Lowe

Really want to get this sorted on mine. Great power out the box as you say, very impressive pre-tune figure. Also good to see a grey one around the Walsall area, keep an eye out for me since I'm down that way during the working week.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Probably cached. Defo doesn't work on a computer that's not been to the other place.

Car got a minor decontamination around the wings/lower quarter and a quick detail. Also added some new decals to keep things fresh.

Doesn't work bud You're best off with an imgur account, their hosting is pretty solid for pictures on forums.

Thanks guys. I'm still in awe myself at the minute, I kind of have to pinch myself when I look at it. It's like a whole new car to me. There's a few little things that I want to do cosmetically though. There's a TRD style carbon ducktail coming in the next month or so, and I really want to black out/smoke the rest of the indicators and perhaps go with amber fogs. Not sure how feasible that is though. Once that's done no more cosmetics - it'll be TD's NA package. Browny, wow a fence sitter! They seem to really divide most people - it's a real love/hate thing.

I owe you one mate, you did me a solid and I know it. Thanks once again for all your help yesterday 👍🏻

Thanks guys. Not noticed a huge difference in wheel weight - whilst the alloys are a fair bit lighter (7ish kg) the tyre itself is heavier due to them being 18's. Car needs a decent wash now, it's covered in fingerprints and sand from the rain we had the other day.

$82.99. alex@ikonmotorsports.com is your best bet. Email him rather than the generic address and explain that you've spoken to me. He'll organise shipping to your hotel.

So yesterday was the day I'd been looking forward to for the best part of a month - parts fitting day! @Mark-in-Stoke and I were booked in with Rich at Tuned UK to have suspension work done to both our cars. I won't spoil Mark's update, but in a nutshell we were taking his 'temporary' suspension and putting it on mine, and he was having his newly resprung Ohlins coilovers put back on. This all came about after the OcUK meet in April. Mark had popped over and took me out in his car, after being somewhat surprised at how good TunedUK's 40mm spring collaboration with Eibach was. I was very sceptical expecting the ride to be trashy, rock hard and sat on the bump stops. I couldn't have been more wrong; the ride was firm yes, but not uncomfortably so. Body roll is far better controlled and the stance looks fantastic. No issues with clearance and no smashing of bump stops. Given I don't do track work and have no intention to, coilovers would be nice but probably overkill for me. So Mark offered me these once his resprung Ohlins were ready. We got to TunedUK nice and early and whilst Rich set about Mark's car, Mark and I set about mine with a couple of body mods. I'd been away recently and managed to get a set of rear quarter louvres brought back from the USA. The company (Ikon Motorsports) were great and sent them to my hotel and the package was small enough to bring back in my hand luggage so no problems with them being damaged. As I've seen from Facebook these are very much a marmite thing, plenty of hate for them (including 'oh noes, how will you see out the back of the car?). I can't actually see through my rear quarters due to the passenger headrest, so it makes no odds to me. They attach easily with 3M tape and the fitment is absolutely spot on. We also fitted the carbon winglets to the front wings properly and with the weather being so hot yesterday we got a really good solid fit. Before long Mark's car was sorted so it was time for mine to get on the ramps. I was nervous to say the least, I wasn't 100% sure if everything (especially the CE28's) would fit. But everything came good bar my drop links being stuck and needing to be cut off. Luckily Rich had a set of Whiteline adjustables in stock so we chucked those on and then he got to work with the alignment. The springs drop the car 40mm, but the 18's with 225/40/18 tyres raise the height by about 5mm. Even so, this was putting a fair bit of negative camber to say the least. The back was virtually spot on even and ended up sitting at -2. For the fronts on Rich's advice for my type of driving we put the camber bolts in the other way around and neutralised the camber a little. I've never known someone so precise and OCD about alignment, everything was done with a real sense of care to get the best possible result. This was the end result, pleased is an understatement! Note the car hasn't been cleaned and is in strong sunlight so yes, tyres and louvres aren't as black as they'll normally look. Under more normal light: On the drive back home even with the car full of stock wheels I was able to get a sense of the improvements over stock. We took a scenic route down lots of twisty A roads to avoid traffic which was great fun. Turn in is nice and quick, body roll is loads better and I feel a lot more confident. I'm looking forward to trying it out more over the weekend.

So I’m sat at TunedUK with @Mark-in-Stoke My car’s had a fair transformation. Last few bits being done. Pics and write up to follow...

Ah, I've not got one (annoying!) Is it hidden around the back of the engine or something? Seems expensive for a fuel filter!

I was mentally prepared for the 60k service but didn’t know about 80k. What the hell happens then? 😮

No worries on the hijack. Big update next week, busy busy

Cool, I’m in the Westlands. Keep an eye out for a grey one, it’s likely to be me 👍🏻

Welcome - as said there’s a fair few of us in the area. Whereabouts in Stoke?

andrewlowe1978

Another minor update, took the wheels to Lucas for us to work out why the 73.1mm spigots wouldn't fit. We tried a few different ones but none of them would go in which was a bit of a concern. Lucas's verniers wouldn't go inside the wheel so I headed home and found a local place that @Mark-in-Stoke had recommended a while back. I explained the situation and before I could finish he came back with a set of 73.1mm spigots and put one in right in front of me. I was surprised to say the least! I think that due to being sprayed a couple of times there was build up on the inside of the bore and that was stopping the metal Rays ones from fitting. I got some sandpaper and rubbed down the inside of the wheels and then the rest went straight in, no bother.

So more stuff in the diary... This Friday I'm off to Partbox with one of the wheels to try and get the spigots sorted. I need that doing because on the 19th I'm booked in for lowering and wheel fitting/alignment. Whilst I'm working on the car I'm going to get the canards put on - this time I hope they stay on! Also, I'm hoping to have a set of these to put on... I'm off to the States for a little while, so have arranged for these to be delivered to the hotel. Hopefully they'll fit in-between some clothes in the suitcase for the way home.

No worries, glad it was entertaining enough to keep you going hehe. To be honest I was happy with the reds and think on an otherwise standard car they're probably the better option. If you smoke the rears then the centre light NEEDS to be done as well and I really think a debadge is in order, else it looks unbalanced, with the badges being 'bright' silver. That was my one regret, should have done it all in one go, it looked so much better once I'd sorted it all out. Loving the TRD spoiler, I think I'm likely to lose my batwing and get a carbon TRD lookalike to go with the rest of the carbon stuff I've got.

Had some goodies arrive yesterday from Partbox. Lucas hooked me up with some Rays nuts and spigots. UPS unfortunately were determined to smash up the package, but luckily no damage done other than the nuts packaging being broken. I went for the steel nuts since I didn't want issues with them coming loose or even worse corroding to the bolts! (steel/alumininium oxidisation, had that happen before, nasty!) I had a look at fitting the spigots but it appears I've been a plonker and got the measurements wrong, argh!

Oh you legend. I'm going to print that off for him and tell him to go back!

Interesting footnote to this. My neighbour 5 doors up has a 2014 BRZ. His car showed the tell tale signs, much like my 2013 '86. I mentioned that he needed to jump on it whilst his car was still in warranty because it was an expensive fix. He took it to the local Subaru dealer where he bought the car and they've refused to honour it. When pointing out that it's a known issue with the cars and that I'd had the same thing sorted with my GT86, they came out with the immortal line, "GT86's are made in a different factory and so this isn't the same issue." Totally ratifies my decision to get the Toyota over the Subaru. Shocking dealer BS.

Personally I prefer to build a relationship with a tuner - after all you're trusting them with your car, especially with regards to a remap etc. That's slightly tricky if they're absolutely bloody miles away. For me it's a no brainer, go to who's closest. As you say if something goes wrong, you don't want a 230 mile transfer bill just to get the car there too. That's no disrespect to Mike by the way.

Speaking of springs, I had a ride in @Mark-in-Stoke 86 the other day. He's had the new v2 Tuned/Eibach springs put in. Looks wise it's absolutely nuts, I mean properly aggressive and then some. But, oddly by some witchcraft it actually rides pretty well on the road too. I was expecting it to be super harsh, bottoming out the shocks every 30 seconds etc. But it doesn't - bare in mind Stoke has the worst condition roads ever, this was a huge surprise. Now, his car had Ohlins on previously. I'll let Mark fill you in on his conclusions, but suffice to say if mine wasn't a daily in need of some clearance and you're not going to track it, I'd get a set of those without a doubt.