Shippers

Had those fitted on mine this week. Awesome tyres. Thank you to Martin T of for the local tyre fitter recommendation 👍. 
Right, back to the next gen car, the 2.4l NA engine sounds like the logical choice for making a 'step forward' but not having to reinvent the car.

Driven a couple of them and they are fun. It is a hot hatch and not a sports car so it depends what you are after though. Comes with a ton of kit and the pops and bangs are a bit addictive, even if a bit childish 😂.

It looks like a good day for doing brakes.  I have all the parts, so here we go.  Back later...

Updating my progress, now got a nice aftermarket headunit and reverse cam setup... no OEM wires cut and no drilling 👍

The 35-40mm springs on the standard wheels will cause them to sit very far inside the wheel arch. You’ll probably want to add wheel spacers to pull the wheel and tyre to the edge of the arch. 
Something else to bear in mind is that a 40mm drop will lose pretty much all of your damper travel, so the car will ride on the bump stops most of the time. Most springs with this drop will come with shorter bumpstops to give you some damper travel back I’d expect a very bumpy ride.
Its also worth noting that it will put more camber on the front and rear wheels so the tyres will wear on the inside and the rear toe angle will change less favourably. 
 
I had mine lowered 40mm on coilovers which looked great, not good but not fun with speed bumps or getting a jack underneath or weaving around twigs in the road because you can drive around them anymore. Not to mention it put extra strain on the differential and driveshafts as the angle changes. You’ll hear it on full lock.
If you do high mileage then just be prepared to wear things out much quicker.
This is of course my opinion and experiences.
Whilst the springs are cheap other costs will be involved, camber bolts, new shocks sooner, less tyre life and higher mechanical wear. 

Yes, you and speed humps will get to know each other well 😄. I took those springs off as it was too low for the area where I live with the crappy roads and number of speed humps. 25mm would be a much better choice in my opinion,  especially with a splitter. 35-40mm will look cool though 😉.  Personally I went for adjustable coilovers so there is the option to adjust. Bit of a price difference though..

Love those wheels. Great choice, can't go wrong with Rays. Some pics on the car please once you have them fitted 😀
Tire size sounds right but I'm sure others who are running this size can 100% confirm. 

Keep the updates coming Sam 👍. Great looking build and helping to keep me going when I start to go mad at work with all that's going on.

That's great to hear you are enjoying it. Thanks for the update. 
I'm so tempted to go for it in the future now I've got used to my car with the TD NA kit on. 

Nice features to add. The buttons will look cool too 😁👍

Hi guys,
I have just had a NA tune up done and CAT back exhaust fitted at Tuning Developments in Warrington and I just had to share how amazing it is.
Tuning Developments were great throughout.
What I have now is amazing. Horsepower is increased by about 20 with a more linear delivery. Feels great.
The best part about it is the noise from the exhaust. I am not a young hooligan so I didn't want something that was stupidly loud. What I have now is perfect. It has a lovely deep throaty growl at idle, louder that my stock exhaust and much deeper but not so loud that I will wake the neighbours when I head out in the mornings. Similar when driving with a steady throttle at a fixed speed, the noise is lovely but not massively loud.
The real joy comes when you put your foot down... it is just an absolutely perfect deep rumbling loud noise... amazing. I also get a bit of a burble when coming off the throttle. It makes me smile every time. I haven't had it noise tested so I don't know the numbers but someone I know had it done and they registered 95 dB on a track day.
I would seriously recommend getting this done.

Both the car and I are doing some learning.  I think the ECU has settled into a better throttle response and I've learned to be very gentle at low revs.
Together, we're much smooooother now!
Had a chance to give it some welly last night chasing a fast Jaguar.  Very impressive and I could easily keep up with him.

The installation is done and the car goes on the dyno tomorrow morning.  I should be able to collect it in the afternoon.

I totally get that you are right and this is I guess the point that @Deacon is making they are not necessary if you are doing a few trackdays a year and as Jeff pointed out track orientated pads with matching discs will be up for the job if you are. So yes, not worth it for the majority of owners who go and have a play. Even in the sprint series the stock calipers with different pads will do the job and won't hold you back from being competitive. Look at Rob Dowsett competing in my class in a stock car bar PS4's. He's not far off. 
I would concur with @Ade for the reason for going BBK as I do at lot of miles on the road. 

So it's another slow update coming in but quite a big one.

An update that some people have been dreading and others have been hyped for (myself included!)


So the last 3 weeks I've been driving my old Subaru WRX around for a bit because the 86 has been up on jackstands. Throughout this heat i've been taking my time to install a whole host of new parts including my Whiteline Anti-roll bars, Whiteline bushing inserts and my Air-Lift Suspension system.
I wanted to go slowly with it to just make sure everything is installed as best and as cleanly as possible to avoid any future problems or funny noises, etc. I also took the time to put some sound deadening in the boot to dampen some of the exhaust groans as well as the compressors.


I started off on the front, working with a friend to get the OEM front struts and ARB off. Some of the bolts and joints were either a little crusty and hard to break the seal or really slimey from what I can only assume is the underseal they use on these cars if the engine bay was anything to go by when I cleaned it.

The front ARB is a bit of a pain to fit thanks to the brackets it sits on and how many brittle plastic/glass fibre under trays there are under the car. the ARB probably took the most time out of these bits. I didn't get a picture of it but I somewhat sanded back and cleaned up the rusted welds on the ARB subframe thinghs and repainted it with some etching primer and underseal.









The weekend after that we moved on to the rear. getting the struts out was a bit of a paint this time but generally on the rear it was all very easy including the ARB. We also Installed the Whiteline Subframe and Diff bushing inserts which against was actually quite easy to do, it took up a couple of hours all in to do the bushing inserts. While running the Braided Air Lift hoses on the rear they went under the car rather than in to the engine bay. In reality they shouldn't be at risk of getting hot as there's quite a big gap between them and the Exhaust, not to mention that's right at the end of the exhaust rather than up by the manifold but seeing as I had some Mishimoto gold tape to hand I thought i'd dress them up a little bit, if Anything it makes the undercarriage a little sparkly!






And finally this weekend I took on the task of running all the wiring, making the modifications required for my particular dual compressor set up, pulling the air lines and hardness through the car, tucking it all away and mounting the tank, compressors, manifold, etc all in the boot! It sounds easier than rolling around on your back under the car but i can assure you it was just as exhausting!
This is also where the laminate wood flooring comes in, it might be a bit silly but of course you need something solid to mount all the gear in the boot on. In hindsight I could have just used a sheet of MDF and wrapped it in some carpet but it also needs to be segmented to fit in the boot at all which is the beauty of laminate I guess as you can hide the seems in the board gaps, it's also very cheap and it saves me having to deal with fiddly carpet!










All of that hard work results in a car that is lowered, can go even lower if I really want to or can soar in to the heavens if there's a particularly big speed bump or multi-story car park ramp while also having a nice mix of firmness and compliance to the road. It's quite a strange feeling that's quite difficult to describe really. The Air lift suspension is comparably soft to stock but is also a bit more firm, the ARB's really help to dial out any body roll and even when wiggling the car about on the road help to keep it fairly flat. To top it all of there are no big clunks or noises during driving that would scream low quality parts or bad fitment to me, the only noises so far is a bit more feedback from the rear subframe/diff when selecting gears or coming off the accelerator. I'll need to fiddle with the drop links a bit as I think the rear ones are too long and putting preload on the ARB and I still have a whole load of compression settings to play around with on the struts to make it even more supple on the road!





The above pic is how the car sits at its "low" setting, if anything this was me just trying to see how low it can go. In the near future i'll likely need to adjust the front strut to sit lower just so the front and rear lowers at a more equal rate, as you can see the rear looks far lower than the front with litterally 0 pressure in the front air bags. i'll also need to invest in some rear lower control arms to sort out the camber the car gains when its low and maybe some spacers just to make the wheels sit a bit better in the arches.
There's also a video of it airing out I can link to if anyone's curious.

Hi all, just renewed my insurance and the service from Chris Knott was excellent. It's easy to complain when service isn't good so it's only right to call out good service as well. I would recommend contacting them for a quote if your looking to renew soon too. 

Tint your windows and you need never take you hand off the wheel to touch that toggle. Surely a safety mod right there 🤔

I also distinctly remember seeing auto dim mirrors advertised.  Having had all 3 mirrors auto dim on a previous car I was slightly disappointed for about 5 seconds and then thought ah well less to break down.  
I would have negotiated a free service instead and retro fit an auto dim mirror if I was that passionate about the issue.
I'd be way more annoyed that I'd just written off a brand new car rather than complaining about a mirror. 
Please don't tell me somebody was blinding you with their lights and you went full rage mode, screaming poxy bloody mirror, while trying to reach for the toggle and lost control of the car?

Few pictures taken at Japfest by @will300 and Touge Photography 

I spent a small fortune modding my 350Z and, as expected, saw none of it back when I came to sell. So this time I'm not modding the BRZ and it's staying OEM, so really there's very little point in this thread as I'm leaving it alone. Definitely. No mods.
 
This is how she looked after collection and a wash - stunning - if I do say so myself.

 
Despite the modification ban, I am allowed to do maintenance and preventative maintenance. Like all addictions, it starts with a gateway item - in this case a simple cabin filter. Original was absolutely minging.

 
Then the (I think original) wipers were looking quite smeary, so in with the Bosch. I did dabble in PIAA last time but I didn't rate their water clearing as much as the Aeros.

 
After seeing all the posts about battery capacity leaving people stranded, I plumped for another preemptive strike - more Bosch.

 
With a complete absence of Bluetooth it made the BRZ impractical as a work/commuter vehicle, so I decided to deal with that problem and fit a Sony headunit. I've since improved the surround finisher trim.

 
Naturally it made good sense to fit a reverse camera at the same time, another preventive job this one. Preventing bodywork repair.

 
Now there is not much point in being able to see out the back and not see what's up front, so I popped in a Mobius dashcam - unbeatable piece of kit at the pricepoint.

 
The screw covers in the registration plates were unsightly and the plates were frankly awful (overlapping text, dealer advert etc) so they were recycled and new ones fitted with double sided.

I also moved the rear one down a touch, as I wasn't happy with the use of negative space in the rear plate recess  and it stopped it touching the reverse camera.
 
Subaru "forgot" to include an armrest to cover the expanse of hard plastic in the centre console, so I sorted out another bit of maintenance there.

Had to strap on the Captain Brave pants before drilling INSIDE the car, but manage to retain my dignity in the most part. You might have also noticed I popped in a lightning adapter for the headunit. I did initially retain the OEM USB/AUX port but I would have had to mount my phone on the dash or have unsightly cables knocking about.
 
Another bit of forgetfulness from Subaru saw me add a Beat Sonic shark fin, as this is stock on a MY2017, it's technically more maintenance.

 
This one was very nearly just a mod, but some of the OEM exhaust had some light surface rust, so yet more maintenance.

Thanks to bildingo for the Ark GRiP - it sounds brilliant at idle and at cruise, with a nice beefiness when you get on the loud peddle. On top of that it looks superb. Slash tips are JDM yo, but I think I prefer rolled. I genuinely won't be playing around with HFCs, de-cats or the rest of the exhaust as I can't be doing with the MOT hassle and CELs I've had to deal with in the past.
 
For reasons unknown Subaru don't have a cargo net offering for the boot, which given the way the car is meant to be driven, is a huge oversight. More maintenance required here. Picked up these self tapping fixings from fleabay.

And recycled the cargo net from my 350z

I have four spare fixings left over (enough for one more 4-point cargo net). If anyone wants them, please get in touch. Yours for free.
 
Last but not least, I allowed myself one genuine mod. A club sticker.

Local seagulls felt this relenting on my zero mods policy should be met with a dirty protest.
 
I had a go at the plastic scuttle under the windscreen, which is already looking tired even with our 4 weeks of sun a year.

 
Got a sample pot of this from a Waxybox a while back, decide to splash out on a full bottle. 

 
Very easy to apply and buff, but I won't know if it's really any good until it's lasted 6 months or so. Definitely looks the part for now.

 
Now the bit of bad news. The dealer promised a service before I collected the car and after a week or so of nagging I got a copy of the invoice for work done (mainly for my service history). Disappointingly, the wrong grade of oil had been used and cheapo filters all round. So I splashed out on some Millers Nanodrive (I even got the right viscosity), a K&N oil filter and a Cosworth panel filter. She's now breathing better.
Worryingly, the best part of 10 litres of the olive oil the previous servicer used came out. I believe the correct capacity with an oil filter is 5.4L?

I had checked the dipstick at collection but it was only showing a splash over full! Needless to say I'm glad the wrong grade was used, as that convinced me to drop it out, so it was only over full for a short while. Slack work though from "professionals", the sump plug and oil filter were only touch tight as well - GRRRRR.
 
That's me for now, only maintenance and preventative maintenance from here on in. With that in mind, I've got a paint correction booked with a local detailer in a couple of weeks. I need to know what glaze the dealer valet used because it did an incredible job of hiding a truck load of swirls and random deep scratches. Soon to be perfect though 
 
 
 
 
 

@Mike 
Here some of my observations of the various kits - bare in mind I thought about this for 18 months before committing to the Reyland kit.
I actually ordered but then cancelled both the Essex AP Racing Sprint kit and the Godspeed AP kit, before settling on the Reyland kit, this was after speaking with @Ade and one of the technical team at AP Racing.
These are for the approx 330mm kits (355mm+ kits have different requirements) 
Reyland - AP Kit:
Pro's:
AP Caliper - CP9200 (2 piece aluminum body)  4 Pistons Dust Boots - Made by Brembo  Perfect for Street and track Common Pad Size 330mm x 28mm discs - 2 piece Good thermal capacity High quality caliper by premium brake manufacturer.  Keeps stock brake bias Complete kit - Calipers, Pads, Brake lines, brackets, discs Various disc options - Either bolted or floating brake disc hat/bell. AP or Reyland disc's.  Clear's the majority of 17" wheels Latest design of caliper by AP Racing - including new paint finish Used by various members of the community - with extensive track use Con's:
Reasonably expensive Custom made brackets, which you need to shim to get perfect fitment Won't fit under stock wheels without spacer.  
Godspeed - Brembo's:
Pro's: 
Brembo caliper 4 piston Dust boots 330 x 28 discs 2 piece discs Cheap Con's: 
Unknown caliper model Unknown caliper material Unknown piston sizes - not sure what effect this will have on brake bias Unknown pad size No brake lines included  
Godspeed - AP Kit:
Pro's:
AP Caliper - CP9040 (2 piece aluminum body)  Dust Boots - Made by Brembo  Common Pad Size Good thermal capacity High quality caliper by premium brake manufacturer.  Latest design of caliper by AP Racing - including new paint finish Con's
Reasonably expensive Caliper designed for a 362mm disc - not 330mm as included Caliper designed for a 32mm thick disc - not 30mm as included Ø330mm disc in this caliper will leave a fairly large gap between the discs OD and the calipers disc pathway and this gap can be prone to collecting road debris. 6 pistons - overkill  No brake lines included  
K-Sport: 
Pro's:
Cheap Used by various members of the community - with extensive track use Clear's the majority of 17" wheels Complete kit - Calipers, Pads, Brake lines, brackets, discs 330mm x 32mm? disc - 2 piece Dust boots Perfect for Street and track Con's
8 pistons Unknown piston sizes - not sure what effect this will have on brake bias Unknown pad size Unknown replacement disc price Won't fit under stock wheels without spacer.  
STi Brembo's - Used on Subaru Impreza WRX STi:
Pro's:
Cheap Used by various members of the community - with extensive track use Clear's the majority of 17" wheels Complete kit - Calipers, Pads, Brake lines, brackets, discs 326mm x 30mm disc Various disc options Common pad size Dust boots 4 pistons Con's
Shifts brake bias forward massively Steel calipers - heavy Bleed nipples need swapping - i.e. caliper refurb before fitment Not a complete kit Won't fit under stock wheels without spacer. Only available second hand  
RR Racing (Wilwood😞
Pro's:
Cheap Wilwood caliper Complete kit - Calipers, Pads, Brake lines, brackets, discs 326mm x 30mm disc - STi disc's so cheap replacements Clear's the majority of 17" wheels Con's
6 pistons  no dust boots Won't fit under stock wheels without spacer. Limited pad selection Only available from the US Moves brake bias forward  
Essex Parts - AP Racing Sprint Kit:
Pro's:
AP Caliper - CP8350  4 Pistons Perfect for Track Use Common Pad Size 2 piece discs Extremely light High quality caliper by premium brake manufacturer.  Complete kit - Calipers, Pads, Brake lines, brackets, discs Clear's the majority of 17" wheels Keeps stock brake bias Used by various members of the community - with extensive track use Con's:
Expensive 299x32mm disc's - Can have some thermal issues Only available from the US Won't fit under stock wheels without spacer. No dust boots Not a daily driver friendly caliper  
AP Racing Genuine kit:
Pro's:
AP Caliper - CP6600 (2 piece aluminum body)  4 Pistons Dust Boots Perfect for Street and track Keeps stock brake bias Complete kit - Calipers, Pads, Brake lines, brackets, discs Clear's the majority of 17" wheels - including stock wheels Con's:
Very Expensive 26mm thick discs Limited pad options Limited disc options Uses older AP caliper  
Stoptech ST40:
Pro's:
Stoptech ST40 caliper 4 Pistons Clear's the majority of 17" wheels Complete kit - Calipers, Pads, Brake lines, brackets, discs 328mm x 28mm disc - 2 piece Dust boots Perfect for Street and track Con's
Expensive Can't 100% confirm piston sizes Limited pad replacement options Unknown replacement disc cost Won't fit under stock wheels without spacer.  

Had a few days delay a couple of years back. Similar thing, I got stopped by some very friendly and understanding police officers 🤔. Luckily i had a copy of the documents on my phone, still didn't stop them giving me a 40 min 'chat' at the side of the road. 

So having read this and other forums, finally took the plunge and decided to get my 2012 BRZ mapped.
Contacted Mike on the 18th Feb and he was very helpful, responding quickly to my initial enquiry and patiently responded to my numerous questions.
After a bit of back and forward I decided to go for the NA Tuning Package (UEL), MTEC Uprated Spring and Whiteline Positive shift upgrade kits and since TD would have the car for the best part of the day, decided to have the Billet Cam Plate kit fitted as a preventative measure at the same time.
Everything was arranged for the 7th of March and I was up and out on the road early (5:20am)  to make the trip south from Glasgow.
Arrived at 8:30am and Mike was 15 minutes behind me to open up.  Having handed over the keys, Mike was kind enough to give me a lift to the nearby UBC business centre (3 miles away) where I had booked an office for the day, I currently work mostly remotely from home so was able to effectively work there for the day, meaning I didn’t have to use a days holiday - result!
Picked the car up at 4pm and couldn’t be happier with the upgrades - drives like a different car with the dreaded torque did almost entirely gone with the increased lower rev torque noticeable across all the gears.  Gear changes are now much snappier and the exhaust note subtly enhanced.
Had a bit of a blether with Mike before heading off home, and ooh'd and ahh'd about possibly getting a turbo at some point in the future as well as a couple of options for dealing with the cars suspension, which I have been unhappy about almost from the day I bought it in the summer of 2015. Previous owner had lowered the car on Eibach sportline springs and I subsequently upgraded to 18" rims with the rear end especially, being very unforgiving with the car bouncing badly on rough roads.
Long story short, I was heading back down the M6 two weeks later, this time to get the BC Racing coilovers and the TD Super Resonated CAT back exhaust (my stock exhaust was corroded badly and very slightly beginning to blow so seemed like a good enough excuse).
I have not stopped smiling since ... ride quality and handling are 100% improved and the exhaust note is just loud enough to be noticeable, without being in your face but at the same time very civilised when cruising on the motorway.  
Can’t speak highly enough about Mike, Nick and the rest of the guys at TD. I was well looked after, their prices are competitive and the work has been carried out to a high standard. I have spent a fair chunk of change in anyone’s book in a short space of time, but every upgrade has had a noticeable and very positive effect, all in all it's like having a new car.
My only dilemma now is which kidney am I selling to fund the turbo upgrade? ...

Hi Sam, I'm assuming you are looking for some used ones but just to let you know I got mine from Fensport and they were excellent in advising on what to get. Delivery was super fast and I went with their recommendation of 20mm at the front and 25mm at the rear which turned out to be spot on. Just thought it worth sharing in case you do decide to go new. 

As an update to the above how to, I can finally report my car passed its first MOT like this. Now I can get the replacement sensors fitted to the aftermarket wheels when the tyres are worn out and replaced at my leisure.