Hello from London!

[GT MLT 9]

Hi all!

My name is Manny , I'm 24 years old and currently live in London. I've been lurking on this forum for quite a few years, as I've always had an interest in the GT86 since its concept photos (remember thinking baby LFA). However I had to wait a few years since it came out as it was too young to afford the car and the insurance at the time.

A bit of a backstory. So after I got my license I drove a Toyota Corolla 1.4 for 7 years. Honestly, it was an amazing car, but unfortunately, earlier this year I was on my way to work (on a Sunday may I add!), and this happened:

Luckily, no one else was involved and I came out unscathed. Same couldn't be said about the car, and I was genuinely upset when this happened as it was my first car and drove it for 7 years! 

Now, I was already looking for a GT86, as a bit of a present to myself in April (when I turned 24) and because at the time I worked in the middle of the countryside in Oxfordshire with some fun roads, so wanted a more fun car to commute with and the crash accelerated the process somewhat.

My wishlist was fairly simple, grey or blue, with heated seats and satnav. One Saturday, I found and test drove the perfect car. The next day, I put down the deposit:

It ticked all the right boxes, but also came with some additional extras such as a rear diffuser, TRD door stablisers and a centre arm rest (not the Toyota official one). 

I spent the first few months just enjoying the car, but started doing some cheap/ free modifications.

First thing was a centre arm rest. Now it did come with a non official Toyota one that just sat in the centre console (pictured on the seat), but it would always jump off or slide off, and I tried without, but it was so uncomfortable! So bought and installed the official one. 

The next thing I did was LEDs for the license plate lamps, interior dome light and boot light, as well as de-badging the boot and adding a (too big in my opinion) square number plate:

I then did the 30K service, changing all the fluids (engine, gearbox and diff), and checked the car all over.

Then came MOT time, and I was given an advisory for rear tyres and brakes, so I got the rear tyres changed, and I decided to upgrade the brake pads all round while I was at it. Annoyingly BOTH did not need to be changed, the tyres had 4mm of tread left each, and when I took the old brake pads out there was plenty of meat left, but I digress...I wanted to get rid of the brake squeal anyway, so I purchased some Stoptech brake pads from Fensport, and while I was on their website I bought a Blitz air filter, gas bonnet struts and shark fin antenna.

Now the semi-bad news is that work relocated me to London, which sucks as I only really get to drive the car on weekends, but I'm still loving the car and do not look to get rid of her anytime soon! Last week I took her to the Evo Triangle:

In the next year, I want to start attending some car meets (and hopefully meet some of you guys!), do some track days, possibly a European road trip and generally keep enjoying the car :). Further mods to the car I want to do are:

• Exhaust
• Wheels
• Coilovers
• HP-Autos Lip Kit
• Forced induction (not anytime soon though...)

Thanks for reading guys!

[Dessss 35]

Nice colour

[Lauren 2259]

Welcome aboard. Always much fun to be had over the EVO Triangle, driven it many times. You should look out in the social events and events forum for stuff coming up. We're trying to get some local meets going and to be fair there is always a fair amount going on in the south east with a seemingly regular meet at the Grasshopper, Westerham. Enjoy.

[Keethos 842]

Congrats and welcome to the club!

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