Ae86 Levin

Many of us can only simply dream of the AE86 as there prices are raising out of reach. The Ae86 first rose to fame as  a Tofu delivery car in initial D. The car’s weight, power and RWD configuration made it a popular choice among the Japanese street racers, who raced the mountain passes (Touge). The AE86 was suited to this kind of racing, as it was nimble and controllable in the corners even though it didn’t have the same levels of power as the other cars, it was beating many in the corners. The AE86 will always have a cult following and with many of them succumbing to rust and racing damage, good clean ones are rare and getting expensive. A clean Ae86 Levin can cost over $14,000 before import fees. Over the last couple of months the Ae86 prices at auction has been rising quite sharply.

Ae86 Levin Previous Sales

The below Levin AE86 has the unique Panda colour, white over black. It’s a 3.5 grade with only 147,000 kilometers, the car has only a few very small scratches and has had a drivers door replaced. The car is in superb condition but it sold for a whopping $14,952. This highlights the car prices are increasing into supercar territory. 

The below Panda AE86 is also a grade 3.5 and is a 1984 car with only 99,224 kms (how is that even possible) a. This Ae86 has a very nice set of alloys and is the GT-Apex model. This AE86 sold for $12,524.

AE86 Levin N2  HachiRoku Project Car

N2 racing in Japan is a race series and they create some crazy AE86 levins that can lap Tsukuba 2000 circuit under 1 minute, which is crazy for cars of this generation. These cars have fully wide arch aero kits and thousands spent on engine modifications.

The Ae86 Levin is a balls out N2 race car, with a full roll cage and fuel cell. The car itself seems like it needs a restoration but it looks like rust hasn’t took hold yet. So it’s essentially a good base to restore with load of aftermarket parts included.

The car is a 1985 with no mention of how many kms are on it, as there doesn’t seem to be a dash in the car. The engine has a massive spec, that includes:

Toda cams, forged pistons, MSD ignition, Toda Flywheel to name a few.

Exterior: FRP bonnet, N2 overfenders,

Aftermarket coilovers, Watanabe 15 inch alloys, 10j 235-575 with 20mm spacers.

Trd final drive 4.778.

They do mention the exhaust is not attached and the wiring needs to be finished. There seems to be a problem with the clutch but the engine is starting. Overall the car seems it needs work but it’s currently sitting at $2,360 (The alloys cost that) Which is a total bargain for a car thats capable of doing sub 1 minute laps.

The car is currently at auction here.

There’s a number of these cars for sale in Japan, the car below is currently for sale for $27,000. It is in superb condition but it just illustrates how cheap the above car is. 

The car has a very similar specification to the red N2 Ae86 Levin. This car has obviously been taken care of, but it shows the potential of the first N2 Ae86. This Ae86 Levin can be found here.

There has been a couple of grade 4 Ae86 Levins come up for auction lately, but none of them have any sales data attached. One of the Levins had a reserve of $16,800, now the car is immaculate and has to be a collectors item as it only had 48,000kms.

As the cost of these cars are rising and it seems extremely hard to get a good one that hasn’t been abused or even riddled with rust. There are cars in auction selling for $6,000 but they seem to be extremely rough with rust throughout. It looks like a good Ae86 Levin in Japan will cost $13,000+ and thats if you can find one. As i’ve highlighted above, there’s many cars that are slightly rough that could do with a bit of love to bring them back to where they deserve. The biggest problem is not too over pay for a rust bucket that’s unfixable.