Mark Ruins The AE86

Gather up fanboys: it’s time to expose your god. That AE86 you thought was magical? Not quite. And we’re going to talk about it now.
I’m not sure if this is going to be a recurring thing, like a series, it’s just something I had to get off my chest because AE86 fanboys can get so ridiculous at times.
I guess you could call this a CollegeHumor rip-off, or a rip-off of Flux’s now discontinued GBU series. So sue me.

The Initial D Effect

You can’t talk about the AE86 without addressing the elephant in the room: Initial D.
It’s a great show. I certainly liked it. And (except for Keiichi Tsuchiya’s extensive use of the car in drifting) it’s the thing that made the AE86 blow up in popularity.
Why though?
Because last time I checked, Initial D wasn’t about the AE86 being a good car. It was about Takumi being an amazing driver.
In pre Initial D Japan, the AE86 was seen as a cheap junker car that could be used to learn the first steps into drifting. It was very cheap and common, and replacement parts were common too. I’m certain that after picking up drifting, you would try to work for a much nicer car and that you would rarely race it, knowing full well that you wouldn’t win pretty much anything.

It was never seen as an amazing supercar-destroying machine that could beat anything on a mountain pass.

Now, everyone thinks it’s just that. They think it’s this magical drifting machine that makes you a god whenever you drive. Which takes me to my next point:

It's not a magical drift car

In the 12th of September of 2016, Regular Car Reviews, possibly the greatest car journalist out there, did an episode on the Ford Focus RS. In it, he dedicated a part to talking about drift mode.

"All drift mode does is send the majority or maximum amount of power to the rear wheels. Let's get one thing clear though. Drift mode DOESEN'T help you drift. The Drift Mode on a Ford Focus RS DOESEN'T help you drift. (…) And what happens… Well, what happened was Darwinism. Already we've had some Ford Focus RS crashes from kids trying to drift because they think that when they press that button, the computer is gonna help them hold slides. (…) Drift mode DOESEN'T HELP you drift. All it does is let you drift. Or it sets up the conditions where you can induce rear wheel spin. (…)”

Now, replace anything related to the Ford Focus RS and the drift mode button with “the AE86” or “drive the AE86” and you have a summarized version of what’s wrong with the AE86 community.

It’s NOT a magical drift car that will instantly transform you into Tsuchiya the second you drive it. It’s a great car for drifting PROFESSIONALS.
It’s lack of standard safety systems is great for people LEARNING to drift and for PROFESSIONALS. Heck, why do you think Tsuchiya drives one?

This talk of standard safety systems leads me to my next point:

It's so prehistorical, new drivers shouldn't want to daily it

Alright, time for a little story. I was on a Discord server (I believe it was Deoxide’s server, also speaking of it where my CTzen rank) when we were talking about first cars. OBVIOUSLY, someone (no names will be mentioned) said that they would like an AE86 as a first car. I did what any rational human with knowledge of that car would do: tell him it’s a bad choice for a first daily as it’s lack of ABS would kill you. After that he said the single dumbest 3 words I have ever heard: ABS is for p*ssies.

Yes, he said that ABS was for p*ssies. I laughed so hard after that.

ABS, Traction Control and all the other safety systems are very important things if you’re a fresh out of school kid that hasn’t had an experience with a car before. Why do you think that so many people recommend cars like the 200SX S13, the MX5 or the ST205 Cel- I mean, the S2000? It’s because they have all those systems. The AE86 doesn’t have those things. I’m not saying it’s a terrible daily car – no, what I’m saying is that you need to have some more driving skill before you pick it up.

It's not a GT-R

Believe it or not, this car is pretty sluggish. It does 0-100 km/h (yes, we’re using kilometers today) in 9.2 SECONDS. An MX5 does in less. It has 124 hp – just shy of the power in a 1987 Camry. But, it’s light. 970kg. Again, an MX5 is lighter (do note that I’m using an MX5 as an example, I don’t have any bias towards it).

End

I just want everyone to know that I don’t despise the AE86 – I really do love it to bits. It’s style and character is an untouched piece of 80s, and its position in 90s Japanese drifting culture is an important one. It’s just that the fanbase can go wild and doesn’t pay attention to its glaring issues.

Any car has these issues – I can even admit that my favorite car of all time, the Celica GT FOUR ST205 is perf- I mean, has some issues to it. Basically, what I’m trying to say is to love your favorite car, but be aware and be accepting of its issues.
And if you love the AE86 – good for you! I’m not saying we should stop loving it, I’m saying – again – that you should love it but you should be aware of the many issues it can have and accept the fact that no car is perfect.

anyways, this has been ya boi mark, signing out from the ramen noodle shop