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choupolo

New member - planning mods and trying TSS

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Hi everyone,

Signed up today as I’ve recently paid up on my ‘86 after 3 years. Now I’m planning a few mods before giving the Toyota Sprint Series a go.

I’m from Manchester, a massive motorsport fan, done a few track days and even some novice competitions such as want2race etc. Love Japanese cars and the aftermarket scene. It’ll be the first time of modding anything and learning all the time!

I’ve almost settled on a few bits:

Wheels: Volk TE37SLs - 17x8.5 et45 

Tyres: Michelin Pilot Sport 4 - 215/45/17

Visit to TD: NA tune, Ksport front BBK, Mtec shifter springs, cat back (super resonated since I don’t want to wake the neighbours leaving for work each day!)

Few cosmetic bits maybe...

Still working out what I need for springs: ideally would like to lower and add camber for track use.

Hope to get it all done in the next few months and will add pictures as I go along!

For now here’s my stock apart from EBC pads GT86.

Looking forward to meeting you guys (once lockdown is over!)

Munir

3B0089CA-AB92-4134-9D3B-03507CE5A67B.jpeg

D9F85323-9568-441E-B960-D671066F5C52.jpeg

5AB63C06-7687-48DE-993A-A4A36397B627.jpeg

Edited by choupolo

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Hi Minur, welcome aboard. I live in Greater Manchester (near the airport), I've got all the mods on my car that you are planning When times allow why not head over? Or happy enough to talk to you from a distance, I'd welcome it with how things are at the moment! 😂

Go coilovers for track use. Just putting different springs on isn't really the answer, plus you'd need rear lower control arms to get the camber adjustment at the rear and also really adjustable top mounts to get the camber at the front. There are loads of options with coilovers. BBK, consider the absolute bargain that is the AP 4pot setup that I have. 

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Thanks Lauren. I’m in Middleton so would be good to admire your car up close at some point.

Is the AP kit much better than the Ksport one?

I suppose plans for this years TSS are still up in the air?

Edited by choupolo

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No worries, ah you're the other side! I went with AP as it's a far better known brand and has an extensive pedigree in racing and is OEM for the top end Lotus models. I think it's preference in that respect. Mine have been excellent. Just had the pads and discs replaced after 42,000 miles and 2.5 years. They've been faultless. 

As for TSS, yes, waiting to hear whether Anglesey will go ahead in July and whether we'll be able to book hotels. I'll go if I can, but there is just a real lack of certainty. 

There is a monthly meet at Barton (City) airport, which is a good midway point. But on the other hand I'ld hope at some point in the nearish future we can have another NW meet. We shall see. 

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Ah nice car man. I was looking for photos of how it might look. Does not disappoint! 

How does it feel to drive compared to stock?

Edited by choupolo

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Mine are 18s on PS4, I find it far more responsive than it was on the Primacies, also feels like the ride quality is better. I'm not a great driver by any stretch though so it could just be placebo.

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The Primacys are fun but looking forward to seeing what PS4s can do.

Thanks Martin - I’ll go with 225s.

Thanks for the pictures Lauren. Can’t wait to start morphing my car into something special like yours. Just realised lead time on those TE37SLs can be over 2-3 months? And the shipping cost! If anyone has seen any going second hand...

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Welcome onboard!

You cant go wrong with TD NA tune (or turbo in you want more).

I have Gramlight Rays, not as expensive and Lucas at Partbox often has a good deal on them.

I have Tein Flex As, popular and very good for the price, both on normal roads and track (although a bit wobbly for my liking beyond 10 clicks from hard).

Ksports are pretty good (I had them for nearly 2.5 yrs now), consider Reyland kit though as well. Reyland also do disks for Ksport, which are cheaper and aparently just as good.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

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Thanks guys. You've helped me decide on a few things.

Guilty secret - I'm usually a function over form kind of person and will probably stick to the lighter TE37SL 17x8.5s, but is it bad that I really want the 18x9.5s for the concavity and wheel arch fill after drop? Some of the pictures look soo sweet! There are 17x9.5s but not with 5x100 holes and usually some crazy offset.

 

This for example would be just perfect! 17x9.5 et 36 5x100 but was custom made at the time I believe. 

88ubFE.jpg

 

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20 hours ago, choupolo said:

Thanks for the pictures Lauren. Can’t wait to start morphing my car into something special like yours. Just realised lead time on those TE37SLs can be over 2-3 months? And the shipping cost! If anyone has seen any going second hand...

It took me a year or so to find my secondhand TE37 17x8 as you cannot buy them in that size anymore. It was a long wait, but when they came up I jumped on it. It can be done, but well worth putting the feelers out. Mine came from a friend of mine, where I first saw the wheels on his GT a year earlier. Advantage is I paid £575 for them and with £200 for a refurb, they'll always be worth what you paid for them. They are rare though! 

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I fancied the fatter wheel too so can fully understand that, there's a guy running them on a grey car in the US and they look perfect - this is from the ft86club.com forum:

attachment.php?s=63d586e6e246d3d81aa1ef3

In the end I decided to stick with function so went with the 8.5 to keep a sensible tyre size.

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That's so good. Been searching owner forums and classifieds but not found anything good so far.

I love the massive thread with loads of pictures of TE37s on ft86, just been drooling over them all day! https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12493

 

Brand new best deal I've found is around £2100-2200 shipping from Japan or US.  I've found one vendor listing 17x9.5 et45 in 5x100 - emailed them to see if its true.

I've messaged @Lucas@PartBox just now but they don't seem to list TE37SLs on the website. 

I guess it'd be one in a million to stumble across the exact spec second hand but a 65% saving would be pretty nice!

I considered Weds which fulfill the lightness criteria and look pretty sick on race cars, but just can't match that classic 6-spoke look. Subjective thing I guess. Same for TWS T66-F or even Fox FX005. Also Konig and Team Dynamics offerings look good.

 

Anyway, gonna plump for new ones in the next few weeks unless something else comes up. Hope it'll be the right decision! First thing to tick off the list. Then tyres, then coilovers, then BBK, and finally NA tune and exhaust. It's gonna be awesome! *checks funds* 😕👀

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Lucas will be able to get them, if they're still available. I don't think they were listed on the website when I bought mine either. The price including shipping was the same as buying from Japan.

Sounds like a nice list of mods you have planned I have a BBK and coilovers sitting in my garage that will be fitted when we can go out driving for fun again. Tuning Developments usually have a Black Friday deal on the NA kit if you can cope with being patient for that!

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On 5/23/2020 at 7:10 PM, choupolo said:

That's so good. Been searching owner forums and classifieds but not found anything good so far.

I love the massive thread with loads of pictures of TE37s on ft86, just been drooling over them all day! https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12493

 

Brand new best deal I've found is around £2100-2200 shipping from Japan or US.  I've found one vendor listing 17x9.5 et45 in 5x100 - emailed them to see if its true.

I've messaged @Lucas@PartBox just now but they don't seem to list TE37SLs on the website. 

I guess it'd be one in a million to stumble across the exact spec second hand but a 65% saving would be pretty nice!

I considered Weds which fulfill the lightness criteria and look pretty sick on race cars, but just can't match that classic 6-spoke look. Subjective thing I guess. Same for TWS T66-F or even Fox FX005. Also Konig and Team Dynamics offerings look good.

 

Anyway, gonna plump for new ones in the next few weeks unless something else comes up. Hope it'll be the right decision! First thing to tick off the list. Then tyres, then coilovers, then BBK, and finally NA tune and exhaust. It's gonna be awesome! *checks funds* 😕👀

Hi,

TE37SL are available in 17x8.5 +45  = £2592

TE37SAGA in Bronze or Diamond Dark Gunmetal - 17x8.5 ET45  = £2962.29

*edit. Bronze ZE40 in 17x8.5 +45 are also in stock in Japan for the same price as SAGA's.

For more details, drop me a message :)

Lucas

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I’ve ordered the first parts:

VLAND front headlightshttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SBTYHWG/ref=pe_3187911_185740111_TE_item

x01emFay-RJhfRSi2PtsCWzFG0gz9Wm_nTbLemIa

VLAND 4th brake/rear fog lighthttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07S8FZJD4/ref=emc_b_5_mob_t

51gTTC5WB3L._AC_SY400_.jpg

OLM VL Rear Lights (all red style): https://www.ft86speedfactory.com/olm-vl-style-helix-sequential-red-lens-tail-lights-red-edition-2013-ft86.html#.XtE2zOR4XDt

dsc05709.jpg

 

Already received the headlights and rear fog light. Installing them tomorrow hopefully.

 

Lastly, Ive had quotes for some Volk TE37 Saga 17x9 et42 5x100 Face 3 Diamond Dark Gunmetal wheels. Good compromise between weight and concavity. I realised that it’s not possible to get the more concave TE37SL unless you go 18” for the GT86. Hopefully pull the trigger soon. However, lead time is about 2 months.

te37saga17mm-500x500_0.JPG

Edited by choupolo

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Install pictures: Lights (in progress)

VLAND fronts - easy to do, plug and play for the GT86, no splicing wires etc. Only issues were plastic rivets are annoying, bit awkward taking off side markers and headlight washers when removing bumper but easy enough, forgot to buy headlight bulbs! Also battery died after for some reason - needed a jump start and was then ok. Weird, dunno why that happened!

Unfortunately if you don’t like sequential indicators, this has them and from what I know can’t be changed back to normal. They look good though and work as expected.

After a lot of reading decided for bulbs to order this VLAND D2H type Xenon HID kit: https://www.amazon.co.uk/VLAND-Conversion-Projector-Headlights-Compatible/dp/B0824KCCB1/ref=pd_sbs_263_6/257-5133188-2434939?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0824KCCB1&pd_rd_r=702fc2ef-2475-4355-86ec-fbe8085fe008&pd_rd_w=4ZVsy&pd_rd_wg=H4PXC&pf_rd_p=2773aa8e-42c5-4dbe-bda8-5cdf226aa078&pf_rd_r=GZT2N5BV3Z0PTS9NRT69&psc=1&refRID=GZT2N5BV3Z0PTS9NRT69

...mainly for ease of installation. It all plugged in easily, no rewiring. Bulbs and kit could be upgraded for brightness if needed. Need some 3M sticky pads to mount the 'ballast' module that is part of the kit.

Overall impression - easy to install, looks nice, not as high build quality as the OEM headlights to be fair but I'll keep them this way for now. Not for people who don’t like sequential indicators.

 

6C41DE26-959A-4AC1-A99C-A35FAB5F4AD0.jpeg
 

VLAND rear lower bumper fogs/reverse/DRL:

This was much easier than I thought it was going to be. There are some videos of the Valenti rear bumper lights going in and it requires some rewiring. These just plugged in to existing plugs and worked straight away. Needed to jack the rear and undo a few plastic rivets on the bumper to get access to the light. Very straightforward - although there are no specific install videos for the VLAND kit, I could do a quick guide if needed. It was easy to figure out.

Overall - looks much better than the stock light, the red of the DRL is more pinkish than the red of the tail lights. Have to see how it looks with the new ones I'm still waiting for.

 

7ED39BD8-873A-4DB9-8D35-7B2F35C58B66.jpeg

 

With fog light (red triangle), reverse lights (white) and DRL (red boomerangs) on together.

136EC64E-81A9-4EEB-9D62-024F45095BA4.jpeg

Edited by choupolo

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Just ordered: 

TE37 Saga 17x9 et42 5x100 Face 3 Diamond Dark Gunmetal wheels (via Lucas - lead time into August/September!)

CkHAVQBAA.jpg.5a2525a27a031ada9cb7913670d03d9a.jpg

and Reyland AP 4 pot BBK

s-l1600.jpg.0bc06e49195cf994bbf69624788b70a2.jpg

 

 

Now doing a bit more reading about suspension before deciding. Possibly Tein Flex A, with some camber bolts and lower camber arms?

Also about to confirm with Royal Steering Wheels a nice Alcantara retrim - black with white stitching and yellow centre stripe!

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8 minutes ago, choupolo said:

Just ordered: 

TE37 Saga 17x9 et42 5x100 Face 3 Diamond Dark Gunmetal wheels (via Lucas - lead time into August!)

CkHAVQBAA.jpg.5a2525a27a031ada9cb7913670d03d9a.jpg

and Reyland AP 4 pot BBK

s-l1600.jpg.0bc06e49195cf994bbf69624788b70a2.jpg

 

 

Now doing a bit more reading about suspension before deciding. Possibly Tein Flex A, with some camber bolts and lower camber arms?

Also about to confirm with Royal Steering Wheels a nice Alcantara retrim - black with white stitching and yellow centre stripe!

For the Flex A's you won't need camber bolts - they have camber adjustable top mounts

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Ah I see. Will it give enough camber or might the camber bolts allow for more? I’m only after a couple of degrees on the front.

Also are Ohlins Road and Track worth the extra price?

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6 hours ago, choupolo said:

Ah I see. Will it give enough camber or might the camber bolts allow for more? I’m only after a couple of degrees on the front.

I run 2.5 degrees at the front with the TEIN pillowball top mounts. You don't need camber bolts. 

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