What it takes to get a AE86

Let me start out by saying this isn't a story of what it takes to get an AE86, its how to get a AE86.

The year was 2003, and my friends and I were all getting our first cars. Despite the Honda domination at the time, and a crew of friends that were exclusively driving cars with a H badge, i wanted something rear wheel drive. I had recently been exposed to Option videos for the first time. The sight of rear wheel drive cars being hucked around and hanging on the rev limiter was enough to convince me there was something beyond Hondas.

I picked up a '82 Rx-7 GSL, with the oem limited slip and immediately regretted it. Not even a few weeks after purchasing my first car this AE86 coupe popped up for sale. It was old, but supposedly had a fresh motor. Knowing I couldn't get it, I convinced a friend he should purchase it. And so it began. As we began to learn how to turn wrenches, drift, and most importantly, blast up and down the local mountain pass, which my friend conveniently lived at the top of, these cars became our life, and our introduction into all things automotive.

Fast forward ten years, and after my first and second Rx-7 had come and gone, along with a succession of three AE86's of my own I finally found myself racing a Miata and meeting more car people who finally reignited this passion I'd initially felt those few years of highschool. In the mean time, my friends AE86 had been left at his parents for a few years of college, then transplanted to southern California where it participated in a few Inland Drifts, and Drift Days before it found itself sidelined as my buddy bought a S14 to daily drive, went to boot camp, and then was eventually deployed with the military.

Upon his return a plan was hatched. I'd be the caretaker of the AE during his next deployment.

Finally! The car I'd wanted for ten years would be mine, the only hitch was that the car was still in storage in Los Angeles and not only had it not ran in a year, my friend hadn't even seen it. So, to retrieve this simple metal shell that contained most every formative car memory I have, I'd have to drive a car of unknown condition 600 miles home. Possibly a little drunk on the idea of adventure from too many episodes of Top Gear I decided to do it.

Upon arrival the Corolla was in rougher shape than imagined. The tires were so badly sun damaged that they had a flat spot that wouldn't wear out, and cracks that ran from the bead to the tread, at low speed the car would gallop up and down, making you look like John Wayne on a horse. The wheel bearings were shot, at least one bushing destroyed to where it took two hands on the wheel to keep it in one lane. An exhaust leak that made the car sound like it was running open header, rear brake calipers that were seized clamped down and a license plate six years out of date. The only thing in good shape, and by good shape I mean amazingly healthy was the motor, which would, and did, pull hard to 100 mph on multiple occasions on the way home.

A twelve hour drive didn't fly by, but this run down Corolla made the journey without a hickup, blasting up the 5, 99, and then I-80 over the Sierra mountains to my home. The feel, sound, sight, and even smell of the car were exactly as I remembered, the memories all flooded back and I had a little weep as I dipped off the 5, onto the 99 towards Bakersfield with the familiar sensations, an open window, the farmland, the sun setting in the background, and the new memories of spending the weekend with an old car, and older friend.