surrey86

Good result from a GT86 fitted with the ACE CS400 and the Abbey Motorsport HFC

SOLID lines after tuning package fitted
Dotted lines stock GT86
 

Wait for black Friday then ☺️

@Ade I considered it but it's quite pricey for what it is, like most Cusco stuff.

Woke up this morning to a bit of sunshine so treated the car to a quick clean, went inside to watch the F1 and then it tanked it down, naturally . Anyway, the rain buggered off so went for a quick drive and a 5 minute photoshoot before the sun went down:
GT86_16_09_nimz-4
GT86_16_09_nimz-3
GT86_16_09_nimz-6
GT86_16_09_nimz-2
GT86_16_09_nimz
Not sure what the next step is, I need a bit more noise so will probably save for a manifold and remap at Tuning Developments if I can stop myself from buying an exhaust first 
 

Without pics waffling is fair game

I heard his customer support over Skype is ermmm "hard to beat" 

Fair enough.
I'd recommend Greenlight for next time, mods such as catbacks and air filters can be added for free via their website. Don't even need to give them a ring.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181606716612

Nice looking sump baffle!

Just wanted to say cheers to @Lucas@PartBox for sorting me out with new discs, pads, bolts and a cosworth Sump Baffle. Great service, even sent me picture of the parts before I ordered.

Fair enough.
I'd recommend Greenlight for next time, mods such as catbacks and air filters can be added for free via their website. Don't even need to give them a ring.

Impressive parts write-up/diy

After having the 86 for 3 months, I started feeling the need to do something more than just putting a lovely sounding Circuit Sports Cat-Back on it. Modding is a bug, and I’m sure some of you can relate, so when you start, you want more and more and it’s very difficult to stop. I had a short list of basic modifications before I even got the car, so I knew exactly what I was going to do, but after getting the car, I had to start prioritising things. Money always plays its role in this game, so the intervals between each “bigger” mod are... 
Read more

@smudge think you should get this! 

Hi all,
I thought I'd do a build thread for two reasons: firstly, although I've only done 2 significant mods so far, they have transformed the driving experience in terms of added performance and enjoyment gained. Secondly, I'm poised to make a few more upgrades and would appreciate any guidance. 
I got my silver '13 GT86 with no ambition to modify it, as the last car I'd owned was a bone stock Toyota starlet......... so the 86 was a big step up! However, about 6 months into ownership the torque dip was starting to annoy me, and I thought the car had unused potential because it is light (ish), has a low center of gravity and a good chassis.  I also did one track day while the car was stock which confirmed to me that the car could use a tad more power in this domain too.
Overall, my aim is to keep this car as a comfortable daily driver which can also hold it's own (reliably) on track. My second aim is to avoid the look and sound of a heavily modded car.
 
Mod 1) Harrop Supercharger (installed and tuned by Mark at Abbey). 240whp, dyno'd on the hottest day of the year. 
Very happy with how this turned out - torque everywhere and it produces the power reliably lap after lap on track. It is not perfect, there are a couple of niggles (like hesitation at low revs when the engine is cold), but overall it has been fantastic. However, noting that the stock brakes had struggled on track even under NA power, I soon realised I needed to do something about the brakes: 
Mod 2) AP Racing front BBK. 4 piston. (I've also got Stoptech disks/pads on the rear)
This has been another great buy. I have not experienced any brake fade since they were fitted. And no longer any squeal....that was worth the 2.2K alone.
Minor Mods: I also have an Extreme Organic Clutch, the intec high level brake light, and have swapped the Primmies for PS4s.
Now for the exciting bit......my wish list!!!!
- Catback: I think this car deserves a more aggressive/louder exhaust note. However, I do not want it too loud so that it sounds obnoxious or attracts too much attention, and my GF has said she is not a fan of loud cars. @Ade's custom Hayward & Scott catback is probably the one I'd go for because it is quiet in the RPM ranges where I usually drive - 2-3k. Unless good quality second hand catback comes up really really cheap in the meantime.
- Suspension: I like the way this car twitches around a bit on country roads, but lets be honest the stock suspension is much too 'floppy' on track. Currently looking at coilovers but I have a lot of research to do. I do want to lower it just a little bit, I do want to be able to adjust damping from track to road use, and I want to be able to add some camber. I'm happy to spend a bit of money here, because i'm not willing to compromise too much on the stock ride quality.
- Wheels: While I think this would be a good place to save some weight, the price of good quality forged wheels is prohibitive for me. They also fail the 'keep stock look' test, so unless the right style set come along at the right price, I will not be getting any.
- Cosmetic: The valenti sequentials look really nice, but can't decide what colour is best for Silver. Also, I want an ebay rear diffuser.
Right, thanks for reading! As I suspect I am the only one who will read this, I will therefore thank myself. I'm really happy with the mods I've made because the performance has been transformed, while the stock look, sound, and fun factor has not.  PLEASE, if you have any suggestions to help with what I've mentioned on my wish list, let me know.
 

Haha tell me about it, I usually get paid to find them though 

Looks class! I really want to go next year. I want to go France, Germany, Czech Rep. Austria, Switzerland & Spain and back home. Canyons in Northern Spain are the closest thing to canyons in California haha 

I got back late on Saturday afternoon from a 2 week trip around Europe in the 86, so I thought I'd share some pics of our hols. We went through France > Switzerland > Italy > Switzerland > Italy > Austria > Germany > Belgium > Holland > Belgium > France, so quite a few border crossings.
Starting off from Surrey on a very early Friday morning to catch a P&O ferry to Calais, I couldn't wait to get my first brew on board. While these days I prefer the tunnel as it's far quicker, the ferry was £160 cheaper this time around. That's a nice breakfast on the ship.
My wife and I are both keen cyclists, so we had two road bikes attached to the car with a very cool Seasucker vacuum rack. A bike rack attached to the roof of GT86 attracts a lot of attention and I was getting questions about it wherever we went.

First stopover in Dijon, then onto Morzine where we had an apartment for a week just on the start of the climb to Avoriaz.

We cycled up the local cols - the Joux Verte, Joux Plane & Ramaz.

The local mtb trails looked great, so we hired out a couple Cannondale Jekyll Enduro bikes and went on a mega chairlift-assisted epic into Switzerland, back to Morzine and around Les Gets. Absolutely breathtaking scenery up in the high mountains.

Naturally, I waited until later that evening to take the car for a quiet lap of the Col de la Joux Verte.

Towards the end of the week, and with an eye on the weather forecast we booked a hotel in Bormio, Italy to drive and ride the Stelvios and Gavia passes. These are huge climbs, well over 20-26km long and finishing at 2700 metres - best avoided in bad weather. Luckily we appeared to have a weather window appearing.
A days driving over, passing through Switzerland (keeping off the motorways as I wasn't gonna pay a years road tax for 2 hours use), into Italy via the St. Bernard tunnel (29 euros - ouch!!) Aosta and Lake Como. It was super hot and 30+ degrees most of the way, until we popped out of the last tunnel 5 mins from Bormio to be greeted by torrential rain and a massive storm!

The next morning was fine though and we cycled up the 2700m Stelvio in the sunshine. There were a fair few slow cars on it, clogging up the road for petrol heads, so I made a mental note to get up early the next morning to drive it. After a cracking 65kph descent on the bikes we then both still felt a little bit fresh, so climbed the Gavia 2600m pass after lunch. This nearly broke me, really hard.
After a fairly large recovery pizza and Gran Reserve Peroni the alarm was set for 6am to get the Stelvio pretty much to ourselves for an hours worth of hard driving. By the time we reached the top, oil temperatures were at track day levels - so I pulled up next to a glacier to cool them down. You don't get these at Donny.

Following a morning of dossing in the local spa, we then drove up to Bad Liebenzell in the Black Forest, which involved going back over the Stelvios pass (again!), in and out of Switzerland, back into Italy, then Austria before hitting the Autobahn in Germany. It all got a bit confusing with the myriad of border crossings and at one point we honestly had no clue what country we were in.
German autobahns themselves are awesome, really smooth, and free. I couldn't go crazy what with having a fairly novel vacuum-mount rack on my roof (see pic), but the miles went by very quickly cruising at a legal 150kph.

The next day we set off for..... yeah you guessed it, the Nurburgring. We had a cracking apartment in Adenau, 5 minutes walk from some of the best viewing points on the track.
After unloading we quickly made our way down to the Nordschliefe entrance for a couple of evening laps. I last came here in 2005 and a lot of things have changed. There's still a great post-lap atmosphere in the car park though, as everyone chills out after a lap with a drink from the cafe. There was at least four 86's circulating so a decent turnout from the twins.

Naturally we returned the next evening for some more laps, but the track had already been closed before I'd made the ticket office. Someone gone out straight from the start and had a massive crash, flipping their beemer over the barriers into the woods at the Foxhole, just 5 minutes into the session. It didn't reopen. 
Friday morning was spent having a good day noseying round the new facilities, weird closed rollercoaster (it was closed down by public health after it crashed twice, and they can't dismantle it as it's part of the building complex) and GP track pits while the VLN endurance race practice was on.

After that it was an autoroute cruise back through Belgium, Holland, Belgium and finally France to make Calais. On arrival we were greeted with a minor farce. Despite being 1 hour 40 mins early for our ferry, we missed it! UK Border Controls screwed everyone over with a massive queue to get through - thousands of people missing their ferries for extra checks. P&O looked after everyone and put us aboard the next available crossing an hour later.
Arriving home, we covered around 1900 miles, at an average of 32mpg. Best fuel ingested was 100 octane in both Italy and Germany, although I did see 102 near the ring.
 

I got back late on Saturday afternoon from a 2 week trip around Europe in the 86, so I thought I'd share some pics of our hols. We went through France > Switzerland > Italy > Switzerland > Italy > Austria > Germany > Belgium > Holland > Belgium > France, so quite a few border crossings.
Starting off from Surrey on a very early Friday morning to catch a P&O ferry to Calais, I couldn't wait to get my first brew on board. While these days I prefer the tunnel as it's far quicker, the ferry was £160 cheaper this time around. That's a nice breakfast on the ship.
My wife and I are both keen cyclists, so we had two road bikes attached to the car with a very cool Seasucker vacuum rack. A bike rack attached to the roof of GT86 attracts a lot of attention and I was getting questions about it wherever we went.

First stopover in Dijon, then onto Morzine where we had an apartment for a week just on the start of the climb to Avoriaz.

We cycled up the local cols - the Joux Verte, Joux Plane & Ramaz.

The local mtb trails looked great, so we hired out a couple Cannondale Jekyll Enduro bikes and went on a mega chairlift-assisted epic into Switzerland, back to Morzine and around Les Gets. Absolutely breathtaking scenery up in the high mountains.

Naturally, I waited until later that evening to take the car for a quiet lap of the Col de la Joux Verte.

Towards the end of the week, and with an eye on the weather forecast we booked a hotel in Bormio, Italy to drive and ride the Stelvios and Gavia passes. These are huge climbs, well over 20-26km long and finishing at 2700 metres - best avoided in bad weather. Luckily we appeared to have a weather window appearing.
A days driving over, passing through Switzerland (keeping off the motorways as I wasn't gonna pay a years road tax for 2 hours use), into Italy via the St. Bernard tunnel (29 euros - ouch!!) Aosta and Lake Como. It was super hot and 30+ degrees most of the way, until we popped out of the last tunnel 5 mins from Bormio to be greeted by torrential rain and a massive storm!

The next morning was fine though and we cycled up the 2700m Stelvio in the sunshine. There were a fair few slow cars on it, clogging up the road for petrol heads, so I made a mental note to get up early the next morning to drive it. After a cracking 65kph descent on the bikes we then both still felt a little bit fresh, so climbed the Gavia 2600m pass after lunch. This nearly broke me, really hard.
After a fairly large recovery pizza and Gran Reserve Peroni the alarm was set for 6am to get the Stelvio pretty much to ourselves for an hours worth of hard driving. By the time we reached the top, oil temperatures were at track day levels - so I pulled up next to a glacier to cool them down. You don't get these at Donny.

Following a morning of dossing in the local spa, we then drove up to Bad Liebenzell in the Black Forest, which involved going back over the Stelvios pass (again!), in and out of Switzerland, back into Italy, then Austria before hitting the Autobahn in Germany. It all got a bit confusing with the myriad of border crossings and at one point we honestly had no clue what country we were in.
German autobahns themselves are awesome, really smooth, and free. I couldn't go crazy what with having a fairly novel vacuum-mount rack on my roof (see pic), but the miles went by very quickly cruising at a legal 150kph.

The next day we set off for..... yeah you guessed it, the Nurburgring. We had a cracking apartment in Adenau, 5 minutes walk from some of the best viewing points on the track.
After unloading we quickly made our way down to the Nordschliefe entrance for a couple of evening laps. I last came here in 2005 and a lot of things have changed. There's still a great post-lap atmosphere in the car park though, as everyone chills out after a lap with a drink from the cafe. There was at least four 86's circulating so a decent turnout from the twins.

Naturally we returned the next evening for some more laps, but the track had already been closed before I'd made the ticket office. Someone gone out straight from the start and had a massive crash, flipping their beemer over the barriers into the woods at the Foxhole, just 5 minutes into the session. It didn't reopen. 
Friday morning was spent having a good day noseying round the new facilities, weird closed rollercoaster (it was closed down by public health after it crashed twice, and they can't dismantle it as it's part of the building complex) and GP track pits while the VLN endurance race practice was on.

After that it was an autoroute cruise back through Belgium, Holland, Belgium and finally France to make Calais. On arrival we were greeted with a minor farce. Despite being 1 hour 40 mins early for our ferry, we missed it! UK Border Controls screwed everyone over with a massive queue to get through - thousands of people missing their ferries for extra checks. P&O looked after everyone and put us aboard the next available crossing an hour later.
Arriving home, we covered around 1900 miles, at an average of 32mpg. Best fuel ingested was 100 octane in both Italy and Germany, although I did see 102 near the ring.
 

Sounds like a great trip and the car looks good. Its a similar trip to one I did a year back with the wife but with a lot less exercise

I get a bit envious of the Europeans for some of the landscape they've got.
Also... I think those wheels work well - silver with the silver.

I got back late on Saturday afternoon from a 2 week trip around Europe in the 86, so I thought I'd share some pics of our hols. We went through France > Switzerland > Italy > Switzerland > Italy > Austria > Germany > Belgium > Holland > Belgium > France, so quite a few border crossings.
Starting off from Surrey on a very early Friday morning to catch a P&O ferry to Calais, I couldn't wait to get my first brew on board. While these days I prefer the tunnel as it's far quicker, the ferry was £160 cheaper this time around. That's a nice breakfast on the ship.
My wife and I are both keen cyclists, so we had two road bikes attached to the car with a very cool Seasucker vacuum rack. A bike rack attached to the roof of GT86 attracts a lot of attention and I was getting questions about it wherever we went.

First stopover in Dijon, then onto Morzine where we had an apartment for a week just on the start of the climb to Avoriaz.

We cycled up the local cols - the Joux Verte, Joux Plane & Ramaz.

The local mtb trails looked great, so we hired out a couple Cannondale Jekyll Enduro bikes and went on a mega chairlift-assisted epic into Switzerland, back to Morzine and around Les Gets. Absolutely breathtaking scenery up in the high mountains.

Naturally, I waited until later that evening to take the car for a quiet lap of the Col de la Joux Verte.

Towards the end of the week, and with an eye on the weather forecast we booked a hotel in Bormio, Italy to drive and ride the Stelvios and Gavia passes. These are huge climbs, well over 20-26km long and finishing at 2700 metres - best avoided in bad weather. Luckily we appeared to have a weather window appearing.
A days driving over, passing through Switzerland (keeping off the motorways as I wasn't gonna pay a years road tax for 2 hours use), into Italy via the St. Bernard tunnel (29 euros - ouch!!) Aosta and Lake Como. It was super hot and 30+ degrees most of the way, until we popped out of the last tunnel 5 mins from Bormio to be greeted by torrential rain and a massive storm!

The next morning was fine though and we cycled up the 2700m Stelvio in the sunshine. There were a fair few slow cars on it, clogging up the road for petrol heads, so I made a mental note to get up early the next morning to drive it. After a cracking 65kph descent on the bikes we then both still felt a little bit fresh, so climbed the Gavia 2600m pass after lunch. This nearly broke me, really hard.
After a fairly large recovery pizza and Gran Reserve Peroni the alarm was set for 6am to get the Stelvio pretty much to ourselves for an hours worth of hard driving. By the time we reached the top, oil temperatures were at track day levels - so I pulled up next to a glacier to cool them down. You don't get these at Donny.

Following a morning of dossing in the local spa, we then drove up to Bad Liebenzell in the Black Forest, which involved going back over the Stelvios pass (again!), in and out of Switzerland, back into Italy, then Austria before hitting the Autobahn in Germany. It all got a bit confusing with the myriad of border crossings and at one point we honestly had no clue what country we were in.
German autobahns themselves are awesome, really smooth, and free. I couldn't go crazy what with having a fairly novel vacuum-mount rack on my roof (see pic), but the miles went by very quickly cruising at a legal 150kph.

The next day we set off for..... yeah you guessed it, the Nurburgring. We had a cracking apartment in Adenau, 5 minutes walk from some of the best viewing points on the track.
After unloading we quickly made our way down to the Nordschliefe entrance for a couple of evening laps. I last came here in 2005 and a lot of things have changed. There's still a great post-lap atmosphere in the car park though, as everyone chills out after a lap with a drink from the cafe. There was at least four 86's circulating so a decent turnout from the twins.

Naturally we returned the next evening for some more laps, but the track had already been closed before I'd made the ticket office. Someone gone out straight from the start and had a massive crash, flipping their beemer over the barriers into the woods at the Foxhole, just 5 minutes into the session. It didn't reopen. 
Friday morning was spent having a good day noseying round the new facilities, weird closed rollercoaster (it was closed down by public health after it crashed twice, and they can't dismantle it as it's part of the building complex) and GP track pits while the VLN endurance race practice was on.

After that it was an autoroute cruise back through Belgium, Holland, Belgium and finally France to make Calais. On arrival we were greeted with a minor farce. Despite being 1 hour 40 mins early for our ferry, we missed it! UK Border Controls screwed everyone over with a massive queue to get through - thousands of people missing their ferries for extra checks. P&O looked after everyone and put us aboard the next available crossing an hour later.
Arriving home, we covered around 1900 miles, at an average of 32mpg. Best fuel ingested was 100 octane in both Italy and Germany, although I did see 102 near the ring.
 

Very nice, some cracking photos.

More pics!