Leaderboard

I took my car up to TD to check the mapping hadn't been affected by the new scoop. It had a little and the scoop gave extra headroom for further tweeks giving a nice gain across the board in both power and torque (almost 10 hp and 10 lbft in places). Not bad for a scoop.

Post #1: Intro & First Mods! Things are starting to come to fruition with my build so I thought I might start a thread to join in on the fun, and help myself keep track of what's happened! It's actually rather therapeutic documenting everything. A bit of history for anyone who may be interested; I purchased my car from a Toyota main dealer, last year. This car to me is a tribute to a late loved one, as she always wanted me to have something special, and the GT86 is what I chose. Light chassis, high revving engine, low centre of gravity and relatively affordable insurance for under 20s meant this was the perfect choice. The 86 is my first RWD car and I'm absolutely loving it. The power may not be anywhere near that of some of the motorbikes I've had the luck of riding, but for fun factor without the fear of losing your license you absolutely can't fault it. The car itself is a 2013 61K Grey Auto - I know I know! I just couldn't resist the flappy paddles! And the car is used for long trips and traffic infested commutes when not in the work van. Obligatory pictures of the car on Toyota's forecourt below. I have an absolute day dream when it comes to plans for the car and have a nigh on infinite list of possible mods, however taking the plunge on them is nearly always spur of the moment, so I won't list too many expectations - but I'm in the mindset of future proofing the car with any I do purchase. My main influences on here come from @Lowe, @smudge @Deacon builds. As well as the plethora of online images. Speaking of images - big thanks to Jeff for helping me work out how to upload them correctly😅 First up had to be an email to Tuning Developments after hearing so much about them on here. I grabbed myself a resonated catback off @Mike@TD.co.uk and had it installed within a fortnight of owning the car. What a difference. Cold starts are a little fruity but nothing unbearable. Perfect customer service as always. Next up was the customary Valenti tail lights - however I was slightly different in ordering from CT Autoparts in Australia. They were the cheapest I could find and had the Red Editions which I much prefer (and are a little bit rarer!) Shipping took just 5 working days. Highly recommended. To get rid of the godawful brick protruding out my bumper I got myself some new plates and installed those whilst I was at it.

Well, both Son's have had a drive of her, they love it😊 Had a call late yesterday afternoon from dealer saying I have your 86 mats here, Oh well that was another excuse to go and drive it👍, then got home and ordered an Arm rest from Toyota, just the radio to go now and i'm sorted😉

Haha! Good luck with the rest of your build, I've really enjoyed following it. Can't wait to see it finished! Gonna be mega.

Post #4: Upcoming Mods I've been on the lookout for coilovers for a while, however with the steep drive I have, and countless potholes on local roads (my front bumper is already badly damaged from scraping) I couldn't sacrifice too much ride height for aesthetics. I found a set of second hand HKS Hipermax IV SP going cheap (ish) from Club Japan Imports where the original customer had never paid the full amount to collect. I know these are the track orientated version, and there's not too much coverage of them from a UK perspective. I don't daily drive my car so comfort isn't too much of a consideration, but the 10kg spring rates do seem particularly high - hopefully the 30 stages of damping adjustment and progressive spring will help. They're widely considered as some of the best across the pond but we'll see once they're installed soon. For the price, I thought it was worth a punt instead of buying some cheaper, new ones. Upon over night delivery, its clear they haven't done too many miles and seem in good condition - build quality looks excellent. The rear dust boots were cracked and I have patched these up as best I can, hopefully nothing to worry about. Ever since reading @Lauren countless comments on this forum about how bad the standard wheels look I've always been on the look out for some new shoes. I spent ages trawling the internet, but I liked too many to make a choice, I knew I wanted 18s, and I knew I wanted something relatively lightweight, with racing pedigree (and preferably, not replicas). OZ, Rays, Wedsports etc. were all top of the list. And then it happened. A massive shout out to @Lucas@PartBox for sorting me out with a set of Rays Gramlights 57CR in this unbelievable colour. Complete with nut and lock set and centre caps. In 18x9.5J +38 I'm hoping I wont have too many clearance issues, but it's looking like lower control arms and toe arms might be needed. In terms of tyres, I'm probably going to go for 255/35/18s (PS4s), unless anyone has any input on something better size-wise? Any opinion welcome. I'm ever so slightly concerned the thin sidewall may lead to cracking rims but this seems unlikely to me. I'm well aware this size wheel is going to be far too much traction for stock NA power, so I'm considering a set of Yoko V105s instead, but weighing up my options I'm not too bothered about sliding about round roundabouts. I've had my fun playing the Primacy lottery! My thought process is relatively simple - stock -> suspension -> wheels & tyres -> brakes -> power. I like to see and feel the affects of the upgrades before moving on to the next (admittedly I'll be doing suspension and wheels one right after another though!) Plus, insurance is a killer. Hopefully when renewal comes along in two months some of the specialists will be able to help. And that's all for now, folks! Thanks for reading.

Post #3: Spoiler Install and Next Mods... Ever since picking up the car I had the intention of swapping out the spoiler for something different. I loved the look of too many to choose from and didn't really fancy drilling any holes / getting factory holes filled. So when the opportunity arrived to snap up a SARD wing off @Lowe I jumped at the chance (Thanks again, Andrew!) The 7 hour drive was so worth it. This, along with a TRD style spoiler courtesy of @Tarmac, give me the perfect combination of spoiler height, design and subtlety, to compliment the natural lines of the car. After the TRD spoiler came back from the paint shop I was so excited I had to install them both on my lunch break outside work. When removing the original spoiler there was so much gunk underneath that it took longer to clean up than install the new ones. The SARD wing itself has a C shaped clamp that fits on the inside of your boot with three nuts that screw up into the underside, on each side. These will definitely scratch, so I placed a thin strip of adhesive and some rubber along the underside of the boot to stop this. On the exterior of the boot, I did the same but this time attached the rubber to the clamp itself. With the TRD spoiler installed, I have clamped the SARD wing as far back as possible, however when closing the boot this brings two issues; 1) The clamp catches on the inside of the boot and doesn't shut properly. This can be fixed one of two ways, yanking on the boot where it meets the rear window and forcing it shut. Or alternatively I installed a couple of spacers on the boot latches. 2) The clamp rubs ever so slightly on the rear fender of the car where it stretches out past the width of the boot. To stop this completely destroying my paint work I cut out some clear 3M tape in the shape of the clamp and stuck it on to the fender. Barely noticeable unless you knew to look for it.

I wouldn't recommend taking influence from me 😂

Post #2: Adding Some Individuality I purchased some Eibach 20 & 25mm wheel spacers off an owner on the Facebook buy and sell page ages ago but finally got round to having them installed. These were just a stop-gap until I decide what wheels to pull the plug on, but they are an essential upgrade in my view - simple but so effective on standard wheels (and suspension) After deliberating between window louvres and tinting I decided on the latter and got some limo tint applied by Stu @ Protint UK. A good friend in the trade and all round nice guy, if you're local to Wiltshire, Stu is your man for all things tinted. Check him out on Facebook, if you're interested, can not recommend enough. Now the interior is nearly pitch black inside, an upgrade in lighting was in order. I replaced the centre light with an LED upgrade and with the help of the brother had some LED strips installed. 2 in the usual front footwells. But also 2 strips attached on the roof where it meets the rear window, these are out of sight unless you are in the back and look great imo.

Coolant is good for 120k or 12 years or something like that. Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk

Tuning developments do this service and did it on my car if you could get to them? The price is on the website.

If the cars only done 35k miles forget the plugs or get most of the work done for free with the valve spring recall.

Better off with one of these. Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

I’m considering importing a couple if anyone is interested?