The True no base car is actually one of
Phil’ sold AE86s that he’d not long sold. He originally bought it as a slightly
rusty project for the road but it turned out to need a lot more work than
originally thought. “From a distance it wasn’t too bad,” he let on, “but the
moment we started poking around underneath we found some horrors. The sills had
gone and even rusted up into the A-pillars in places. Sections of the floor and
the usual rear pockets were bad. The arches were nonexistent. In fact, doing
all of the repair work has probably saved it as it was one step away from the
scrap heap. A lot of the original repair work was done by a friend, ‘Steve O’,
before it was passed on to Craig at Dyno Torque.”
AE86
Toyota Corolla Trueno interior
While the Driftworks boys began stripping
the AE86 of its running gear, Craig was next door doing the same to the ASCAR,
piling up every potentially useful component in the corner of the workshop. By
the time he’d finished, all that remained was a cage, which in itself was a
work of art. So much so, that it became an abstract ornament and was hung from
the ceiling of one of the warehouses.
With so many customers wanting
V8conversions, Craig always has a spare LS block on standby, purely to help
work out mounting points and measurements. Believe it or not, fitting the
engine was the easy part. It was getting the huge 10” Winters Competition rear
axle in place that proved difficult. “One thing Craig and I don’t quite see eye-to-eye
on is how low a car should run,” laughed Phil. “He would regularly shake his
head at me, but my one of my main stipulations throughout the project was that
if it didn’t go low enough, it wasn’t happening!”What this effectively meant
was that a section of the rear floor pan would need cutting out and the axle
essentially mounting inside the car! Only that way would there be the correct
ground clearance whilst still enabling Phil to run the AE86 on the deck.“We’ll
just use the chassis rails as bump stops,” Phil joked in one of his early build
thread posts. The knock-on effect was that a completely new, raised
transmission tunnel was required. Craig already knew this would be the case
because he had the monstrous four-speed Jeri co transmission sitting on his
workshop floor.
AE86
Toyota Corolla Trueno engine
Always conscious of adhering to FD and BDC
regulations, Craig trimmed the bulkhead and floor pan and set the dog box in
place. This allowed him to take his measurements and begin fabricating the
required tunnel panels. These were then TIG-welded together and welded into the
cabin. To make surgery to the underside simpler and less neck breaking, the
AE86 was set on a spit and spun over. This not only made addressing the
chassis’ rot issues much easier, but also meant that Craig could make further
custom adjustments, like lowering the floor to allow Phil’s seats to be mounted
lower down in the cabin. Yes, as well as liking his cars to run low, Phil also
likes to sit low!
AE86
Toyota Corolla Trueno on road
With the bulk of the structural welding
complete, the AE86 shell was whisked off to Nickson Motorsport for its
extensive T45 roll cage. Phil was more focused on achieving excellent safety
than he was on fitting a minimalist, lightweight setup. “The AE86 is an old car
at the end of the day,” Phil remarked.“So we wanted as much additional
strengthening as possible, especially in the door areas because you’re
travelling sideways most of the time. The ASCAR bars fan outwards meaning if
there is an impact, at least there’s some distance between me and the wall. The
other thing worth noting is that because it’s such a small car and I’m not
exactly… well… small, we asked Nick son to keep the cage as tight to the car’s
body as possible. This was to help with visibility and also to give me a little
extra space inside.” Also included were additional support bars to protect
Phil’s lower legs and feet, as it’s not unheard of for a wheel to come through
the cabin on impact. Plenty of gussets provide yet further structural rigidity
and safety meaning that by the time Nickson Motorsport was finished the shell
didn’t look too dissimilar to the ASCAR setup.
