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BristolLee

Hello! I've finally put my money where my mouth is!

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Hi Everyone!

As my username would suggest, I'm Lee and I'm from Bristol!

After many years of lusting after the GT86/BRZ, I finally put a deposit down on a 2017 GT86 Pro last Friday, in GT86 Grey, with Fish Bros Toyota in Swindon.  The car should hopefully be with me at the end of March. :D

While this will be my first GT86, my first brand new car infact, I have spent a fair amount of time in the car over the last few years.  I have previously been fortunate enough to take the TMG CS-V3 race car up the hill at the Goodwood FoS in 2014.  Competed against and with some of GT86BRZDC members (Keith- with his yellow monster) at the Toyota Sports Day in 2015,  attend the meet with Tada-san, delivering the AE86 to it and finally was lucky enough to be asked to drive both the Castrol and Shelby cars in the recent #Drive film (shameless humblebrag video below!).

https://www.youtube.com/embed/DEXccYb1Dfo

I currently drive a 2005 Celica T-Sport (that's the 190bhp version), which I've loved for the last almost 6 years, but the time is right to change it up and finally own, drive and possibly even modify one of my dream cars.

I do have one question.  What are the benefits of Premium Membership (£12.50?)?  Other than the 5bhp from the stickers ;)

I'm looking forward to getting stuck in and involved with the club, and hopefully being the sort of club member that many of you have been to me at events in the past. Warm, friendly, chatty and most of all, game for a laugh!

Cheers

Lee

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Welcome on board, IMO the premium membership is well worth having :) and such a small cost. You may fancy a round or two of the TSS as there should be a completely stock class. 

Lots of events in the calendar this year so hope to see you at some.

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Welcome Lee, sounds like you've already had plenty of experience with the 86, any mods planned?

As for premium membership, well for one your helping to support the club, two you get trader discount and three access to special trackdays.

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Hi Lee, at last! Well done. I remember you pulling up alongside on the M25 asking if we were going to meet Tada San and then having a good chat with you, when you were there. Bet you can't wait! :)

What options did you decide to go for? I'm still waiting to drive RRG's new demo, to see what the new car feels like. 

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Thanks all,

I was going to pick up the Premium Membership but just wanted to check I wasn't missing something. Will do that a bit closer to the car arriving. 

Yes Will, I'll admit I've been very fortunate with Toyota since owning the Celica. Hopefully that relationship is something that might be able to benefit the club in the future...we'll see.

Yup Lauren, that was me! It was a brilliant afternoon that. Chatting with you all was one of the things that confirmed it was the car for me. 

I've kept the spec simple. GT86 Grey paint, black/grey leather with grey stitch and parking sensors. That's the lot!

The interior tweaks make a nice improvement in my view. The display in the dash is really clear and easily navigated using the wheel mounted controls; which also don't get in the way at all. The facelift also saves me needing to change the brake lights too. The silver stitch and less faux fibre also appeased the wife slightly too 😉.

I'm planning to get used to the car before modding but already listing out things like the Intec hi mount brake light, different wheels, strut braces, springs/coils, exhaust, remap etc eventually. Nothing too major but enough to make the car properly mine. So I'll be peaking under your bonnets too!

FCM in Bristol, where I take the Celica ow are a SUMMIT dealer and I'm feeling some grey-orange couterchange colorscheme perhaps?

Edited by BristolLee
Added content.

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19 hours ago, Jared said:

Welcome along man look forward to seeing what your plans are for it, also is this the same lee thats been chatting to me on my insta pics?

Hello! Yes it is!

Nothing will be happening straight away as I want to get to know the car properly (and wear out the Primacy's) first. 

But I'll keep everyone posted with pictures and plans.

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It'll take a serious amount of time to wear out the Primacy tyres! Like 20K plus miles! Better help them out by taking them on track. What better way to get to know your car? They take the abuse really well, I found. :)

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Ah awesome stuff, yea i wanted to enjoy a standard car for a while before the mods began had mine a year now in march so figured it was time to mod lol 

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9 hours ago, Ztox said:

Welcome to the club Lee :D

Cheer Ztox

 

23 hours ago, Jared said:

Ah awesome stuff, yea i wanted to enjoy a standard car for a while before the mods began had mine a year now in march so figured it was time to mod lol 

It's looking great so far!

Hopefully it won't take me too long until I can see it in person too!  The car is currently expected to be delivered/ready for delivery on 30th March.  As soon as I have a confirmed date, i'll be sure to post here there and everywhere!  Here's hoping that it does so that I can get a ticket and stand pass for Japfest at Silverstone at the end of April.  What better way to do some of the running in eh? 

 

23 hours ago, Lauren said:

It'll take a serious amount of time to wear out the Primacy tyres! Like 20K plus miles! Better help them out by taking them on track. What better way to get to know your car? They take the abuse really well, I found. :)

That running in won't be on track though Lauren! ;)  But it is on my long term plan to have a play, not talking TSS, but certainly somewhere. @Lauren, you'll know if anyone will.  Are Toyota still indulging the DC with a yearly track day at somewhere squiggly?

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A week to run it in? That's how long it took me. ;) But yes after the first 1000 miles or so. Think I waited till my car was two months old before it hit the track. Has a couple of thousand miles on the clock by that point. :)

No Toyota track day last year unfortunately, so not sure it's happening anymore. Just come on one of the club days with LOT or the ones we do with Javelin. 

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Yea i picked mine up middle of march last year and mine wasn't registered when i bought it so got to pick the registration :) (they wanted it on their demo sti) but i was like nope thats the best plate you got i want it lol

i took my time running mine in as i was just enjoying owning a brand spanking new car Haha 

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58 minutes ago, Lauren said:

A week to run it in? That's how long it took me. ;) But yes after the first 1000 miles or so. Think I waited till my car was two months old before it hit the track. Has a couple of thousand miles on the clock by that point. :)

No Toyota track day last year unfortunately, so not sure it's happening anymore. Just come on one of the club days with LOT or the ones we do with Javelin. 

It'll take me a little longer than that as I only commute in the car two days most weeks, the rest is pedal powered. Keeps me fit (except for when I got knocked off) and means the fuel in the car can be used more for fun!  Running in a week is properly impressive! Fair play.

That's a shame, but hey it was fun while it lasted.  I'll keep an eye out for club days then. Have any been run at Llandow?  Bit of a trek across to South Wales for some of you but it's a great little track (check out some of the Chris Harris Drives videos on the Top Gear website as it's used in those).

14 minutes ago, Jared said:

Yea i picked mine up middle of march last year and mine wasn't registered when i bought it so got to pick the registration :) (they wanted it on their demo sti) but i was like nope thats the best plate you got i want it lol

i took my time running mine in as i was just enjoying owning a brand spanking new car Haha 

Fish Bros have asked me if I want to choose my plate too, obviously I've said yes!

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Good news on the plate, hope you get a good choice, I had a choice of five or so. Llandow is a long way to go for many for what is a really short basic track. It would be cheap though, no doubt. Pembrey is a much better track over that way, I raced there years ago. If you're in Bristol there are plenty of options. Combe is down the road from you. The better tracks are Cadwell, Donington, Croft and Oulton which are well worth travelling for. :)

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Congrats dude and welcome to the club finally! Glad to see that you finally took the plunge after eyeing my car up 😜. Gutted that Toyota didn't do another sports day last year 😭.

The wait is guna be a killer so be sure to browse around, plenty pics and vids to keep you busy, and plenty on YouTube....I spent most of my time watching YouTube videos leading up to my collection but back then, there were only a handful......now there's a hell of a lot of content out there. Looking forward to meeting/catching up sometime!

Sent from my EDI-AL10 using Tapatalk

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I have a small update.

The car is built!  The car has a VIN number, which very geekily B)  I have been able to use to stalk my GT86 on its maiden voyage from Gunma to Bristol!:ph34r:

As of 10am this morning (Friday 3rd Feb) it was just of the west coast of Sri Lanka and should arrive at Avonmouth on 22nd Feb.  That's the frustrating bit as it will have to drive past my office window alongside the M5 in Bristol as it makes its way to Swindon.

I should get my hands on it sometime after the 13th March!

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:ph34r: Update 3: It draws nearer!

Full steam ahead!

Following a brief stop in Valencia (wish I could have one of those!), the car is now full steam ahead, crossing the Bay of Biscay today, on it's way to Avonmouth docks in Bristol.....

At which point i'll be leaving face prints on my office window (J16 M5), to watch out for it going past on the transporter to Swindon.<_<

Two other bits of news. 

1. I've managed to get a private sale agreed for my Celica.  Almost double what Toyota offered as P/X! AND the guy is happy to wait for me to get my delivery date before he takes it off my hand. 

and 2.  I received some random "GT86 DC" stickers from @rob275 in the post.  What's the bhp for each of those nowadays? 5? 10?;)

 

 

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On 20/02/2017 at 7:53 PM, Lauren said:

Is it not coming in through Portbury Docks? I thought they all arrived there. Then just all the UK bits to fit at the docks before it speeds over to your dealer for PDI. :)

Avonmouth is Portbury Docks, just me being a local boy calling it by its place name rather than the dock name. 

Update 4: The ship arrived on Thursday afternoon, 1600 at high tide and sailed out again 12 hours later. 

So I can't stalk it anymore, just have to wait impatiently until either Fish Bros call me to choose a reg number and arrange collection OR I get bored and call them to see how it's going. 

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Update 5: The car is being prepped at the docks and I have a registration number allocated (should be registered next week!). 

Hopefully, I'll be collecting it from Fish Bros Toyota, Swindon on Friday 17th March.

Fingers crossed because that would be the day after my birthday and would be a fantastic slightly belated present to myself 😋

 

One question. Could someone the file types the Toyota Touch (or Touch 2) head unit recognises for music, and if it does album art (along with sizes for it). I've picked up a SanDisk Cruzr 64gb thumb drive and would like to get it loaded up with music before picking the car up .  Any help would be great! 

IMG_3556.PNG

Edited by BristolLee
Asking questions

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As the silence and lack of photo's suggests,  I still don't have my car....:(

According to both the dealers and Toyota HQ, first the parking sensor kit and now the armrest haven't arrived at the docks for fitting.

Not overly happy about it, but it's still closer than it's ever been I suppose.  Toyota are keeping me informed of the progress and have made the car a priority to get the parts and get the car to me, but it does grate a bit that the order has been in since 13th January, the car has been built and shipped from the other side of the world and it's an armrest that's holding it up.

Oh well.

I'll let you all know when I have the keys! Most likely to be mid-April now, so it's suddenly looking a lot tighter for me to have my car in time for Japfest...:wacko:

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Nope. Toyota now fit all of their parking sensors etc at the point of entry to the UK.  Have done for a number of years, along with sunroofs, stereos and.....armrests:rolleyes:

As other threads have alluded to, Subaru fit them at the dealer.

It's one of those things, it happens. At the moment, as I said, it's still the closest I've been to owning one and it's only getting closer.  Should the delay go on too much longer, i'll obviously have to consider my options again.

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