Dai Yoshihara’s prepping a chassis and engine match made in heaven with the best from Toyota and Honda.
Yes, that title is just click bait and Toyota purists probably don’t hate this build but I guarantee there’ll be a one or two that will. Dai Yoshihara dropped a handful of Instagram posts revealing the deets on his latest grip and drift build, a Toyota AE86 without a 4AGE under the hood. In place of that mighty mouse but sorta old engine is the latest and greatest from Honda, a K20C1 swap from the sports car slaying Civic Type R.
Check out his posts below.
If you know anything about Daijiro Yoshihara it’s that this chassis and engine combo make total sense for him. Dai’s been drifting long before his 2004 Formula Drift debut and has built a reputation for being a consistent driver behind the wheel, putting in seat time for Spoon Sport’s United States racing endeavors.
It’s no coincidence this K20C1’s valve cover is Spoon Yellow.
Since few if any Pro or Pro2 Formula Drift drivers campaign in this capable yet old Toyota chassis, it’s fair to say this AE86 is a passion project for Dai, a car we’ll see drifting and on the track for solo events.
Toyota heads would love to see some sort of 4AGE variant under the hood of this Trueno but those engines are over 30 years old and even the highest strung NA build barely touches 280 HP.
The K20C1 is a modern turbo power unit fresh from the Honda engine assembly line with a strong power band at 306 HP and 295 lb-ft straight out of the box. Stock and in a stripped chassis barely tipping 2,000 pounds you already have a recipe for motorsports success.
According to his posts, Dai plans to up the power a bit.
The only downside to this gnarly swap is the sound. A naturally aspirated four cylinder bouncing off the rev limiter and a hard-charging AE86’s go together like PB&J. I’m sure Dai’s got something in the works to wake up that exhaust note.
Straight-piped, K20C1’s sound OK.
What you see above is a build 80 percent done. This AE86 will be 100 percent done in a couple of days, in time for SEMA kicking off on Nov. 5.
Do you dig this build as much as I do? Let me know in the comments below.
