Lmc

We have one at work but use it as a back up to our electric one but does the job well

Just had another trip back to TD to get a few little bits ready so the car is now fully sorted for the summer and a trip to the ring later in the year. I went for the ebc yellowstuff pads and braided line package, i ran these on my previous car and was impressed with how they handled that so it should only be better on the lighter Toyota. I also got the cam plate cover changed to just help stop any leaks before it does happen and the 4.67 final drive. It’s only been a day but so far the pads seem to be bedding in well, had plenty of chances to use them on the way home as the M6 was a carpark for most of the journey.
The FD change definitely feels a lot better to me, I will do another review in a week or 2 but so far so good only downside is now at a true 75mph the revs are about 350 more than before but to be honest the mpg didn’t seem to bad on the screen the limited time I could put my foot down but it definitely has a bit more go on the motorway when I’m 6th. Also I think it might help my mpg as a lot of my driving is around town and I think I can now comfortably go 1 gear higher than I would as standard, got a lot of 30&40mph roads here and now it sits quite nice in 6th at just over 40 with out to much strain on the engine as standard the display was always telling me to change from 5th to 6th but it never seemed very happy at this low revs about 1600rpm whereas now it sits at 2000rpm in 6th and seems a lot smoother. 
I also got a couple of changes made to my map as I was never happy with the low idle these cars have so I bumped that up to about 1000rpm and also had the full power map’s throttle sensitively lowered a bit and again it’s only been a day but it feels so much nicer with the map and diff change even the wife commented that it seems so much smoother

We run KSport on both our GT86 as a road going car and our Celica GT4 as a dedicated track car.
 
Absolutely no issues or complaints. Excellent brake kits. Pads are affordable and replacement discs are also well priced in the market place.

I had KSports for 1.5yrs, 9k miles, 10+ track days. No problems at all. Standard AP caliper size pads, on my 3rd set now (EBC reasonably cheap).
I understand older version calipers were prone to have issues, but happy with current ones.

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Part four: Every day impressions a year on!
Hello all!
I didn't quite intend to leave this a whole year before giving a day to day impression, but actually that seems like a really decent time period to give a fuller review of this head-unit.
First, TLDR: I still very much like this headunit. Not perfect, but for the price and function I dont think it's beatable at present.
Now to more in depth.
1. Changes since original review
I have made some changes both hardware and software.
In addition to  Focal 165TOY speakers, I've added an amplifier to drive them and a subwoofer. I'll tell the tale in pictures below:

Power wire through a firewall grommet next to battery

RCA cables / Speaker cables / Remote on wire routed via centre console

Boot tray before for reference

Hertz compact subwoofer (Hertz Energy EBX F20.5) - added some foam around edge to reduce fibrations

Modifying boot tray

Alpine MRV-F407 4 channel amplifier that I had lying around....

Installed in boot floor

Stealth  Used a speaker grill and rubber trim to create ventilation for the amplifier and air flow for the subwoofer.
Set the low-pass crossover to about 75Hz: now sounds very good! For some reason the treble seems very over-pronounced from the tweeters so requires reducing them in a graphics equaliser to balance the sound (at least to my ears).
Software changes
1. Hal 9k firmware
The XTRONS OE firmware is a bit so-so. Hooray for opensource android: Hal 9k firmware fixed a slightly sluggish user interface and added some useful features like screen lock and so forth.
Link here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android-auto/mtcd-software-development/rom-hal9k-rom-3-mtcd-e-head-units-t3847477
2. Automate
Cheap app that replicates the Android Auto interface and therefore looks nice and clean. Can be used on its own, or set as a replacement "Home" UI:


Conclusion
With the above changes, I'm now very happy with the sound. The ability to use spotify and google maps with a slick stable interface is great. With the upgraded software, everything works well and looks good to boot.
Final verdict: 8/10 (everyone loves an arbitrary number!)
For improvement: needs a better screen. Black level isn't very good so there's a fair bit of backlight bleed. Would prefer the ability to reassign what the capacitive buttons do - would have preferred a dedicated 'Music' and 'Maps' button.
Future stuff: 
I haven't really sound deadened anything so I'm sure this would help the sound alot. I'm just a bit lazy to do it but we'll see!
Wondering whether a DSP might help sort out the treble better than the software equaliser. I'm just not sure if this isn't really worth it for the effort / expense.
To end with here's some gratuitous car pics...

Gave the car a quick wash to get the bird poop off and treated it to some new number plates 
 
 

A quick spot the difference. 
Before:

After:

Thanks for everyone’s help.
Decided on a go pro hero 6 black & will use it with racechrono pro & Hague head rest mount.
Just got to wait until my birthday now.

Having removed the rear louvers I wanted something to make the rear end a little more aggressive, so put a carbon SARD style wing on. I used extension brackets to line it up with the TRD spoiler, which made it sit a lot better. Installation was nice and easy and it was a really good fit.  




 
 
 

Update 11/05/19 - Blyton Park Trackday
On Saturday I attended a Javelin Trackday at Blyton Park, it was a good day with everyone well behaved and reasonable weather, slightly overcast with only a small spell of rain in the afternoon, around 3o'clock. 
After my previous trackday at Bedford Autodrome, I had an issue with the brake pedal going soft after a couple of laps, so last month I took the car to Rogue Motorsport to have the oil changed and the brake fluid replaced. Rogue bleed the brake system (inc the master cylinder) and supplied Millers Racing Brake Fluid 300 Plus. 
I didn't experience any issues with a soft pedal at Blyton, however it's possible that might be because Blyton is alot shorter than Bedford so the brakes aren't getting worked as much. For research purposes I ordered a set of Racetech Motorsport temperature stickers (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Racetech-Motorsport-Temperature-Test-Strip-Sticker-121-280c-Pack-of-10/231396436152?hash=item35e04d68b8:g:K98AAOSwPhdVDZ~m) to apply to the brake calipers. The max temperature registered on the front calipers was 143°c, the rear's didn't even reach the minimum temperature of 121°c. I'm going to also look at getting an infrared thermometer (I'm fairly sure I already have one somewhere), which I can then use the measure the disc temperature. 
With quite a few trackday's coming up in the next couple of months I'm considering swapping the front pads out and re-fitting the Ferrodo DS2500's. Whilst I really like the MX72 pads on the road as they have better inital bite and feel compared to the Ferrodo's, I think they lack the aggressiveness of a more track biased pad. I'm also going to order a set of track tyres to go on my 949 Racing wheels, I'm considering the available options but it looks like the most likely tyre will be the new generation of Yokohama AD08RS. 
Here are the photo's from the day:










 

I’ve just ordered a Hague headrest mount too and will be using SJ8 pro camera with it. My last SJCAM was the 5000 wifi, 3 years later after being used in the sea, pool, dropped, exposed to heat etc and also as a dash cam to get the most out of it, it’s still working brilliantly. Expect the SJ8 to be even better. 
Do you have Racechrono pro on iOS or Android? 

I'd recommend a Sony Action Cam. They seem to have better metering and also include the ability to show data without using an app such as Race Chrono or Harry's but can still be used with them.
This is a video I recorded. The Sony Cam also allows for an external mic (as used here) 
https://youtu.be/T0jLWRxko0s

I use GoPro with Racechrono Pro for track days. Its pretty simple and intuitive.

Pair GoPro via WiFi with mobile and the app will find it in "Settings". There you can also set/ change other things.

Dont use GoPro app when starting sessions, use Racechrono and it will be easy for load/ copy video into the app and then export it.

See example video below




Another good app is Harrys Lap Timer, although I find Racechrono more user friendly (and certainly easier to copy files) and I like map with speed and acceleration data to see where I lose time/ not consistent/ etc.

I have GoPro5, which is good enough for me (got it second hand as well). I also used it to record rafting, mountain biking, skiing ... GoPro7 looks like a decent improvement, but for what I use it 5 is more than good enough.

Couple tips/ suggestions:
- get good camera mount. I use Hague, which is a bit pricey and you can make similar DIY. You will have too much vibration with mounting on top of dashboard (although 7 may be better). Dont use suction cap, even with tethering (not worth the risk imo);
- 128gb card, not 64 - once you start in FullHD (dont bother with 4K), 64gb is not enough for a track day. Select high speed one. 50fps.
- get extra battery (you will forget to switch the camera off occasionally, so extra is very handy).

There are cheaper action cameras, but overall I am pretty happy with GoPro and its quite versatile to use in a range of sports.

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So the post some people may have been waiting for and others may have been dreading - Air lift time


To give a bit of a look in to the thoughts behind the madness I wanted to go Air lift as I wanted to turn the 86 in to more of an all-round Fast Street/Show car. I've done the whole stiff, low, bump-steery and twitchy track car in our Vx220 which doesn't get driven nearly enough as it's a bit too focused for a bumpy B road blast and i've done the low/static thing with my Subaru which essentially renders me unable to go in to any multi-story car parks or even pull in to the drive way after getting home from work without scraping at our last house which for the car which served as my daily for the best part of 3 years isn't all that useful but it does look great!


The Fast Street/Slow car thing was always my goal with the 86 which is half the reason I went for a write off as my plan is to eventually (this year if thing's go well) fit a body kit to the car which is why i've not been fussed about picking up 2nd hand body panels and re-locating the front indicators, etc. I'm not looking to slam the car in to the ground and park it up with the wheels disappearing in to the arches or run stupid amounts of camber but these cars often do look fantastic when they're low and angry looking but I wouldn't want to risk ruining any expensive body parts I fitted for the sake of looks with a static ride height and Air lift is the obvious (albeit expensive) solution to all of those worries.


Of course there are some worries when it comes to fitting airlift such as leaky lines, tearing a bag or splitting a line but i'm hoping to take the install slowly and take my time with it to make sure it's all as safe and tidy as possible. To be honest i'm not actually too worried about it, I'd like to say im fairly confident with mechanical bits at this point and quite confident even something as fiddly as an air lift install is going to go well as I've always had a history of building PC's, installing custom water cooling loops and so on. The two aren't totally comparable but i'm not worried about it in the slightest!


So without further ado, lets show off the gear!
I'll start off by showing a brief picture of where the majority of it is going to go, the boot space. When you look in to air lift alot of people make some crazy setups although I'm not enough of a designer or upholstery expert to do something like this (and Im too cheap to pay someone else to do it!) and I didn't want to load up the boot with a load of heavy timber making a frame to mount everything to so I've gone ahead and made a new boot liner out of laminate floor. It's a fairly common thing to do as it's cheap, easy and subjectively looks good. I chose a dark grey/black laminate to make it subtle rather than in your face.





And now that i've lost the vast majority of readers! (haha) On to the actual Air lift hardware:







That's it for now really! Happy to take opinions and so on as I know it's not for everyone but hey-ho!
Going to be a little while before it gets installed. I really want to get it done asap but i've given myself a silly milestone first of buttoning up the Vx220 and listing it on the Market before I go ahead with any work on the 86. I also might be selling the Subaru and getting a more sensible daily as at this point I really don't need 3 performance cars in my life, especially considering the scooby hasn't really been touched since fixing the 86 up it's a bit of a shame.

So i have another couple of updates from the last few weeks, the first being my recent drift day it was a little something I got for my birthday at the end of April and I have to say it was SO MUCH FUN! The next update will be a bit of a hit or miss one for some people as I recently received my brand new air lift setup so i'll be showing off that a little but i'll save that for tomorrow evening, on to the good stuff:
As I mentioned before I'm not looking to make the 86 a track car or a drift car for that matter but I wanted to take it to one of these days to have some fun and get some experience chucking it around, overcoming the limit of grip and catching/controlling it and learning how the car behaves. I wanted to do this before I start making the car more grippy with various suspension changes just to give it the best chance to slide about but it really wasn't that difficult when I had the OEM wheels back on and pumped the tyres up to 50psi on the rear.
It was a great day and after my first little 5 minute sessions going about it in a ham fisted way, sawing at the steering wheel and being far too heavy fitted I was able to catch it and control some decent donuts around the cones, move on to some figure 8s and by the end of the day I was on their kidney track which was all great fun!


Anyway enough of the chatting I guess, here are some pictures, videos and more!
All of them are pretty much from the morning before I moved up to the other tracks but I have the say the 86 looks so good leant over to one side with a bit of opposite lock.




 
      You can check out the whole gallery of photos here: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AkJa4dCyLSqihIdqoiiHrk5lh9MrJg
As I mentioned before, here are some videos. Excuse the silly giggling, I was just having so much fun!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phInejYFfJk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou_wDdQfxSA


And finally to finish off the report a vulgar display of tyre destruction. The first set are mine after the morning, the 2nd set were a set of part worns that one of the marshalls of the day destroyed after just 10 minutes!
 
       

Update 05/05/19 - Japfest 2019
Today I attended Japfest 2019 at Silverstone, with 59 other members of the drivers/owners club. This was a great turn out for the club and nice to see so many faces new and old. 
Here's a couple of photo's of my car from the day. There are a couple of close up of the Verus Engineering splitter with race upgrade kit and dry carbon end plates, as I've just noticed I haven't posted any close up's before. 

Went down the Tuning Developments Friday. Mike and Nick did a great job of fitting the UEL tuning package. Unfortunatly my car had a Miltek system on it and it was cracked when they checked it so I also went for one of there own super resonated systems. 
Car feels so much more responsive now and really wants to fly through the rev range without hesitation. The burble is addictive and really brings out the charactor of the car. Im glad I went for super res system as I wouldnt have enjoyed it any louder.
Whilst at TD I had some 25mm Tein lowering springs fit and the shifter springs.
Yesterday before Japfest I fit my Wedssport TC105x 17" wheels. The things are stupidly light (6.7kg 8" and 7.1kg 9"). I had a set of PS4 tyres fit after reading all the reviews.
Heres how she looks now:





Going forward I have spoiler raisers and black badges on order. I feel the car needs coilovers to sit right on the 17" wheels. Im also really tempted by the TD turbo kit 🙈

Turns out that modifying houses is even more expensive than modifying cars, so after messing about for a year, I decided to get my priorities right and treated her to some rims as a reward for being so well behaved (touch wood) since the recall work as done. She seems to be running very sweetly indeed since being taken to bits and put back together again. Long may it continue. Anyway, back to the mods, big thanks to @Adrian@TORQEN for sorting me out with some rims. I did come extremely close to pulling the trigger on some TE37s but couldn't get the precise fitment I wanted, so decided to save a few quid on some Enkeis and uphold the tradition of WR Blue with Gold. Very pleased with the look. Perhaps still sitting bit high, but I've got plans for that. First things first though, setup tomorrow to get her back in alignment.
 

Had a few more bits done at, the always awesome, Rogue Motorsport yesterday. 
Verus Motorsport diffuser was refitted:-

Verus Motorsport splitter, carbon end pieces and splitter race upgrade along with Sti side skirts were also fitted:-



Quite a mean looking front end now! 

 

Haven’t done that many yet as it’s not a daily car however i have been driving it all weekend & absolutely love it.
The screamer pipe & wastegate chatter are addictive & if its power your after i would suggest there’s no point messing around with anything else just bite the bullet & go for it, you won’t regret it.
Dan your only down the road in plymouth (im in Starcross) so your more than welcome to meet up & I’ll take you for a spin in it.

For the second Saturday in a row I’ve been on the road since 6.45am and only just got home, but all i can say is a massive thanks to Mike at Tuning developments the guys there are magicians.
This is how the car should have come from the factory.
It,s 99% motorway driving home so havent had too much chance to give the car some beans but the few times i have have been exactly what i was looking for in the car.
Anyway a few pics for anyone who’s interested 

For the second Saturday in a row I’ve been on the road since 6.45am and only just got home, but all i can say is a massive thanks to Mike at Tuning developments the guys there are magicians.
This is how the car should have come from the factory.
It,s 99% motorway driving home so havent had too much chance to give the car some beans but the few times i have have been exactly what i was looking for in the car.
Anyway a few pics for anyone who’s interested 

Best lap of Cadwell before the rain, shame about the messed up gear changes after Coppice. Could have been a good time.
 

For the second Saturday in a row I’ve been on the road since 6.45am and only just got home, but all i can say is a massive thanks to Mike at Tuning developments the guys there are magicians.
This is how the car should have come from the factory.
It,s 99% motorway driving home so havent had too much chance to give the car some beans but the few times i have have been exactly what i was looking for in the car.
Anyway a few pics for anyone who’s interested