Complete reproduction of the Panda Treno
Toyota’s AE86 (Hachi Roku), the “Corolla Levin/Sprinter Treno,” has a wide variety of body shapes and grades as well as early/late models, and each is slightly different. For this reason, popularity and unpopularity exist even within the same Hachi Roku, and the overwhelmingly popular model is the “Sprinter Treno,” commonly known as the “Panda Treno. This time, we will introduce the “Corolla Levin”-based Sprinter Treno specifications, which you will not recognize unless you are told.
The soaring Sprinter Treno.
The market price of Toyota’s “Sprinter Treno,” commonly known as the “Panda Treno,” has jumped dramatically due to the influence of “Initial D. A decade ago, the “Corolla Levin” was more expensive, but the manga and anime sparked an explosion of popularity.
The Sprinter Treno was sold at Toyota Auto stores, now Netz stores. The Toyota Auto dealers aimed to appeal to a younger generation than the Corolla dealers and, for example, offered a lineup of models that shared the same platform but had a stronger sports image, such as the “Chaser” model versus the “Mark II” model.
This concept is the same for the Sprinter Treno. While it has the same body as the Corolla Levin, the styling is sleek with retractable headlights. Although this may have led to a lack of power, the image of the car slicing through the air was popular with core fans from that time on.
However, it was not until the car became the main character in “Initial D” that its appeal became commonplace. The number of Corolla Levins sold at the time of new car sales was overwhelmingly higher, and the Sprinter Torreno currently circulating for used car test drives has become a rarity due to the small number of cars sold at the time.
Based on the AE86 Corolla Levin
Mr. Wakasa, who lives in Hiroshima Prefecture, purchased a Sunday race spec Hachi Roku but decided that he wanted a car that could be driven normally, so he returned it to stock. The AE86, which had been completely remodeled for racing, was stripped of its undercoating and fitted with a 6-point roll bar to reduce weight. The glass was removed and replaced with acrylic windows, and the racing machine was once disassembled into pieces. From there, genuine parts were gathered to complete the current genuine style.
It is hard to tell without being told, but the base of this car is a Corolla Levin. When we asked Mr. Wakasa why he chose the Sprinter Toreno specs,
“There was a lot of talk about the Sprinter Toreno specs,” he said.
“It’s partly because the Panda Treno is very popular around here, but also because my son’s name is “Takumi,” which is the same name and the same kanji as the main character in Initial D, so I decided to make it a Sprinter Treno if I had to rebuild it anyway.”
translated by DeepL