FT-86 to be named FR-S...

[Gats]

Yes, it's shit paint. Mine was covered in minor scratches and only had 8km on it when I picked it up from the dealer.

[JZK25]

flex joint needed where the two headers are bridged in the middle?

It has a slip joint.


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[Captain_Slow]

It's been six weeks and about 1700km, time for some initial impressions.

First general comment to make is that I love this car, and for the money there's not a lot that I would change. I think it's even better in corners than my NB MX-5 was - much less body roll and more direct steering, although I think overall the centre of gravity in the Mazda might have been lower. Certainly, while you sit low, I sat lower in the (admittedly old and softer) seats of the MX-5.

It's not fast but it's not slow. It's a different sort of performance - most of the action is on the other side of 5000rpm so you have to work for it. It's a huge change if you're used to low end V8 or turbo torque. It will probably disappoint you if you want to win traffic light drag races. On the other hand, if your idea of a good time in your neighbourhood is to go around roundabouts quickly and keep it in the powerband for a screaming 6000rpm second gear exit, this is the car for you.

I like the noise it makes. It's a bit diesel at low revs, but higher up in the rev range it's a good noise that I could listen to all day.

It's clearly built to a price, and it's really interesting to see where the designers' priorities lay. For example, you get cheap carpet and a pretty ordinary sounding stereo. But on the other hand, you get an aluminium bonnet and parallelogram boot hinges rather than the gooseneck type that wastes boot space. It's clear that the team behind this car had $X to spend and decided to spend it where it most effectively built a drivers' car. There's also little things that say everything about their priorities - for instance, the headrests that are reversible for helmets, or the way the guards seem pre-rolled and with lots of suspension clearance to accept a bigger wheel/tyre combo if you want it.

A lot of reviews say the interior is crap. I disagree, and this brings me to a point I want to make about the reviews of this car. I've read every review I could get my hands on, and motoring journos would have you believe that it has the interior of a Lada Samara and will need a dab of oppo to negotiate entering your driveway thanks to the low-grip "Prius tyres". Yeah, the interior isn't going to keep any high end Euro companies awake at night, but last time I checked, Europe couldn't offer you a $30k RWD sports car either. It's fine - all the bits you touch are fine, the switchgear is good quality, the seats are excellent, and while there's a fair proportion of hard plastics they're not offensively cheap looking and you don't touch them much. Similarly, no the tyres aren't massive on grip but you can drive around normally to enthusiastically and not end up sideways if you don't want to be. Sometimes I think motoring journos make too much of this sort of thing - but on the other hand they've also generally rated the car highly so six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Downsides? Sure. The sound system is crap - the head unit is a bit slow to respond to touchscreen input, but the bigger problem is the sound quality just isn't that nice. Volume equals distortion and becomes hard to listen to. I'm wondering if a speaker upgrade might cure its ills. The paint is not very good - looks fine, shiny and nicely metallic, but it marks really easily. I'm not sure that many 86s are going to look all that good when they're ten years old unless the owners have put effort into detailing along the way. And I'm getting a few buzzes from the interior already as well - one from above the instrument cluster, which Canberra Toyota fixed and has since returned, and the door trims buzz near the speakers at higher volumes. Again, I'm wondering if a speaker upgrade plus some sort of foam will sort this out.

But hey. The point of this car was to deliver a low-budget car for people who love driving, and they've absolutely nailed those bits. The handling really is lovely and precise, the steering is nicely weighted, the gearbox is one of the best I've ever used, and the driving position is spot on with great seats. Frankly, like the MX-5 before it, it makes the SS feel like a roly-poly boat with a truck gearbox that won't stop.

The only part I'm pondering upgrading is the wheels - but the standard 16s are actually a nice design and putting bigger and heavier wheels on it would seem to be against the purpose of light and chuckable. So I probably won't, unless I can find a lightweight design I like. And more power would always be welcome, but I'm not really one for major mods so I might be looking for relatively easy gains instead.

On the whole, I'm very glad I bought it, and I think I'll be able to happily enjoy it for the 7-8 years I plan to keep it for.

[Gats]

You might find that the window switches are causing the rattle in the drivers door. Mine has the annoying rattle from the instrument cluster also. Will be mentioning it at every service till they sort it out.

I drive mine back to back with an Exige yesterday. Was considering "upgrading" to the Lotus eventually. But the only thing it did better than the 86 was torque. Everything else was similar, or worse IMHO

[MZ21]

The only part I'm pondering upgrading is the wheels - but the standard 16s are actually a nice design and putting bigger and heavier wheels on it would seem to be against the purpose of light and chuckable.

Pretty sure they were enkeis when I pulled off my 16's as needed 17's for brembo clearance. How awsome would the 16's be in a 17x8 wheel.

I reckon the factory 17's look shit compared to 16's

[trdee]

yep the watanabe style 16s are much prettier.

but 16s are gay

[Captain_Slow]

Pretty sure they were enkeis when I pulled off my 16's as needed 17's for brembo clearance. How awsome would the 16's be in a 17x8 wheel. I reckon the factory 17's look shit compared to 16's

Agreed. I don't like the factory 17s at all.

[perthdrivers.txt]

They look much better with wider rubber on

[Gats]

New look to be released at NY auto show. Basically new front bumper, tail lights and wheels. And some interior tweaks.

http://blog.toyota.co.uk/2017-gt86-new-york-auto-show

I don't mind the rear lights and wheels. Not a fan of the front bumper.

[MZ21]

I like it. Should be easy enough to retro fit to older cars to freshen them up.

[Captain_Slow]

Perfectly illustrates how "different" is not the same as "improved".

[Rona]

Wheels are definitely an improvement.

[Captain Kermit]

Taillights shit on the old ones. Not hard but still.

[rj_astra]

At least the '86 enthusiasts have got what they asked for - more power. Extra 4kw and 9Nm for the manual models.

[rowdytoot]

I don't mind that at all