 3’s was how much better the ride was. Those Direzzas must have very stiff sidewalls. The difference in respect of the handling between the old suspension and the new is dramatic. 

It feels obviously stiffer as a spring rate of 5/6kg is still quite high on a car that weighs 970kg and in comparison to the GT86, the ride is noticeably firmer, but it no longer rubs the wheels in the arches and at last the damping matches the spring rate. For the first time in the five odd years I’ve owned the car it actually handles. It was always a disappointment to me previously as it was over damped and under sprung with the mishmash of suspension that it came over with from Japan. I also have a very well sorted GT86 and that just served to make it feel worse. But now, it’s a car that can at least try to keep up with the admittedly much quicker GT86 and it finally does the legend proud. 

 

What I found through testing is that the understeer at the front end is now banished thanks to now having some negative camber on the front. The rear end though, rolls too much and whilst it is good that it grips, I’d rather it grips a little less. With the low power of the car there is no possibility of pushing the rear end wide on the exit of corners, so I will be fitting a bigger rear anti-roll bar and I hope that will address the issue. In terms of the ride, it’s not bad, no longer does it wallow around, but it is actually reasonably comfortable and far improved on how it was before, feeling far more agile. The suspension is adjustable in terms of damping force which alters the bump and rebound together. I may in the future fit EDFC, but I really want to get the balance of the car right first. 

 

It’s good after so long to have the car I wanted it to be in the first place and I must say it’s really close now to being that car I can just hoon down a country road and get a very big smile on my face. 

 

 

 

[Keethos 842]

Awesome stuff Lauren, good to see that she's now running nicely without rubbing etc.  Looking forward to seeing it again at JAE and to see what else you do to it.

[Moro 13]

The car is absolute beauty! I suppose when the whole point of the car is fun and balanced handling, suspension setup draws the line between a crap and an excellent car. Great job on making it the latter.

Your testing grounds look awfully familiar, I bet AE86 is a hoot to drive there, but I've heard they've put lots of speed cameras there lately?

Lastly, hope I'm not speaking out of my arse, but when comparing spring rates, are you taking into account differences between motion rates in ZN6 and AE86 suspension designs? I suppose there isn't much in it at the front as both run MacPhersons, but what about the rear? And did I tell you, the car i stunning!

[Guest]

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[Nicebiscuit 655]

So nice. And good to see alongside the 86. It's quite remarkable that the 86 isn't all that much bigger. A lot wider of course, which is a shame (it'd be prettier with a few inches out of the middle), but they have to pass side impact tests these days...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lauren 2259]

On 06/09/2016 at 11:01 AM, don said:

Those Teins do look very nice! 

Is there any particular reason why you have chosen the Street Advance version instead of the Street Flex? 

Last time i went out in this was about 5 years ago i think! I might need to blag a ride next time i see you again.

It was mainly down to spring rates, Don. I didn't want it too stiff. As it turns out a 6/5kg spring rate is more than stiff enough. Tein were recommending higher spring rates on the Flex.  Also it's a road car, it's too old for the track really.