chillismoke

Check out the video of the days fun...
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTBgQQgbQwI

Got back yesterday afternoon following a really great week in Malta.
 
First time there... a petrolhead paradise where the 420,000 locals own 380,000 cars between them! First words a baby learns is not 'Mama/Papa' but 'where's my car?'
 
A taxi driver told me he used an MX5, I asked him about spares and he told me he had three of 'em to plunder... classic MGB's, Corvettes and the like, in beautiful condition, can regularly be seen on the roads..
 
True to his word Andrew met me at the airport and ferried me to my hotel in his GT86. The roads are appalling - potholes that eat Transit vans - but that didn't deter him from drifting his rear end about like a demented Lauren... the driver/car combo is good which is more than can be said for their petrol at 87octane.. he has to load 30 Euros-worth of octane booster into each tank of fuel every 2-3days... ouch! A positive step is to go water/meth injection, should get rid of the need for accelerator.
 
Like me, Andrew and his gorgeous girlfriend Julia (who has not passed her driving test yet but already owns an immaculate ex-UK WRX STI) are  food gourmets, so we had a number of superb meals. When left to my own devices I did the touristy stuff - the Cathedral in Valetta is a fantasic example of Baroque architecture, I spent over two hours there and the walled city of Mdina is amazing with an a-v presentation of its history and that of the Knights of Malta - fifty minutes of fascinating history for 12 Euros. If you're a beach bum there's loads of places to get your kit off and roast yourself but beware, the UV factor there is amongst the highest in the world...
 
There were two especial 'treats' - I chartered a 37ft yacht for the three of us for a day (with a skipper) and we cruised up to Comino and back with a swim at the lunch stop, with Julia pushing a reluctant Andrew off the bathing platform... tsk, tsk, who's idea was that..?
 
Shame there was not a trace of wind so we couldn't hoists the rags but had to donk everywhere - turned out that Adrian our skipper was into IT so he and Andrew were having techy conversations whilst Julia and I engaged in convivial imbibation... I got sunburned to blazes, it was so damn hot..
 
Second treat was Thursday evenings trip to the drag strip. This is the only spot for 'motorsport' on the island, if you want to track your car you have to ferry to Sicily..  Met up with all of Andrew's chums - including Kim who has a Ninja GT86 and thus two-thirds of the island's GT86 owners were present.
 
This is real manicville - just join the queue and blast up the strip whenever you like. Run what you brung.. music at 120 decibels, food and booze on call, it was so laid back it was horizontal..
 
The friendliness and goodwill these guys have towards each other is amazing  and I was made so welcome amongst them it was like being at a TSS round... I was also given a special treat as passenger for a run in Andrew's car as we logged some data for Adrian (Fensport) to tweak a bit.. Andrew's friend with a Skyline insisted on drifting it around the paddock and finally blew a rear tyre, stopping inches from the rear of a Golf... quick wheel change and no harm done.. and Andrew beat the Skyline over their run together.. respect!
 
Finally met up with Andrew as I prepared to leave yesterday morning - he was in total awe of his new map from Fensport and it was a shame I did not have time to experience it. He hopes to drive up to the UK some time in October and I have offered to show him around and see if we can get some track time / social meets organised. This is one seriously committed Forum member, as can be seen from his detailed postings on HKS s/c installation, but in addition he is a bloody nice guy who went out of his way to make my visit memorable. And is sure was.
 
Spec K
 
 
 
 
 
 

quick vid of the quickest lap where my gopro and AIM Solo were on at the same time. I've many excuses as to why its so slow but I will keep them to myself
 

Well - things are looking up. The car still works, Richards body shop colleagues have got back to me and are working on the estimates, and the insurers are not being awkward and seem happy to work with them. Rubbish though it is, everyone has been really nice. I think everyone who's dealt with the claim so far has seen the date of registration, winced and been really sympathetic.

Will take a few weeks to sort but I'm confident I'll end up back where I started. And I might have only had it a week but I'm quite attached to it. You don't shoot your dog if it has a broken ankle, do you? Bob will be just fine...

Mate I was driving down the 303 about midnight and a rabbit decided to run out and I hit it was a loud bang and when I look my front diffuser was in 3 bits scrapping on the floor I used the old tape but kept coming off and scrapping so eventually I just cut it off however it was rather funny that it was full of fur poor poor car

Don't forget to keep him up all night drinking!

Entered and Darlington East booked for me and SkallyB

Hope this vid gives you a better idea, don't fall asleep lol

haha yeah you were all right about the wine We've got it under control now though (not at all)

Last Sunday we had a fantastic day in Gozo! roaming around the island in the 86, we then went for another lovely lunch at Ta' Tmun restaurant (obviously with a nice bottle of wine to compliment the meal), carried on sight seeing, stopped at the beautiful Azure window for an ice-cream and at about 6PM caught the ferry back to Malta.

Below is a picture of us at the Azure Window (YES! i managed to finally get a pic of Keith on the forum SUCCESS! )

@Nigelr32 oh we had that discussion alright! hahaha

No Keith :oSocks & Sandals

http://www.gt86.org.uk/forums/topic/886-list-of-club-discounts/

Thought I might put up some thoughts, not least as I think I'm the only one on here with one of these, and might be useful to those coming on here considering spec.

So basically I bought this car because I wanted a GT86, I wanted a new one, and I wanted to spend as little as possible so that my children could still afford shoes (when outside the car, naturally)

No point in dwelling on the car in general, except to note that all the gushing reviews since 2012 seem pretty much spot on, and in particular Toyota appear to have made electric power steering actually communicate (which is a first for me).

So, what do you miss out on by going poverty spec?

- No Xenon headlights or led running lights. I have halogen projectors which I actually think quite clean looking. Still has running lights but uses the fog lamps to do this.

- No spoiler. A matter of preference, but one advantage is that I don't have any inconvenient holes in the bootlid either should I want to fit an aftermarket one.

- Manual aircon. I don't mind this as you get nice big old fashioned rotary controls you can use without taking eyes off the road. And it still will make you hot or cold as required.

- No cruise control. Doesn't bother me, but might be deal breaker for others.

- No start button. Mine has a proper old fashioned key. Probably takes up less room in your pocket. There's another fringe benefit here too. Because there's no starter button, the tray next to the USB and aux sockets is usefully bigger and fit your phone/iPod/whatever.

I think that's about it. Still has folding mirrors, Touch hi(ish)-fi, the same seats, nice leather wheel and same trim. And most importantly same engine and running gear. Mine has the same wheels, but if you ordered now you'd get some rather pretty 16' Enkeis instead and save a few more quid.

For me it keeps all the important bits and saves a few quid - a bit like the Renaultsport Cup cars. It also makes it serious value and is priced against very unexciting variants of BMW and VW coupes.

Other than that, after a week of ownership what strikes me is the stuff you wouldn't expect. Sure it's a lovely sports car, but I'd expect that. However it's also surprisingly useable transport. The boot is Ok, it's not unacceptably noisy, 6th gear is high enough for relaxed motorway cruising, the seats are comfy and even the back seats are perfectly viable for a young family providing the adults aren't too tall. The interior quality is also fine. It seems to be made from typical Japanese plastics that don't exactly look hard wearing, but yet somehow look exactly the same 15 years later (see Toyota Carina minicabs)

In summary, as viable second car transport for a slightly petrol-headed family of four it works a treat. This car is not just for the childless!

Enough for now. I think I've just thought of something I need to nip out for...

Quickest run of the day - last one as usual
 

 
Comments welcome...

It has been a while since I last updated - this does not mean, however, that I have not been busy on the car 
 
TRD Plate LSD for the gearbox courtesy of those nice people at Fensport
 

 
Forged Wilwood radial mount calipers and AP Racing discs - the bells and mounting brackets are being made for me at the moment
 

 
Stainless braided brake flex hoses
 

 
Lightweight steering column with quick release and Nardi-Personal steering wheel
 


 
I cutout the spare wheel well behind the rear axle to make space for the rear muffler i am going to be using - after having had my GT86 effectively banned from entering the TSS due to its noise level, I will be running a high flow, but hopefully effective 3" exhaust on the Yaris.  Once the well was cut out, a flat steel panel was cut out to fill the resulting hole, and welded in by my resident welder 
 


 
As I commented in Nige's thread, I am now in the process of removing all the seam sealer inside the body, and fitting the roll cage
 



 
Once the cage is in, I will be able to establish the right position for the seat, and then can weld in the seat mounting brackets
 

 
Both the roll cage and the seat are OMP FIA certified items, so that should keep any scrutineers happy .  I have also ordered a genuine Takata 6 point race harness, especially for Lauren 

This is awesome. Whilst I love the works colour scheme, for maximum effect you should paint it beige, put it on steel wheels with only three wheel trims and put a tartan picnic blanket on the parcel shelf...

Welcome buddy, hopefully I'll see you in the Toyota Sprint Series soon then

A great day at Brands finishing second by 0.16s but more importantly getting really settled with the car now. Thanks for the help and support from Daniel and Chris at the weekend,and Debs for putting up with my race head moods.

I use C5 it's good but it still takes with my ocd ages to get them perfect. Autobrite directs "purple rain is good for a deep clean, it would probably dissolve any sealant already applied to the alloy though

Get some G1 & G2 as well, you will love it

Hi all - just a quick post to say hello.

Collected my GT86 from Stu (Bumblebee) on Thursday. Top man - he had clearly looked after the car and was a pleasure to deal with.

I'm based Cambridgeshire (around 10 miles from fennsport) so took a nice run back through the Peak District - stopping for a picnic at Dovedale (least I could do as the girlfriend had drove my daily back for me).

Journey back:


Car is a White / Manual / with 13.5 k miles. Has the satnav / leather bolsters and heated seats. Surprised how well spec'd these are as standard - with the keyless go / dual zone climate / cruise etc...

Previous cars include Integra Type R (DC2) which the GT reminds me off / albeit rwd. Had a few Porsches over the years - most recently a 911 (996) Twin Turbo manual coupe that I sold a couple of weeks back (in order to free up some cash and find a GT).

Sad to see it go, epic car and had always wanted one (fairly long running report on Boxa.net forum for those interested - showing the work I undertook on it).

Huge power / torque and performance difference to the GT obviously (420bhp / 410 lb/ft). But I love the way the GT feels / drives / taught / direct and accurate - and hilariously fun chassis characteristic of letting go at such low speeds.

Out with the old:


Back to the GT - has been looked after by RRG Macclesfield - freshly serviced (oil on the dip looks like new) spoke to Richard (RiceBurner) there yesterday and he couldn't have been more friendly and helpful.

During its life RRG have added an Injen ram air kit and the TRD quad exhaust and rear diffuser. Undecided about the airbox / may swap the standard one in to see how it compares:



Currently giving it a wash / detail / but rain keeps stopping play!





All done (testament to previous owner - lovely coating of wax or sealant was on there).





Very happy with the car and look forward to the help / advice / banter ..

Cheers for now

Andy

Sunday was spent getting rid of all the rally sponsor stickers and giving her a good clean
    Just the essential stickers left now, looking much better I think

As I mentioned briefly in the original post, it was such an awesome day, even though it was wet, it was still amazing fun, if anything, the rain added to the fun in some cases too.     The day consisted of 4 teams; Andon (my team in Black with Jamie_gt86), Genchi Genbutsu (Blue which had Kesler?, SkallyB and Smudge), Poka-Yoke (Grey which had nikndel and knightryder) and Kaizen (Red which had Deacon and Tareim), competing in 4 different events.  The rest of the team members were other randomers but each team had roughly 10 people, Toyota picked 40 people to attend out of 100's of applicants, sadly not all 40 turned up, but this was good for the other visitors as they got a chanced to take part as well.  Most of the other members were also enthusiasts, people from MR2 clubs, Celica clubs etc.  The four events were:   Egg and Spoon - It’s an old favourite, but instead of a small spoon with a normal sized egg, we had a giant spoon mounted to the front of a Toyota Auris Hybrid with a giant egg (with was just a blow-up fitness ball. We had to drive the Auris Hybrid around a twisty track with a partner who would need to jump out at a moments notice to retrieve the egg if it was to fall off, the once you've done one lap, you would need to quickly swap drivers and do another lap while being timed (though not too fast that you forget to turn the car off and allow the car to roll on Smudge  ).   Penalty Shoot Out - Each contestant had roughly 2 1/2 minutes to score as many goals as possible, Top Gear style, which meant jumping into an Toyota Aygo to ram/punt a giant sized blow-up football into a goal only slightly bigger than the football itself.  Though nikndel managed to kill the ball pretty much at the start of the day....luckily there were spares    Balance the Ball - Similar to the Egg and Spoon but this time the drivers jump into a Toyota Hilux and navigate a course off road (just on grass). But instead of an egg at the front of the car, instead the blow-up ball is suspended on a net in the truck’s bed, and the aim is to finish the course without the ball bouncing out of the bed in the shortest time.   Auto Test - Drivers jumped into a Toyota GT86 and had to drive around a tight course made of cones which consisted of hair pin turns, donuts and slaloms. 2 practice runs and then a timed run with everything turned off....while the course was wet....which mean awesome fun and awesome drifts!   While this was going on, people could grab a ride along with 2 drivers who drove a Toyota GT86 around the airfield track, getting upto 130mph and going sideways around corners. And then right at the end of the day, they hosted a Who's Fastest contest, each contestant (no longer in teams) would have 1 practice run and then a timed run around a very small auto test course in a GT86.                                         Jamie_gt86 thought we were killing it on the egg and spoon race....we both had a clean run with a 4:27 run I think....but turns out Deacon's team somehow managed a 4:01 run in the afternoon   As for the Auto Test, I had a really good 2nd practice run of roughly 33.6 seconds, but on my actual timed run, I over cooked a donut and span out which added 6.5 seconds to my previous time so I ended up with a 40.1 second run which I'm gutted about   Next we did the Balance the Ball in the Hilux, again me and Jamie partnered up and we both had clean runs (2 runs each, fastest timed counted). Jamie managed a 45.94 I think while I only managed a 47 something, but I was feeling sick as while we went around, the whole time I would be looking backwards to make sure the ball was stable and in position to speed up etc. Reckon our team won this event    And last of all, the Penality Shootout didn't actually counted in the end as it was too windy and difficult, some people didn't even managed to score a single goal, but I think I managed 4 or 5, but at this point it was just full power, punt and wish for the best as there was no real aim due to the wind and the uneven ground etc as you were on wet grass...which also meant lots of wheel spin....and in turn this resulted in me stalling the call embarrassingly as I tried to slowly set off.   As for the final Auto Test, I didn't even get to find out my time, they just announed the top 8 which then did another run for the top 4 and then a final showdown between the top 2. I messed up cos I went wide and ended up spinning the back end out onto the grass and full side ways drift back onto the tarmac which added time to my run   But still an awesome time, such an epic day, it was more about the taking part and I loved being able to rag an 86 around a course with everything turned off. Drifting around cones without worrying about damaging my own car as it was Toyota's instead, awesome time.  The Silverstone Staff and Toyota GB staff who organised and hosted this event were all awesome, each person got a team T-Shirt, breakfast, drinks and snacks throughout the day as well as a team themed packed lunch! Can't thank them enough for such an awesome day.  We were told that Toyota do this each year overseas so let's hope they continue this here and they organise another event next year!

Suits him don't you think?