AUTOart - Initial D "Project D" Toyota Trueno Sprinter AE86.

Model type: Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX (AE86 / "Hachi-Roku" (ハチロク).

Manufacturer: Toyota.

Year of manufacture: 1983 "zenki" (production period 1983 - 1985).

Assembly: Toyota City, Japan.

Body style: 3-door hatchback.

Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel drive.

Transmission: 5-speed manual.

Wheelbase: 2,400mm.

Length: 4,200mm.

Width: 1,630mm.

Height: 1,340mm.

Curb weight: 923 - 1,089kg.

Plate: 13-954, classification 55.

Colour: High tech two tone black and white "Panda".

Engine displacement: 1600cc.

Engine type: TRD Group A Touring Spec AE101 1.6L '93 Silvertop 20v 4A-GELU inline-4.

Maximum bhp: 240bhp @ 11,000rpm.

Maximum torque: 23.5kgm @ 6500rpm/min.

Aspiration type: Natural Aspiration (NA).

Custom parts:  Cibié T353 Fog Lights, RS Watanabe Eight Spoke F8-Type Wheels (Magnesium), TRD 2-Way LSD, TRD Crossed 3 w/4.778 Final Drive, TRD Keiichi Muffler, OEM Door Visor, ItalVolanti Admiral Red Trim Steering Wheel, Smiths 12,000 RPM Tachometer, Smiths auxiliary gauges (Oil Pressure/Water Temperature), 2 TRD Sports Seats, Vent Cup Holder, TRD Carbon Fiber Hood, Carbon Fiber Headlights, Bridgestone Potenza RE-01 tires, TRD Short Stroke Adjustable Kit, and Cusco Strut Bar.

Team affiliation: Fujiwara Tofu Shop (藤原とうふ店, Fujiwara tōfu-ten) / Akina Speed Stars / Team Project D.

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“Fujiwara Tofu Ten” is the translation of the Japanese spelling for the most famous tofu shop in the world. Millions know about this tofu shop, and yet the shop has never existed in the real world. It was written on the right-side door of the fictional Toyota Trueno AE86 from the Japanese manga comic book called “Initial D.”
Initial D (頭文字Ｄ（イニシャル・ディー） Inisharu D) is a Japanese comic book written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It has been serialized since 1995, with the chapters collected into 46 volumes to date. The story focuses on the world of illegal Japanese street racing, where all the action is concentrated in the mountain passes and only rarely in cities or urban areas. The drift racing style emphasized in particular, and professional race-car driver and drifting pioneer Keiichi Tsuchiya helps with editorial supervision. The story is centered on the prefecture of Gunma, 70 miles northwest of Tokyo, and, more specifically, on several mountains in the Kantō region and in their surrounding cities and towns. Although some location names where the races occur have been fictionalized, all of the locations in the series are based on actual locations in Japan.
The story focuses on a high school student, Takumi Fujiwara, who works as a gas station attendant by day and a delivery boy for his father's tofu shop early in the morning. He never realized that all those nights delivering in his father's modified Toyota Sprinter AE86 Trueno (colloquially known as the "Eight-Six") have given him precise driving skills, enough to make him a formidable driver and prodigy.
The first Initial D volume was released in Japan on November 6, 1995 and has been translated officially into Chinese, French and English over its publication run. As of 2013, 46 volumes have been published and 47 millions copies sold. It has been adapted into several television anime, an original video animation series, and a movie.
AUTOart produces a 1/18th scale model of the Toyota Sprinter AE86 model of this Initial-D version. Because of restrictions in the licensing arrangement, an earlier version had been produced a few years ago but was only available in Japanese market. However, for the first time, AUTOart is able to sell the model under limited edition outside of Japan market with a modified version. 

- write up from AUTOart website product page.

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Initial D is one of those manga/anime series whose popularity is in the veins of say, Slam Dunk. While the latter primarily deals with the trial and tribulation of a high school basketball team, Initial D is about a 18 years old teenager, Takumi Fujiwara experiences and his rise to fame in the world of illegal street racing using and emphasising the drift racing style amongst dangerous, narrow mountain passes known as taugeh, I mean, touge or Tōge (峠) while fending off numerous challengers from various teams.  The writer and illustrator is said  to have personally owned a Trueno AE86 and also a Subaru WRX STi himself. Professional race car driver and pioneer of drifting, Drift King (or Dorikin (ドリキン)) Keiichi Tsuchiya, whom popularised the drift style motorsport and the Trueno AE86 as well, served as technical supervisor to both the manga and anime. The manga is serialised in Kodansha's Young Magazine from 1995 to 2013, with the chapters collected into 48 tankōbon (manga) volumes. Although both the manga and anime series were initially licensed for English-language distribution in North America by Tokyopop from 2002, it is discontinued in 2009 due to various concerns and as of present,  the anime license has since been picked up by Funimation Entertainment, while the manga is no longer available in English.

I haven't had the chance to read the manga but the anime is widely available. Presently comprise of five parts, each called a "Stage", I picked up the first part way back in the early 2000s after hearing about it from fellow friends, anime otakus and of course, car aficionados. It is the Hong Kong version, in Cantonese language and the subtitles were not "friendly" but ok enough for me to get the gist of what the characters are saying. It is so popular that for a time, a handful of Trueno AE86 were even personally sighted on local roads. The anime also "motivated" and perhaps created a sub-culture consisting of local boy, and perhaps girl racers based on the world of Initial D, possibly try to emulate Takumi and other characters racing styles in their own souped up Japanese sport cars and more popularly, the local national cars. Hopefully they could differentiate fiction from real world. And one must remember those were the times when European made hot hatches so popular now were virtually not available or at least only accessible to a handful of generally snobby, "I love English tea and scones" elitists and old money.  But when it comes to car choices, it is an extremely polarised crowds, bordering on fanatical. And still is. Also I could not help but noted that indeed most Initial D fans have colourfully bleached hair with dodgy personality in their equally "loud" cars with pretty Ah Lians sitting beside them. I am guessing the Genting and Fraser's Hill routes gave them plenty of chance to "practice". Those were what I called the Golden Age of Japanese sport cars and Ah Bengs in the nation, prior to the current onslaught of K-Pop culture. Furthermore, the WRC was being dominated by 4WD rally bred cars such as Evos and Impreza WRXs. Suddenly someone or the nouveau riche with funds but could not afford a Prancing Horse could own a homologated 4WD car with basement quality interior but with priority in absolute functionality in mind and arguably, during those times, could match those super rich uncles businessmen and kids owned Italian or German made supercars, depending on the type of roads. Not straight line, not all out drag race but street racing, a pure dog fight where anything goes. Including lives. Anyone could accelerate in a straight. Just press the accelerator and off you go like a rocket, with kidney pressing pressure as the turbo or supercharger kicks in. A friend, whom I hadn't contact nor seen for a time, once scoff off at the idea of driving fast on the extremely straight road to Sepang, citing it as boring. A beaten up van could bypass his Evo easily. He seemed to be much happier doing those daredevil, life threatening over taking manoeuvring and criss crossing cars under heavy traffics, as well as tackling those sharp corners on the way up and down to those resort hills. From a responsible driver on the straight, he turned into a beast on wheels when it comes to those routes.  When it comes to those treacherous narrow and twisting passes, it is a different skills all together. It's all about finding the perfect balance of the driver's skills, abilities and his/her car functionality. It is one of  the ultimate tests of an individual's driving skills. Blind corners, incoming traffic, understeers, oversteers. You get the idea what I am talking about. And aftermarket parts and tuners boomed everywhere. Car stickers became popular. Insurance life and car policy premium soared as more accidents occurred. 300 bpm rave "muzak" became the "in thing". Even Uncles in a Nissan van with wind down window would "chill" out in those ear drum splitting rave "muzak", simultaneously slapping their hand on the door side. Too much MDMA in their system I guess. But  I digress. Enough of personal ranting and back to the subject.

Personal favourite is Initial D (1998), retrospectively called First Stage, which storylines are engaging enough with colourful supporting characters and humours abound. Takumi has been "sub-consciously trained" by his father, Bunta since he was 13 years old, delivering tofu to a hotel located at the fictional Lake Akina around Mount Akina (based on Mount Haruna) on daily basis, through various climes, in the early morning of 4am. The chain-smoking Bunta runs a small tofu shop business in Ikaho, Shibukawa in Gunma Prefecture. His background is highly hinted as someone with extensive networks in the motorsports world and possibly a former but still extremely skilful race car driver. I mean, that old man practically lit up a cigarette in the midst of drifting around a corner. To ensure the delicate tofu arrives in one piece, Bunta puts a cup of water on the highly modified and tuned Trueno AE86 cup tray for Takumi everyday before delivery, instructing him not to spill a single drop. And Takumi, having to wake up early and eager to complete the delivery as fast as possible to grab some sleep and  go to school, eventually find ways and methods to do so, indirectly developing formidable drifting skills progressively and naturally. It should also be noted that Takumi is known as a "downhill specialist", that is he faced challenges on the downhill section of the mountain. This means that the power output disparity between the supa dupa old but gold rear wheel drive Trueno AE86 and newer, more powerful cars of those times are averaged out, such as the likes of RX7, Evo, Impreza, Type-R and Skyline GT-R. Also, when it comes to twisty, downhill roads with hairpin corners, greater engine output doesn't necessary mean better as opposed to a straight road. One possible factors is because downhill racing requires guts. Lots of it. Otherwise, off into a ravine. Other factors include tyre grip due to eventual wear and tear from drifting, braking techniques etc. Combined with his unorthodox methods and instinctive ability, using such as the famous "the mizo otoshi technique (a technique where the driver drops the inside tires into the rain gutters on the side of the road to defeat centrifugal force) or learnt from other challengers, such as the "blind attack technique" which involve switching off the headlights while chasing the car in front, relying on instinct (such as shadowing the tail lights of his opponent's car) and memory to tackle the correct line, in addition to reduce drag from the pop up headlights, Takumi is undefeatable. At one point, Bunta even taught Takumi not to be afraid of those mighty 4WD rally cars by making him drive alternatively between the Trueno and a newly purchased WRX STi. It also contain some adult theme, such as enjo kosai (subsidized dating), the offering of one's own virginity and fleeting nudity.

The animation is so-so, but it is fun as it captures the rise of Takumi whom started out as the underdog. That leads to Second Stage (1999), which is also fun to watch. Then came Extra Stage (2000), a side story about one of the teams, followed by Third Stage (2001), an animation movie. They are alright but my attention span has started to "drift". Then Fourth Stage came, released between 2004 to 2006, with subheading "Project D". Boringness starts to creep in by then. When Extra Stage Two (2008) and Fifth Stage (2012 to 2013) came about, I struggle to keep myself awake through each episode. Just drop me into the gutter. The reason is simple - it has become too draggy. Takumi has progressed to being a near omnipotent drift car race driver, virtually undefeatable. And the reasons offered for his incredible rate of mastering and winning each challenges are explained in some forms of philosophical, Zen-like musing. There are scenes which border on ridiculousness, like the energy aura-like thingy emitting from the characters and cars (Takumi's AE86 is depicted as having a pair of angelic wings in one episode) and the effect of showing the extreme entry and exit cornering speed which is depicted as if it was teleporting / side-stepping time and space. Yup, Takumi has officially become a Jedi with transhuman ability to defy law of physics in Fifth Stage. The boys at Top Gear can retire. Oil baron owners of Bugatti Veyron can ditch them into the Gulf. Finally, most of my favourite supporting characters have been relegated to less role time. I wonder how it would all end, with the concluding Final Stage announced for release this year. Oh, there's also a new animated movie scheduled for this year as well. In real world, the AE86 has become legendary in its own right, continues to command high secondary price and a favourite in the racing circuits. Toyota and Subaru even joint co-operate and release the "spiritual" successor called Toyota GT86 / Subaru BRZ from 2012 onwards.

This die-cast model, in 1/18 scale captured all the details as per AUTOart standard. Curiously, there is a single bucket seat only (or are there two?). This is the Project D version, from Fourth Stage onwards. Previously there is a JDM release only First and Second Stage version by AUTOart and incredibly difficult to obtain. Due to demand, AUTOart moved to release this second version for wider, international market. The Project D version Trueno AE86 has been further extensively modified and tuned to such extent that it is a Trueno AE86 by name and outlook only. The original but highly tuned 1.6 engine at 160bhp has been replaced with a Group A touring spec engine due to events during the later half of Second Stage. The engine is basically not available to the public, just like the anti-lag misfiring system used in one of the Evos. This iconic 1/18th scale car is more pricey than a normal release but I guess...it is worth it to satisfy the bygone J-Pop, pimp my ride era of Ah Beng-ness in me.