Lauren

Nice! Are some swanky lower arms for the rear next on the list? May be worth thinking about 17x8's on the stock sizes. It works rather well I think.

If it's just a tyre that has been plugged as repair I would have no concerns whatsoever going on track. Did it with a repaired tyre this way many years ago. Total non-issue. Scrutineers don't inspect cars at track days btw.

Keith is the price £16K? It's not that clear in the ad.

It'll just be the clutch release bearing. Don't worry about it.

It's not that close to Swindon. Ack Lane EastBramhallStockportCheshireSK7 2BY

Would have come but promised Mark I'd got to an RC drift meet with him.

These are a horriffic trend from the US. They look just terrible. The bonnet doesn't rust, so there is that. But stone chips are inevitable I'm afraid. I chose not to worry about it.

That was my thinking, Kev. I feel guilty about it more than anything! What one did you put on?

More of a pain to set up, but once it's set....it's all good until the next time. I know I've had offset bushes for 3.5 years. Only recent put LCA's on.

I know it's American. We're not though. Well there's plenty going on in the Midlands, check out the events section.

Welcome aboard, just had the EL TD manifold (why do people call it a 'header'?) fitted to mine. Some really good gains to be had. Look out for social meets. Whereabouts are you?

That's right, but the camber will increase a bit if you lower it, so offset bushes will be needed to set the camber on the rear.

I wouldn't worry about it.

I'll probably end up sticking on a high flow cat at some point.

It sounds quite different. Not as bassy as the Milltek much more throaty. I'm getting used to it. Mark commented that he thought it sounded pretty good. It definitely sounds better at the top end.

Took me a couple of days of driving probably a 100 miles for them to grip up properly.

No, the TD EL manifold was new, I didn't have it before. Always interesting to see what you make. Stock seems to generally vary between 185-195bhp as a guide on this rolling road.

I haven't got any now. This is why I went for a resonated cat back.

I did, but now I just turn everything off. It's just easier and less annoying.

Yes of course, had forgotten about them! It's all because I got those SPL lower arms.

Well, it's all on and I picked the car up. Richard had even called me the day before to tell me how good it was. He even said it's the best GT86 he has ever driven! Well that set the expectations high! So what did I have done. Well firstly Gary at RRG Macc' installed a full polybush kit including subframe inserts on the car. My car has done 100K miles so I thought there must be some wear in the bushes. Here's what the box looks like and it was a full box indeed: Super Pro Poly bushes by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr Gary kindly sent me some pics of work in progress. Love RRG for this kind of thing. Poly bush and SPL install by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr In the picture you can see all the bushes installed to the suspension arms and you can also see the beautiful works of art that are the SPL rear lower arms. These things are the kind of parts that you get out of the box just so you can touch them. They are beautifully machined out of billet aluminium and the adjuster bolts are titanium with a steel 'rose' jointed ends where they bolt to the subframe. Expensive? Yes, very but just so lovely. Perhaps a little surprisingly even the bushes on the steering rack are replaced. Weirdly there were no bushes for the anti-roll bars so I will stick that on the list of additional things to do. Poly bush and SPL install by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr Here's a pic of them on the car: Poly bush and SPL install by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr During the installation Richard kept me updated on progress. It turns out that the part number for the one of the bushes is wrong and this means the pin has a smaller inside diameter so it won't fit. But don't worry this wasn't a problem as such. Gary took them home and had a quick run through on his lathe just to increase the inside diameter slightly so the bolts would go through. Then there was another slight glitch as the spherical bushings on the hub were found to have play. Richard told me that Gary wasn't happy installing them back on due to the play. He added that it's likely wear but given how much pressure they needed with the press they could have been damaged when they were removed. He couldn't get new spherical bushes overnight, but he could get the complete hub assembly. So RRG kindly replaced both sides so I have new hubs including new bushes on the rear of the car! How's that for service? The car was in for three days and also had it's 100K service whilst there which is just a full service. I also had two new rear tyres, Yoko Advan V105 as usual which had been put aside for me a month earlier for when I needed them. The car was at RRG for three days, it would have been two if it weren't for the hub issue. Poly bush and SPL install by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr I picked the car up on my birthday, how very fitting. Richard was keen for me to test it and it was a shame I had to go into work. I really should have taken the day off, but never mind. The first thing I noticed was just how tight the car felt. No slack, no give, nothing. It felt more precise than when I drove it off the forecourt as a new car. Any fears people had about it being noisier were unfounded. It was already a bit noisy on poor road surfaces with solid top mounts due to the coilovers and I've not noticed it being any noisier. But what about how it handles? Well in my commute I have a lovely test corner, namely being the slip road to Manchester Airport eastbound on the M56. I usually drive in Sport mode but noticed that the stability control seemed to be cutting in more. I now realise this was the new rear tyres of course. But in all honesty I'm bored of it's interfering nannying nature so I just decided to turn it off all the time now, no more getting in the way, no more spoiling my fun! What I can say is that the car is now just so accurate, everything is pin sharp and the feedback is of course better too. I can report on the slip road that I have increased my maximum by 4km/h, all significant things. But really it's made a car with 100K miles on the clock feel like it's never ever been better. I just love it. The only slight error I made was not getting aftermarket and longer track rods as this has limited the camber on the rear to 1.75 degrees instead of the 2 degrees I wanted. Small details though a quarter of a degree is quite a small amount when you think about it. 7 July 2017 Geo setup GT86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr So, I'm very happy with how the car is feeling, it's a very worthwhile mod and excellent service from RRG Macclesfield as always. But, I wasn't finished yet. The following week I took my car up to see Mike at Tuning Developments for the obligatory now it seems, equal length manifold paired with a resonated TD exhaust system and subsequent remap. Yes I was having fun with my car's 100K presents. Warrington early on a Thursday morning: GT86- Manifold and Exhaust by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr The car was with Mike and Nick for the day and as I work only four miles away in the town centre it worked out pretty well. Here's a pic of the exhaust pipe after the manifold: GT86- Manifold and Exhaust by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr I fully expect this looks familiar to many! My Milltek is now no longer on my car: GT86- Manifold and Exhaust by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr GT86- Manifold and Exhaust by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr And finally the important bit because short of crawling under the car the important bit is the printout from the dyno of course of a before and after. Note the big difference in torque in the mid range which shows the difference the manifold makes: GT86- Manifold and Exhaust by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr Don't forget my car all ready had a decat and remap, induction kit, so I was never going to get huge peak gains and to be fair my car has always produced good power making 201bhp just with a decat and induction kit pre-remap. But, this is good power for an engine with a hundred thousand miles on the clock and is on a par with what others are making with the same mods which is pretty much all of the top of N1 Class in TSS! On the road it's the torque you notice the most. Where there was previously a dip there now is a peak. You notice this the most in the lower gears but also it's right at that acceleration point around 80mph on the motorway which is helpful when you want to pull into another lane to overtake on the motorway. The engine feels that little bit eager too. It's subtle, but obvious if that makes sense? I honestly think it's one of the best mods you can do with that manifold, it just widens the power band further and when you look closely at the graph you'll see I've gained nearly 40lbft just under 4000rpm. Also it's interesting to see the brake horsepower gains in that important mid range between 3500-4500rpm which is dead handy on the road. The gains further up the rev range are less of course but still there. It's like the car has had a new lease of life for it's second hundred thousand miles ahead! On Tuesday the 18th July after just over four and a half years of ownership I clocked that magical one hundred thousand miles. This is a significant event in a car's life for sure and the first time I've had a car where I've done all those miles myself. Some achievement. I'll write up a special post of the history for this one I think as it not something that happens often. What's great is that I still look forward to getting in the car everytime I go to drive it. 100K miles on the odometer GT86 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

You can get offset bushes to adjust the camber on the rear. They are not expensive. They are a pain to set though, because you have to take the bush out rotate it and then put it back together again and take another measurement. The other option is to get adjustable lower arms at the rear to get your camber where you want it. There are many options available but obviously this is more expensive and can cost from £250-540 for the arms.

Welcome aboard Oliver, congrats as I said earlier on FB messenger. Get out and about see what's happening. We're a club that likes to socialise so by all means come to some local meets and meet a few of us.

Blimey, I did all of those including replacing all the audio, fitting active suspension, remap, exhaust and included in that were Focal 3 speakers! I didn't bother asking them! In fact I junked all the audio a month into ownership! But I did buy the car at the end. Though I admit at the time I wasn't exactly sure what I'd do, but it's more that I would have had to change it back to stock as I kept all the stock parts. As long as the finance company isn't out of pocket it won't matter.

Please post up pics as per forum rules.