surrey86

Surely if you're going to Nice you should be using the Route Napoleon through the South-West Alps (N85). It's an absolutely epic road, goes on for a couple hundred miles iirc all the way to Nice. 

Hey all,
Recently just came back from Germany with a load of mates. Had an absolute blast with the 86! The roads were just fantastic and well suited for this car, especially in the wet
It's nice to see a handful of 86's and BRZ's out there.
It was my first time actually driving on the Nurburgring (2nd ever time on a track in this car, first being at Angelsey), so the first 1 or 2 laps I took with caution while I learned where my braking points are and how the car handles. Sounds silly, but I know the track pretty well just by racing with my sim setup on Assetto Corsa and IRacing and it felt very familiar and comfortable haha!
I didn't lap with the intentions of timing but I do a fair bit of endurance karting, so I have the mindset of a racer of wanting to overtake everyone and follow fast lines  I had it all on video so I was able to time the laps afterwards, however, almost every lap bar my final and quickest lap was hurt by some serious yellow flags and traffic. You're very lucky to be able to do a lap without the ring closing or a yellow flag present somewhere! 
All my laps I had a passenger in and almost a full tank of fuel so that plays a large factor in handling and times as well especially in our cars! haha. My 4th lap was my fastest lap as I decided to do a solo lap with low fuel to see how the car handles and it made a huge difference! (5 seconds quicker halfway into the lap than my 5th and fastest recorded lap) but then I hit a load of yellows at the end of the circuit which ruined the time. To top it off, my camera died which is a massive shame but that's how it is!
Eventually, the 5th lap I managed to get ahead of traffic and set an 8m 48s lap for my first ever trip to the ring and that's in a stock car! Came away a very happy man! haha.
This is the lap:
 
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBTZur0nO1t_uh65xcSTQTeP5k7HkjhED
A handful of photos: (link:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211780077443345.1073741860.1411372255&type=1&l=afa18d7c16)
 






Now it's been round stock, it's time to add a few bits to it and see what it's really capable of! I imagine this can get in high 7's with wider tyres, a bit more power in engine and brakes and a good geometry setup!
Anyone else got any Nurburgring experiences to share?  

Sounds really cool, it's been 12 years since I've last been to the Nordschleife and I would love to go back again. I went originally in 2005, a MK1 MR2 and then in 2006 in an E36 325i, which unfortunately had shot ball joints which I didn't fully appreciate until I went out on track. It was horrible! The MR2 though was fabulous and had a lot of fun chasing friends round the track. We stayed in Briedscheid at the hotel at the half way point  and did the Pinochios Italian restaurant and of course Pisten Klaus for the massively over-rated cow on a rock. 
A huge highlight for me was getting a ride in a friend's 996 GT3RS. Just absolutely wow, easily the best car I've ever been in, it was in another league entirely from all else on track at the time. 
The musuem is well worth checking out and we also had a go at karting. I never timed any of my laps round the Ring as I was there to enjoy myself and I honestly think when people time themselves they are an accident waiting to happen. As you know so much can happen round the Ring and you never know what's going to be round the next corner! 
Just out of interest, how much is it a lap now? When I last went it was €15. 
Obviously we need to have a club excursion there at some point in the future. The last two times I drove there we tied it in with a track day at Spa, which is only a couple of hours away from the Ring. Why not drive the best two tracks back to back eh? 

Circuit wants us at the stand by 9:00 am.
It should take me about 2hrs (ish), but I aim to be there around 8:30ish and get noise testing done before coming to the club stand.
Its only few of us, couple sweet treats already in the boot and I hope we can get a coffee either before or right after 10:45 track session.
See ya there!

After doing a few modifications to my Subaru BRZ, I thought I'd create a build thread for anyone interested in seeing the progress and to keep a personal account for myself. I also have instagram if anyone wishes to follow me on that @KelvBRZ
On the 18th of August 2017 I ended up buying my current Subaru BRZ which had 7,500 miles and is a 2012 registered car, I came from a 2004 Honda S2000 GT and surprisingly there wasn't a massive difference between the two cars apart from the obvious VTEC and the slightly better handling from the S2000. 
Picture of my old Honda S2000:

First picture I got of the Subaru BRZ:

The car was kept standard over winter as it was garaged which gave me time to accumulate mods:
Work Emotion D9R's with Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres KW V3 Coilovers Eibach Camber Bolts Eibach Lower Control Arms Eibach Toe Arms
All parts were then fitted by a friend of mine and the wheels were test fitted before my alignment:

I then headed up to Automek in East Kilbride to get my alignment done:

After the alignment I ordered my exhaust setup (Cobra Non Resonated Cat Back, Overpipe and Decat):

How the car looks at the 1st of June 2018 (time creating this thread):

Its his car Church. The question was do they fit. Why do you feel the need to challenge everyone who doesn't necessarily do it the way you want?

I got chance to fit the bonnet this afternoon

Definitely makes the front end look meaner

Just bought my ticket

My shims were in a right state on the front, the Carbotechs were putting them through their paces! Falling apart.. 
The rears were still ok.
I think pad contact does make the noise, but some pads don't make that noise on light contact. Hence why your fix works.
Tbh I'm not that bothered with some pad noise. I actually used to swap the OEM pads back in for some quietness as my track pads were much much nosier! All things are relative.
 
See you there!

Well I didn’t expect to hear that! Maybe I should reduce my surety down to 90%

Did you replace the shims when you upgraded? I was a little heavy handed with mine when cleaning so I will be changing them.

Gonna try to kill these stock pads off at Three Sisters on Friday so hopefully won’t be too much longer before I upgrade them haha! Lauren mentioned you’re there on Friday too, so I’ll hopefully catch you then

Mine passed with just the front pipe cat when warmed up, it failed on the first attempt.

I've booked on. Also booked on the trackday the day before.
My family are only a hour away to staying with them and making a long weekend of it.

Can't beat a BMW straight six engine, my last car had a straight-six naturally aspirated N52 (265bhp) and I'd swap the boxer for that in a heart beat if it was easy. Rest of the car was a bit too compromised for me on tight bumpy roads but you can't argue with those engines.

Few of us have been discussing next club events while at Japfest on Sunday.
Some events are in the calendar, but I think its only visible on the full website (not on Tapatalk), so I thought I would put a summary of events we have/ can have till the end of summer
 
May
13 May - PSS - Denbies Wine Estate
 
20 May - Cumbria 7th International Motor Show (Kendal)
https://www.espcarclub.co.uk/
 
June
 
02 June - JDM Combe (Castle Combe Circuit)
 
10 June - Japanese Auto Matsuri (Museum of Power)
 
30 June - Japfest Donnington (Donnigton Circuit)
http://www.japfest.co.uk/japfest-donington
Not in the calendar yet
 
July
07 July - Summer Action Festival (Castle Combe Circuit)
 
29 July - Simply Japanese (Castle Combe Circuit)
 
August
 
10-12 August - Duderstadt, Germany
 
 
31 August - 02 September - JAE, Peterborough
https://jae-show.co.uk/
 
Feel free to respond and suggest other events.
If its within 2hrs drive from SW London I am happy to help Lauren and Rob in organizing them (apart from 2nd half of July and August).

Is anyone else going to PistonHeads Denbies SS?
https://www.pistonheads.com/calendar/event.asp?i=84888
I see @HariboPenguin , @bassett and  @maurice on the list.
Only 1/2 hour from South London.

So yesterday was the day I'd been looking forward to for the best part of a month - parts fitting day! @Mark-in-Stoke and I were booked in with Rich at Tuned UK to have suspension work done to both our cars. I won't spoil Mark's update, but in a nutshell we were taking his 'temporary' suspension and putting it on mine, and he was having his newly resprung Ohlins coilovers put back on. This all came about after the OcUK meet in April. Mark had popped over and took me out in his car, after being somewhat surprised at how good TunedUK's 40mm spring collaboration with Eibach was. I was very sceptical expecting the ride to be trashy, rock hard and sat on the bump stops. I couldn't have been more wrong; the ride was firm yes, but not uncomfortably so. Body roll is far better controlled and the stance looks fantastic. No issues with clearance and no smashing of bump stops. Given I don't do track work and have no intention to, coilovers would be nice but probably overkill for me. So Mark offered me these once his resprung Ohlins were ready. 
We got to TunedUK nice and early and whilst Rich set about Mark's car, Mark and I set about mine with a couple of body mods. I'd been away recently and managed to get a set of rear quarter louvres brought back from the USA. The company (Ikon Motorsports) were great and sent them to my hotel and the package was small enough to bring back in my hand luggage so no problems with them being damaged.

As I've seen from Facebook these are very much a marmite thing, plenty of hate for them (including 'oh noes, how will you see out the back of the car?). I can't actually see through my rear quarters due to the passenger headrest, so it makes no odds to me. They attach easily with 3M tape and the fitment is absolutely spot on. We also fitted the carbon winglets to the front wings properly and with the weather being so hot yesterday we got a really good solid fit. 
Before long Mark's car was sorted so it was time for mine to get on the ramps. I was nervous to say the least, I wasn't 100% sure if everything (especially the CE28's) would fit. But everything came good bar my drop links being stuck and needing to be cut off. Luckily Rich had a set of Whiteline adjustables in stock so we chucked those on and then he got to work with the alignment. The springs drop the car 40mm, but the 18's with 225/40/18 tyres raise the height by about 5mm. Even so, this was putting a fair bit of negative camber to say the least. The back was virtually spot on even and ended up sitting at -2. For the fronts on Rich's advice for my type of driving we put the camber bolts in the other way around and neutralised the camber a little. I've never known someone so precise and OCD about alignment, everything was done with a real sense of care to get the best possible result. This was the end result, pleased is an understatement! Note the car hasn't been cleaned and is in strong sunlight so yes, tyres and louvres aren't as black as they'll normally look.



Under more normal light:



 
On the drive back home even with the car full of stock wheels I was able to get a sense of the improvements over stock. We took a scenic route down lots of twisty A roads to avoid traffic which was great fun. Turn in is nice and quick, body roll is loads better and I feel a lot more confident. I'm looking forward to trying it out more over the weekend.
 
 

With my recent back problems, I tried a sprint at Cadwell last week and whilst I really enjoyed it, I had to retire early as it was aggravating my back. The problem is that you simply move around too much in the seat and use your back muscles to keep you in place. So I thought I'd invest in a harness. I don't want a harness bar, so I've bought this one which attaches the shoulder strap to the rear seat belt mounting below the C-Pillar: 
https://www.schrothracing.com/products/rallye-belts#1576

Hopefully this will do the trick. I just need to install it, but I will probably have to take it to RRG to do as I had a quick go, but I literally have no patience or skill or will anymore to do anything myself and I couldn't work out how to get the interior panels off over the C Pillar to get to it. Also it looks like the seat may need to come out to get access to bolt the lap belts on. But I've got till the 19th May to get it fitted so there is time yet! A huge thanks to Maurice for sending me a set of shoulder pads he had.  

HKS have released Turbo Kits for FA20 - GT86 / BRZ  Part-Box is proud to present this to you at this time and we hope you will like it as much as we do!


Price: £4800 inc. VAT!
Pre-Order yours now! First batch available from June.

https://www.netweather.tv/weather-forecasts/sports-and-events/motor-racing
Check this out

@mauricebrennan

Just to give some feedback, I'm pretty impressed with this. 
Even though it is half the weight of OEM, the shifts feel better as the shape of the knob is such that you naturally have more leverage when changing gear. You can also feel a bit more of what's happening with the gear change when sliding changes home.

Took the 86 for its first track day on Tuesday. Graced it with the wonderful Anglesey Circuit in Wales! Safe to say I loved every bit of it! 
Did it with Javelin with my brother (FN2 Type R) and a few mates (More FN2's and Golf Mk2).
Great learning how the car handles when giving it some beans, it's currently completely stock apart from some Rota 18x8.5" wheels and Whiteline Positive Shift mounts + Whiteline Differential mount inserts. Come to realise I think coil overs and a meatier exhaust is necessary, although it's a great stock setup, I feel like it squirrels a little too much under braking and understeers when the weight shifts forward. Thinking of some Teins Flex A's and an Invidia Gemini R400. Any opinions on these will help greatly!
I know my heal-toe is a little off, finding it difficult at times with how long it takes the car to rev up and down with the heavy flywheel. Just need a bit more practice
Obviously, the first few videos are rather tame with some interesting lines and close calls but throughout the day, especially on the last video I felt really confident and loved how easy the car is to hold on a powerslide. I must admit in one of the videos around 6:30 I took the first corner a bit hot and attempted to power out of it, almost let it take the better of me and ended up with a tank slapper haha! Loads of fun, lots of burnt rubber, fast track and beautiful scenery, and I didn't spin once! Couldn't have asked for much more hehe.
I apologise for some of the strange camera angles, I just used my DLSR on a headrest mount so it was difficult to place well. 
I hope to get to some events and meet up with some fellow 86 owners to see how they set their car up for the track
Playlist:
 
Some images I took and the professional photographer took:

Depending on my day I quite enjoy these calls.  The last one I had I told them I work for euro ncap and one week while at work I had 14 crashes which were out of my control.  The girl on the other end of the phone got so excited by the scenario she transfered me to her superior for a compensation estimate.  Even when I explained that the car I was traveling in was dragged by a wire at exactly 65mph into a concrete block they didn't cotton on to the fact I was describing a crash test dummy.

Delivered already! Fitted at lunchtime, looks good.