SILENT BUT VIOLENT
The way David stands off to the side staring at his Corolla really makes us wonder what the hell's going through his mind. He doesn't say much, but when he does you get the idea that he really loves his car and drifting is a tool to connect the two on another level. To get a better understanding of just how much he loves the AE86, he told us about when he bought it-he flew out to a used car dealership in Oregon, dropping $950 for a pristine GT-S; its only flaw was that it had been repainted maroon over the factory silver. With a good entry level drift car in his hands, David was going to keep it fairly stock, using it for weekend practice-maybe a Levin front end. But weekend cars never stay stock, do they?
Yet unlike every other story we've told where said owner develops the irresistible urge to cash in his life savings or his student loan checks to build the ultimate dream car, David didn't need a sign from a higher source to make him do its bidding-his engine experienced spat read, "oil pressure loss" as they say. For a year it sat in his garage until he finally found a silver-top AE101 engine to swap in. While the engine was being prepped from operating in FWD to RWD, he stripped the interior and stitch-welded the rear half before spraying it and the exterior down with Toyota Super White paint. A rear trunk panel from a Kouki AE86 was also used to replace the 20-year-old piece that had seen better days. With a fully functioning engine, it was finally time to go drifting, but the suspension needed work. At first David combined a set of 450lb springs from kg/mm with Tokico HTS shocks, and used zero offset Enkei wheels to fill up wheel gap. With this mild setup, practice became a constant, but as he says, "I wasn't any good at it, to say the least."
As his drifting skills progressed, David naturally sought out more power for the high-revving 20v engine. The original T50 transmission was also built for drifting, using Cusco's transmission mount to absorb vibration along with a two-way RS limited slip differential, a TRD shifter and three-puck clutch, and a 4.7 final drive gear from Techno Pro Spirit. He then pulled the stock intake for 75mm individual throttle bodies from a T3 and bolted on a Buddy Club Spec II exhaust and a no-name test pipe he found at the Tokyo Auto Salon back in '05. This is when "the car started taking on a personality of its own," says David.
From there, the full Levin transformation began: He used the Zenki front lights, corner lights, front grille, bumper and a brand new hood to complete the look, however, he was missing fenders. He went so far as to email people in Japan for help, but all they could say was he was nuts for trying. David had just been contracted by Origin USA to design its ads and Web site, so, during that original trip to Tokyo, Origin Japan gave him a set of Levin wide fenders and rear over fenders as a way of saying "thanks" for helping out.
Now that the fenders were taken care of, he needed new wheels to match, so he traded the Enkei wheels for 15x9 Work Equip 03s with -15 offset on the front with -25 offset on the rear, -40 if you count the Project Kics 15mm spacers. The wider wheels now posed a new problem, which needed coilovers as the remedy. He pulled the kg/mm springs for Ground Control/T3 coilovers with stiffer spring rates and installed TRD Race II shocks on the rear, keeping the Tokico HTS on the front. David finalized the look of his AE86 by removing his original side mirrors for aero mirrors from a Mazda RX-7 FC3S (yes, they fit) and the same Origin Kanagawa-style hood that Eric has.