Koen's 86 - every drive a new issue

[Koen Bongers]

So I did some 86 stuff last month. Not a lot of actual building/repairing but did collect some parts and saw some cars.

First I found an engine for the silver car. It's a 7-rib big-port from an MR2 with the 42mm crank. It popped up on marktplaats and I decided to buy it. It was low mileage (according to the odo-meter) and it ran so that's something.

Does anyone know if my stock ECU will run this? (after transferring all the bits to make it RWD again of course, only the bottom-end and cilinder-head will be from the MR2)

And while picking up the engine I found the grommets for my green car

They are used to guide the wiring from the "boot" to the headlights in the MR2

A week later I went to see a Black Limited in real life.

And some other cars of course. This was at 86Fest in Ireland. Took a plane because the silver car wasn't running The show was different this year with a lot of other old Toyota's and even some newer cars on track. But nice nevertheless. Nicest car on track was a K-swapped N2 kitted white Levin, but I forgot to take a photo

And this red rally car really drew my attention. It runs a 1300cc Suzuki engine with 200hp, a sequential and a Ford rear axle.

Really cool build with an insane amount of modifications (coilovers with moved pickup-points, dry-sump, Ford swaybars, electric powersteering, digital dash, fiberglass everything, ect). 800kg and in some <1300cc class (hence the Suzuki engine). So this gave me some inspiration for a new stupid plan.

I've decided that I want to do some amateur rallying in 2026+. And for this I need a car. I don't have much experience so I don't want a fast car in some class where I would be a moving roadblock. So a 86 would be perfect Almost every rally in NL and BE is starting to add historics. Here you can drive with old, "slow" cars and just have fun.

After some research I figured out that it would be very difficult to enter with my green car. The amount of modifications allowed are very strict. Basically you have to follow the homologation of your car for the correct era if you want to be in the historic class. The AE86 has a Group N and Group A homologation (https://historicdb.fia.com/car/toyota-co...oor-ae86-0 ) which means my throttle-bodies, exhaust manifold, gearbox, rear-axle, wilwood-brakes and some other bits aren't allowed.

So I had a good reason to get another car and there was one for sale for quite a while. It has all the correct bits and there is room for some improvement when I want to make it faster (it's allowed to fit a 5-speed dogbox, a shorter diff-ratio, decent coilovers all around and some adjustable suspension arms). It already has a rebuild engine with cams, programmable ECU in original casing, period AP-brakes and the correct cage. All this is checked by the FIA if it complies with the homologation and logged in a Historic Technical Passport. So it can enter the historic class

Only disadvantage was that it was located in Sweden but after a long roadtrip it's now in NL.

Previous owner is a true rally and 86 enthusiast. He's 72 years old and has 50 years of rally experience. He's still driving his other 86 rally car!

Also has another complete Levin 3-door shell for sale with a cage and LSD rear axle. Rust free, looks straight and has all the panels/glass. Only missing the engine and interior. Even comes with Danish papers to get it on the road again. If anyone wants to start a track/drift/rally project, this is definitely the cheapest way to do it.


So now I can spend the winter tiding up this car and get it registered

It needs a bigger brake mastercilinder. Any advice? It has to look OEM the booster is the 2 hole version (non-EU I believe)