Church

IIRC it was somewhere mentioned, that this basic clock is somewhat tribute retro touch to one that was in original AE86 (IIRC rev limiter light and beep was such legacy touch too, pity not original "bell ding" from hachiroku). Speaking about it's mods, i've seen some interesting ones, eg. ethanol content display, or mini lcd display to show some car/engine readings from OBD reader.

There is similar thing with extra wear on bearings in rear if car is too overlowered (>1"), without eg. diff risers. It's for rear though, not front.

Imho dealership bit is redundant once one finds out right part number. With that one can search online to try to get prices down. BTW, is BRZ bearing REALLY different or just part numbers (for same part)? Most parts are completely same, yeah, they have different part numbers @Subaru and @Toyota parts inventory systems, but they certainly should be same? IIRC only things BRZ had different were slightly different spring rates, front bumper/lights and badges, selectable colors for paint, and of course audio HU and silver inner panels instead of false CF ones in GT/FR-S, no?

WTF with gear lever?

Generally one should use same compound pads on both ends to not fsck up brake bias. From street oriented pads i like my current DS2500 for street use. Rarely do they squeek, actually stock ones squeeled much much worse, when they got half worn .. except i don't notice much braking difference vs stocks either. Well, i think these as almost oem, but slightly more capable. But then again, most probably all track oriented pads with noticeable Mu increase i won't be able to properly bed when DD in legal manner. They also might get less reliable cold bite and more dusting.

Those sound clips don't make much sense in evaluating loudness, just and only tone / drone. Nobody knows what recording levels were to know how loud one should turn playback "to sound as in real life" and "as in other recordings". Those recording volume levels for everybody are different. At best you can compare several relatively among themselves if clip recording user had reviewed several, uses same recording way/distance/level for all of them. P.S. If you are interested in quieter ones from aftermarket, most often Invidia Q300 is mentioned in forums in such context. Loudness "stock like", but better tone.

Amount of negative camber imho should depend on how much track driving vs daily driving is done and how sticky tires are used. The more camber you have, the more grip you'll have when pushing faster in corners. Of course unless one is unlegally aggressive driver, rarely such pushing will be done on public roads :). That extra grip can be gained both front and rear. From what i've seen, in most cases people for these cars deal 0.5deg less negative camber for good balance. For mostly daily driven car with few track days on normal tires my preference would be: -2.0 to -2.5 camber front with zero toe and -1.5 to -2.0 with slight 0.1 toe in. With such setup i was able to get out rear when wanted yet better controllable, and front understeered less. While such front camber can be gained for cheap with just camberbolts (even more so, that lowering car also adds negative camber), one needs LCA for that in rear, but you already have them. People dial in even more camber if going to track more often and use stickier tires. On pure drift setups i've seen mentioned even more so camber used at front (with higher difference front-rear too). But that doesn't sound like what you want with mostly daily driving.

BTW, IIRC seems there is also 3" Q300 now. But most probably it will be louder, then not sure if will do, if you want quieten things. Remembering saying about same exhausts of different piping size, that loudness of Perrin 2.5" unresonated was comparable to 3" resonated. I'd wait for someone to review it first though. Even if model is same, i wouldn't automatically assume, that most things said about 'normal' Q300 can be attributed to 3" version too.

If cheapness of repairs/repaint is considered, imho best color is black. You can easily use unpainted black plastic body parts and it won't look out of place. I recall for my old car replacement unpainted front bumper costed 1/3rd of repainting costs, hence the idea.

Funny, but DS2500 for me are quieter then stock. Without any bedding, right away. Though I didn't notice much increase in brake bite either. i guess they might be closer to street pads then some others interim/hybrid street/track pads. Well, stockers were close to done and to exchange for new ones anyway.

BTW, about 'brake discs at the same time as new pads' .. how many pads you've been through? Shouldn't disks on average last some 4-5 sets of pads? Are stock discs really worn down or cracked enough to warrant purchase/exchange?

If you use them with oem calipers .. maybe you can consider 2 piece ones (hmm, DBA?), for slight weight savings and a bit better heat conducting. Unfortunately here in LV rules are much stricter. No aftermarket BBKs, if stock one piece, then no two piece disks, steel armored brake lines need to be nylon covered on outside aswell, and pressed in, not boltable on to stay road legal. So i guess that only thing that i can upgrade are pads/fluid and add brake ducts, rest staying OEM :(. I guess, MOT rules are more laxed in UK, no? Well, whichever disks you go with, i highly advise to NOT go for drilled/slotted. You get all needed more brake bite with higher mu brake pads. No need to compromise disk strength, even more so if used also on track, with fancy showroom only worthy drilling.

Thanks for insight. Nothing better then in person experience & comparison from having a go with both. BTW, Ade, have you been in any twin with Bilsteins?

Imho it might be also due what settings had been dialed in. I recall CSG Mike posting, that he had others in passenger seat, that complimented ride and wouldn't believe the spring rate car had, and that with quality damping and damping well matching spring rates ride can be rather compliant even outside track. Still, no doubt, that for hybrid use even with higher class shocks such spring rates might be too much, and i mentioned SRCs mostly because such spring rates were brought up

For 10/12 rates .. i'd probably think of Tein SRCs. They are definitely out of mentioned budget, but certainly of great price/performance/quality relative to other middle-upper end offerings and well matched to stiffer springs.

HFC? When it's the only cat left? Not sure you'll always pass MOT inspection then.

Don't know. When i first rode mine, it didn't seem that bad. Actually felt like very good compromise between handling & comfort relative to several other cars i had driven. Very probably i'll replace stock ones with some aftermarket offerings, but no sooner then i'll wear stock ones.

Even easier it it would be in some form of valve, that reroutes or passes through exhaust gas depending on state with no mounting/unmounting involved, just by pressing some small lever or switch inside cabin :). IIRC there should be some veldable or mountable on valves for exhaust, actuated electrically or via some metallic wire?

I wouldn't call Q300 dead quiet, imho it's more of 'stock quiet', but with better tone. And yes, very popular choice among those that want to keep sound level reasonable if used with catless aftermarket header.

Then imho it should go with CF wrap on .. hmm .. at least all around lower half of car body. Or at least i'd play a lot in photoshop to find out what else to wrap, to get good enough & of consistent style overall looks with such bumper fitted. Or make such bumper two part - body color till lower line of front headlights, and below that - CF. I once also was interested in one CF part, not for aethetic reasons though. But custom one-off part costs put me off. As in i wanted bumper & engine protection pan from CF for weight savings (vs eg. alu part) & finally protect somewhat bottom & front of our .. "bulldozer shaped" that can easily dig into snow and very low from ground, thus easy to scrape, front bumper for a bit more rallyish use on gravel & snow/icy roads. College with WRX was more lucky, due WRX/STI being more common and more often used for rallies, hence his wasn't custom one-off. But prices for me were cited 450eur model/560eur for mold/430eur for part itself. Of course as there are only few GT86 in Latvia and most probably almost no-one of their owners will think of rallying those, almost certainly first two steps had to be paid by just me, hence tripling price.

BTW, if it's done for aestetics .. IIRC there was one cheap trim in JDM, with steelies for wheels & unpainted bumpers, especially for those that intend to mod it in track day car. It looked FUGLY! There are parts, that look good, if contrasting with body paint (eg. roof, fender garnish, stripe under sidewindows, some small bits), but whole front bumper? Have you guys really checked out how it will look with just bumper in CF looks? And if you'll "fix" that with painting in body color, where is CF's aesthetics part then? BTW, imho it wouldn't be lookwise that bad, if front bumper wouldn't be visual continuation of bonnet, and be visually just underside/bumper part, like many older cars are. But as it isn't .. there is reason, why most aftermarket bumpers for toyobaru are body color painted aswell.

And rarely do all clicks actually change something or change by same extent on all four of coilovers (especially so on budget coilovers). So i still am very strongly convinced that for budget ones higher quality unadjustable are better.

Tareim: That also means that there is less chance to fsck up with completely wrong settings with unshakeable confidence "from internet" that it's "best". As in most cases it's driver behind the wheel, that limits speed, often better results can be got with one having more seat time & adapting for longer time to specific settings, even if they are not ideal, instead of endless fiddling with knobs. More driver confidence, better familiarity with car and what to expect from it at limit .. it all matters. Majority of us doesn't spend enough time on track to dial in something much better incrementally, checking impact of each change (eg. coilovers adjusting knobs turns) one by one, even more so to find specific best settings for each and every from those mentioned 'all ocassions'. Also unadjustable of same budget/price can be of higher quality, then eg. shiny colorful with loads of knobs cheap taiwanese coilovers that sometimes may be worse then stock (just like stereo hifi amp of higher class vs lower class surround multichannel one of same price). Hence weighing out all that imho there are more pros then cons to unadjustable ones. There are exceptions to this .. but not for majority.

Are you sure? Weren't those also having some 10mm drop? While that doesn't sound much nor relatively nor as absolute value, problem i see is our cars have low ground clearance even stock, with which i only marginally avoid scratching on average roads/parkings over kerb/speed bumps/steep driveways here, especially in winter. One thing is lowering car with lot of initial ground clearance/suspension travel, another - ours. Sight of one car that was lovered a lot and blessed with extra aftermarket body kit in front of me, that had to go over speed bump in crabwalk diagonally with going in opposite direction lane was pitiful. Especially because he had to wait for that lane to clear of traffic and by that time long traffic queue gathered after him. If it's showcar or track-only toy that is brought on trailer to track - fine. But paying own money to loose practicality of daily drive by own choice? :/ Hence the rant by me seeing so very limited choice for our cars in aftermarket.

Bilsteins, KW, RCE, Ohlins, Teins .. they all are fine reasonably priced choices for what they provide .. but why oh why most aftermarket manufacturers ignore those potential customers that do NOT wish to lower their cars?