What to look for when buying

[tayfun 0]

Hello,

had my Mazda RX-8 for 6 years, absolutely love it in all ways, but during that time I have done literally every mod I wanted and thought is reasonable so now is the time to move to something new and start modding another beautiful car, after some internet read I have found a lot of similarities between those 2 cars, so I think getting gt86/brz would be a good choice, but before I wanted to ask you about few questions that was hard to find clear answers:

1) What to look into when buying used car?

2) One of the issues why I'm looking to sell my car is because the rust just starting to kill the car and fixing arches each 2 year isn't what I want to continue doing... so how rust proof are gt86 and what rust places to look while choosing the car? 

3) Am I right that during whole lifespan of gt86 model there wasn't been changed much and buying some 2013-2015 model car isn't bad idea? Exterior wise I'll be changing it to aftermarket, so the facelift isn't something I'd consider to pay extra for

4) Also not sure about the engine, was it on every model same or is there differences between them and one will be more reliable than other or easier to turbo?

5) How reliable will be the car after installing turbo, I'm not looking into crazy numbers, just want to have similar sound like subaru WRX have with blow off + exhaust, and lets pass the rotary reliability jokes as for those 6 years of having it I had 0 rebuilds and 0 issue with the engine  

5a) Is it actually possible to make gt86 sound like Subaru Impreza STI in terms of blow-off and aftermarket exhaust and still having it not too laud? 

6) On rx8 decating the exhaust gave you louder sound, option to make fireballs from your tips and downside was awful oil/petrol smell and lack of option to pass MOT, how decating affects gt86?

Thanks in advance

[Lucas 244]

1) 

 

2) There are known defects like bonnet weather strip collects water and some cars are rusty in that area but it's a warranty fix. Same for the little triangle glass area around the wing mirrors. Water collects in there - again, warranty job so most should be fine now. Underneath, nothing as far as I'm aware, but we'll see in 5 more years how my 2012 car is doing.

3) Correct, outside is the same.

4)  Yep, nothing done to the engine, I think that cars 2014/15+ have better coil pack as that's a common fault on pre-2014 cars, though mine has been fine and I'm on 65k miles and still abusing it daily.

5) I would say that the cars are very reliable if you service it well,  don't abuse it when the engine is cold and stay N/A. People with s/c or turbo's tend to have some more issues as with any other heavily modified cars. You do not want to go over 300bhp on stock internals or you'll blow the engine. And over 350-400 you're risking to kill the transmission too, so there's that. You should ask someone with a turbo, but I'm not sure how they drive their cars, but I honestly think mine would go 'bang'. Either way, the most reliable way to more power would be Cosworth supercharger or forged engine with a turbo so you won't have to worry about blowing it up.

6) I personally never heard a BRZ/86 sound like an Impreza, even with UEL manifold it's slightly different, but you won't get an exact sounding car, it is a different engine at the end of the day. De-catting the whole system will make the car really loud, but I've never come across any funky smells, just bleeding ears  

[tayfun 0]

Thanks for info! 

Well in terms of power I wouldn't go anywhere more than 300hp, I'm more after the nice blow off sound and some extra power that some people say the gt86 lacks  

[TommyC 33]

The lack of power thing is down to people's expectations...

if you're used to power then it can be a disappointment, but it's not quite what was intended by the designers. You have to drive one more than once, and in a spirited way, to 'understand' what the car is about.

I've started to think it's like comparing a scalpel to a cleaver (but my performance car experience is somewhat limited).

Many have said it's a car that teaches the driver!

I would recommened a couple of test drives and reading plenty of the info on here to get a better feel for what the GT86/BRZ is about.

The majority of people are happy with a 'torque dip' removing NA tuning package, suspension mods, wheels and tyres, and some braking mods (not necessarily a big brake kit).

If you decide to joins us in GT86/BRZ ownership I don't think you'll be disappointed 😀

[nerdstrike 186]

I think you'd struggle to get fire out of the exhaust pipes on these - the burn is lot cleaner than a Wankel, so there's less fuel vapour blowing around, but that might change after the application of a turbo. The rods are known to be vulnerable under high boost though, so reliability is inversely related to boost pressure. Blow-off /recirc is your choice, and a UEL manifold will give you the boxer burble you're after.

My impression is that a loud muffler and decats and manifold change will give a very loud car. Keep a modest muffler on and the rest should be liveable.

Keep one of the cats and you can still scrape the MOT, but you might not want to do that with a turbo.

[tayfun 0]

Great, thanks for info! 

[KAS 25]

Welcome! Sadly... It’ll never sound like a real scooby - burble or blow off. I learnt the hard way

STIs have around 9:1 CR so have a deep burble, and 15+psi of boost so a loud dump noise.

We have a 12.5:1 compression ratio so it’s raspy no matter what, and when turbo’d it’s only using 5psi of boost to hit 280hp. The tuning developments turbo kit doesn’t have a blow off valve, but you do get a bit of compressor flutter instead

I assumed that fitting an unequal length manifold would sound scooby-ish, but I was wrong and now I kinda wish I went equal length for the few extra hp

The paintwork is shockingly thin but I guess you’ll be respraying when fitting body parts. I don’t think you’ll find one that hasn’t had the bumper, bonnet, front wings, and roof peppered with stone chips!

Don’t let that put you off tho, the chassis is pretty awesome. Not the most practical for daily driving in the city, but I’ve managed it for a year so far

Turbo is still on the to do list, but if you’re in Manchester have a look round my car if you like.

I think from MY2015, there were some small improvements, shark fin aerial, more reliable coil packs.

Pics of your RX-8?

[Kelloggs 22]

i moved from an RX8 231 to a GT86 in 2013 and wasn't quite so lucky with the engine as it cracked the ceramic surround on a spark plug tip , which hit a vane . Loved the RX8 , still do, the way it just pulled to 8K was more like a bike, but I found the driving experience on the GT86 as much fun and after a run with my son as shotgun we both saw the same times on a stretch of familiar road. I'm about to pick up my third GT86 if that's any testament. All have been reliable, great fun and as for the torque dip , yes it's there but its got 6 gears to choose from to keep the revs above it. I think there were some slight tweaks to the suspension geometry in the 2016 cars but someone here will know more about that than me.

[Rob_86 19]

After owning a rx8 myself which I loved, I would say that these cars are very similar. 86 is a very reliable car, there's one on here that's done 100k + and I believe hasn't had any issues with it. 

I would say the power deliver is very similar to that of the rx8 with the power coming in higher up the rev range.  

I had similar rust issues with my rx8 but haven't had any issues with my 86 and it's now 6 years old. 

You defiently won't be disappointed, it's a fun car to own and drive, always puts a smile on my face everytime I drive it.