![ae86 greddy emanage blue ae86 greddy emanage blue](https://jza80.mkivsupra.net/imports/2015/12/234.jpg)
“Funatsu-san put a chip on the ECU and reprogrammed it himself.” he said, making a soldering motion with his hands. The engine management is still surprisingly standard, but tuning is supplemented by a GReddy E-Manage and a few modifications to the standard computer. With no set rev limit on the ECU, knowing when to shift is a matter of feel. The car puts out about 150kW at 11.7:1 compression, and Yoichi says it feels the best somewhere between 80rpm. Since he is an engine builder by trade, Yoichi balanced and polished the entire engine to blueprint-spec himself, and built it with Cosworth pistons, an AE92 NA crankshaft, machined AE92 supercharged conrods, HKS camshafts and a 0.8mm head gasket. The standard throttle body has been bored out with a larger butterfly for example, and the tastefully painted rocker cover hides a full-on engine build. A lot of the parts under the bonnet still might look kind-of stock, but everything has been messed with in some way. Neat carbon-fibre brackets support the Blitz oil cooler, the GReddy extractors, radiator pipes and aircon lines and power-steering lines are all meticulously heat-wrapped, and all of the wiring is neat. Almost every single pipe and fitting in the car is a genuine Earls part, and everywhere you can see, and even some places you can’t, various standard fasteners have been replaced with anodised hex key bolts. Yoichi’s car, while still bearing the various honest bits of wear-and tear you’d expect of a car that is often driven hard, has had a lot of hard work and expertise involved in its long build process, as well as a lot of money. Running down alongside Tokyo Bay, it’s an industrial area with lots of long back streets and small mechanical workshops, where the tuners have a reputation for having some of the hardest worked street cars in Eastern Japan. He might technically have a job in Tokyo, but Yoichi has always lived in the eastern part of nearby Kanagawa prefecture, which is generally considered to be the slightly rougher cousin of the somewhat more refined Tokyo metropolis nearby. This particular Sprinter belongs to 35-year-old Yoichi Hangai, a mechanic working in the outskirts of Tokyo at the FNATZ workshop. It’s amazing what results can come from a few minutes a day. Usually, mechanics spend so much time on other people’s cars, they have no time for their own. FEATURE: Youchi Hangai’s AE86 Trueno Decem12:30 am Published by Alexi