A new GT86 Club Series has been launched and this time it's called the 'Blue Edition', with it's own colour of electric blue. You may remember the other Club Series edition in Solar Orange. That model was solely cosmetic, but whilst you could say the same of the Blue Edition it has an optional extra called the 'Performance Pack'. The interesting thing about the performance pack is what you get for the extra £1460. Richard from RRG Macclesfield invited me down on a sunny day to drive it.
How about this for value? In the pack there are 4 piston Brembo calipers up front and two piston Brembo calipers a the rear. The Sachs dampers are revalved to increase their stiffness and gain more focus on handling. There is also some strengthening to the lower arms on the rear suspension and you get a set of different wheels. These are presumably to be able to clear the new bigger brake calipers and bigger discs. When you add up the cost of these extra and very nice parts, it seems like an absolute bargain for the money. The performance pack is only available on the Blue Edition, so could this be the best GT86 you can buy right now?
Let's start with the colour, which if you want the performance pack you will have to like. Thankfully it's a lovely colour reminiscent of Porsche Maritime Blue which really is no bad thing at all. I rather like it.
There is something just so appealing about a nice set of Brembo calipers on a car. Whilst the standard GT86 brakes are certainly adequate I have found their limits at times on Alpine descents and also on the race track. A big brake kit with greater stopping capacity is hugely confidence inspiring when you are pushing on and let's face it, you'd have it wouldn't you? Here's the fronts and rears respectively:
This car supplied by RRG Macclesfield also has the addition of an HKS drop in air filter and a resonated Cobra exhaust. I totally agree with Richard here in that the first thing you should change on this car is the exhaust, the stock one is just way too quiet. When I review a GT86 for RRG Macclesfield I always follow my usual test route, the 'Lauren Triangle'. This takes the A523 out of Macclefield to Boseley, then the A54 up to the top with the downhill route being on the infamous A537 Cat and Fiddle road. Fifteen years ago I used to live in Macc' and this was my test route and practice route when I was racing back then. It's a spectacular drive with a real good variety of corners, compressions and perhaps more importantly a route I know intimately.
So what do the changes mean? Well, setting off on the relative cruise in traffic out of Macc' and towards Boseley, the car maintains it's decent ride quality as the standard kouki car. It's a comfortable and more refined place to be than the earlier zenki car which I have. Richard told me that when he got out of a stock 2018 car and into this one that he felt that the car cornered more flattly and was better controlled. When I look for these comparisons it's really tricky as my benchmark is of course my car which I've driven for past 122,000 miles and my car has coilovers, poly bushings and pretty much everything done on the suspension, so a stock car always feels like more of a cooking version in comparison. But, compare I shall. There are no changes to the interior in the Blue Edition, so no orange stitching that you got in the Original Club Series car.
After a sedate drive we turn left onto the A54 to Boseley and this is my chance to open the car up, so off we go. As I approach the first tricky set of S- bends I can see that the road is glistening somewhat. Perhaps not ideal when I remind myself I'm on the Primacy HP tyre, I've got the car set to track mode as well to allow me a little more slip, well some is better than none at all! The car inspires confidence and we navigate the first few tricky bends easily, not pushing too hard. This is my first time on the brakes and there is a lovely amount of feel to them. I note that they require a higher pedal pressure than my car running AP 4 piston calipers up front. That's not a bad thing as it allows you to modulate the brake pressure well. Then as we start to climb we inevitably happen upon a seemingly well driven Fiat Panda, though I'm barely trying to be honest. From here we end up behind a tractor for some time and end up in a line of traffic. Sometimes it goes your way, other times it doesn't. Never mind we pull over further up in a lay by to take some pictures and let the traffic go
The traffic has gone and I know we are about to give this car a real test. The next section of road is very up and down with some hard compressions with sweeping bends and a good opportunity to push the car a bit harder. As we hit the first series of bends, the car loads up well maintaining it's composure and as the road dips and rises the damping is certainly keeping up with things, I feel confident to push the car harder and it's standard ride height, means I can push the car hard through compressions that would cause my car to be kissing the tarmac. We become briefly airborne over one of the rises, just leaving the tarmac, but the car deals with it no problem. I'm impressed and enjoying myself here. The difference in damping between this car and a standard one, feels for me fairly subtle, but perhaps coming from a car with bespoke dampers and active suspension it was always going to be far less of a difference when comparing to mine.
What is important here is that there is some perceived to help to turn in and the damping has no problem dealing with mid corner bumps holding it's line and staying composed. As we rise towards the top of the A54 I notice they've laid new tarmac, time to update my records and I think that I haven't given the brakes much of a test yet, but there is the downhill on the Cat'n'Fiddle to come.
We cross the plateau and pass the Cat and Fiddle pub which is still not open. Terrible pub in an iconic location. And so we begin our descent and through the first corner, 'Moisties', named so because it is always damp due to water running across it and then onto the 'Balcony' giving a great view over the Peak District. All the corners on the Cat'n'Fiddle have names. The best thing about this road is how far you can sight ahead and soon we easily pass the traffic in front of us. This car has only done 700 odd miles, so the engine feels a little tight and I'm being a bit easy on it. As we approach the first tight left hander at speed, I'm able to really get on the brakes. The car stops well, no doubt about that, pedal feel is more than my car but it is not difficult to modulate it well. I did find it a little hard to move the rear around under braking on the turn-in but I know that it's easier on my car with more front bias, but the car grips well and I can still neutralise any understeer, leading to the stability control just intervening on the exit with a smidge of opposite lock.
This car just eggs you on and really a GT86 is simply made for roads like these. Even better the road is nice and dry for the most part, so I can work the suspension and the balance feels good. I'm aware with stock geommetry settings that more negative camber helps get rid of any understeer, but I think this car is doing a bit better with it's uprated dampers over the standard car. I can feel myself getting into the zone, relishing every heel and toe downchange, loading the car up ready for the next corner, nailing the exit and getting a little bit of oversteer in places.
We pull over for a quick breather and more pictures and some five minutes later all the traffic we passed at the top, comes by!
A quick glance and oil temperature is around 120C, which shows that you can get it to a fair old temperature if you are working it hard, but it never really seems to go above this at least on the road. The rest of the drive down is spoilt somewhat by traffic, but never mind, we've had a good few clear sections to test the car. This is really a test of the performance pack and it's no surprise that it is absolutely worth having. You'd have to be crazy to order a Blue Edition without ticking the Performance Pack it is just an absolute no brainer. The cost of individually buying the Brembo calipers all round would easily be more than the cost of the performance pack and you get wheels and uprated dampers as well. This car really is the ideal base model if you want to go modifying. My only observation with the brakes and this may relate to comparing them to mine is that I wondered if the pads didn't quite bite as well as mine. I've been mulling this over, but I think it is that mine require less pedal pressure to get them to bite and this could simply be more that I need to acclimatise to this set up.
This car also has the improved JBL setup and Richard gave me a demonstration. It is way, way better than the original JBL setup, though seeming to use the same components there has been some retuning. The bass is more prominent and the clarity of sound is much clearer. Again, I have a £3000 pro-install in my car, but the new JBL system starts to look worth the money as the standard sound system is just so poor. I think they should offer the JBL set up as standard really!
The spare wheel has gone and you have a sub instead, much like the old setup. I'm not sure whether a spare would fit underneath it, that's something to look into.
The gear stick surround now has a leather gaiter which is much nicer than the cheap looking synthetic in earlier cars.
My car next to the Blue Edition:
In summary, the Performance Pack is a total no brainer. It would be absolutely brilliant if Toyota offered this as an option on all new GT86's but at the moment you'll have to order a Blue Edition to get it. I would!
I've come to the conclusion on this build, that it's easier to pay a little extra for bits that will work properly. Parts that are designed to replace OEM rather than having to alter/modify existing bits, will generally work be easier to install and work better in the long run also.
The previous guy wanted to cut corners wherever possible, I'm prepared to spend a bit more to get this done properly now.
Turns out that the FBM fuel return kit was a piece of crap. No instructions for install and the only possible way to install the return line into the OEM fuel basket was to cut holes...
After asking FBM for instructions and some assistance, I got nothing. So promptly returned the item along with a shitty email about their poor product and even poorer customer service.
We still needed a fuel return system for the 1UZ and I came across a beautiful piece of kit from Radium Engineering. A little pricey, but it fully replaces the OEM fuel hanger and basket meaning that it simplifies the whole install process. Unboxing it today, I was amazed at the quality of all the pieces. It's almost too pretty to stick back into the fuel tank where it'll never be seen again
Also chose to upgrade the fuel pump to a 450lph unit as the 255 I originally has would be on it's limit for the 1UZ.
I just carefully picked the glue off, washed the car and used polish when detailing it to get rid of the ghosting, it did take a while aha, it may well be worse on black paint. A good polish should do it though 👍
Thanks for the reply and links. I'm sure its related to the drop links too, but I couldn't remove the lower nut on them to test on the jack. I've converted the clip to mp4 which should play on phones. you can see at the bottom it looks like the paint has worn away from movement?
Car has only done 12k and was fine before changing the springs. only other thing I can think is the eibach roll bar is on the hole at the end and with stock springs this is causing binding rather than vertical movement?
P1110736.mp4
A proper, hand made, custom engine loom with OEM Denso connectors! Not the shitty, cheap Chinese, off-the-shelf job that was originally given to me as a "custom" loom
Getting close now...
I'm convinced everyone on here is a total bass junky. I know the tyre noise raises the noise floor of the lows a huge amount, but some upgraded woofers have more oomph than the door cards can manage... they really thrum if you push it!
In my opinion the acceleration is the biggest difference; they can simply accelerate faster than we can, so they are able to 'punch' out of the corners. This is most noticeable because our (well mine) driving abilities mean we're not holding our speed through the corners.
Thanks for organising a really good day out, Mark. I thoroughly enjoyed myself getting three laps in! Was also interesting to try your car with the BC coilovers. They ride really well, but rear damping seems to run out of ideas at times, when faced with a number of compressions at speed. Sorry for scaring you a bit! Was also nice to meet @TommyC, hope you enjoyed the ride. I had an absolute blast all the way back to the A55 too, the roads around there are cracking. We should do it more often!
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