Canadian Grand Prix, 16th June 1985

Lotus were quickest in qualifying, with Elio De Angelis outpacing Ayrton Senna. The Ferraris of Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson were on the second row.
At the start, the Lotus duo pulled away, but reliability problems soon sidelined Senna. De Angelis however continued on his way, although Alboreto was in striking distance. The man from Milan closed on the man from Rome and overtook him, passing him around the outside.
Alboreto was now safely in the lead, while behind him Johansson livened up proceedings, making the most of a drop in performance on De Angelis’ Lotus to take second place, almost closing right up to his team mate.
The Ferrari 156/85 thus secured a 1-2, with Alboreto swooping into the title lead thanks to his second win for the Suderia. It was win number 90 for the Maranello marque and was also the last F1 race that Lotus would have both of their cars qualify on the front row of the grid.

Commercial Break: Porsche 944 Turbo, 1985 (US)

Commercial Break: Merkur XR4Ti, 1985 (US)

Standing Guard

1985 Toyota Levin GT - Scrapheap Challenge

The AE86 Toyota Levin (Corolla to us Brits). A car of such cult status that has sent values through the roof, which combined with high attrition rates due to the drifting and time attack brigade munching through a fair few examples, has conspired to make finding a ideal paradigm near-impossible.
Kazumi Nakamura. A man not so easily deterred from attaining AE86 nirvana. As founder of  '86' specialist Custom Garage Speed (original name, that), it wouldn't do for him not to have an ultimate example of the breed. Starting with a $600 bargain as base material, he's massaged this Levin to heavenly heights of perfection, from the breathed-on 4A-GE powerplant, to those achingly cool Panasport rims wrapped by his company's N3 wide arch kit, to the hard as nails interior and the tons of detailing. This AE86 has made me an avid fan of the model, from being the fence-sitter I once was.
Roll over for this Corolla here.

Kazumi Nakamura  - the Edd China of the far east?