Yes, Alibaba Even Sells Brand-New Toyota AE86 Shells

Ah, Alibaba. A leading light in the new breed of discount online retailers, it’s the place to go for all the cheap nonsense you never knew you needed… probably because you don’t. This has caught our eye, though – spotted by Jalopnik, it’s a brand new, fully-stamped reproduction bodyshell for the AE86 Toyota Sprinter Trueno.

A 1:1 steel recreation of the wedgy body of the drifter’s favourite, it’s manufactured by the Jiangsu Aodun Automobile Industry Co of Jiangsu, China, which also apparently produces OEM panels for new cars. While we can’t vouch for the quality, we know how far Chinese cars have come as a whole in recent years, and the seller does have a 4.7/5 rating from an admittedly limited number of reviews.

Regardless, if it has piqued your interest, you can order one of these bodies for $9,000, or around £6,700. Supposedly, place an order and within a month or so, one of these will turn up at your house in a big box. Better yet, if you can track down 49 other people who want one, every single one of you will get $1,000 – around £750 – knocked off the price of a unit.

It does beg the question of what you’d do with it. If you’ve got a particularly rotty AE86 project kicking around, it could well come in handy, but with a bit more budget, the possibilities are endless. We’re currently thinking about what the most sacrilegious drivetrain swap would be – a rotary? A Cummins diesel? An EV conversion?

There are some caveats, and not just the obvious one that you’re ordering a reproduction AE86 bodyshell from Alibaba. Currently, under the shipping section of the order form, it reads that “Shipping solutions for the selected quantity are currently unavailable,” so we’re not sure if UK delivery is actually possible right now.

Still, that aside, this might be the first thing we’ve seen on Alibaba or any of its competitor sites that might actually enrich our lives in some way. Now, how much are LS crate motors these days?