Samwise

I'll be there in my little suzuki 😂

Thanks, I've been chatting with him via instagram and he has already been super helpful.  

Yes still happening as it stands 

The head unit is in, but even with the correct wiring adapter, it's not an altogether straightforward operation.  I am left with the following issues:
- The USB retention cable for Toyota doesn't fit the Subaru 2017+ connector.  I need to investigate this some more
- The steering wheel controls don't yet work until I can fathom the somewhat obscure instructions on patching the smart unit
- the trapezoidal bezel supplied in the fitting kit has an opening just too narrow to accommodate the Eonon unit - I'll attempt to file it wider
The most important thing is that sound quality is greatly improved and I now have Radio Paradise, Waze and bluetooth phone & contact directory all working fine.

I'll be there, albeit likely not in the 86. Make way for the Suzuki Alto 1.0 Daily! 😎

So despite being a member on quite a few owner's forums for various cars I've never actually made a project thread, usually due to a lack of in-progress pictures or simply being too lazy but I guess I may as well make my first one a big one!
 
So a couple of week's ago I picked up my GT86, I wasn't planning on getting one so soon but I've been keeping my eyes out for a cheap written off one with just the right amount of damage and that's exactly what I got when this popped up!
Warning graphic images! 
 




 
 
And it was in the exact colour I wanted! So less than 48 hours after it was listed I had placed a deposit and arranged to travel up to Lincoln to pick it up the following Saturday.
The car is a 63 plate and is registered as a Cat N (previously called Cat D) write off meaning that there is no structural damage to the chassis but it was beyond economical repair for the insurance company.
 
So the next Saturday rolled around and I was a little bit worried about what I was getting myself in to but I decided to just feign ignorance and rely on the Insurance insepctors classifying it correctly.
 

 
 
And when I finally got it back home and in the garage thats how it stayed for a couple of weeks as I didn't have the time to crack on with it.
 

I reckon you've chosen a better-looking spoiler than most I've seen.  I made a mistake looking at the price, though!

Okay so first of all. A tip of the hat to your dad letting you take his car over to Germany even though you'd never driven in Europe before. 
Secondly the body kit looks fairly subtle in the unpainted black with a carbon bonnet. Que lairy paint/wrap colour reveal? 
Thirdly can you actually see the easily copyable serial no. on the spoiler? 
Reverse the mould and make a pretty penny for a liberty walk "Style" spoiler. Sometimes I think the duck tail boot lip spoilers cost more than an actual chassis aero GT time attack scaffold attachment. 
Fourthly (if that's a thing) kick the car out in front of the garage and then you have loads of space to work on the body kit. Then all you need is a nice Spring weekend to fit it all up. That would make a good time-lapse '12 hours of body kit mounting'. 
Then wait for a dry day to slowly travel down to the fabrication shop for some bigger wheel arches to be welded in. 
Brakes and wheels fitted later on and before you know it your rolling to japshow in May. 
Engine swap over the Summer, burning tyres quicker than fuel by Autumn. 
You best get cracking Sam. 

Finally the time has come!
The update i've been waiting since September to finally make, the Rocket bunny kit is finally here!


but before I get on to that I'm going to turn this in to a bit of a double whammy as I forgot to make an update about another part that arrived recently, i'll keep it short and sweet to get on to the big bits!


I've always been a big lover of ducktail wings/spoilers rather than alot of feeble OEM wings or huge boot/chassis mounted ironing boards (BGW for short!) but i'm a bit picky when it comes to them and truthfully alot of the offerings for the 86 aren't to my taste but I found one that fit the bill.. (duck bill?.. i'll get my coat.) and ironically it turns out to be the Liberty Walk wing. The rest of the kit looks tragic but the spoiler is perfect to me and i'm sure i'll have someone tell me its sacriligous to mix Liberty Walk with Rocket bunny but who cares, it'll look epic!
However the fact that what is essentially just a fairly simple glass fibre piece was eye wateringly expensive and comes with it's own certificate of authenticity says more about Liberty Walk and their Target audience than me I think..









Now to get on to the main attraction..


Had a rather fun start to the week as I took a 700 mile round trip to Germany and back over Monday/Tuesday to go get the kit. A bit unnecessary but it was my own fault for organising it this way with the supplier all the way back when I raised the order in September. I had the idea to turn it in to a week long road trip holiday, visit Bruges, Nurburgring, etc on the way but after the headache of not knowing when it would show up and various delays I decided just to forgo it and just make it a simple there and back thing and put off making a holiday with it until the spring (I still have a booking for a track car hire and Eurotunnel trip i couldn't cancel!)


Anyway so here was the route, pretty easy in reality for my first time driving in Europe and surprisingly fast on the way home.







When I finally arrived on Monday evening this was waiting for me. I just about got the 200cm x 75cm x 55cm box in to my Dad's X3 which I had borrowed for the trip and set off to my hotel for the night.







The next morning when it was a little brighter and less windy/rainy in the Hotel car park I had to get the bits out to well.. Have a look of course! but also to fit them in the car a bit better so I could actually see where I was going!






And finally after a quick trip back home I was able to get the obvious pic of the bumper sat infront of the car.
Now I just have the next monumental task of trying to find a decent Garage/Barn/Unit to rent to store and work on the car. It became painfully obvious just how undersized the old single garage is when I tried to move the car about taking me a whole 15 minutes just to inch it down the drive way backwards, turn around and then inch it back up backwards again to get these pictures. The car will be milimetres at best from the walls either side between the houses with the arches and wheels are on and I think it will have 15-20cm at most between the car and the walls of the garage once it's in there so a bigger area to play is needed! but then again it feels as though I may be wishing for a lottery win instead with how difficult it's proving to find somewhere in my area...






Hopefully i can get back on to giving more regular updates now that I have all the pieces to crack on but I don't really want to start any drastic work without the space available. Fingers crossed to finding somewhere SOON. I was even thinking of making a few youtube videos of my progress as it was something I wanted to do alongside this Project thread when I started but chickened out of the idea down to lack of space again and being a bit of a wuss

Finally the time has come!
The update i've been waiting since September to finally make, the Rocket bunny kit is finally here!


but before I get on to that I'm going to turn this in to a bit of a double whammy as I forgot to make an update about another part that arrived recently, i'll keep it short and sweet to get on to the big bits!


I've always been a big lover of ducktail wings/spoilers rather than alot of feeble OEM wings or huge boot/chassis mounted ironing boards (BGW for short!) but i'm a bit picky when it comes to them and truthfully alot of the offerings for the 86 aren't to my taste but I found one that fit the bill.. (duck bill?.. i'll get my coat.) and ironically it turns out to be the Liberty Walk wing. The rest of the kit looks tragic but the spoiler is perfect to me and i'm sure i'll have someone tell me its sacriligous to mix Liberty Walk with Rocket bunny but who cares, it'll look epic!
However the fact that what is essentially just a fairly simple glass fibre piece was eye wateringly expensive and comes with it's own certificate of authenticity says more about Liberty Walk and their Target audience than me I think..









Now to get on to the main attraction..


Had a rather fun start to the week as I took a 700 mile round trip to Germany and back over Monday/Tuesday to go get the kit. A bit unnecessary but it was my own fault for organising it this way with the supplier all the way back when I raised the order in September. I had the idea to turn it in to a week long road trip holiday, visit Bruges, Nurburgring, etc on the way but after the headache of not knowing when it would show up and various delays I decided just to forgo it and just make it a simple there and back thing and put off making a holiday with it until the spring (I still have a booking for a track car hire and Eurotunnel trip i couldn't cancel!)


Anyway so here was the route, pretty easy in reality for my first time driving in Europe and surprisingly fast on the way home.







When I finally arrived on Monday evening this was waiting for me. I just about got the 200cm x 75cm x 55cm box in to my Dad's X3 which I had borrowed for the trip and set off to my hotel for the night.







The next morning when it was a little brighter and less windy/rainy in the Hotel car park I had to get the bits out to well.. Have a look of course! but also to fit them in the car a bit better so I could actually see where I was going!






And finally after a quick trip back home I was able to get the obvious pic of the bumper sat infront of the car.
Now I just have the next monumental task of trying to find a decent Garage/Barn/Unit to rent to store and work on the car. It became painfully obvious just how undersized the old single garage is when I tried to move the car about taking me a whole 15 minutes just to inch it down the drive way backwards, turn around and then inch it back up backwards again to get these pictures. The car will be milimetres at best from the walls either side between the houses with the arches and wheels are on and I think it will have 15-20cm at most between the car and the walls of the garage once it's in there so a bigger area to play is needed! but then again it feels as though I may be wishing for a lottery win instead with how difficult it's proving to find somewhere in my area...






Hopefully i can get back on to giving more regular updates now that I have all the pieces to crack on but I don't really want to start any drastic work without the space available. Fingers crossed to finding somewhere SOON. I was even thinking of making a few youtube videos of my progress as it was something I wanted to do alongside this Project thread when I started but chickened out of the idea down to lack of space again and being a bit of a wuss

I'll be there, albeit likely not in the 86. Make way for the Suzuki Alto 1.0 Daily! 😎

I'll be there, albeit likely not in the 86. Make way for the Suzuki Alto 1.0 Daily! 😎

Someone before me took the last one!

So the other update from this weekend is everyone's favourite, more new car parts! Just before Christmas I ordered a set of big Front & rear brakes from PB Brakes and they recently arrived in this fantastic Anodised silver finish. I opted to go for the largest specs I would be able to fit behind my new wheels, 6 pot Calipers with 330mm discs on the front and 4pot calipers with 330mm discs on the rear complete with their sport pads.   I always love the look of a big set of brakes poking out from behind an equally nice set of wheels and with my future plans the extra stopping power will be very welcome (and my current brakes were getting close to limit! can you tell i've been justifying more purchases in my head? )   When it comes to brakes there's of course plenty to choose from with the likes of Brembo, AP racing, Alcon which are often massive money but are proven to definitely be up to the job if your car sees race or heavy track use. Personally for me however as it's not my intention with the car so I was happy to explore cheaper options such as K-Sport/D2-racing (who i believe are one and the same) and that lead me to also find PB Brakes. They are a relatively new-ish brand I believe and as a result there isn't massive fountain of knowledge in regards to them however there are some decent reviews when you search around. Also having spoken to them in regards to fitment when ordering my wheels I can safely say their customer service is pretty fantastic so I decided to bite the bullet and go with the lesser known brand.   This is where the pictures do the rest of the talking  
   

When I look at those brakes I have a real urge to pull out a torque wrench and start checking all the bolts are tightened. That's just my ocd though. 

A few more goodies I got recently but i'll save the best for last!


Along with my wheels I got a full set of rear adjustable Camber, Toe and Trailing arms from Driftworks. There are loads of these on the market but some can be pretty wildly expensive as they're likely made from all sorts of billet aluminium or titanium and others come in some rather funky colours which im not fond of. These arms are made of Steel so a bit heavier than the various billet options but also a fraction of the price and are finished in a nice subtle black powdercoating.











As well as this to go along with my new wheels I picked up some tyres. it was quite tricky to find the exact combo I was looking for without breaking the bank but the Federal 595 RS-R's were the perfect size and an incredible price.

I wanted to go with 245/34/18 on the front and 285/30/18 on the rear to keep the rolling radius of the wheels almost exactly the same as stock and exactly the same front/back. The rear size is quite rare with any form of performance tyre as most are made for 20 inch porsche wheels, etc and being able to find these Federals at £400 for all 4 corners was a great price for so much rubber. They're also a light semi-slick track tyre in essence as well and i've always heard incredible things about them along with the Nankang NS2R's when searching the web for good track tyres as they always come up in conversations as a good budget alternative to tyres such as the Toyo R888 and Yokohama AD08R's which we previous ran on our VX220. I Don't really plan to do loads of track days in the 86 but it should be good to see how these handles and later down the line i'll most likely need the extra grip when i've got a few extra cylinder's up front!








Another small one as it was a Christmas present was a set of TGR Motorsports wheel nuts.

I had met these guys previously last year (2019) at JAE Festival and it was good to have a chat with the owner and check out his products. I've always quite liked fancy wheel nuts but i've never been fond of their price tag. Alot of lesser wheel nuts can rust pretty quickly after use or even be made from Aluminium (definitely not what you want!) and previously i've used Muteki SR48 which are a high quality, well priced product from japan however these TGR nuts are made of a durable steel construction finished in gunmetal with an internal drive and a small aluminium beauty cap to finish them off, i went for black in this case to keep things subtle but they come in all kinds of colours. One of my favourite bits about them as well is they also feature a free sprinning collar at the bottom of each nut which should prevent any damage to the wheel nut seats in the wheels, this is quickly becoming quite a big feature of alot of wheel nuts brands but i've not found any so easily available in the UK or at this price (£45) with this little feature.









And finally.. but by no means (or all means!) least..

Another christmas present, this time modelled wonderfully by Yours truly.
My brother bought me a set of Overalls for christmas to wear when working on the car and kitted them out with a few custom patches, i particularly like the custom name tag!

A few more goodies I got recently but i'll save the best for last!


Along with my wheels I got a full set of rear adjustable Camber, Toe and Trailing arms from Driftworks. There are loads of these on the market but some can be pretty wildly expensive as they're likely made from all sorts of billet aluminium or titanium and others come in some rather funky colours which im not fond of. These arms are made of Steel so a bit heavier than the various billet options but also a fraction of the price and are finished in a nice subtle black powdercoating.











As well as this to go along with my new wheels I picked up some tyres. it was quite tricky to find the exact combo I was looking for without breaking the bank but the Federal 595 RS-R's were the perfect size and an incredible price.

I wanted to go with 245/34/18 on the front and 285/30/18 on the rear to keep the rolling radius of the wheels almost exactly the same as stock and exactly the same front/back. The rear size is quite rare with any form of performance tyre as most are made for 20 inch porsche wheels, etc and being able to find these Federals at £400 for all 4 corners was a great price for so much rubber. They're also a light semi-slick track tyre in essence as well and i've always heard incredible things about them along with the Nankang NS2R's when searching the web for good track tyres as they always come up in conversations as a good budget alternative to tyres such as the Toyo R888 and Yokohama AD08R's which we previous ran on our VX220. I Don't really plan to do loads of track days in the 86 but it should be good to see how these handles and later down the line i'll most likely need the extra grip when i've got a few extra cylinder's up front!








Another small one as it was a Christmas present was a set of TGR Motorsports wheel nuts.

I had met these guys previously last year (2019) at JAE Festival and it was good to have a chat with the owner and check out his products. I've always quite liked fancy wheel nuts but i've never been fond of their price tag. Alot of lesser wheel nuts can rust pretty quickly after use or even be made from Aluminium (definitely not what you want!) and previously i've used Muteki SR48 which are a high quality, well priced product from japan however these TGR nuts are made of a durable steel construction finished in gunmetal with an internal drive and a small aluminium beauty cap to finish them off, i went for black in this case to keep things subtle but they come in all kinds of colours. One of my favourite bits about them as well is they also feature a free sprinning collar at the bottom of each nut which should prevent any damage to the wheel nut seats in the wheels, this is quickly becoming quite a big feature of alot of wheel nuts brands but i've not found any so easily available in the UK or at this price (£45) with this little feature.









And finally.. but by no means (or all means!) least..

Another christmas present, this time modelled wonderfully by Yours truly.
My brother bought me a set of Overalls for christmas to wear when working on the car and kitted them out with a few custom patches, i particularly like the custom name tag!

A few more goodies I got recently but i'll save the best for last!


Along with my wheels I got a full set of rear adjustable Camber, Toe and Trailing arms from Driftworks. There are loads of these on the market but some can be pretty wildly expensive as they're likely made from all sorts of billet aluminium or titanium and others come in some rather funky colours which im not fond of. These arms are made of Steel so a bit heavier than the various billet options but also a fraction of the price and are finished in a nice subtle black powdercoating.











As well as this to go along with my new wheels I picked up some tyres. it was quite tricky to find the exact combo I was looking for without breaking the bank but the Federal 595 RS-R's were the perfect size and an incredible price.

I wanted to go with 245/34/18 on the front and 285/30/18 on the rear to keep the rolling radius of the wheels almost exactly the same as stock and exactly the same front/back. The rear size is quite rare with any form of performance tyre as most are made for 20 inch porsche wheels, etc and being able to find these Federals at £400 for all 4 corners was a great price for so much rubber. They're also a light semi-slick track tyre in essence as well and i've always heard incredible things about them along with the Nankang NS2R's when searching the web for good track tyres as they always come up in conversations as a good budget alternative to tyres such as the Toyo R888 and Yokohama AD08R's which we previous ran on our VX220. I Don't really plan to do loads of track days in the 86 but it should be good to see how these handles and later down the line i'll most likely need the extra grip when i've got a few extra cylinder's up front!








Another small one as it was a Christmas present was a set of TGR Motorsports wheel nuts.

I had met these guys previously last year (2019) at JAE Festival and it was good to have a chat with the owner and check out his products. I've always quite liked fancy wheel nuts but i've never been fond of their price tag. Alot of lesser wheel nuts can rust pretty quickly after use or even be made from Aluminium (definitely not what you want!) and previously i've used Muteki SR48 which are a high quality, well priced product from japan however these TGR nuts are made of a durable steel construction finished in gunmetal with an internal drive and a small aluminium beauty cap to finish them off, i went for black in this case to keep things subtle but they come in all kinds of colours. One of my favourite bits about them as well is they also feature a free sprinning collar at the bottom of each nut which should prevent any damage to the wheel nut seats in the wheels, this is quickly becoming quite a big feature of alot of wheel nuts brands but i've not found any so easily available in the UK or at this price (£45) with this little feature.









And finally.. but by no means (or all means!) least..

Another christmas present, this time modelled wonderfully by Yours truly.
My brother bought me a set of Overalls for christmas to wear when working on the car and kitted them out with a few custom patches, i particularly like the custom name tag!

A few more goodies I got recently but i'll save the best for last!


Along with my wheels I got a full set of rear adjustable Camber, Toe and Trailing arms from Driftworks. There are loads of these on the market but some can be pretty wildly expensive as they're likely made from all sorts of billet aluminium or titanium and others come in some rather funky colours which im not fond of. These arms are made of Steel so a bit heavier than the various billet options but also a fraction of the price and are finished in a nice subtle black powdercoating.











As well as this to go along with my new wheels I picked up some tyres. it was quite tricky to find the exact combo I was looking for without breaking the bank but the Federal 595 RS-R's were the perfect size and an incredible price.

I wanted to go with 245/34/18 on the front and 285/30/18 on the rear to keep the rolling radius of the wheels almost exactly the same as stock and exactly the same front/back. The rear size is quite rare with any form of performance tyre as most are made for 20 inch porsche wheels, etc and being able to find these Federals at £400 for all 4 corners was a great price for so much rubber. They're also a light semi-slick track tyre in essence as well and i've always heard incredible things about them along with the Nankang NS2R's when searching the web for good track tyres as they always come up in conversations as a good budget alternative to tyres such as the Toyo R888 and Yokohama AD08R's which we previous ran on our VX220. I Don't really plan to do loads of track days in the 86 but it should be good to see how these handles and later down the line i'll most likely need the extra grip when i've got a few extra cylinder's up front!








Another small one as it was a Christmas present was a set of TGR Motorsports wheel nuts.

I had met these guys previously last year (2019) at JAE Festival and it was good to have a chat with the owner and check out his products. I've always quite liked fancy wheel nuts but i've never been fond of their price tag. Alot of lesser wheel nuts can rust pretty quickly after use or even be made from Aluminium (definitely not what you want!) and previously i've used Muteki SR48 which are a high quality, well priced product from japan however these TGR nuts are made of a durable steel construction finished in gunmetal with an internal drive and a small aluminium beauty cap to finish them off, i went for black in this case to keep things subtle but they come in all kinds of colours. One of my favourite bits about them as well is they also feature a free sprinning collar at the bottom of each nut which should prevent any damage to the wheel nut seats in the wheels, this is quickly becoming quite a big feature of alot of wheel nuts brands but i've not found any so easily available in the UK or at this price (£45) with this little feature.









And finally.. but by no means (or all means!) least..

Another christmas present, this time modelled wonderfully by Yours truly.
My brother bought me a set of Overalls for christmas to wear when working on the car and kitted them out with a few custom patches, i particularly like the custom name tag!

A few more goodies I got recently but i'll save the best for last!


Along with my wheels I got a full set of rear adjustable Camber, Toe and Trailing arms from Driftworks. There are loads of these on the market but some can be pretty wildly expensive as they're likely made from all sorts of billet aluminium or titanium and others come in some rather funky colours which im not fond of. These arms are made of Steel so a bit heavier than the various billet options but also a fraction of the price and are finished in a nice subtle black powdercoating.











As well as this to go along with my new wheels I picked up some tyres. it was quite tricky to find the exact combo I was looking for without breaking the bank but the Federal 595 RS-R's were the perfect size and an incredible price.

I wanted to go with 245/34/18 on the front and 285/30/18 on the rear to keep the rolling radius of the wheels almost exactly the same as stock and exactly the same front/back. The rear size is quite rare with any form of performance tyre as most are made for 20 inch porsche wheels, etc and being able to find these Federals at £400 for all 4 corners was a great price for so much rubber. They're also a light semi-slick track tyre in essence as well and i've always heard incredible things about them along with the Nankang NS2R's when searching the web for good track tyres as they always come up in conversations as a good budget alternative to tyres such as the Toyo R888 and Yokohama AD08R's which we previous ran on our VX220. I Don't really plan to do loads of track days in the 86 but it should be good to see how these handles and later down the line i'll most likely need the extra grip when i've got a few extra cylinder's up front!








Another small one as it was a Christmas present was a set of TGR Motorsports wheel nuts.

I had met these guys previously last year (2019) at JAE Festival and it was good to have a chat with the owner and check out his products. I've always quite liked fancy wheel nuts but i've never been fond of their price tag. Alot of lesser wheel nuts can rust pretty quickly after use or even be made from Aluminium (definitely not what you want!) and previously i've used Muteki SR48 which are a high quality, well priced product from japan however these TGR nuts are made of a durable steel construction finished in gunmetal with an internal drive and a small aluminium beauty cap to finish them off, i went for black in this case to keep things subtle but they come in all kinds of colours. One of my favourite bits about them as well is they also feature a free sprinning collar at the bottom of each nut which should prevent any damage to the wheel nut seats in the wheels, this is quickly becoming quite a big feature of alot of wheel nuts brands but i've not found any so easily available in the UK or at this price (£45) with this little feature.









And finally.. but by no means (or all means!) least..

Another christmas present, this time modelled wonderfully by Yours truly.
My brother bought me a set of Overalls for christmas to wear when working on the car and kitted them out with a few custom patches, i particularly like the custom name tag!

Merry Christmas to me! Just received my wheels and I couldn't be happier with them! They're a set of Work Meister M1 in 18x9.5 on the front and 18x11 on the rear.   Struggling to bring myself to put them away in the boxes for now but I haven't really got much else to say about them, I think the pictures speak for themselves really!  

Merry Christmas to me! Just received my wheels and I couldn't be happier with them! They're a set of Work Meister M1 in 18x9.5 on the front and 18x11 on the rear.   Struggling to bring myself to put them away in the boxes for now but I haven't really got much else to say about them, I think the pictures speak for themselves really!  

Merry Christmas to me! Just received my wheels and I couldn't be happier with them! They're a set of Work Meister M1 in 18x9.5 on the front and 18x11 on the rear.   Struggling to bring myself to put them away in the boxes for now but I haven't really got much else to say about them, I think the pictures speak for themselves really!  

Pete at Fuel Coffee House has sent me his pics.  Here's a taster!
Someone was not enjoying the meet!!

 
Thankfully these enthusiasts were !!

Damn that’s unlucky. Importing stuff can be a real pain. Have a great time at the ring, it’s fantastic.