Toyota is celebrating that the first Corolla’s ran of the production lines 50 years ago. A lot has happened since, and today they remember in a 5 minute video a Corolla Levin AE86 and Keiichi Tsuchiya.

Tsuchiya explains how the AE86 came into his life, what role it played and how he missed the car after his professional career started to push him towards R32s and NSX-es.

He also describes how he upgraded from the stock 4A-GE engine to a 5A-GE (HKS stroker kit for the 4A-GE) and finally to a 7A-GE. He claims he hasn’t driven a stock 4A-GE since 15 years (which we find hard to believe) and does his best to get the Corolla Levin AE86 sideways on Tsukuba circuit. Obviously he did not loose his skills to do so.

The AE86 is one of the demo vehicles by Car Factory AI, the workshop run by Koizumi Ai. The Levin seems to be kouki model featuring a zenki grille, so it feels a little bit odd for the people who know them by heart.

Watch the full video below:

The video has been filmed in a typical late 80s Best Motoring style and reminds me a bit of Keiichi Tsuchiya’s Plusply videos. The Plusply video was the illegal drift video by Keiichi Tsuchiya that inspired many young Japanese boys to become drifters. Tsuchiya got expelled and lost his driving license for shooting the video, resulting in him never promoting street racing. Even if Toyota didn’t intend to nod back to those, this is still is a cool video they made!

Direct link to video: Keiichi Tsuchiya’s driving impression of the AE86 Corolla Levin