Church

It's nice performance mod to come together with NA. Imho especially so on AT. Seen very positive reviews by ones who installed such. I myself am more eyeing to close gear sets, not FD.

Depends. They themselves often also say (and show example pics) that many of their roads suck/have lot of roadholes and such too, and usually it's Japan roads that are mentioned as exemplary. And traditionally they often are more comfort loving (illustrated by eg. often USDM suspension products being softer sprung then their counterparts (or car models in general) for EUDM or JDM). That's for normal people though. Aftermarket is often dominated more by bling/exageration/lack of normal sense. And by market principles supply has to take into account demand, even if it's something stupid as ghetto tuning of hellaflush, tuner stickers, very powerful audiosystems. Sensible daily driveability or handling won't matter to anyone that is hard set on lowest possible lowering no matter the costs. Yes, there are ones that care about handling or are serious about track racing and hence don't buy stupid products that sometimes makes things worse then stock. But imho for any quality high class coilover of ohlins/top KW offerings/penske/billsteins and so on, there are much more cheap taiwanese sub $1K coilovers sold looking just how low they can go and in what color they are painted. Heck, for brakes their painted caliper look and oversized crossdrilled rotors looks to many matters more then eg. consumables cost/reliability/intact brake bias. Big carbonfiber applicated antiwing is must have even if it hurts speed more then actually helps something. As some porsches/lambos/ferraris have wide and staggered wheel-tyre combos, then so must they have such in their underpowered toyobarus too.

Yes, there are many @US going for super low drop/hella-flush/bottom scraping/uber wide and staggered tire setup on oversized wheels. Unfortunately many - also means that many of such vote with wallet. I personally would hate to rob handling from car, where it's main distinguishing feature, rob comfort and rob daily driveability on far from perfect roads with deep potholes, speed-bumps, steep driveways and here - sometimes also deep unplowed snow. But then again i'm not representing statistically average customer of aftermarket tuning parts. On contrary i sometimes think of going other way, to gravel rallying

Nigel: My point is was that there is not enough of these cars yet and they aren't around for long enough for car mechanic to theorise that they are reliable or not basing just on fact that this was his first case of having to do something on toyobaru-s. More statistical cases are needed to tell something generic about their reliability.

Nigel: from toyota these have only badges, bumpers, headunit and fuel injection system. It's simpler to compare reliability wise to subaru-s, to which they have most in common. Also one has to take into account to compare to numbers sold, and how they are driven. These are not bought to be driven slow and carefully to get to church on sundays, but for heavier then average abuse on roads and on track . So i wouldn't draw any statistical conclusions from that phrase. It can aswell stem from fact that they are not sold in that big numbers as eg. some corollas. My 2 years experience so far is being very satisfying & problem free (except common to subaru's bad soundproofing which i don't fault though "because racecar" , and small body repair needed due my lack of driving skills and overconfidence). Though then again, given low price of car of such class, imho in some 5 years these cars can become more common. Someone called them modern day nissan sx180/200. I doubt it ever outselling MX-5, but becoming rather common? Why not. More fun then eg. some FWD hyundai coupe. Cheaper then bmw/merc coupes.

I guess most don't go for higher rpm-s because 1) there is no more power on the plate at higher rpms on this engine, rather contrary, 2) higher rpms require more expensive and intrusive upgrades to engine vs simple bolton intake/exhaust upgrades including forced induction. It's not that often that one absolutely must on particular track due gearing have higher redline to cut down a bit laptimes, so maybe you shouldn't waste too much time/think too much of details of how much higher vs stock, or is it safe, as average driving both when daily driving and on track rarely sees reaching redline. Imho most wished gains should come in middle rpm range, as most commonly ran at, and also at which one shouldn't care about safety of too high rpms.

smudge: if one still keeps around stock parts instead of rushing to sell them for 1/4th of price right after replacing them with aftermarket ones, it won't hurt financially THAT much and by no means assumes that no aftermarket parts should/will be installed. And for whatever reasons they were, but i have seen posts of requests to buy specific stock parts back. As for resell value .. i know that it's that way for me, eg. prefering ad with car without turbo kit/BBK/lowered suspension/whatever aftermarket else, even if i would install similar aftermarket parts later on myself. Even if that 'stock' was of slightly older/of higher mileage, then one with pile of mods. Nothing says that mods automatically mean worse condition/heavier driven/abused, there are always exceptions, but it certainly may rise probability of such, and given limited trustful info from seller and available alternatives i would go for stock.

I'd say better leave stock parts as is somewhere stored. It's hard to sell car later on if it has aftermarket parts. It signals in red that car most probably was driven hard . Better if you still have stock audio head unit, header, catback, brakes, wheels, can flash back stock ecu firmware and so on .. some of them can serve well as temp parts if something goes wrong with aftermarket ones.

Check this thread. It's OP covers most things related with NA bolton parts. If one takes stock flywheel power as 200bhp, then NA you can get up to +35-40. (Or if dyno shows ~ 155whp, 190-200 whp with most of main exhaust & intake bolton parts + tune). Most gains are from header(manifold)+tune. Last extra whp-s usually show diminishing returns while NA. Decatted header and/or decatted frontpipe indeed will add loudness (another reason to do catless header first, as i've seen posts where guy first installed catback exhaust, then later on catless header. Result was too loud to his tastes, and sometimes resulted in installing quieter catback or even stock one back).

From all american muscle cars looks-wise i like Camaro most. What i wouldn't like in it (to a bit lesser extent in mustang or charger too) though - that's one HEAVY porker. Yes, compensated with very powerful engine, but nevertheless, 1.7t (maybe more for convertible) is a bit too much in my book for coupe. Or 4-door saloon. It's 4x4 SUV territory

Lauren: Lightest cast wheel i know for our cars of was Kosei K4R 17x7 +50 of 15.0lbs/6.35kg as per tirerack.com. Seems relatively cheap too. Couldn't find of our PCD/sizes at european shops though, so shipping/importing will probably loose all it's cheap price advantage. Kosei K1 TS 17x7 +50 of 14.6lbs/6.62kg and Enkei RPF1 17x7 +32 14.8lbs/6.71kg also are cast & light. Team Dynamics (IIRC based in UK?) Pro Race 1.0 17x7 IIRC was 15-16lbs, a bit closer to weight of these. Deacon: depends. Some vendors don't prioritize shedding weight but to have stronger (or strong enough) for expected loads wheel.

Oh, forgot to add, that among good points of T&G is also that it's rather good .. compared to other vendor stock navigation systems (btw, also very costly options with costly map updates). But it's "good among worst", not "good or best navi in general". Like winning in special Olympics :). If it had been way cheaper (eg. £100), then i would see market niche for it of "i want install OEM/stock only options/parts", but given it's tenfold price to that of normal navigation commercial apps for smartphone, that's no-no too. This is no porsche, this is budget sporty coupe. Owners very probably evaluate more sensibility & price/value of spendings on it.

Jason: As standard we have Touch I in our cars. To add "& Go" or "& Go+" (3d navi / voice functions / for some timeframe "free" map updates) one needs to purchase Go (or Go+) navigation hardware module (boltable to bottom of Touch headunit) kit (includes some wiring harnesses and mounting bracket) + gps antenna. It's very costly (i guess around £500?), map updates are rare/outdated and very costly and you'll lack many useful navigation features. About only thing good for it that it's offline, and it might be easier to resell car with all "stock", instead of aftermarket HU/Navi. Just as Rob wrote, smartphone with Waze (free. online though) or any other navi app is much better choice. Even those that are payware for initial purchase or map updates, are much cheaper, have more features/are easier to use. He was wrong though on that Go functionality is software-only addon (software-ish are firmware/map updates). Hardware Go module is needed. Pitty that our stock headunit is Touch I, not Touch II, later one has also Mirrorlink function letting use it's touchscreen for smartphone output/input, letting display/run it's apps on bigger screen of stock headunit, and also use it's touch input capabilities to pass to smarthpone.

Of course you won't get Auris like economy in 86 .. but i more then justify to myself extra spendings on fuel vs saving money in more practical, comfortable, cheaper, roomier, reasonable, safer, sensible .. but less fun FWD hatch. I got back feeling of fun in driving just for driving's sake instead of transporting from A to B - that's enough for me :). I find myself sometimes going for another drive in night or sometimes choosing longer roads. So please don't let that unlucky ABS pump / service shop experience to get you down. Rather i wish when that issue is finally fixed from that point on for you to have as much impractical/unreasonable fun with this car as i have.

Even if expensive .. shouldn't car still have warranty and replace happening at no cost to you?

When i got his PMs about shipping to wrong address and he will ship now to right one .. thought that i will wait last time for that, as it would be stupid to have two kits. After month wait asked refund so i can order at fensport myself and inquired their stock availability via email. But it seems that i'll have to order without waiting for refund as soon as i'll get my salary or pay for night shifts, otherwise those "two months" for tre87 doesn't sound anything but soon.

Sigh. So i got new lies about shipping ('supposedly' shipped twice to wrong address, or two more promises to send again to right one with provided tracking via RM or DHL) +1 month passed, after that refund request ignored another week on top. I guess that means that rob's & Lauren's words too are nothing to him.

Cheap Alpine (simple FM + ipod/usb interfaces) sounded wonderful (much beter then T&G I (panasonic's?) on GT86 on 4 speakers) on my old '99 corolla even on it's completely stock two door speakers But then again i guess most top audio vendors may potentially sound better due eg. integrated amps and due most often being much newer offering then ones that comes as stock and which usually been there around for many years despite cars bought as new recently. Only reason i'm choosing not replacing stock HU (yet) is because i plan to use it for many years and hence am waiting out for when top audio vendor headunits will have everything i may ever need within one device with no compromises/limitations. Android (with support for good/cheap/more functional android's navigation apps vs stock OE ones) / Mirrorlink / backup camera support / torque / good different input support for misc. media / good audio quality. Right now it seems that i have to choose between chinese Android headunits for android/obd/torque app, or top vendors for mirrorlink & better audio (but of course in most cases proprietary embedded OS-es with limited extra applications support unlike on Android).

tre87: btw, from what i got when emailed fensport, they have reverse camera in stock. It was just unupdated info on site fault, that it is displayed as out-of-stock.

I'm not sure one can use on public roads car with cage legally. Cage is meant to be used with eg. helmet on. One can injure himself in collision hitting with head cage with uncovered head for example, also many airbags won't work with it installed. To me even stock seats imho provide enough side support. Just that they are a bit on heavy side (especially if with heating function in top trims). If i would choose to change seats to sport ones, i'd probably would go all-or-nothing though by changing both to lighter weight carbon ones + rear seat delete + cage + possibly ripping out lot of other comfort/sound proofing stuff. But as it is now, with car being mostly DD with very rare track action it seems fine enough as is.

Also fake vents differ. But they are separate part too, so just like with bumper, it doesn't matter if only fenders/wings compatibility matters. About the only issue with mixing brz/gt86 fenders imho might be different paint colors for both lineups, hence repainting it may add up to price.

Aye, imho Ace header would be best bet for most performance gains. Just note that it must have accompanying ECU tune to get most of those gains, and due being EL won't get you that UEL burble sound, which some may miss. It also has high price, but that drawback imho is justified by 1) it being top performing, 2) providing gains on par of builds that change also other exhaust parts, hence costing in sum as much or more, as this single header.

Lauren: not just acceleration grip balance to more understeer-y. Braking will be affected as well. As chap will go turbo, probably nothing wrong with too wide tires .. but i still advise to keep square setup. I'm not sure it's worth to pay for 3". Weren't people running upto 400hp even on 2.5" just fine? Though i guess some aftermarket catback exhaust will be bought anyway, if stock sound seems that bad, and one can choose 3" at same time. Same for intake upgrades. Stock airbox is not that bad, most often most of intake gains can be got just from $40 worth aftermarket air filter. As car is mostly for daily driving, not track .. maybe worth to consider some comfort upgrades too? For example - armrest, reverse camera, audio upgrades? For daily driving i wouldn't consider any lowering too, unless one drives only on roads like in Japan . Though if looks are that much more important then practicality .. everyone has his own taste/preferences, it's your money after all .

For this platform best tire setup handling wise is square one, not staggered. I'd also advise to not go for too wide wheels & tires if you are still with NA power, but i guess on that i'm too late.

I'm sometimes thinking that there is something good in soundpipe idea - it provides more engine sound for driver's aural pleasure, yet doesn't make it louder to bother those outside car. Be it cops, angry neighbours or completely unrelated people nearby . Win-win i'd say. Main problem most dislike it is simply because it also passes large share of road noise. Hence i sometimes wonder if some sound/noise insulation around soundpipe wouldn't help to make it tripple-win or it will pass road noise anyway from it's collector from other under-bonnet non-noise-insulated parts? So far related to soundpipe i've seen only one TRD set to make with few replaceable parts it passing more noise. IIRC not too popular aftermarket part/mod. One can also DIY cleanup soundpipe insides from stuffing to do same as TRD. It won't solve passing road noise though. Hence my thoughts if there are other ways to keep soundpipe's good parts and eliminate or lessen it's flaws. Should be cheaper then modding exhaust and won't change noise level outside cabin.