Banpei's two door panda Trueno from Japan

[banpei]

I went to the garage today and fired up the AE86 for the first time this year.

I took the opportunity to swap the current steering wheel for a Moto Prototypo I bought in December:

It was sold to me as 350mm, but I think it's closer to 340. It's definitely bigger than the Luis (330mm)i, but smaller than the OEM steering wheel (360mm).

For comparison, this is the Luisi:

The readability of the gauges with the Momo is much better. I think I'll settle with the Momo for now.

My plans for the upcoming weeks are:
1. Swap the speedometer cable
2. Rebuild the shifter
3. Repair the roof side rail garnish with a plastic welder

[ondafly]

lovely looking wheel - I reckon you are right about 340mm - a 330mm is a non runner really though; you made the right decision. I have the shifter refurb kit also, but waiting on the gasket from toyota.

[DarkSupra]

Not sure if the prototipo came in 340 tho.
I like the look more of the Luisi
The leather Momo uses on the rereleased prototipo looks to modern to me.

[banpei]

I just checked and you're right: the prototypo is only available in 320mm and 350mm. In that case, it's just a smallish 350mm and I should stop complaining.
I also agree that the leather looks too modern, certainly compared to the Luisi. Maybe one day I'll find a Luisi in 350mm and swap it.

[jomme_mega]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z9L5Ouun0M isnt this you car.
btw i found this at random and i saw it was your car

[banpei]

Yes, you are right! That's my car when it was purchased from an auction in Japan.

[jomme_mega]

(03-17-2026 09:57 PM)banpei Wrote:  Yes, you are right! That's my car when it was purchased from an auction in Japan.

cool
did you know about this video tho?

[banpei]

(03-17-2026 10:17 PM)jomme_mega Wrote:  cool
did you know about this video tho?

Yes, of course, I gave them permission to post it to their channel.

[banpei]

On Sunday, my daughter and I joined the Dutch Toyota club with a meeting and ride to the Visscher Classique museum in Buren. At the meetingpoint some other member parked their GT86 in such a way that I could create this double portrait with my AE86:

Let me know what your thoughts are on steelies on a GT86.

The Visscher museum is awesome, and they even have a (small) section dedicated to the S30 called S30 world. If you would only visit the museum only for the S30s, it will be a bit underwhelming though.

At the end, two unrelated MR2's also showed up, which allowed me to create this double-double portrait:


On the subject of the Momo Prototypo: I like the size of the steering wheel, but it's still partly blocking my view of the gauge cluster. Especially, the indicator lights are often blocked. You can see in this picture that the top of the steering wheel is barely clearing them:

As my daily has an indicator stalk that allows me to nudge them for a lane change (with automatic cancel) on the highways, I tend to forget to cancel them on the AE86. As I have no visual indicator, I found that on multiple occasions I had driven a few kilometres with the indicator on.
Maybe this is something I'll just have to get used to, but otherwise I'll just switch back to the Jolly steeringwheel.