The Toyota Corolla, particularly the AE85 model, has a long and storied history. The same can be said about Suzuki’s Hayabusa and its legendary motor. Put the two together and you get this AE85.
If you’re familiar with Japanese car culture, you will know of the “Hachiroku,” or the Eight-Six in English, as popularized by the anime Initial D. However, the model featured in the video is actually the “Hachigo,” or the Eight-Five. “Hachi” is eight in Japanese, “roku” is six, and “go” is five so if you put two-and-two together, you get each of the cars’ nicknames. The nicknames came from the chassis codes that identify the specific models, and the nickname removes the “AE” at the start for something a little catchier.
While not technically the same, it still has a rather cult following. I, for one, followed the Initial D series until its final season and I had always wanted an engine that revved to the sky just like the protagonist had in the series. Spoiler alert, the main hero’s AE86 was a 1.6 liter, 20 valve Silvertop 4A-GEU with 1,587ccs of displacement and it was said to make up to 240 horsepower and revved to an 11,000 RPM redline. The thing is, that engine was said to be illegal to use on public roads according to the anime, but it’s a good thing the Hayabusa’s a road-legal motorcycle, and whose engine finds its way into the most bonkers of builds that aren't motorcycles.
Motorcycle engines commonly spin up to 11,000 RPM and even more if you consider superbikes or even the Kawasaki ZX-25R. While it will be tough to source or create a car engine with a redline of 11,000 RPM, five-digit redlines are easy for most modern four-cylinder motorcycle engines if you think about it.
You’d never guess that a Hayabusa engine was used though. The work was done exceptionally well and they even started it up and drive it around town. If you can’t understand Japanese, there are some captions on the video Cut to the later half of the video to get a sound clip of the engine revving up. If you ask me, it doesn’t sound like a Hayabusa going at full tilt, but it’s still quite the soundtrack to have in a car.
