Lauren

Alex, it seems to be showing you as a premium member under your username now which has also changed to blue.

Yes, very petty, but tbh, I've learnt to expect no less. I might suggest that this isn't the first time this has happened to Dan. He will of course do what he feels is necessary to protect his interests.

The way I understand it, the insurance company will decide what to pay out based on what your car is worth. If your car is a year old it is probably is worth around 20K. We need Ollie!

You do way better than I too, though I do have a lot of business miles and a couple of mods.

No news there then!

A well balanced review, I think. I do know that Matt does love the GT after having a chat at the sprint last week. Though the looks are questionable we have to accept that the M135i is a very capable car.

I know that Keith has a high flow cat which is in the secondary cat position. No idea on the weight, sorry. Adrian is currently in Brazil, but maybe someone else will have the answer. Finger in the wind guess says about 15kgs, I could be wrong though, perhaps Keith may have a better idea?

Welcome aboard the Skylark! Hope you enjoy your stay. :)Whereabouts in the country are you? It's just we are pretty active with events and there will doubtless be more happening soon. JAE is the next big show 12-15th September. As Ian said, what spec did you go for? Respect for the RX8, I raced them at launch, back in the day. Great chassis.

Well, I guess it's one of those things. If it adds a fair bit to the cost, it may well not be worth it. I'm sure Mark is right, gains would be minimal. But, remember it is shiny.

Ob. There is no more oversteer or understeer, it was more that the steering feel changed. It is more precise. You simply get more steering feel as there are more vibrations (of the good kind) transmitted to the wheel which make the steering feel sharper and more precise. As a result you can place the car more accurately. Ian, yes I drove Keith's car albeit briefly. Again his steering was more accurate as a result of his chassis bracing too.

Now, I should start by saying that RRG Macc' are somewhat enthusiastic about their GT86's and it comes as no surprise that their GT86 TRD did not stay standard for long. First off an Injen Induction kit went on, shortly followed thereafter by a custom four tailpipe rear section to the exhaust courtesy of local experts, JP Exhausts. A decat and overpipe were also added at this point. So already the car sounds quite different from the standard TRD model which I have to say was just a bit too quiet. The workmanship on the JP rear section is lovely and of obvious quality. Wish I'd taken a decent picture of it now!However, all these modifications were done when the car arrived, it is really the more recent modifications that are perhaps of more interest. Richard at RRG received some more TRD goodies in the post and it didn't take long to put them on the car. These are the TRD strut brace which is pretty and pretty light in carbon: A close up of the mounting brackets which are typically neat:A view along the strut brace:Well, it feels rigid enough and is certainly serious bling, but are there benefits? We shall find out. Also perhaps the modification that has raised a lot of interest is that of the TRD door closers that act to improve the torsional rigidity of the chassis. It is said that they help to ensure a more linear steering response under load. A novel idea I admit and a modification I've not seen on other cars. Still, they look pretty cool. In the section that attaches to the door closer, the topmost part slides when the door closes. This is so that it mates with it's corresponding part that attaches to the door. I didn't notice any difference in how the door seemed to close over a standard setup. So time to find out what it is like on the road. I should also add that the TRD comes with 18" ten spoke wheels running 225/40/18 Yokohama Advan AD08 tyres. I will admit there was a part of me that wondered whether the extra grip from the wider grippier tyres would dominate the driving experience and feel a bit over-tyred or like the car is 'on rails' which to me would have spoiled the experience. The fun about handling is that you need to work the car in it's slip angle which is the angle or degree you can slide the tyres beyond the point of adhesion until they give up completely. This for me is the fun part of driving. I needn't have worried though as it transpired. The car does generate more grip than the Primacy HP Michelins, there is no doubt of that. Conditions were 30C and hot and sunny. The route I took is perhaps a well known one, a triangle of roads around Macclesfield to Bosley and then up the A54 and down the infamous Cat & Fiddle (A537) which joins Buxton to Macclesfield. In my racing days I used to train around this route mostly in the winter when the roads were quiet. Unfortunately for me the roads were not so quiet, but never mind there were opportunities to test the chassis. As I was driving the RRG demo TRD and I wasn't going to be doing any drifting I put it in sport mode once I found everything being left on in terms of traction and stability control was starting to hamper progress. With the modifications tested, any difference is going to be subtle. As is always the case with these things everything tends to compliment each other. RRG do have a full TRD underbody bracing set to fit and I expect that will make more of a difference. My feelings upon driving the car and through some spirited cornering on some undulating roads is that the front end does feel perhaps a little sharper than standard. I'm not sure that turn in on a standard car is in any way woolly, but these modifications have to help proceedings, to some extent, I feel. Perhaps a better way to describe it is that the front end of the car especially under a high load during turn in to a corner inspires confidence and this is no bad thing. This car has 2900 miles on the clock compared to my car with 14500 miles under it's wheels. Naturally it hasn't loosened up in respect of the engine, gearbox and to a degree the chassis that mine has, however it should be noted that the JP four tip exhaust sounds just brilliant. I do think that having some noise from the rear accompanied with the induction roar of the Injen Induction kit always results in the driving experience feeling that bit more involving when you're on the pace. I like that, a lot! Overall these additional modifications are certainly nice bits of kit. The difference is subtle rather than obvious, but there is no doubting the quality of the items. I look forward to seeing the difference the underbody bracing makes. :)Here's a sneak preview of the underbody bracing (still wrapped to keep all the part numbers with the parts!): Just a couple of pics of the car:

I did it as part of the decat. As for gains, well, it's just hard to say. As with all these things you need to see how it complements other mods. It is less restrictive flow wise from a visual perspective. I noticed that when I did the decat and overpipe it made the exhaust a fair bit more vocal. I didn't do a before and after comparison on the rollers so I don't really know, but I think losing the 2nd cat certainly freed up the exhaust somewhat and seemed to improve throttle response.In summary I wouldn't bother with just the overpipe, but if you're doing a decat you may as well do the overpipe as well.

Well, it's a worthwhile mod. The burning question is, can we get the parts at a reasonable price? TRD stuff seems to be very expensive. There is more difference IMO with the chassis bracing than the strut brace and door closers on their own. But, I guess that is not particularly surprising. The most obvious difference is with the steering feel. The front end of the car does feel far more precise. I was reminded of this when I drove my car home and it lacked the precision that I noted when driving the TRD. I know Richard is working hard to get TRD parts for reasonable prices, so watch this space!

This morning presented me with the opportunity to try out some more additions to the RRG Macc' GT86 TRD. Last time I sampled the strut brace and TRD door closers. The has now been fitted with a full TRD chassis bracing kit. This comprises of a number of parts that effectively help to provide more rigidity to the car by triangulating points on the chassis where flex might be present. Here is the TRD chassis bracing kit:And in situ on the car:I couldn't not mention the latest TRD addition to the interior. Not cheap, but it does look good! So, like last time, my route was an anti-clockwise triangle taking in the A534 road to Bosley, then onto the A54 taking me to the plateau on the A537 and then down the infamous Cat & Fiddle. However, this time it was rather foggy. Unfortunately a good part of the road was so obscured with fog that I could do nothing but drive slowly until I could see again. Despite this, which was a somoething of a dissapointment to my passenger who'd never been on the Cat and Fiddle before. I did my best to describe what the scenery looks like when you can actually see it. But what about the car? Well, I did have an opportunity to push the chassis in a few brief places. There is a definite sharpening of how the car feels. The most obvious difference can be felt in the steering which has gained more precision. There is also a tangible difference in feedback in the steering, whereby you feel a tad more vibration. However, this is in a good way and the information coming through the wheel is clear and precise. This gives the car a great feeling down a B-road and inspired confidence in what the car was doing and how much grip there was in the road surface. The whole car felt taughter and perhaps the difference was felt the most when I got to drive my standard car home. The addition of the TRD chasiss bracing is certainly the biggest factor in regard to sharpening the responses and increasing the rigidity of the GT86 chassis. On balance this is a very worthwile modification indeed, for the more accurate steering feel alone. I think i need to start saving! ​

I'm really looking forward to this, so is Mark. We have all the series, but we never really got into GTA4. It was no San Andreas. Let's hope the new one is. The previews look amazing.

Offering a plan B for the othner forum to attend JAE was never meant as shoving my fingers in Dan's and STu's face. IF that is how it is was perceived, I give up. Sorry for short reply IE8 is just totally incompatible with this forum.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks, Kristov.

I've only justified avoiding it by booking too many holidays and trackdays this year. It's inevitable though...

Welcome. It may well be a long wait for the STi from what I've heard. It is by the looks of it, mostly a cosmetic excercise like the TRD. However, it would be rarer than rare, which always has some appeal I guess. Go test drive and see what you think.

Hello Ed!

Sideways, you won't find anything draconian about this place in the way we do things. We want this to be place created by the members for the members. Rob and I have dug into our pockets to get some stickers made up, shouldn't be long till we get those now. All in all, we want to get out there, use the income from traders (when it happens) and from membership subscriptions to subsidise events. It's all about feeling a part of something, I feel.

Could be, Ian. But I tried to work with them. Oh well. I've decided I'm not prepared to do any mud flinging. I thought offering them a plan B might be a way forward. I can't help for trying!

Hey, welcome Colin! And Ed! Tis a shame what happened on the other forum. I must admit I didn't see that coming. Well, we aren't going to be bitter about it, we just want to have fun in our cars and carry on with all the meets. Welcome aboard!

LOL, yes of course, welcome!