Rare Find 3

I found these recently FS on a nihon-go AE86 BBS: complete front struts for N2 AE86 with part numbers: 48510-AE821 and 48520-AE821.  The seller wanted an absurd price for them: quite a large percentage of their price new from TRD, which he claimed was 175000円 back in the day.  I guess that seems reasonable enough.  But what is most significant for me… is that Ryan and I used to have a set of these!  I don’t remember exactly how we came across them, but it seems to me that they came from an older chinese gentleman who had a huge collection of old AE86 parts, including a complete and well used but low mileage N1 prepared race car.

We did not pay anywhere near the equivalent of 175000円 though.  They were in good working order, and I remember being very happy to replace our blown TRD race inserts, but was disappointed to find that they had a relatively long stroke.  With TRD greens in the rear, I was also pretty stoked to have dampers that adjusted in the exact same manner on all four corners.  Discovering they had more negative camber then the stock struts was also pleasant.

Our struts came with two sets of spring perches, one for odd ball sized 2.75″ID springs and one for stock sized 5.5″ ID (?? is that right?) springs.  Since 2.5″ ID springs didn’t fit on the small perches (or even over the strut!), we were forced to run big AFCO springs and TE71 top hats with the large perches.  I wonder has happened to them since we sold that car.

Thinking about that has left me with a desire to trade my HTS away for some real AE86 dampers.  TRD blues, greens, reds… I’m sure not many people today even know that such things existed.  But… if ten years ago these dampers only had a life of only a few months (after being on a shelf for 15 years) you’ve got to think any that I could find now would be nothing but show pieces.