4k GT86 Gets a Rocket Bunny Kit & LS3 V8 Swap!
Discussion
Haven't looked at this thread since you first got the car. Good progress and outcome :-)
From another gt86 owner a dab of silicone behind the repeaters is what you need. As once you have removed them once they never hold tight enough the next time even if you bend the clips out.
Tein flex A would be my choice from the list for your needs. Oem ride comfort in soft and lots of adjustability. Plus the spring rates they come with are alot more friendly.
Mine is a road car with track use thrown at it a few times a year. I have got on well with ebaich springs and oem shocks. Only changing to flex A now as I am doing more track work and want to take it a step further.
For more mid range I can highly recommend tuning developments stage1 package of manifold and map. Loads more mid range and makes track work alot more fun as you don't get bogged down in the flat spot in the revs.
From another gt86 owner a dab of silicone behind the repeaters is what you need. As once you have removed them once they never hold tight enough the next time even if you bend the clips out.
Tein flex A would be my choice from the list for your needs. Oem ride comfort in soft and lots of adjustability. Plus the spring rates they come with are alot more friendly.
Mine is a road car with track use thrown at it a few times a year. I have got on well with ebaich springs and oem shocks. Only changing to flex A now as I am doing more track work and want to take it a step further.
For more mid range I can highly recommend tuning developments stage1 package of manifold and map. Loads more mid range and makes track work alot more fun as you don't get bogged down in the flat spot in the revs.
Get the KW V3 with HLS on the front if you are bothered about handling / ride, or just use air bags if you want to drop it for show.
http://blog-int.kwautomotive.net/jdm-seduction-toy...
I think you're going to end up with a compromised system if you mix and match, at best.
http://blog-int.kwautomotive.net/jdm-seduction-toy...
I think you're going to end up with a compromised system if you mix and match, at best.
Samjeev said:
Having discussed my Coilover order with BC racing it appears that the BC ER Series comes from the factory with 10/8kg springs which is incredibly hard to confirm seeing as no suppliers list this or they list it at 8kg/6kg. Although it is possible to get softer spring rates by doing so the BC Racing Factory in Taiwan have advised that they will not be able to offer the units with a warranty.
As 10/8kg is far too harsh for a street car rather than track car in my opinion and due to the lack of warranty support and general lack of compromise on their attitude I have decided to cancel my order with BC and go back to the original, potentially controversial and more expensive plan that I had when fixing the car up, Air Ride.
BC ER Series: See Above problems
Give Driftworks a shout, they have a wide range of coilovers so should be able to find something that works for you.As 10/8kg is far too harsh for a street car rather than track car in my opinion and due to the lack of warranty support and general lack of compromise on their attitude I have decided to cancel my order with BC and go back to the original, potentially controversial and more expensive plan that I had when fixing the car up, Air Ride.
BC ER Series: See Above problems
danposs86 said:
Samjeev said:
Having discussed my Coilover order with BC racing it appears that the BC ER Series comes from the factory with 10/8kg springs which is incredibly hard to confirm seeing as no suppliers list this or they list it at 8kg/6kg. Although it is possible to get softer spring rates by doing so the BC Racing Factory in Taiwan have advised that they will not be able to offer the units with a warranty.
As 10/8kg is far too harsh for a street car rather than track car in my opinion and due to the lack of warranty support and general lack of compromise on their attitude I have decided to cancel my order with BC and go back to the original, potentially controversial and more expensive plan that I had when fixing the car up, Air Ride.
BC ER Series: See Above problems
Give Driftworks a shout, they have a wide range of coilovers so should be able to find something that works for you.As 10/8kg is far too harsh for a street car rather than track car in my opinion and due to the lack of warranty support and general lack of compromise on their attitude I have decided to cancel my order with BC and go back to the original, potentially controversial and more expensive plan that I had when fixing the car up, Air Ride.
BC ER Series: See Above problems
Thanks for the recent replies guys, its been good to read over some of the input.
So I have actually been speaking to Driftworks a bit as I was planning on buying the air cups from them but also during the drama with BC racing I messaged Driftworks to confirm whether they run in to the same issue of the BC coilovers they sell being subject to no warranty and they confirm it is the case for them as well (They sell the BC ER series at 8/6kg) and they did suggest to consider some HSD or KW Coilovers (Which they have a sale on currently too!)
Unfortunately their HSD range is currently quite limited for the 86 platform currently as they only sell the mono's and i'd really like to spend a bit more and get a bit more for my money for the same reason I've ruled out the Tein Flex A's however I still plan on picking up some chunkier ARB's and adjustable Arms from Driftworks when they've released them.
The only other one they have on offer that has interested me is the whiteline coilovers which looks fantastic but there's extremely limited info on. Whiteline don't even have them listed on their website for the GT86!
Fensport are good in that they have alot of decent offerings but they're strangely overpriced to other suppliers but I have been emailing them back and forth a bit as some of the coilovers on the market seem to be holding their Spring rates stats close to their chest.
I did see those KW's with their Hydraulic cup system but it's a totally ludacris price and I don't think is currently sold/supported for the GT86 despite that article on it, although I might be having a moment of madness and making that up. Correct me if i'm wrong
So I have actually been speaking to Driftworks a bit as I was planning on buying the air cups from them but also during the drama with BC racing I messaged Driftworks to confirm whether they run in to the same issue of the BC coilovers they sell being subject to no warranty and they confirm it is the case for them as well (They sell the BC ER series at 8/6kg) and they did suggest to consider some HSD or KW Coilovers (Which they have a sale on currently too!)
Unfortunately their HSD range is currently quite limited for the 86 platform currently as they only sell the mono's and i'd really like to spend a bit more and get a bit more for my money for the same reason I've ruled out the Tein Flex A's however I still plan on picking up some chunkier ARB's and adjustable Arms from Driftworks when they've released them.
The only other one they have on offer that has interested me is the whiteline coilovers which looks fantastic but there's extremely limited info on. Whiteline don't even have them listed on their website for the GT86!
Fensport are good in that they have alot of decent offerings but they're strangely overpriced to other suppliers but I have been emailing them back and forth a bit as some of the coilovers on the market seem to be holding their Spring rates stats close to their chest.
I did see those KW's with their Hydraulic cup system but it's a totally ludacris price and I don't think is currently sold/supported for the GT86 despite that article on it, although I might be having a moment of madness and making that up. Correct me if i'm wrong
Samjeev said:
Thanks for the recent replies guys, its been good to read over some of the input.
So I have actually been speaking to Driftworks a bit as I was planning on buying the air cups from them but also during the drama with BC racing I messaged Driftworks to confirm whether they run in to the same issue of the BC coilovers they sell being subject to no warranty and they confirm it is the case for them as well (They sell the BC ER series at 8/6kg) and they did suggest to consider some HSD or KW Coilovers (Which they have a sale on currently too!)
Unfortunately their HSD range is currently quite limited for the 86 platform currently as they only sell the mono's and i'd really like to spend a bit more and get a bit more for my money for the same reason I've ruled out the Tein Flex A's however I still plan on picking up some chunkier ARB's and adjustable Arms from Driftworks when they've released them.
The only other one they have on offer that has interested me is the whiteline coilovers which looks fantastic but there's extremely limited info on. Whiteline don't even have them listed on their website for the GT86!
Fensport are good in that they have alot of decent offerings but they're strangely overpriced to other suppliers but I have been emailing them back and forth a bit as some of the coilovers on the market seem to be holding their Spring rates stats close to their chest.
I did see those KW's with their Hydraulic cup system but it's a totally ludacris price and I don't think is currently sold/supported for the GT86 despite that article on it, although I might be having a moment of madness and making that up. Correct me if i'm wrong
I personally would avoid HSD. Had monopro on my old ep3 and had alot of issues with them. Plus the aftermarket support for them was shocking. So I have actually been speaking to Driftworks a bit as I was planning on buying the air cups from them but also during the drama with BC racing I messaged Driftworks to confirm whether they run in to the same issue of the BC coilovers they sell being subject to no warranty and they confirm it is the case for them as well (They sell the BC ER series at 8/6kg) and they did suggest to consider some HSD or KW Coilovers (Which they have a sale on currently too!)
Unfortunately their HSD range is currently quite limited for the 86 platform currently as they only sell the mono's and i'd really like to spend a bit more and get a bit more for my money for the same reason I've ruled out the Tein Flex A's however I still plan on picking up some chunkier ARB's and adjustable Arms from Driftworks when they've released them.
The only other one they have on offer that has interested me is the whiteline coilovers which looks fantastic but there's extremely limited info on. Whiteline don't even have them listed on their website for the GT86!
Fensport are good in that they have alot of decent offerings but they're strangely overpriced to other suppliers but I have been emailing them back and forth a bit as some of the coilovers on the market seem to be holding their Spring rates stats close to their chest.
I did see those KW's with their Hydraulic cup system but it's a totally ludacris price and I don't think is currently sold/supported for the GT86 despite that article on it, although I might be having a moment of madness and making that up. Correct me if i'm wrong
I get all my after market gt86 stuff via tuning developments. Always worth giving them a shout to see what they can do. Usually competitive and are dealers for tein and bc. Speak to Mike, very knowledgeable and helpful
Just double checked Tuning development and it turns out their current price on the BC ER's is actually a little cheaper than what I was going to pay for them 
but they also have them quoted at 8kg/6kg springs which would not have a warranty from the factory 
I do actually really like Nitrons as our Vx220 track car has a set of them on and they're fantastic. They have a couple of products for the GT86 but even the cheaper of the two are over my budget i'm afraid.
but they also have them quoted at 8kg/6kg springs which would not have a warranty from the factory I do actually really like Nitrons as our Vx220 track car has a set of them on and they're fantastic. They have a couple of products for the GT86 but even the cheaper of the two are over my budget i'm afraid.
Samjeev said:
:
I do actually really like Nitrons as our Vx220 track car has a set of them on and they're fantastic. They have a couple of products for the GT86 but even the cheaper of the two are over my budget i'm afraid.
Good work done so far. You do come across a little quick to jump the gun however imo. If you wanted to get the best for your money, I would strongly suggest you buy and read a book (or i-net resources) about car suspension. The knowledge will empower you to make better decisions regarding your upgrades. Listening to general opinions from punters or those with an interest to sell you something, will result in an expensive lesson or two for you. Just one point from me, if you are going coilover, hold on the ARB upgrade then re-assess once installed and fully setup. These can work against eachother as all part of an overall dynamics system.I do actually really like Nitrons as our Vx220 track car has a set of them on and they're fantastic. They have a couple of products for the GT86 but even the cheaper of the two are over my budget i'm afraid.
Nitron are great, but its a full race suspension not designed for road use. The lack of dust boots and protection from year round road use will result in rebuilds more regularly than a purpose built street setup.
For an alternative coilover supplier, I would suggest that you look up MeisterR and their GT1 product, UK manufactured and can do custom whatever you want, for a price.
Enjoy.
Edited by Humour on Wednesday 13th March 18:36
So this weekend has been an exciting one.
With the car show season kicking off I headed back in to Brighton for Incarnation 2019. There were some fantastic cars on display and I managed to get a couple of pictures of the 86 looking clean. Even saw a couple of PH Smiley's about!
As well as this I also took delivery of an exciting Package from Whiteline!
On the lead up to my upcoming suspension changes as well as shocks I was in the market for some new Anti-roll bars and this lead me to Whiteline as they were also one of your only manufacturers to also offer a front Bumpsteer correction kit for lowered cars as well as including Drop Links, bushings and bracing with their ARB Packages. Not only that but I also much prefer the colour/finish of their parts too!
Which brings me to the exciting bit of news that I'm now a Whiteline Brand Ambassador!
As I said before I'm not looking to make the 86 an out and out track car although they are very capable but I do like the extra confidence and grip a lightly upgraded suspension setup offers as well as the preventative measures against any bumpsteer that might arise from lowering the car as I always find it such a sketchy feeling on our bumpy B roads.
I Picked up a set of their Anti-roll bars featuring 20mm on the front (+4mm up from stock) and 16mm on the rear (+2mm up from stock), new ARB bushings, Adjustable Drop links Front & Rear, rear ARB mount bracing as well as their Bumpsteer correction kit, Rear subframe bushing inserts and Diff bushing inserts.
The inserts should really help to tighten up the slack in the driveline without sending too many vibrations in to the cabin and should be far easier to fit too!
The quality and finish of the parts is excellent and I can say from first hand experience that their customer service is awesome as well after there was a little hiccup in my order I was able to get the missing parts delivered in less than 48 hours after emailing them.
Anyway enough of that rambling, on the with pictures!
With the car show season kicking off I headed back in to Brighton for Incarnation 2019. There were some fantastic cars on display and I managed to get a couple of pictures of the 86 looking clean. Even saw a couple of PH Smiley's about!
As well as this I also took delivery of an exciting Package from Whiteline!
On the lead up to my upcoming suspension changes as well as shocks I was in the market for some new Anti-roll bars and this lead me to Whiteline as they were also one of your only manufacturers to also offer a front Bumpsteer correction kit for lowered cars as well as including Drop Links, bushings and bracing with their ARB Packages. Not only that but I also much prefer the colour/finish of their parts too!
Which brings me to the exciting bit of news that I'm now a Whiteline Brand Ambassador!
As I said before I'm not looking to make the 86 an out and out track car although they are very capable but I do like the extra confidence and grip a lightly upgraded suspension setup offers as well as the preventative measures against any bumpsteer that might arise from lowering the car as I always find it such a sketchy feeling on our bumpy B roads.
I Picked up a set of their Anti-roll bars featuring 20mm on the front (+4mm up from stock) and 16mm on the rear (+2mm up from stock), new ARB bushings, Adjustable Drop links Front & Rear, rear ARB mount bracing as well as their Bumpsteer correction kit, Rear subframe bushing inserts and Diff bushing inserts.
The inserts should really help to tighten up the slack in the driveline without sending too many vibrations in to the cabin and should be far easier to fit too!
The quality and finish of the parts is excellent and I can say from first hand experience that their customer service is awesome as well after there was a little hiccup in my order I was able to get the missing parts delivered in less than 48 hours after emailing them.
Anyway enough of that rambling, on the with pictures!
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 no doubt i'll soon be making my debut on the "Badly modified cars" thread ) 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!
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 no doubt i'll soon be making my debut on the "Badly modified cars" thread
) 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!
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 hopefully those of you that aren't really interested in this have enjoyed the thread up until now and maybe some of you will hang around for what the future holds to get a little insight as to what goes in to this kind of install/build (I'm hoping to find out myself! )
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.
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 hopefully those of you that aren't really interested in this have enjoyed the thread up until now and maybe some of you will hang around for what the future holds to get a little insight as to what goes in to this kind of install/build (I'm hoping to find out myself!
)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.
Another small update today but quite a sparkly one!
Took the air tank for my suspension to a local custom bike art/airbrush guy and had him spray it in Candy apple red. It turned out great and really pops, just what I was after!
Rather than use a silver basecoat for the candy he just sprayed right over the aluminium finish and it leaves the grain of the material showing through which gives it that extra depth and contrast.
The pictures really don't do it justice but I think it looks fantastic!
Going to get all of this kit including my ARB's and so on fitted as soon as we've got our VX220 on the market, There's a few bits i've been needing to tidy up on it before we can and i know if I worked on the 86 first the Vx would never get sold!
Took the air tank for my suspension to a local custom bike art/airbrush guy and had him spray it in Candy apple red. It turned out great and really pops, just what I was after!
Rather than use a silver basecoat for the candy he just sprayed right over the aluminium finish and it leaves the grain of the material showing through which gives it that extra depth and contrast.
The pictures really don't do it justice but I think it looks fantastic!
Going to get all of this kit including my ARB's and so on fitted as soon as we've got our VX220 on the market, There's a few bits i've been needing to tidy up on it before we can and i know if I worked on the 86 first the Vx would never get sold!
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