Photos Unboxed: MR "X" and the 20 Valve - Juiceboxforyou

This photo set is from the second trip up to MR “X”. I was going to pile these photos in with the third trip but each time we head up there I always find myself snapping everything in sight. There is something new with every journey, something to leave you either confused or in awe. The little 5 GT Turbo has seen many AE86’s being stripped at this point, I wonder if it ever thinks it’s going to be next.

In our previous photo article, this was a fully built car. As you may know by now, MR “X” imports and breaks AE86’s, he tries to sell them as complete cars for a few weeks but there is usually more money in tearing these cars down. It’s sad in a way but as we’ve mentioned before, its a necessary evil He has pulled me out of many dead ends on my build supplying all sorts of awkward little bits and pieces so far. We are lucky to have someone that has a stockpile of AE86 parts readily available on the same chunk of land.

This was a special trip. Not only were we gathering more parts for the build, but our friend Adrian was picking up his new four-door Toyota. An AA60 carina which was a fresh import from Japan. This beauty had just under 82000kms on the clock and was more or less in pristine condition.

Each time we come here, we cant help but get amused by the sheer amount of random AE86 stuff laid out in organised chaos.

Much like our friend Rob and his Mitsubishi empire, breaking 86s enables MR x to enjoy his love for collecting everything square and eighties, preferably Toyotas and his shed is filled with all sorts of quirky square-shaped vehicles.

How about a Carina Wagon, or a 79 pickup, many a drunken night is spent on the auctions we were told. Mr “x” has long since moved on from collecting 86’s although he still has one or two which will be kept forever. His passion, for now, is buying the strangest or quirkiest car he can find and its usually done late at night after a few beers.

Sometimes he strikes gold but I think he enjoys the import process more than actually keeping these cars. Many of them only stick around for a couple of months, paving the way for another batch of unusual imports. As of writing this, the little KP wagon has since found a new home.

Along with this AA60 which Adrain was about to call his new project car. It’s being backed into the shed in this photo as MR X wanted to keep his slot mag wheels.

Other stuff has pretty much-become garden furniture. I’m quite fond of the two-tone paint job on the Caldina. It is quite cool that Toyota transferred this colour scheme over to a variety of other chassis and it worked a treat on all of them. It would have been interesting if they did the same with the Panda paint schemes also.

Each visit results in a stack of stuff being purchased. Because MR x lives pretty far up the country, we usually go in a group as there is usually a list of parts to get for people in the shed. This time we grabbed a cage, flip managed to pick up a red east bear seat, and Reuben picked up that tatty Recaro in the corner. And that engine to the left is actually the one from my AE86.

If you remember from he vlogs, this was the final part of our road trip, we were heading from MR X’s place down to the back garden we dragged the Trueno from. Dan’s back garden, the plan was to rip the 20valve from the old FWD Carina he had, a plan we made before I purchased the AE86. I’ve always wanted a 20valve blacktop and we agreed to swap engines when time allowed.

In true dan fashion, the engine and car looked like a prehistoric fossil. I was starting to second guess our plan as I had pulled a perfectly drivable GZE engine out of my car and was about to trade it for well, take a look at the next image. They say a picture speaks a thousand words…

I’m glad I snapped this photograph. To be honest, many would have run from such a scenario. It looked like a total piece of shit and I really started to feel like I was making a really bad decision. Dan assured me the engine was in good shape as it came from his old KP drift car. Dan is also a complete gentleman. We made an agreement, if the 20valve was toast, I could have my 4A-GZE engine back and sell it to fund another 20valve. Luckily it never came to that.

I’m sure you have seen the story of the engine on the vlog series. The story of the engine is just as interesting as the actual car itself. I had to snap this picture of Dan before we left. You could spend hours looking through his garage, the man has an endless amount of interesting parts floating in a sea of chaos and stories. Till next time!