One of the first shops we visited on the Outsiders tour was the legendary Bee☆R workshop. We’ll be bringing you a full feature on this soon, but to whet your appetite until then, let’s take a look at one of the many special cars that sat inside this amazing workshop.
Those of you familiar with Bee☆R will know the famous yellow Skylines, the insane bodykit conversion, and loud rev limiters that sound like shotguns. So a 20+ year old AE86 might not be what you expect to see. But as I noticed during my time in Japan, almost everyone has a soft spot for the 86 – including Bee☆Rs owner, Kiyonori Imai!
This is menacing 2 door Levin is Imai-san’s personal automotive love interest, and you only have to take a glance at it to see the amount of time and passion he’s put into making it something rather special.
I’ve never seen an 86 that looks quite as imposing and aggressive as this, Imai-san has managed to pull off an almost “GT race car” look with the Run Free aero, custom front fenders and a whole host of other cool details. You’d be forgiven for thinking this thing is some kind of time attack car, but Imai-san used it a while ago in the Drift Muscle AE86 class at Nikko Circuit!
The car sits low on a set of rather pretty set of Work Equip 03s. The white lettering on the Goodyear tyres really adds to that race car feel.
The wide front fenders are actually standard metal AE86 fenders that have been modified. I love Imai-san’s creativity when it comes to building cars, and I think it’s something that really makes his creations stand out from other tuning shops.
Out back are a set of bolt on arches and a sweet ducktail boot wing!
Under the bonnet lies an original 4A-GZE supercharged engine block. But as is the Bee-R way, Imai-san has gone down a slightly different route and fitted a turbo from an R33 Nissan Skyline! I guess it wouldn’t be right if there wasn’t some kind of Skyline influence.
Inside, the interior is a fairly simple affair. Imai-san has kept it mostly standard apart from a classic Bride bucket seat, Bee☆R carbon dash cover, and a Momo Drifting wheel.
But my favourite thing about the interior were these awesome carbon fibre door cards!
Although this isn’t your typical 86, it’s refreshing to see that people like Imai-san can still find new and creative ways of modifying the cult classic Corolla into something unique. I love this car to pieces, but what do you guys think?
Keep your eyes peeled for more from Bee☆R soon!
– Daniel BridLe
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Love it. Bodywork reminds me a lot of a rocket bunny s13! Hardcore.
4A-GTE – The boys have got class!
Ohhhh sweet memmories. had one ojust like this. The boys have grate taste 🙂 toyota corolla leven cube 🙂 got to love this car.
Sexiest Levin ever!
4A-GE-GTST
Great work again guys..
Can’t wait for the DVD to turn up. Looking forward to it very much.
Keep up the awesome work – GANBATTE!!!
Those equips look mint! Wouldn’t change anything about the car.
Want.
[…] Getting the chance to get up close and personal with some of Imai-san’s amazing builds was a dream come true. You can check out full features on both the 2012 D1GP R34 Skyline here and Imai-san’s personal AE86 Levin here. […]
Gota give ya props mate Best AE86 ever!!
[…] You can check out the full feature here: OUTSIDERS – THE BEE☆R AE86 […]