spikyone

Got a broken TPMS sensor that was preventing it re-inflating. Could be worse I guess!

Fair enough, £50 to get the tyre re-inflated doesn't seem so bad in that context! @Lauren, tried that - got it deflated but can't get it re-inflated and it's still sitting off the rim. Looks like there's some debris in there that I can't easily remove. I was surprised by the volume, seems very high with the stock 2nd cat still there.

So, the noise test at Brands was at 5200rpm, which seems pretty high. They registered 95dB, so noise is on the high side! I will have to double check what rpm Thruxton use to find out whether I'd be OK there. And unfortunately I ended my day with a pretty big spin along the grass at Graham Hill Bend that's left me waiting for a mobile tyre fitter to remove all the crap from my wheel and re-inflate the tyre. It had all been going so well til then too...

In fairness, the GT86 depreciation is one of the best around. The cheapest on Auto Trader (excluding insurance jobs) is still over £10k and it has over 90k miles on the clock. So it's still worth 40% of its new price. The AA reckon on that sort of depreciation being standard for 3 years/30k miles...

EL, and yes, I kept the stock front pipe; no desire to swap it out at MoT time every year. Given the increase in volume from a catless manifold and a catback, I suspect the noise would've been too much for my ears with a decat front pipe anyway.

There's no static noise at Donington, only drive-by, so I don't know yet. I'm at Brands Hatch next Friday so will post the noise figures after I've been measured. Hopefully it's still quiet enough to be able to do Thruxton later in the year!

TRD style spoiler. One of the cheap-ish pre-painted ones from eBay. I was also hoping to have a set of (absurdly expensive) Grazio tail lights fitted by now, but they've been stuck with customs in Coventry for the past week.

Chances are when you took it for a test drive, the dealer warmed it up before you got there! Honestly, I think the stock gearbox is pretty damn good once it's warmed up. It's precise, has a fairly short throw, and a decent weight. Although my main benchmark at the moment is the other half's Nissan Juke, and you can practically move the gear stick in a circle when that's in neutral. I'd recommend the MTEC springs and the shift insert too. Those couple of cheap modifications made a surprisingly big difference considering that I didn't think there was much wrong with the gearbox in the first place. It slots through the gate with even more precision and an even nicer weight than before and makes the shift a lovely thing to use.

If you take @GreenSpring up on that offer you'd be welcome to come and listen to my TD resonated catback too, it's the one that @Samsss mentioned

You forgot to tell him to get the NA package to go with it

That's what the spoke stickers are for - giving it a bit of colour Sounds like we have similar tastes though; I don't really like bronze wheels with grey either. Hopefully as long as the wheels are shiny enough, it'll still look good. I tried some gunmetal TE37SLs on a grey 86 in Gran Turismo and those looked alright, but they're only 8.5J and wider in 18" and the offset is different, which is why I'm leaning towards the CE28SL. Since ET48 is the same as stock it should keep a similar steering feel with no spacers. If/when I get some CE28s, I'll go without spacers unless the wheels look so horribly lost that it completely offends me. Looking forward to seeing some more pictures when you get everything fitted!

Lovely wheels! I was planning exactly the same thing for my grey 86; either TE37 or CE28. Both styles look perfect on our cars but I was erring towards the CE28SL; I've already asked Lucas how much they would cost and am hoping to buy a set in a few months, all being well... Are you going to use spacers, and are you going to have them refurbed in black before fitting? I'm curious as to how grey-on-grey works as a look.

I did the Black Friday deal so EL, which I wanted anyway. I'm in Swindon and can promise the drive was worth it. I booked into a cheap hotel the night before. Like @LeviDane I also got a ride in the turbo car and it's an absolute blast. Like the NA kit but even more so. It was so well sorted that from the passenger seat it felt like it pulled as smoothly as a supercharged car. Really impressed with what they've done.

Yes, great to meet you and spend a few hours talking cars - hope it wasn't too much of a distraction from your other work! I just had "the chat" with my insurer too, Adrian Flux (Marker Study). After reading a horror story about how the package had affected someone else's premium, imagine my delight to find there was no premium increase, just an admin fee Hope everyone else gets a Christmas present as good as that!

Great choice, had mine done today. @Paulis right about the difference, it feels like a much bigger performance gain than the 20bhp peak power increase suggests. 25% more torque at 4k rpm is just huge. And those shift springs will blow you away.

Had mine done today (thanks @Mike@TD.co.uk!) and I’ve just been out for a late night blast to see how it felt on some empty roads nearby. From a motorway drive back from Warrington I had the impression that it felt better throughout the rev range - not just where the dip used to be, but even below the dip where the graphs show no difference in torque. The quick blast confirmed that feeling, but also highlighted that the engine feels a lot more flexible and just picks up the revs from anywhere on the tacho. It’s a bit chilly and I’m still on Primacies, but the added urgency shows off the chassis balance even more. Coming off roundabouts the extra torque made it feel like I was in a lower gear. It was probably helped by the catback, which went from “a bit noisy” doing a steady motorway cruise to “bloody hilarious” when driven enthusiastically (I’ll temper the “bit noisy” part by saying that I’d recently installed the Mishimoto induction hose, which had taken away the previous motorway-speed noise. If I’d fitted the induction hose at the same time as the catback it would be more like a change in the noise rather than being noticeably louder) Mike tempted me with the MTEC shift springs too, which turned the stock car’s very good gearshift into an exceptional gearshift. I’m amazed by how much quicker and more precise it feels, and I didn’t think that was possible. On first impressions it’s also taken away the slight feeling that something was scratching when going across the box (1-2, 3-4, and 5-6). I would certainly recommend that to anyone, even someone who wasn’t planning any performance modifications.

Holy crap that's a big jump. Hopefully you'll be able to find something cheaper next year. I know my insurer will cover mods so it's just a question of how hard they'll hit me...

How much is a "preposterous leap", if you don't mind me asking? And who are you insured with? I'm off to see Mike in a couple of weeks and wondering how much mine will go up, though it's currently not too expensive for a stock car (~£320 IIRC).

By coincidence I just took mine off. Someone had a ridiculously good price for a Mishimoto in their Black Friday sale Will PM you...

Hope that your recovery is going well, great news that you'll be keeping the car. Does that mean you're having scissor doors fitted to make it easier to get in/out?

The model years in the UK are the same for the GT86. Mine is a MY16 and I picked it up in September 2015 - the first ones had arrived here in June/July IIRC. The first cars in the UK were also MY13, I believe - you can tell from the VIN. For Blameshift's benefit, whilst there were changes between model years between 2012-2016 (as well as variations between FRS and GT86) I'm not aware of any differences between model years that would affect compatibility with aftermarket parts either.

Can't afford to right now. Next year you'll be going in my speed dial

I'm always tempted by TOM's tails, until I see one of the world's dullest car designs wearing horribly similar lights... ETA: They do look great with a lip spoiler and a set of TE37s though:

There isn't a man alive that's seen a set of Primacies wear out. After two track days and a day at Millbrook with @CATDT (CAT Driver Training) mine still look like new... I'm still on stock pads and fluid too, but will soon be replacing both with something a bit more tolerant of higher temperatures. Speaking of CAT, if you haven't done any track time before then it's well worth booking yourself on one of their courses. By the time you pay for a track day and some insurance, you're easily halfway to the cost of a day with CAT, and the skills that you'll learn with them will let you get the most out of any track days in future.

You mean the 215bhp and 171lbft for the baseline figures weren't a giveaway?