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At a recent classic car show in Japan a tuning company called Tec Art's, not to be confused with the Porsche tuning company Techart as it has that funny Japanese punctuation, had exhibited another one of those classic Japanese cars that have been tweaked by adding current automotive tech. This makes the a 20 or 30 year old classic run reliably on current technology for the ease of its owners. Tec Art's Eco Hatchi-Roku (86) is one of those type of modded cars but it has a twist. This old AE86 is an eco-mentalist's dream of a tree hugging classic car. According to the design brief, the car is supposed to be more fuel efficient the original 4A-G engine and environmentally cleaner too. The engine is still a 4A-G but it now runs an APEX Power FC stand alone programmable ECU. This allows Tech Art to precisely tune the engine's air-fuel ratio. The power steering has been modernized by replacing the hydraulic motor system with an electric motor (see photo above). It uses the original steering rack but it has been modified so that an electric motor assists in the turning. The only drawback to this system is the lack of feel. The benefit is usually a 3% savings in fuel consumption. I'd rather have the hydraulic system thank you. Another upgrade is that a variable intake system is used. The intake manifold has two intake valves that switches between high and low rpm. To increase torque at low rpm the valve closes on one side (for more tumble and swirl) and at higher rpm both valves opens up. The valve control is manual where the driver can use a setting (for torque) for city commuting and the other for fast road driving. Amazingly, this old 86 can make 18km/l. And at highway cruising speeds 19.6km/l was achieved. This means that this old car is as economical or even more economical than a Honda Jazz. A Levin at the very best made 11-12km/l. The best thing was that no power was sacrificed for this figures to be achieved and the Eco-86 made 129.9ps (at the wheel) and 161Nm of torque from the ancient 1.6 4A-G engine. The stock 4A-G made about 125bhp at the flywheel, so it still is a good improvement. Tec Art's intends to get 20km/l by spending more time fine tuning the system. Quite an amazing achievement, modernizing a classic into something quite eco-friendly. Quite, as nothing had been said about having catalytic converters or stuff like that.

The AE86 (1983-1987) model series of the Toyota Corolla Levin and Sprinter Trueno version was a small, lightweight coupe introduced by Toyota as part of the 5th generation Toyota Corolla line-up. The "AE86" model code was used to describe the whole model range regardless of Levin or Sprinter versions. In the Toyota model code of the period, the "A" represents the engine that came in the car (the 3A and 4A series) and the E86 represents the 6th revision of the fifth generation (E80 series) of the E model which is the Corolla. The visual difference between the Levin and Trueno is that the Levin had fixed-headlights and the latter had retractable headlights. The AE86 (along with the lower spec 1.5liter engined AE85 and 1.6liter SR5 versions) was rear wheel drive and is among the last rear-drive cars of its type, at a time when most passenger cars were being switched to front-drive due to cost effective and packaging reasons. In 1987 it was replaced by the front wheel drive AE92 Corolla/Sprinter range. The AE86 is also referred to as the Hachi-Roku; Japanese for "eight-six". The earliest memories that I have of this car was before the hype of the Japanese anime series Initial-D. This was the car that I saw parked regularly in front of a house in Gombak, near Kuala Lumpur during the late 1980s. I was fresh out of high school at the time and basically bothered little about cars. The only thing on my mind those days was get my driver's license, spend time doing absolutely nothing productive with friends and ogle at girls at the local McDonald's. It was bliss. The guy who owned the Levin was a cousin of my schoolmate, and we used to see that car parked outside his grandmother's place every day as he came to pick his kid up after work. During that time, it was another small Japanese sports car that did not really arouse any of my senses. It was just like any other sports car that looked nice and was pretty fast for the time. Comparable to anyone who owned a Honda Quint Integra or a Nissan Sylvia of the era. The only thought my friend and I had about his cousin as we played badminton in front of his house was that he had a flashy car and that his wife was an ex-stewardess. I think the fact that his wife was an ex-stewardess appealed to me more than the AE86 itself at that point of time. Amazing that a small Japanese sports car that I basically saw everyday became a famous drift car, a cult car as well as an anime and movie star too. I heard later that he used it till around 1995 and sold it off for a bigger car. A bigger family and the fact that it was getting old were the given reasons. He must have sold it for around RM25,000.00 at the time but imagine if he waited to sell it after the anime series as well as the life action movie came out. He could have sold it for RM45,000.00 or slightly more due to the interest in the car. Twenty plus years on, the new FT86 concept car was unveiled.