will300

Update 04/07/2020 - Bedford Autodrome Trackday Video #2 - BMW Incident As with most trackdays there was a little incident involing another selfish driver, in this case a BMW M3 driver. Myself and a Mike were doing a few laps at Bedford autodrome GT circuit, lead and follow. I lead for a couple of laps and then decided to let Mike overtake so I could follow. On the lap that we swapped positions a Civic Type R (1st car) and BMW M3 (2nd car) came up on myself fairly quickly around turn 9, before the big hairpin of turn 10 which leads on to the main straight. I'm aware both cars are significantly faster than my N/A BRZ, so I keep far to right on the main straight to let them past on the left. I was expecting the Civic to pass me first and then pull in front of me on the right and the BMW to overtake us both. My logic was Civic has 320hp and BMW around 400+hp so the Civic should clear me quickly and the BMW should clear us both in the similar amount of time, and then slot in behind Mike for the chicane. Instead the CIvic goes to overtake me, at the same time the BMW decides to overtake us both, so we end up 3 abreast down the main straight. I thought that was abit close and abit silly of the BMW, end of. Oh no, not the end of it at all. The BMW then decides I'm fast enough to overtake Mike in the BRAKING ZONE (not allowed on UK track days) of the chicane. At this point the Mike is prepared to turn in for the chicane and doesn't expect the BMW to dive bomb him. He see the BMW in his mirrors lucky and stamps on the brakes performing a full emergency stop and stops just before running out of tarmac. This is all going on just as I'm hitting the braking zone, the BMW and Civic make the corner but Mike has now stopped in the track and I'm not sure if he's seen me, so I also do a full emergency stop as I don't want to take the corner if he decides to pull in front of me. Thankfully the new PFC brake pads pull my car to a stop the car nice and quickly. We then both went back to the pits for a change of underwear.... No BRZ's or GT86's were harmed in the making of this video.

Update 04/07/2020 - Bedford Autodrome Trackday Video #1 Here's my fastest lap from the day with data overlay. For some reason full throttle only shows as 80%, treat this a flat out:

Update 04/07/2020 - Bedford Autodrome Trackday As I'm sure most of your are aware and have been in a similar situation with the Coronavirus situation and lockdown, I found that I've hardly used the car except for a run once every two weeks to keep the battery topped up. That work for the first two months until I needed to go into work one day and the battery was flat, typical. I then jump started it at the weekend and it's been fine since. I might look at getting a jump start battery, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Anyway due to the lack of use the car has had and the announcement that trackdays will be allowed in June, I decide to get one booked. I didn't want to book on one too early in June due to the main restrictions still being in place. Unfortunately most people didn't care about this and it meant most trackdays got booked up pretty quickly and I missed out. However I noticed the OpenTrack added an extra date for Saturday 4th July at Bedford Autodrome. So I and @willclarke promptely booked the day. Now to the trackday, upon arrival I was greated by a member of OpenTrack sat in his car at the entrance, he instructed me to park in the regular car park and sign on, in the usual place. The regular forms you need to take with you and briefing have both been replaced with online versions. To be honest this is much better as it saves alot of hassle in trying to remember to take the forms with you. It also helps remove some of the urgency to get to the track before 8:30 for the briefing. The sign on, consisted of standing behind the person in front at a 2m distance, the sign on area had perspex screens up in place and the sign on team only need to know your name and see your drivers license. The sign on area was one way so you had to go out a different way to the way in. I then drove round to the garages to unpack/get ready. I was then meet by anyother GT86 owner Mike who was attending and we had a good chat. Social distancing stayed inplace for most of the day. On to the track time, the first session I was aware I needed to bed in the new brake pads, this didn't go as well as intended due to Bedford having so many long straights which allow the brakes to cool, and the fact I had the VSC on Sport mode. This meant the rear brakes got hotter than the front, which caused a moment on the main straight when the rear locked up before the front calipers. I did a few laps and it started to settle in, I then came back in to the pits to let the car cool. The 2nd session I turned traction control off fully which help as the rear brakes weren't heating up so much. I didn't have any issues from this point on. The stopping power provided by the new pads is excellent and I'm happy with the purchase. This helped to give me more confidence in the car. I'll report back on the pads after the next trackday. If you've been following the build you note there have been a number of changes since the last trackday in Feburary, these are the new Seat, new wider wheels and tyres, TRD fins and new brake pads. Overall these changes helped make a massive difference to the car. I can now carry more speed through the corners and I'm not rolling around in the seat so much, this has helped give me a better feeling and controlability. In some cases I found that I was over slowing the car for some corners and this meant I lost the balance and it washed out. Looking back at my footage I can see that I've improved by 6 seconds from my previous fastest lap with the new setup and there is still plenty of time of the table. I'll link my fastest lap video below, as you can see I have a small oversteal issue towards the end at corner 18 (2:55 on the video) where I lose grip for a second and this killed my momentum, plus I definitely think I can go faster through that corner. A sub 3 minute lap should be possible. The new setup also seems more consistant as my laptimes throughout the day are now much closer together, when I got a relatively clean lap. Here's some pictures from the day:

Update 27/06/2020 - New Brake Pads At the start of the year I was looking forward to attending a trackday with Javelin at Spa Francorchamps around March / April time. Because this was scheduled to be a two day event I thought it best to look at getting some new brake pads. My existing front pads were becoming fairly low and I didn't want to run out of brakes at the end of the Kemmel straight for example. Currently I was using the original Ferrodo DS2500's my AP kit came with, I did swap them out for Endless MX72 pads for 6 months at one stage, however I found the Endless pads lacked the thermal capacity needed after several hot laps on track. So I swapped the Ferrodo's back in. I've kept the MX72's as my spare/emergency set. This now left me with a choice, do I buy Ferrodo's again or get something different. I like the Ferrodo's as basic track pad but I felt they lacked some feel / bite, as it turns out this is a common complaint from other reviews of them. So I started to look at other options, there is quite a good selection of pads available in the correct fitment for the AP calipers. I narrowed it down to the following selection: Pagid - RSL29 Winmax - W5 PFC - 08 Carbone Lorraine - RC6E Three of the pad choices are an edurance race compound, so should have excellent durability. In the end I decide to go for the PCF 08 pads, for a couple of reasons: 1. @Deacon had swapped to them last year and he's using them in the stardard caliper without issue or any overheating. Which I think is amazing considering he's still running the OEM calipers. 2. The Nurburgring GT86 Cup cars run these pads in the VLN races. 3. Cost and Availability, at the time they were the cheapest option for a complete set (Front & Rear). 4. I could source them from @James@Amber, all the other pads would mean ordering from a new supplier and I'd rather not have to deal with an unknown company if they sent the wrong size out with the short amount of time before the trackday. (For reference: Partbox also stock the PFC pads) 5. Being an endurance pad they "should" work from cold. Unfortunately however the Coronavirus situation happened and that meant the Spa trackday got cancelled, so I never got round to fitting them until now. I'll report back on the pads once I've had time to try them out. Here's a couple of photos during the install: Front PFC 08 Compound on the left & Ferrodo DS2500 on the right. Fitted: Rear PFC 08 Compound on the left & Endless MX72 on the right. Fitted - Just missing the pins which hold the pads in place.

Atleast most of us have got to experience the GT86 at the limit.....

If your in a massive bind I can give you my old front HoseTechnik ones. But @Lauren is right just buy some new ones.

Hi @beefman I've been insured with Adrian Flux in the past for a couple of years, they are generally one of the cheapest modified car insurance companies. However their sales team can be abit demanding when speaking to them, overall the service was decent, they had no issue with mods and it was easy to add them, either via phone or email. Am I currently insured with them? No, they don't offer competitive track day insurance, which is a key selling point to me. One of their single track day policies is £200. I recently insured with a company called Need2Insure, they were more expensive than Adrian Flux, but I got 5 track days worth of cover included in the price, which made it better value than the Adrian Flux quote. A couple of other suggestion to try: Greenlight - Also been insured by Greenlight, they are very good and politer that Adrian Flux. They just weren't competive enough this time around for me. REIS Insurance Sky Insurance Pace Ward

My import duty bill took a month with Fedex.

That wheel setup will be very aggressive for a stock suspension setup and will poke quite a bit. It'll be fine once lowered and with some camber. With regards to cats and MOT, as soon as you remove the cat from the exhaust the MOT should technically be a fail. However you should still be able to pass with an aftermarket manifold and stock front pipe. The most common exhausts manifolds available in the UK are the Tuning Developments Manifold (best valve for money), Rogue Motorsport Manifold (premium quality) or the Tomei clones (dirt cheap). As for the boxer engine, they are very reliable, the key things to keep an eye on are the oil & coolant levels and there is a triangle shaped plate at the back of the engine that can sometimes leak oil. Also what's a Small track day?

Hi Michael This kit should definitely fit, it has been designed to fit behind the OEM wheels: https://www.amber-performance.co.uk/product.php?xProd=25282&xSec=8430 Personally however this the best kit available and most popular, but I can't confirm fitment with your wheels. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Subaru-BRZ-Toyota-GT86-330mm-front-brake-kit-with-AP-Racing-4-pot-calipers/254364472322?hash=item3b394dd402:g:7zQAAOSwuGhbwy2Z It is one of the least aggressive BBK's and does clear most wheels, except the stock ones. Unfortunately those Speedlines have a really high offset so it's hard to say, you could however run a 5mm spacer which will help clear the wheel or if you don't want to run a spacer the rotor hats are custom made so they can make them thicker to have a built in spacer so to speak.

He/she has got a BRZ, so really should have it done at Subaru if they want to keep up the manufacture service record. @1000 PR perhaps ask the Subaru dealer about the warranty conditions if you don't have the service as we are in exceptional times at the moment and it's non-essential.

Why does it say Toyota USA Museum, when it's clearly the Japanese one. 🤣 I opened the link and was like I've been here and it's definitely not in America.

Thanks James, the wheels are selaed using G-Techniq W5 Wheel Armour and overcoated with G-Techniq Exo V4, this will hopefully stop any dirt and brake dust from sticking to them, for atleast 18months. I'll spray them with Citrus wash, jet wash them and then wash them with car shampoo and they'll clean up easily. On my 949Racing wheels the G-Techniq coating was starting to deteriorate, so I purchased some Bilt Hamber: https://www.bilthamber.com/auto-wheel, which I was very pleased with.

Having once had white wheels you'd think I'd learn.... Guess I'll be doing weekly wheel cleaning from now on. Thank you, I had to try the traditional Subaru colour scheme atleast once.

That was all the rust from the brake discs after going for a quick drive to get the above photos. I've now ordered some Atom Mac to try.

There is loads of brake caliper/disc clearance with those wheels and my AP's. The Reyland AP kit is good in that aspect as it'll work with the majority of wheels, front disc are 330mm.

Thanks @Kaltorak, yeah I was quite surprised at the weight of these as I know some of the GramLights aren't actually that light. 😄 Also this was meant to be my secret Spa setup. Thanks @spikyone, wheel design does make a massive difference to how big they can look. I think the fitment could do with some minor adjustments, specifically to the rear camber. Thanks @MartinT

Would also make less mess on my new wheels 😄

TRD Fender fins:

Pictures of the full car:

Pictures of the wheel fitment on the car:

Update 10/04/2020 - Easter Weekend Jobs - Part 2: Fitting Wheels In february this year I posted my car goals for the year, the first goal was: 1. Order a set of forged wheels. I must have spent 18 months looking for a new set of wheels to swap over from the 949 Racing wheels prior to this, as I wanted a new look. I've always wanted to fit a set of forged wheels to the car and there are a couple of sets that I really like, these are: 1. Rays Volks TE37 Saga in Bronze, size: 17x9 +42 2. Rays Volks ZE40 in Bronze, size: 18x9 +40 3. Titan 7 TS5 in Satin Titanium, size: 17x9 +37 Owning a set of Rays would be the dream as they are highly regarded as the top wheel manufacturer in the JDM market and being a massive JDM fan this means a lot to me. I'd originally spoke to @Lucas@PartBox a while ago about a set of Rays, he informed that a set of Rays Volks (either wheel) would mean spending atleast of £3K on a set, which I wasn't keen on. I therefore looked into importing a set from Japan, however with shipping, taxes and import duty they'd probably end up near enough the same price, plus should there be anything wrong with the wheels it'd be a massive pain to sort out and I wasn't going to pay £2K+ for a set of wheels with no UK contact. Because of this, it basically put an end to the idea of ordering a set of Rays. The third option is from a relatively new company in the form of Titan 7, they sell a wheel called: TS5, these looked ideal however I wanted something vibrant after running a black wheel for a couple of years. Whilst Titan 7 offer a Bronze finish, they only do this for selected fitments and weren't prepared to offer this on the 86/BRZ fitment, typically they once did a limited run of the bronze in the past, which I missed out on. This left a Satin Titanium finish, which is extremely nice in itself, however it wasn't what I was really after. Whilst I could get these from a UK seller I wasn't 100% sure on them due to colour and my thoughts being if I'm buying forged wheels I'd rather buy Rays. This ultimately left me with a dilemma, do I spend over £3K on a set of Rays or do I bin the idea? In february I decided to ask @Lucas@PartBox what Rays wheels Partbox had instock for the 86/BRZ or could get relevately quickly. They had a set of blue Gramlights 57DR in 18x9.5 +38 wheels in stock, again this wasn't what I wanted but Lucas did say they could get a number of 57CR's in various colours in within a month, colours being: Sakura Pink, Gold, Bronze, Semi-Gloss Black, Black Chrome and Gunmetal Blue. Knowing several other members are running these wheels I wasn't sure on the idea, as I wanted something different. After some google-fu I found out the 57CR's in 17x9 only weight 8.2KG, this changed my mind on these wheels and I realised they actually make alot of sense, it's a wheel in a size I've run before, no-one else in the UK 86/BRZ community was running this wheel in that size (that I'm aware of, at that time anyway) as everyone goes for 18" version, they are relatively light for a cast wheel and good value at only £1200 and once I've added tyres and accessories it'd come in at under £2k, which was a much nicer figure. Now the choice was which colour do I go for, I'd looked at the 57CR's in the past and wanted them in either Gold or White, as white wasn't available this left only one colour choice Gold. A quick confirmation with Lucas and the wheels were ordered. Less than a month later, to both our surprise Lucas informed me the wheels had arrived. I then sealed the wheels using G-Techniq W5 Wheel Armour and overcoated with G-Techniq Exo V4. In the mean time I ordered some Rays Dura-Nuts L42 wheel nuts in Blue, Gramlight 57CR center caps in blue & black chrome, Rays metal spigot rings and Rays blue valve caps from Nengun Performance in Japan, along with a set of black (D4S) TRD fender fins. I've wanted a set of fender fins for a while, ideally in carbon however they stopped producing these a couple of years ago, this left black as the next logical colour. Typically these parts took much longer to arrive than the wheels as there was a delay with the production of the fender fins. I also had a shipping issue, I ordered the parts before the CoronaVirus fully hit and used a work address, when I found out the parts had been shipped I had to get this swapped to my home address and yet typically the courier still tried to deliver it to the work address despite being expressly told to change it. A few days later the parts arrived and I could begin fitting them. Now from some photos, firstly the wheels and tyres:

@vanko25 hmm a rust repellent would probably be a better option, something like ACF50. I've not coated mine though.

Update 10/04/2020 - Easter Weekend Jobs - Part 1 I recently ordered some new wheels from @Lucas@PartBox, so before fitting them I decided to give the wheel arches a quick scrub down to remove the majority of crud and clean my Tein Coilovers. Whilst I had the wheels off I noticed my calipers were looking abit sorry for themselves and caked in brake dust and brake fluid. Normally this wouldn't bother me to much, however as I was fitting new wheels I thought I'd tidy them up and reseal them with a coating of G-Techniq C5 Wheel Armour. Several days later they look as good as new. I also gave the exhaust a quick polish (before, during and after photos). I really need to get some Bilthamber Atom Mac that @sam534 recommended to stop my disks rusting when washing them.

Update 29/03/2020 - Car Cleaning I gave the car a quick wash over the weekend. Whilst I was at it I thought I should probably give the engine bay a quick clean to remove any winter crud: