Ross' TD Turbo Daily

[S18 RSG 429]

Hi all.

Figured it's about time I just started a built thread rather than creating new threads for things/adding on to threads where I've asked questions or whatever.

So, I bought my GT86 in June of 2015. I had always loved the GT86 (I sat in one of the first production models back in 2012 at Wilton House Supercar day), but I always disregarded it due to the lack of power. Because of this, I spent a few months building up to the purchase looking at everything BUT the GT86. I had test drives in multiple V8 super saloons (E90 M3, C63 AMG, RS4), a 370Z, Jaguar XKR, even a beautiful Maserati Gransport, but being only 24, I felt like most of those choices (maybe aside from the 370Z and BMW) were a bit "old man" for me, so I just couldn't decide.

I spent a long time waiting for a Lexus ISF to become available near me to take one for a drive, but it was weeks before that came about. When one finally became available, it was out of my budget, and worse still, was unavailable to test drive when I went to look at it. I was gutted

Thankfully, because this Lexus dealer just so happened to be attached to a Toyota dealership, a caught a glimpse of a white GT86 Aero. While not a fan of the Aero kit, seeing another one in the flesh reminded me of why I loved the car so much. Much like the ISF however, the Aero wasn't available for test drive, so I had to book a test drive online with my local dealership.

A few days later and the test drive came about, and I fell in love. Even though I got hampered with an auto (when I desperately wanted a manual), and the power was a big step down, the feeling of the steering, the low down seating position, just everything was exactly what I was looking for, and huge bonus, unlike the M3 and C63 AMG (13 and 11MPG respectively), I got back to the dealer and saw 25MPG after a spirited test drive. I was sold.

Lots of research brought me here, where a read up on superchargers and turbo kits gave me hope of getting that power I craved. Then to the classifieds, and the search for my new car.

I found 3 GT86's in budget, in the right spec, but all were miles away (I'm in Newport, South Wales, the cars were in Derby). Thankfully, though in two different garages, the 3 cars were within 20 minutes of each other, so Saturday 30th May I set off at 7am, ready for my 10am appointment at Toyota. Unfortunately, upon arrival, I had a look around the 4 cars on sale (2 were out of budget), and was appalled at the condition. Kerbed wheels, key scratches up the side, condensated light clusters, mouldy windows, just horrible. I cancelled my appointment and left before I could fall victim to sales magic.

20 minutes up the road and I came to the next place. A private garage full of high spec Range Rovers, BMWs and Mercedes, and tucked away in the back corner, a stunning red GT86. I had a test drive, did some negotiation, and within a hour had signed on the dotted line to pick up a week later (after a pre delivery inspection etc.)

That's the backstory, now to say goodbye

This was my old car. 2010 Seat Ibiza Cupra 1.4TSI. It was at stage 2, running over 220hp, and 0-60 in a confirmed 5.1seconds. A seriously quick car, but being FWD and auto (7spd DSG) got boring. This was the final jetwash before selling.

I have to say, I was tempted to buy the M3 or the Cayman. Both within budget too.

Just after I swapped keys (bye Ibiza, you were fun )

And finally home

For the most part, the car stayed like this for around 3 months, apart from the addition of a HKS Hybrid filter and my new numberplate.

At this time I also spent some pocket change on some new LED number plate lights. Make a nice difference at night for sure.

Now the real changes start.

Change no. 1: Exhaust. Unfortunately, no pics of when it was done (apart from one rear shot at the end of this post), nor videos of the sound, but it's a custom made 2.5" cat back, with second cat delete, and 4" slash cut tailpipes. I had it made by a company called Prospeed Exhausts in Cardiff. They've done all of my cars, and will continue to do all my cars in the future. £450 for a decat and catback exhaust with a lifetime warranty and a 1 day turnaround. Fantastic.

Change no. 2: Suspension. Most of you will already know the story of this cock up, but a shortened version is this: I bought Eibach springs. Garage fitting them used power tools on shocks and popped the seals on all shocks. Contributed cost of new shocks towards a full set of Tein coilovers and now the car is on coilovers, and better for it no doubt. There's an extended version of this story somewhere on this forum, if anyone's interested I'll find it and link it.

This was the new ride height following suspension change:

This basically takes us up to Christmas.

Around Christmas time I had an urge to change my wheels. I spent months deciding that I wanted Rota Grids, and immediately placed an order on a set of 18x8.5s on Boxing Day, once all the festivities had ended.

Somehow though, despite deciding on Rota Grids, I bought 3SDM 0.01's, and my god am I happy I did.

January 2nd brought me this:

I was absolutely buzzing. I've seen the black 0.01's on a red GT86 and a white one also, but never seen the silver 0.01's on one. Was super happy when I saw the result. It's probably not everyone's idea of a GT86, given that most people go for race/track style wheels, but I've never been one for following the norm.

At Christmas, I also received a very kind gift from my parents, of a new front splitter from Fensport. It unfortunately had to stay on my bedroom floor for a few weeks due to the Welsh weather, but finally the weekend just gone, I was able to get it fitted (shoutout to my dad who will never read this for the help, as he basically did it all).

And these were the last pictures I took of the car, so we are now up to date.

One final bonus shot of the two babies back in their home, getting out of the weather.

Hopefully I didn't bore anyone with the wall of text and/or pictures, but I'm a few months behind, so had some catching up to do.

As for future plans, immediate plans are:

Valenti rear lights, TRD rear spoiler, debadge boot, fit new Focal speakers in doors (sat on bedroom floor).

The above will all be completed by the end of February for sure.

From then on, a remap and brake upgrade will be closely followed (upgraded discs, pads and fluid, nothing too drastic), followed by a new head unit so I can actually have sat nav without using my phone.

Long term plans are, I eventually want to look into forced induction, and will likely end up going for a Vortech supercharger kit (based on what's currently available). I'm not concerned with having the best or fastest GT86 in the club, but more power, and usable power, is exactly what I would like, and the Vortech kit seems to provide just that.

Thanks for reading

Ross

 

 

[Rich 378]

How much drop is that on the coilovers? Looks good!

 

Also is the the HT Autos splitter?

[S18 RSG 429]

Cheers @Furnate

To answer your questions, the drop is fairly small, around 25-30mm if I had to guess. I have an exhaust bracket that needs adjusting before I can think about going any lower (which I may not do anyway)

Yes, it is the HT Autos splitter, bought from Fensport.

[S18 RSG 429]

Well, it's been 6 weeks since my last update, so I figured now is a decent time for another.

Since the last update, I'm happy to report that 4 out of 7 of the plans I had for the car have been completed, along with a few others which I didn't plan for, so, let's start from the inside.

I got around to fitting the Focal integration speakers. Made for a nice upgrade to the cardboard speakers our cars come with, and took no more than 20 minutes to fit both speakers. Tweeters took a little longer, mostly because there were no instructions, but loads of parts. Turns out, I didn't use any of the parts, and just retrofitted the new tweeters into the existing holders.

To compliment the new speakers, I decided to bring forward the planned head unit, and ordered an Android unit from America, which has been tried and tested on the FT86 forum. Was a little over £250 all in, and required some extras such as an antenna adaptor, USB adaptor and modified brackets, but it's in now. Sound wise, was another big jump up from the stock stereo, with much more adjustability from the EQ. It allows me to use a multitude of media options, CD, DVD, USB, SD card, Bluetooth or Wifi, and best of all, fits into the 200x100 slot without the need for an adaptor.

Some pics:

Also pushed another thing forward, and organised a stage 1 remap with Mark over at Abbey Motorsport. I posted my experience at Abbey in the trader section, but the shortened version is the car went from 162 to nearly 180whp, with a similar increase in torque. Car feels much more "alive", especially at motorway speeds, and the torque dip is much less noticeable (but still there for sure). Good way to spend the money. Here's an up to date pic on the dyno:

Also got around to fitting the Valenti rear lights, which I fell in love with instantly. Haven't really taken a decent pic of them yet, but here are two I stumbled across on my phone:

Finally, I spent a weekend a few weeks ago spraying some of the interior plastics (the silver bits anyway) in red plastidip. Still got the door handles, air con surround and steering wheel detail to do, but overall really happy with the results. A few people saw it at the meet in February, so can probably vouch for the finish. No pics though unfortunately, will get around to that soon.

Plans for the car haven't really changed, however thanks to Mark's sales techniques, I'm now more sure about forced induction, so will be looking to go down that route sometime this year.

As for right now, plans are as follows:

Fit remainder of HT Autos lip kit (I have the sides and rear spats on my bedroom floor)

Catted manifold and updated remap to try and eliminate torque dip some more

TRD spoiler

Change brake pads, discs, lines and fluids

A few other small jobs (plastidip remainder of interior, retrim steering wheel, debadge boot, possibly spray Toyota badges black).

And that's basically everything for this update. Thanks for reading

[Keethos 842]

Nice update dude!

[Paul 442]

Fucking love the Valentis.

[long-gone 152]

A bold choice on the wheels but you've pulled it off. The boy done good.

[Ade 517]

Red is the best colour  I like the look of that android head unit and the focal integration speakers. I assume thats the plug and play IS 165TOY model?

I'm quite tempted by this combo as I don't want to add anymore weight if I can avoid it, but the android for running torque would be awesome and better SQ wouldn't go a miss. I presume the USB is not just for music files? I'd want to be able to download log files stored by torque. 

[S18 RSG 429]

42 minutes ago, Ade said:

Red is the best colour  I like the look of that android head unit and the focal integration speakers. I assume thats the plug and play IS 165TOY model?

I'm quite tempted by this combo as I don't want to add anymore weight if I can avoid it, but the android for running torque would be awesome and better SQ wouldn't go a miss. I presume the USB is not just for music files? I'd want to be able to download log files stored by torque. 

Cheers Ade.

Yes, you assume correctly. It is the IS165TOY. I bought them from Amazon for around £150 I believe. Don't get me wrong, sound quality isn't amazing. It's a big step up on the stock system, which was awful as we all know, but it would still benefit from a small subwoofer and amp, but if you don't want to add any weight, this is a good solution.

On the weight front however, you're still gonna add a couple of kilos just by doing this, as the stock speakers weigh literally nothing, whereas the Focals have a fairly hefty magnet attached.

As for the log downloads, I've not tried that via USB, but I'm 99% sure you can download them to SD card, so I see no reason why USB wouldn't work.

[Tareim 343]

2 hours ago, Ade said:

Red is the best colour  I like the look of that android head unit and the focal integration speakers. I assume thats the plug and play IS 165TOY model?

I'm quite tempted by this combo as I don't want to add anymore weight if I can avoid it, but the android for running torque would be awesome and better SQ wouldn't go a miss. I presume the USB is not just for music files? I'd want to be able to download log files stored by torque. 

if you're not going to bother with a cd/dvd then go for the ca-fi as you'll get a bigger screen

[S18 RSG 429]

4 minutes ago, Tareim said:

if you're not going to bother with a cd/dvd then go for the ca-fi as you'll get a bigger screen

I wanted the Ca-Fi, but when I looked into it, I couldn't justify the extra cost. By the time you get it in the UK with all the extras required, it was gonna be close to £400. It's on an older version of Android, has older hardware, no CD/DVD, and most significantly, has been out of stock for months.

The biggest advantages are that it's a plug and play solution and has a 0.8" bigger screen with slightly better resolution. On the flip side, losing CD/DVD was quite a big thing for me.

I think as long as you're happy to do a bit of DIY to make another one fit, you can get something easily as good, if not better, for a fraction of the cost by going elsewhere.

[Tareim 343]

I believe they are in the process of releasing a new one so were selling all old stock?

[S18 RSG 429]

You're quite likely right, will have to see what they come out with next. I still imagine there will be a hefty price difference however.

[DanJ 374]

What make head unit is that? I was looking at ca-fi but there's been no stock for ages as you know!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[S18 RSG 429]

Only a small update this time.

As those of you who attended the TD open day would have seen, I got around to fitting the rest of the HT Autos kit. I like the way it looks now it's all together. I screenshotted this picture from a video I found on Youtube of the open day (credit to whoever recognises the image from their video)

As for today, I took advantage of the first good weekend I've had free in a while, and got around to plastidipping the rest of the interior. The air con surrounds were a pain in the ass to remove and refit, but it was worth it I think. 

Finally, I had a go at fitting the bonnet struts I bought last week, only to realise that I had fitted them to the wrong part of the wing, and the bonnet wouldn't close. I figured I would just leave the bonnet ajar, lock the car away and sort it tomorrow (as I wanted to watch the El Classico), however due to the fantastic alarm on these cars, I couldn't do that without my alarm going off every 20 seconds, so I had to remove them ready to start again tomorrow. Here is how they sat upon initial fitting though:

So, that little plan will toll over into tomorrow (hopefully the weather stays good). I also want to try and get my amplifier for the speakers wired up, as it's been sat on my bedroom floor partially wired for the past month, and, if I have time, plastidip the Toyota badges black, and the centre section of the front lip black also. May be a job for another day however.

In other news, my new steering wheel is around a week away from completion. Slightly thicker than the stock wheel, all black alcantara with red stitching and a red 12 o'clock stripe. Safe to say I'm pretty excited for it. That's all for now

[S18 RSG 429]

Waking up at 6am and getting straight to work actually yields some great results apparently.

Most of you will have seen the latest update in the other thread, but to keep everything together (and for those who missed it), I fell victim to my own tiredness, and kerbed my wheel on Thursday (only the second kerbed wheel in 8 years  ). Luckily, I was able to book the car in at The Wheel Specialist the following day, who took my vague instructions of "dark metallic ish bronze with a matte lacquer", and smashed it. The wheels transform the car in my opinion. 

This morning I decided to have a go at fitting the new wheel. Turned out to be significantly easier than even I expected. Took around 20 minutes to swap them around.

However, for me it took around 2 hours, as I had to wait for the plastidip to dry on the final bit of silver plastic remaining. Here is the result: 

Of course, fitting it and having it be perfect was never an option, because it's me, so I then had to go to my local garage to have the wheel straightened, as I really couldn't be bothered to disassemble it again to try and put it back in the right place. Was a useful journey however, as I finally got around to fixing the rear camber. New settings now: 2deg negative on front, 2.2deg negative on rear. I wanted to get closer to 1.5deg on the rear, but that was as much as I could get with the current setup, and is still a huge improvement on the previous settings, of 3.5deg negative on the rear...

Now just to wash the car ready to join you all at Japfest, although unfortunately I will have to park in the visitor parking and walk in to find you all, so should see you at around 9:30am

[S18 RSG 429]

Manifold is here

Amazingly it fitted in the boot even along with my works bag and thermographic equipment from today's survey. And people say the twins aren't practical.

Should be getting fitted at a slightly later date of Tuesday of next week.

[S18 RSG 429]

Can someone please tell me if I'm being stupid or not? I've been looking at this manifold all day, and I've convinced myself that it's the wrong way around (the overpipe fits on the wrong side). I was almost 100% sure that the overpipe is under the passenger side on the 86, but on this manifold the overpipe would be under the driver. Someone please confirm my stupidity, or genuine concern

[Paul 442]

Well unless Rich specified otherwise on his then all 3 of us have the same one?

 

*edit*

This is the underneath of my car when it was on the ramp @ Abbey, certainly looks as if it goes under driver's side.

 

[S18 RSG 429]

I specified it was for a UK car too, in case it made a difference. He also would have noticed that fromy address. Do you have yours to hand to check if they're the same?

Edit- Just saw your pic. Looks like it does to me too. I wonder if the US models are different? I've been convinced all day that the overpipe was under the passenger. Maybe it's just under the driver on US cars.

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

[Paul 442]

Just now, S18 RSG said:

I specified it was for a UK car tll, in case it made a difference. He also would have noticed that fromy address. Do you have yours to hand to check if they're the same?

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

See my edit above, mine's still in a box @ work. @Rich save us!!!!

[Paul 442]

Even clearer photo I just found:

 

[S18 RSG 429]

Well, that's certainly put my mind at ease. I have no idea why I got convinced otherwise. Maybe someone else has an idea regarding US cars. Thanks

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[Rich 378]

Mine was driver's side, I clearly remember standing under it trying to get the damn thing in.

[Tareim 343]

if you've been reading about the overpipe location on the US forum then it would be the passenger side for them which is driver side for us, it's why sometimes they say for LHD only as we have the steering rack that gets in the way