A surprisingly rare Subaru..
Discussion
It's been a while since I've started one of these. Having spent the last few months beyond bored with using the FN2 Civic and not wanting to sink a load of money into tidying up a car I don't like all that much the hunt for a new car began around September last year. Mostly because I've looked at everything from M135's to VX220's to VW Transporter's it's taken until now to actually commit to something.
But there was one car I kept going back to, and that was the GT86. Much time has been spent reading up about them, endless reading of people online who've mostly not driven them saying how slow they are Zzzzz...
Initially I had my eye on a car down south with a few subtle mods but what with the current covid shenanigans making a 3 and a half hour journey to view a car just felt like taking the piss a bit too much. And then while scrolling through faceache marketplace a couple of weeks ago this 2012 BRZ popped up, just 10 minutes down the road, it had been taken in as a part ex at a commercial vehicle sales place.
The cars done 56k miles, full service history, recently had the valve spring recall done also which is a big bonus. It's a standard SE spec car, the only modification being the 18 inch Rota Titan wheels (that will eventually be going either silver or gun metal grey) and some decent Goodyear rubber. No real marks to speak of bar a couple of small parking dings which doesn't worry me on a 9 year old car.
I can only give some first impressions as I've only had it for 3 days. So I'll cover the main bits individually.
Engine. it's not a match for a VTEC lump, but it has it's own charm and it does wake up a fair bit past 5000rpm. It's not the most torquey thing in the the world but the gear ratios more than make up for it. As the the so called torque dip halfway up the rev range? You feel a very slight hesitation but that's about it, it's not the big drop in power the Internet will have you belive. I am tempted with with unequal length manifolds and a remap in the future, not so much for the extra grunt, more just to give the noise a bit more character. It's a bit sewing machine like low down.
Gearbox- up there with my old S2000 and DC5 Integra for having one of the nicest manual shifts in any car.
Ride/Handling - the ride is firm, there's no other way to describe it, but after a quick hammering down my short test lane Friday night. It feels really controlled when the road gets lumpy and off camber. Where the Civic for example crashed into and bounced off the same bumps, the BRZ takes them and stays controlled, a lot like a WRX/STI Impreza funnily enough.
Comfort wise, the seats are fantastic, driving position is perfect. But I can't wait to get my headunit from the Civic into this car, partly for the DAB and Bluetooth connectivity, mostly because it'll hopefully add a bit of volume and make things more audible past 60-70mph.
The only other thing I'll be changing in the near future are the rear lights for something a bit less Lexus style, and maybe possibly a front lip spoiler if I can find one similar to the BRZ STI one.
Thanks for reading if you've somehow got this far. You must be having a very slow day
But there was one car I kept going back to, and that was the GT86. Much time has been spent reading up about them, endless reading of people online who've mostly not driven them saying how slow they are Zzzzz...
Initially I had my eye on a car down south with a few subtle mods but what with the current covid shenanigans making a 3 and a half hour journey to view a car just felt like taking the piss a bit too much. And then while scrolling through faceache marketplace a couple of weeks ago this 2012 BRZ popped up, just 10 minutes down the road, it had been taken in as a part ex at a commercial vehicle sales place.
The cars done 56k miles, full service history, recently had the valve spring recall done also which is a big bonus. It's a standard SE spec car, the only modification being the 18 inch Rota Titan wheels (that will eventually be going either silver or gun metal grey) and some decent Goodyear rubber. No real marks to speak of bar a couple of small parking dings which doesn't worry me on a 9 year old car.
I can only give some first impressions as I've only had it for 3 days. So I'll cover the main bits individually.
Engine. it's not a match for a VTEC lump, but it has it's own charm and it does wake up a fair bit past 5000rpm. It's not the most torquey thing in the the world but the gear ratios more than make up for it. As the the so called torque dip halfway up the rev range? You feel a very slight hesitation but that's about it, it's not the big drop in power the Internet will have you belive. I am tempted with with unequal length manifolds and a remap in the future, not so much for the extra grunt, more just to give the noise a bit more character. It's a bit sewing machine like low down.
Gearbox- up there with my old S2000 and DC5 Integra for having one of the nicest manual shifts in any car.
Ride/Handling - the ride is firm, there's no other way to describe it, but after a quick hammering down my short test lane Friday night. It feels really controlled when the road gets lumpy and off camber. Where the Civic for example crashed into and bounced off the same bumps, the BRZ takes them and stays controlled, a lot like a WRX/STI Impreza funnily enough.
Comfort wise, the seats are fantastic, driving position is perfect. But I can't wait to get my headunit from the Civic into this car, partly for the DAB and Bluetooth connectivity, mostly because it'll hopefully add a bit of volume and make things more audible past 60-70mph.
The only other thing I'll be changing in the near future are the rear lights for something a bit less Lexus style, and maybe possibly a front lip spoiler if I can find one similar to the BRZ STI one.
Thanks for reading if you've somehow got this far. You must be having a very slow day
Nicely done. I've always fancied one of these, but circumstances haven't yet permitted. I'm all for a car that has a nice balance of power and usability on road. Who could use a 500bhp rwd car everyday and even trouble the carpet behind the accelerator? It's be half throttle at best, once a week, especially in winter.
Couldn't cope with them any longer so I ordered the Vland LED rear lights and smoked bumper lightest night. Nothing drastic design wise, just something similar to the much nicer rear lights on the face-lift BRZ/86. And the smoked bumper light will blend into the diffuser looking part of the bumper a bit better
|https://thumbsnap.com/WnouF9gq[/url]
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|https://thumbsnap.com/WnouF9gq[/url][url]Edited by DanielSan on Monday 8th March 14:05
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did my GT86.
Rear lights, I tried several but those I liked best were Tom's DOT, though they weren't UK legal as they were all red including indicators. Took a while to wire them up properly too as by default the brake light was the rear light and rear light illuminated as brake light, or something odd like that. Failing that, Valenti make some nice lights which are UK legal so maybe the better way to go.
Rear lights, I tried several but those I liked best were Tom's DOT, though they weren't UK legal as they were all red including indicators. Took a while to wire them up properly too as by default the brake light was the rear light and rear light illuminated as brake light, or something odd like that. Failing that, Valenti make some nice lights which are UK legal so maybe the better way to go.
LordGrover said:
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did my GT86.
Rear lights, I tried several but those I liked best were Tom's DOT, though they weren't UK legal as they were all red including indicators. Took a while to wire them up properly too as by default the brake light was the rear light and rear light illuminated as brake light, or something odd like that. Failing that, Valenti make some nice lights which are UK legal so maybe the better way to go.
I've been weighing up between these Vland ones and the Valenti's, seems a fair few owners have had both with no issues so the Vland's won purely on being next day delivery. I'll fit one and if all works as it says with no faffing of wiring needed then they'll stay otherwise I'll be sending them back and going with the Valenti's.Rear lights, I tried several but those I liked best were Tom's DOT, though they weren't UK legal as they were all red including indicators. Took a while to wire them up properly too as by default the brake light was the rear light and rear light illuminated as brake light, or something odd like that. Failing that, Valenti make some nice lights which are UK legal so maybe the better way to go.
DanielSan said:
Couldn't cope with them any longer so I ordered the Vland LED rear lights and smoked bumper lightest night. Nothing drastic design wise, just something similar to the much nicer rear lights on the face-lift BRZ/86. And the smoked bumper light will blend into the diffuser looking part of the bumper a bit better
That does look cool and much better than the original 
baptistsan said:
Thank you, appreciate it. That looks a very nice place to sit. How are you finding the general cabin quality?
The seats are some of the best I've sat in in any car. Up there with a classic Impreza for fitting every part of me perfectly. The toggle light switches for air con etc in the centre console feel err lightweight, and if it's soft touch plastics on the dash you want then it's definitely not the place to be. There's nothing I'd be worried about coming off in yoir hand though. Road noise is on par with something like a Civic Type R so not the quietest but certainly not unbearable, the only real negative is that the standard stereo is just too quiet so hopefully the headunit will help with that, and I've seen Focal do some drop in speakers so may look at those as a future upgrade also.
I booked a test drive in one on my birthday in 2014!
Loved everything about how it drove apart from the engine. Mind you I did have a BMW 123d at the time so revving past 5,000 rpm was a distant memory for me.
But like you I loved the seats, how the cabin fitted around you, the handling and the gearchange. Still on my radar as a possible future purchase.
Loved everything about how it drove apart from the engine. Mind you I did have a BMW 123d at the time so revving past 5,000 rpm was a distant memory for me.
But like you I loved the seats, how the cabin fitted around you, the handling and the gearchange. Still on my radar as a possible future purchase.
A small annoying update, the EML has come on showing a p0420 error code. So it's in the garage Thursday morning for some diagnosis, Google searching seems to suggest that it's either an o2 sensor or a dead cat. It's still running and driving fine, no hesitation or power loss that I can feel so hopefully it's just a dead sensor.
DanielSan said:
A small annoying update, the EML has come on showing a p0420 error code. So it's in the garage Thursday morning for some diagnosis, Google searching seems to suggest that it's either an o2 sensor or a dead cat. It's still running and driving fine, no hesitation or power loss that I can feel so hopefully it's just a dead sensor.
Small update, the garage did some investigating yesterday including a gas test and it seems like the cars overfuelling so a new post cat o2 sensor is on order. 4 hours of searching, resulted in finally finding the correct part number and somewhere that actually had one in stock as it seems hardly anywhere but main dealers sell them. Hopefully this will solve the problem anyway.... In more positive news the rear lights and bumper light have arrived, I'll put the rears in this weekend, bumper light will go in when it's in for service next weekend
The Focal speakers also arrived yesterday so they'll be going in next weekend with my headunit. They should hopefully provide a nice upgrade in sound and a bit more volume. I may look at adding a small sub as well if I can find an underseat one that works but space looks tight at best
Despite the truly terrible weather so far today I've at least managed to get the rear lights fitted in between rain showers. And it's in the garage next weekend for a service/stereo upgrade fitting/rear bumper light/o2 sensor. The stereo parts mostly because it's easier to do inside than on the drive in the rain....
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