Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) has announced that it is reproducing spare parts for the Corolla Levin and the Sprinter Trueno (“AE86”).
The company said that it will start selling these parts for both domestic customers in Japan as well as customers from overseas market around the world from the 1st of November as part of the GR Heritage Parts Project.
The project reproduces spare parts that have been discontinued and sells them as genuine parts, in order to support customers who wish to continue driving older vehicles.
TGR has already reproduced spare parts for the A70 and A80 Supra, the Toyota 2000GT, and the 40 Series Land Cruiser; the AE86 is the next model in the project.
The Levin and Trueno are the sports models in the Corolla and Sprinter series. Only vehicles equipped with the 1.6-liter DOHC 16-valve (4A-GEU) engine were given the “AE86” designation.
Despite production having ceased more than 30 years ago, the AE86 continues to be extremely popular today, and is affectionately referred to in Japan as “hachi-roku,” meaning “eight-six.”
The GR86 that was launched on October 28, 2021, and the 86 that went on sale in April 2012 both inherited the culture and tradition of the AE86.
From November 1, as and when preparations are complete, TGR will gradually make reproduced parts available for purchase at Toyota dealers, in the same way as normal genuine parts.
However, the reproduced parts will only be produced for a limited period with the special cooperation of its suppliers; for this reason, after their production periods have ended, each reproduced part will only be available for purchase for as long as stocks last.
Details such as part numbers and production periods will be published on the TGR website from November 1, beginning with the parts that are ready for sale.
While Nissan was one of the first among the Japanese manufacturers to establish a Heritage Project and make spare parts for their legendary cars from the 1990s like the Skyline R32, Toyota has also decided to jumped on the bandwagon and reproduce spare parts its own classics, beginning from the Supra.
Realising the demand these JDM sports cars from the 90s have and how much money people are willing to throw on them, it is no surprise that manufacturers have started reproducing parts for their iconic cars from the past, much to the delight of collectors and potential owners.