S18 RSG

Good to see everyone as always, and good to see new people at almost every meet. Good choice of restaurant Jeff, shame they don't appreciate paying customers.

Update - 3/4 items sold. Just the Kenwood left. Will listen to offers to get rid of it, as it's going to be finding my next project

Hi all. Need to clear out some space before I start filling it back up with BMW parts, so please feel free to take this stuff off my hands: Stock GT86 wheels with tyres - £SOLD All wheels in good condition. From memory there are no scuffs or curb marks (will double check though). Tyres are 2x Primacy's with reasonable tread left (4-5mm at a guess). Other 2 tyres are a cheaper brand with good tread left (5+mm). I have no pictures currently, as they're in the back of my garage and I'm in work, but can get pics when needed. Just want rid of them, so I'll happily take offers to make the space. Kenwood DNX5160DABS - £500 6.2" in dash touchscreen head unit. Built in Garmin Sat Nav, built in DAB (no aerial included) and Apple CarPlay. For full specs, see here. Bought this in June, used for less than 2 months. Would happily fit it in the BMW if it would fit, but it won't Focal IS165TOY Plug & Play speakers - £SOLD 6.5" component speakers and tweeters. Direct replacement for stock GT86 speakers/tweeters. Take around 30 minutes to fit from start to finish. Make a big difference in sound quality, even with stock head unit. Fitted for around 1 year, removed before sale and still look, feel and sound new. Full specs here. Pics on request, but not much to see. They're just speakers. Intec Roof Mounted Brake Light - £SOLD Never used. Bought from James @ Amber around 6 months ago and never fitted. Still in box. More info can be found here. Can get you pics, but as it's still in the box, you can't see anything anyway. All items are located at my home in Cwmbran, South Wales. I will be heading to the Midlands lunch meet this weekend and can bring any items to that meet. Would prefer collection, although I am willing to meet you halfway if convenient for both parties. Aside from that, please arrange a courier that you trust. Thanks all, Ross

My dad is gonna see if they will fit in his van, if not, they'll be available. Will get him to make a decision tonight.

Starter (if we have them) - Bruschetta Main - Fillet Steak (med rare) with Red Wine jus Desert - Cheesecake

I'll probably be there.

I'm in Cwmbran. Jared and I don't tend to plan anything, just a text and we meet up as we're only 20 mins or so apart. If you ever wanna come down on a weekend and meet us and go for a drive or whatever, just let me know. Doesn't need to be planned in advance, as I'm almost always available on weekends/evenings.

Welcome. When I owned my GT86 I tried organising a few meets, but there are only 3 or 4 guys from this area that bother showing their faces, and nobody seemed willing to travel more than 20 minutes for a meet, so I gave up. Jared and I meet up fairly often (every few weeks) for a chat and a coffee, and have gone on a few drives, but nothing drastic as there are only 2 of us. If there was more interest, Jared and I would almost certainly be at most meets, just takes somebody who doesn't mind spending time organising events for 2 or 3 people to do it. I didn't wanna waste the time tbh.

You'll only feel underwhelmed if you get the tuning bug. The biggest disappointment for me, was that most of my driving is done between 3-5k rpm, which is where these cars make very little torque. I spent thousands trying to improve the torque dip, and it never really worked. If you drive the car hard and rev it out to redline in every gear, the difference would be noticeable, but for those of us who don't do that, NA will never be enough. If you spend £1500~ on an exhaust and remap, you'll maybe get 15-20hp and 15-20tq, with a slight mid range improvement, but to see any meaningful improvement, you really need a manifold, which is another £500-1000 on top. At that point, you'll be about as far as you can go NA, and the car will still only be at around 215hp (as they only make around 180-185 as standard). You'll be half way to a supercharger in terms of costs, with around 20% of the gains. If you want to try one, best bet is to head out to one of the meets. There are quite a number of FI owners now, you'll likely run into one at a meet, especially the bigger meets. Failing that, Mark at Abbey MS has a Harrop car, which is for all intents and purposes, the same kit when it comes to power delivery. I don't know many outside of @Ade with the Cosworth kit, so unless he lives close and would meet you, I don't know what else to suggest.

Welcome. Best thing you can do is try to get a test drive in a Cosworth car. If you go down the route of supercharging, you'll love it. Exhaust choices are very varied. The Cosworth SC will increase sound by itself, but maybe a resonated exhaust will be the way to go. I think your problem may be similar to that of many of us over the years. If you start with an exhaust and remap, you may be a little underwhelmed and think you want more. Then you start buying manifolds, intakes etc. chasing power, never to be fulfilled. If you go down the supercharging route straight away, your initial outlay may be higher (though the 20% off makes it a good prospect), but you'll save yourself money in the long run as you won't be paying for 3 or 4 remaps, different setups, multiple garage trips etc. I spent close to £10k on mine over 2 years. Never thought I'd buy a turbo or supercharger, but went about as far as I could go NA, then gave in and went turbo after being quite disappointed with the car fully tuned at NA (without going forged anyway). I wished I had done it from the start. HTH

Maybe I'm not the best person to answer, because I recently sold my GT86 for this exact reason. My daily commute rose from 5 miles to 75 miles of country roads and city traffic. The car became tiresome to drive every day for 2-3 hours of boring driving. I had the turbo fitted in December 2016, and in the time between then and selling the car 3 weeks ago, I had done around 15-16k miles. In that time, I had the VVTi controller fail, both sets of coil packs fail, almost an entire set of brakes pads used, a set of rear tyres, and due to the increased mileage, I was changing the oil every 3-4 months (wanted to change it every 5-6k miles). I sold up partly because of the effort required to drive the car daily, but also because the warranty expires in October, and I didn't feel confident that the car would behave itself outside of warranty. That being said, nothing major went wrong on the car. Engine/gearbox/clutch etc. all held up perfectly. I would suggest the main consideration is that any issues the car would eventually display, would be accelerated. The coil packs, for example, are common faults, but mine both started failing within a few months of the turbo. Then as others have said, the consumables will expire quicker (brakes, tyres etc.). On the up side, my fuel economy was really good. I was getting 35mpg+ on my daily commute, and I wasn't driving very economically. Lots of overtaking on the back roads to get around lorries and tractors etc. Overall, it's as much of a gamble as anything else. You could be really lucky and have no issues whatsoever, there is plenty of evidence to support that. You could equally be super unlucky and start getting failures on the weakest parts, then the bills start ramping up. Really is a choice only you can make. HTH, Ross

Providing work goes fine on Saturday, and therefore Sunday remains free, I'll try and make my way over

I'm not sure these can be considering underrated any more, Autocar called it the best BMW on sale when it was released (F series M3 and M4 were out at the time too), and most reviewers have compared it to the E46 M3, which has always had massive praise. If anything, this one is overrated lol. You're right though, a much different drive to the GT86, for the better in many ways and the worse in a few.

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

Cheers mate. M Performance parts are already on order, all but the front lip, as I may end up going for the Reiger or Kerscher front lip. I know someone with both, so need to see them in the flesh first. The carbon spoiler and gloss black grills are in the post I have to say, for a full auto box, the ZF shocks me with how smooth and quick it is. I've owned a VW DSG in the past, and this is every bit as quick, and a lot smoother in comfort mode. It can be a little jerky in Sport Manual, but it's nothing I can't get over.

I don't actually know who the new owner will be, as the car isn't sold yet. I traded it in against the BMW. The garage I used specialised in modified cars and performance cars, so he offered me trade in based on market value of turbo'd cars, so I ended up getting 90% of what I'd have sold it privately for anyway. The garage owner knows about this forum, and has read through my build thread as a guest when I showed him before buying the BMW, so he'll possibly forward that info on to the new owner.

Thanks Kev. I'll just have to park on the road next time, rather than poisoning your driveway with German crap

Yeah it was 272 at the flywheel

Yep, couldn't agree more. Even at nearly £40k, I didn't feel it was worth it. At £25-30k maybe, but still a massive car, and the relative lack of grip compared to the power and torque made it very skittish I thought. To be honest, the interior is basically EXACTLY the same, whether my car or a full M car. Only real, tangible difference are the seats, and frankly, the standard M sport seats are some of the best stock seats I've used anyway. I can't say I've needed an LSD so far. It has a torque vectoring rear diff, so at least for fast road driving it's still very composed. I've no doubt it would miss a proper LSD on track, but that's probably some time away yet.

Thanks mate. I had a similar 5 mile journey, so the 86 was great for me too. 300+ miles a week just wasn't fun I'm sure the BM will see a track at some point, certainly needs some decent tyres first of all, and probably some different pads as I've heard the stock pads don't last too well on track. LSD would certainly be needed too, if I ever wanted to track it seriously.

This will be no news to those of you who I have added on Facebook, but for those of you who don't know, the GT86 is now sold. It's rather bittersweet, as I have really enjoyed my 2 years 3 months with the car, but alas, changes in lifestyle forced my hand. Given the amount of money spent on the car, I couldn't see myself selling for a long time, and despite always looking around on Auto Trader and considering various options, none were every really realistic. However, in May I left my job all of a sudden. Got paid for 3 months of remote support, and started looking for a new permanent role. Fortunately, I was offered a management position within Heineken, who had been a previous customer of mine during my contracting days. This resulted in an almost immediate 100% increase in wages, and a 1500% increase in daily commute (up to nearly 70 miles a day). As compliant as the GT86 was as a daily driver, it started becoming less enjoyable for this commute. Main reason for this, is that my daily commute is all single carriageway country roads, crawling in tractors and lorries. The GT86, even with the turbo, just wasn't enjoyable on this drive. When sat in traffic driving slow, it was loud and fairly uncomfortable, and when an opportunity to overtake came about, the ultimate lack of immediate torque was also a bummer (obviously, being in lower gears is the answer, but I didn't want to drive around in 3rd all day waiting for a chance to overtake). Anyway, in summary, my search for a new car lasted around 6 weeks. I initially wanted a BMW M3/M4 (F series), but after driving one and scaring myself, and also realising just how enormous those cars are, I moved on. I then started considering another hot hatch, specifically an Audi RS3, Mercedes A45 or Focus RS. The RS3 holds its value far too well for that to be a true consideration. The A45 was nice, but really hard to find the correct spec. The RS, initially, looked perfect, I actually bought one (well, put a deposit down and signed finance documents etc.), but after driving one on an extended test drive, I found it to be extremely underwhelming. Barely faster than the GT86, a worse gearbox, very boring interior and still equally uncomfortable. I therefore asked for a refund on the deposit and looked elsewhere. Going back to BMWs, I started considering the M2. It looked to be the right size, was tunable to M3/M4 pace, and looked great. I went to look at a delivery miles car in Warrington, and a lovely car it was too. The dealership in question stocked many BMWs, and another that caught my eye was an M235i. After driving both, I really couldn't see where the extra £20k went on the M2. Sure, the interior was a little nicer, car was a little quicker and obviously looks amazing in comparison, but none of those factors were even close to bridging the £20k gap. So, I bought the M235i, and here she is (bonus pic of our T5 camper, and my dog also): It's a 2014 car with ~20,000 miles. A ZF 8 speed gearbox (perfect for my daily drive, and surprisingly fun), Professional media package, heated memory seats, automatic everything, DAB, adaptive dampers, M Performance brake upgrade, adaptive LED headlights, basically everything. The only options not ticked were the winter pack (heated steering wheel), sunroof and tinted windows. It's by no means as playful as the GT86 was, but certainly faster (makes the Focus RS I drove feel very sluggish and old fashioned to be honest), still a very fun drive, especially with the adaptive dampers in sport mode, and when not, a very comfortable, quiet, seamless car. It's truly got 2 personalities, and I couldn't be happier. As far as future plans with the car, and myself. Well, I certainly plan on still attending as many social meets as possible. I've made some great friends from this website, and I will not abandon that just for a change of car. In terms of the car, well for now the plans are to just enjoy it. I've already ordered some minor upgrades (a new panel filter and some M performance gloss black front grills), and plan to get a Kerscher front lip, M performance carbon rear spoiler, carbon/chrome tailpipe replacements, and some new tyres (Pilot Sport 4s, of course) to replace the current run flat Bridgestones. After Christmas I may start considering tuning, but will likely only go as far as a JB4/intake/exhaust. I may also consider the H&R springs once I've tried my buddies', but then I'll probably stop and just enjoy the dual personalities of the car. Sorry for the wall of text, if you've read it, I appreciate you. Thanks for the fun times over the past few years, and I look forward to seeing some of you again in the future, just with a slightly different key in my pocket Ross

I'm pretty sure I'll be available, so I'll make my way over

Just come and find me I'll be wearing a black Heineken jacket, or my black club hoodie with S18 RSG on the chest. I don't bite

Missed this, but more than happy to take people out for passenger rides. Not sure how many other TD cars are going.

I still have my 86 for a while longer, so I'll come along providing I don't get too drunk Saturday night.