Good day,
Long time lurker of these forums and supporter of GRM. I know many folks here and even had the distinct honor of purchasing the GRM Project F-Mod car....until after a few months of restoration/prep destroyed it with one single act of stupidity (Sorry, JG). I've been meaning to post here more often so I figured this would be a introduction along with a chance to ask you: Do you have time to talk about my lord and savoir: The Mini-Van?
Anyways, I autocross. I've owned and autocrossed all the things (Civics, STI's, Corvettes, S2000's, etc, etc). I started autocrossing Karts about 6 years ago after a friend gave me a run in one. As they say : The first hit is free. I started transporting my Kart in the back of a truck but needed more room. Things got out of hand and I purchase a enclosed trailer which was very useful to head to nationals in but was awful for everything else. That's when I decided on a Mini-Van. Since I don't have kids and was not forced to get a minivan that means I absolutely love them. Since I'm an adult that means that I get to do what I want and do silly childish things like make a replica of Takumi's AE86 out of a Mini-Van because of course that makes sense. Here was attempt 1 before the engine exploded:
Attempt 1 happened because I needed new tires and when shopping for tires these wheels were suggested. Once I saw the wheels I was like..."Hey, I know another toyota with similar wheels!". I explained this to a few friends on the Two-Drink-Tuesday sim racing discord and made the comment that it would be funny to do an AE86/Initial D repliaca Minivan. "You won't do it!" was stated a few times and things just got out of hand from there.....
After the engine expired on this van (Or was about to) I traded it in on a Honda Odyssey. Great Van but it was too expensive (I bought it new). So I dumped the Odyssey, picked up a 981 Cayman S (my dream car that i've been hunting down for years! But we're not here to talk about P-Car junk) and found me a 2015 Sienna SE with 7somethingthousand Miles on it
Well, my first Tofu Van was created for SOLO Nationals in 2021 and with another Toyota in the Fleet in the correct color that can only mean one thing.....Tofu-Van # 2, The second delivery.
First, You can't start a "JDM" build without proper floormats....
Alright... Let's get this thing sorted:
Day 1:
Day 2:
Day 3:
It took about 3 days to get it sorted. My old van had Wantanabe look-a-likes from Enkei. That's not really an option in 19's. So I said screw it, let's have fun with the wheels. I ordered some Rotiform RSE's which happen to accept Aerodiscs and decided on a design using 80's/90'S Toyota Racing Colors.
So, yea - Not much a build thread. Some wheels, an eBay front lip and a bunch of vinyl. It's a lot of fun either way and this will continue to be my trusty steed that I daily drive and use to transport my shifter kart to all sorts of local and regional Auto-X events (and nationals). There probably won't be any additional updates to this thing but I figured I'd share becasue it's just a lot of fun to have fun with a vehicle not associated with fun.
