Performing double duty as an unrivalled street racer and a tofu delivery vehicle, the Initial D AE86 inspired both movie fans and car freaks across Singapore to tune up dad’s old Toyota and deliver bean curd via South Buona Vista Road.
The AE86, also known as the Hachiroku (Japanese for “86”), is one of Asia’s all-time favourite cult cars. Beautifully balanced, rear-drive handling plus a good power-to-weight ratio and good old driving fun make the AE86 a drifting machine par excellence – with or without tofu on board.
Nobody could possibly look cooler behind the wheel of the panda-coloured classic sports coupe than the enigmatic Jay Chou. The talented singer plays protagonist Takumi Fujiwara, a gifted driver who honed his driving prowess while delivering tofu for his father. While Takumi is a bit of a slacker, he can take on any challenger on the road when properly motivated.
The climactic race between Jay, Jordan Chan and Edison Chen is the stuff of silver-screen driving legend. As their manic street machines swerve around impossibly tight and curvy mountain roads at night, they put pedal to the metal for the Initial D tag line: “It’s not what you drive, it’s what drives you.”
