Nov 2011: Lesson 1
Unfortunately with the exception of an oil and filter change and some general maintenance parts the first real tinkering with the car was replacing parts after spinning it into a curb...
This was a lesson on how owning an ae86 does not make you an instant drift king!
going home from work on a Friday night the road was a bit damp and slippy and I couldn't help myself, taking a right at flagstaff hill roundabout (for those not familiar it was probably the widest roundabout in Adelaide at the time) I planted the throttle and unleashed the mighty single cam (this is also before I started clutch kicking), eventually the back end stepped out but it was too late and I was almost at the my exit (I should also mention this wasn't peak our traffic I went home early), I swung all the way round to opposite lock to try and pull myself around to face the exit but to much counter steer lead to the back end swinging back the other way and with that I was sliding backwards into and up a rather nasty curb onto the side banking.
After embarrassingly waving on the stunned on lookers I got out for a quick check, to my surprise everything looked okay, no broken rims and I didn't hit the wall that was a meter down from me, hopping back in with my heart still going nuts I waited for a gap and got back on the road only to quickly discover everything was definitely not okay, I limped up the road to a safe place to park and had a better inspection.
the damage: a mangled LCA, a bent rear axle, and a bent front stub axle.