Futaba's JDM 86

[Futaba]

Hey all, figure'd I would write this up finally.

I visited Japan in late 2011, originally for a short 2 week visit but ended up staying a full 3 months, staying with an old friend of mine who lives here, to cut a long story short we married and I decided I would stay here permanently, so around summertime last year I started considering buying a car, was originally looking at a R35 skyline but after test driving a few I didn't feel all that right about the idea, then I came across the GT86/BRZ/FRS and after a bunch of research decided I'd go and test drive one, I hit up my local dealership and fell in love, nowhere near the power of the R35 obviously, but it felt extremely similar to my modified 1991 Celica GT4 I left in the UK when I moved here, and since then I was on the hunt for a low mileage second hand car, I had considered buying new but after you pick a few options and extras it soon shoots up to over 3.5m yen BEFORE the interest in payment plans and such.

A few months ago I found a lightning red GT in Sapporo which had only 6k miles on the clock and still good for another 2 years Shaken test exemption so I had it shipped from Sapporo to Yokohama where after jumping through several hundred hoops eventually had it parked in my driving bay.



Literally the day I got it home I installed a reverse camera and smoked valenti tail lights (part of the reason I wanted a used car, so I left less hesitation about modifying it).

Now, even though I converted my UK license to a Japanese license last year, from 2011 until last month I had not driven a car outside of test driving the GTR and 86 both of which were relatively short down the road and back again affairs, so I was pretty anxious about driving in Japan due to the mix of UK road positioning and US signage, lack of roundabouts and signals.



Current plans for the car are to have the Blitz Damper ZZR Spec-C's I bought installed along with a set of 18x9" wheels which I havent yet decided on (didn't see a point installing the spec-c's until I had the new wheels, saves having to adjust them twice). Some would argue that putting wide tyres on it kills the feel / nature of the car but I don't really intend to drift the car , just use it as a nice DD that doesn't lose it's ass end on the winding mountain roads at the first sign of rain, I was up on the Ito skyline last night and even with a fresh set of tyres, dry roads and assists left on, a couple times I felt the tail begging to swing out, when you' got a wall of rock one side and a 100+ ft drop the other, drifting was pretty low on my list of desires.

Other than the tail lights and rear parking camera, I also installed an upgrade to the head unit, which I covered in another thread, basically put the ability to play games or use chromecast on the car head unit!



So today a guy from the dealership I bought the car from came over to pick up my car and go take it to have the proper plates installed.

About 2 hours later they call and I'm simply expecting them to say theyre on their way, or at worse, delayed, but no "there's a problem", so I'm then thinking "meh paperwork annoyances again", but no "the car has been hit"

They leave it at that and tell me they will send pictures once the cars back at the dealership, so for an agonizing hour i'm waiting by my phone stressing over how bad this "hit" is.

Turns out at the license plate center someone clipped it with a car on a trailer while backing up, i'm pretty pissed about it as you can imagine but at least I should (fingers crossed) be getting it back in it's original condition tomorrow (and bonus points for it being a replacement bumper because the one they dinged had some stone chips in it!).

I've asked them to send me a picture of the rear from a few angles when they pull off the bumper so I can see if there is any damage beyond the bumper plastics, too.

Here's what they sent me a little over 30 min ago.




For the eagle eye'd amongst you, yes those are indeed shoshinsha marks, not for any JDM cred though, simply because I'm required by law to display them until a year after my japanese license was issued, despite the fact I had 12 years on my UK license with no points, crashes or convictions prior to converting!)

Pretty nasty but in reflection, considerably less worse than the crazy stuff I was imagining in that hour, the message also read that they were going to "repair the damage and return the car tomorrow", so then I got all stressed out, the cars been in my ownership all of 2 weeks, I didn't want a big obvious mark on the back where someone else had pranged it!

Thankfully though, and much to the credit of the dealership I bought the car from, they're having the bumper replaced with a new OEM part from Toyota on their own insurance so my insurance doesn't get murdered 2 weeks in.

Will update with more pics and mods once it's back and I set about doing them! for the time being here's a couple photos from my coastal run around Atami and Ito yesterday.




Planning a longer run next sunday to Fujiedo with a stop up the side of mount fuji on the way so i'll take a better camera this time and do some nicer shots of the car and scenery (assuming it is indeed fixed and back with me by then!)

Oh and lastly, I call it Celica because my old ST185 was red and handled in virtually the same way (had virtually the same HP too!)

[raven1231]

Sorry to hear about the hit. She's a beauty though!

[Futaba]

Rear's as good as new again, thankfully! took the opportunity to take an impromptu picture along side another persons car in an upgarage carpark on monday!
Anyone know what rear diffusers on the blue 86?


Had to do some shuffling recently because there is work being done at my wifes parents house so we can't use the land for parking at the moment, still it makes me realize just how small the 86 is compared to the JZZ30.

Bought a set of Enkei RS05RR in white, 18x8.5+42 / 225/40R18 front, 18x9.5+43 / 255/35R18 rear, will be getting around to installing the suspension and new wheels this weekend hopefully., along with the TRD spoiler.

[Clipdat]

Can't wait to see the white Enkeis on your red 86.

Now I know who I'm hitting up when I come to Japan for tours of windy mountain roads. I'll rent a 86 and we'll go canyon carving.

[Futaba]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

Can't wait to see the white Enkeis on your red 86.

Now I know who I'm hitting up when I come to Japan for tours of windy mountain roads. I'll rent a 86 and we'll go canyon carving.

Thanks! Looking forward to installing them too!
As for mountain roads, heading up in to some today so I'll throw the s6 on to my mount and grab some footage, won't be pushing the car much until I get some more grip on the wider tires but should give you a good idea of what the roads are like!

[Futaba]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

Now I know who I'm hitting up when I come to Japan for tours of windy mountain roads. I'll rent a 86 and we'll go canyon carving.

After todays drive, I am so up for this you would not believe, i've recorded sections of it here, a lot of route 70 is narrow road that you really cant put your foot down on but the experience is amazing, breathtaking views, (mostly) smooth roads, banked winding turns and plenty of places to stop and take it all in.

Route 70!


I'll be adding some of the footage I snapped, I'd have got more, getting all the way along route 70 to Aikawa took about an hour, but my phone kept overheating mounted in the window recording at 1080p/60fps.
Gives you a good taste of what to expect though!



Would be really fun to do a brz/86 meet in Japan someday and take this route, maybe stop along the river pictured above for a bbq and some relaxation!

Even my wife who isn't super big into cars wants to go back and enjoy it again, loved every minute of it.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKZus5ACcNo"]Mountain Drive around Japan's Route 70 - YouTube[/ame]

[Clipdat]

Just finished watching the footage from start to finish in fullscreen 1080p on my brand new 24" 144hz monitor. Felt like I was there! Thank you SO much for recording your drive, I sincerely appreciate it!

I see what you mean about it being more of a cruising pace versus pushing hard through those sections. That is honestly some of the tightest and most technical public roads I've ever seen. Definitely got a little hairy when there was only basically one lane width and there was a car coming in the other direction that wanted to get by!

Definitely would be a fun road to do really early in the morning before there's other traffic out. Or, maybe even at night when you'd be able to tell if someone else is coming from the headlights. Only sketchy part about that though is the possibility wildlife on the road.

You'll have to record a few more with sound if you decide to put an exhaust on!

Thanks again for posting up the video.

Originally Posted by Futaba

After todays drive, I am so up for this you would not believe, i've recorded sections of it here, a lot of route 70 is narrow road that you really cant put your foot down on but the experience is amazing, breathtaking views, (mostly) smooth roads, banked winding turns and plenty of places to stop and take it all in.

Route 70!

I'll be adding some of the footage I snapped, I'd have got more, getting all the way along route 70 to Aikawa took about an hour, but my phone kept overheating mounted in the window recording at 1080p/60fps.
Gives you a good taste of what to expect though!

Would be really fun to do a brz/86 meet in Japan someday and take this route, maybe stop along the river pictured above for a bbq and some relaxation!

Even my wife who isn't super big into cars wants to go back and enjoy it again, loved every minute of it.

[Futaba]

I'd have posted the current video with sound buy all you could really hear was the AC on full blast! Was hitting close to 98.f up there! Part of the reason why there's a few cuts in the video between sections, phone kept shutting down camera mode from overheating (processing and being in sunlight) next time I'm up there I'll rig up my DSLR and take a better video with sound!

I highly recommend anyone visiting the kanagawa area of Japan check this route out for a driving day, in an 86 or just about any car with nice handling, the video doesn't even begin to do this route justice.

I plan on hitting it with a little more gusto once the new wheels are on and a different time of the day when its least likely to be busy, its going to take a few runs to get familiar with the narrow segments and hairpins but given how nice the route is, I will likely enjoy every minute of learning

[Slammedsteve]

Man I wish I lived I Japan. All those Jdm parts I could get a hold of. Nice car bro Start racking up those Jdm parts

[Futaba]

Enkei's arrived.
18x8.5+42 / Falken ZE914 225/40R18 front
18x9.5+43 / Falken ZE914 255/35R18 rear

Will change out the rubber at some point but for now it'll do.




Will hopefully be installing them along with my blitz spec-c's on monday.

[Futaba]

Was meant to have a garage install the suspension and new wheels today but they were asking $400 for install then another $300 for alignment so I dug out the toolbox and did it myself.

Still needs alignment but it runs well as it is.

[sqd]

White and red is so nice! Looks great

[Clipdat]

Wow, those are crazy prices! $300 for alignment?? Any idea why they were quoting you so high? Was it a new shop that you haven't been to?

I've always liked white wheels on a red car, and now that the wheels are on the car, the stretch on the front tire doesn't look as dramatic. Still see a little bit of the wheel's lip protruding, but I think some of that is just the design of the wheel.

How does it feel with the wider wheels and tires on? I went from stock to 17x9 with 245/40 square and I really liked the difference.

Originally Posted by Futaba

they were asking $400 for install then another $300 for alignment

[Futaba]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

Wow, those are crazy prices! $300 for alignment?? Any idea why they were quoting you so high? Was it a new shop that you haven't been to?

I've always liked white wheels on a red car, and now that the wheels are on the car, the stretch on the front tire doesn't look as dramatic. Still see a little bit of the wheel's lip protruding, but I think some of that is just the design of the wheel.

How does it feel with the wider wheels and tires on? I went from stock to 17x9 with 245/40 square and I really liked the difference.

I was worried about the 225's too! bought the wheels sort of blind as they were in stock at an Upgarage on the other side of the country, but they assured me they were in great condition (and they are!), tyres have very little wear on them, paid $920 for the four rims with tyres on, was pleasantly surprised with the fit of the 225s, will eventually switch them for something meatier somewhere down the line but for now theyre good.

The rides a little bumpier to me, but its because the rears only 35 most likely, and because my zzr spec c's havent been finely tuned yet, they likely need a little preload on the front and a little and then some on the rear to reduce the noise and make the ride a little quieter, as for the road feel, the car feels every so slightly slower on acceleration but at the same time a hell of a lot more planted which is likely partly the wheels and partly the suspension, prior to fitting theres a weird banked corner near my house where accelerating while taking it would put the car on the raggedy edge of gripping, ive swang the tail out once or twice unintentionally too, but now the same corner feels solid, if anything i feel like i could get away with being way more aggressive if i wanted to.

All in all, very pleased with the change, the look and the feel.

I know some argue that putting wide tyres/wheels on the twins ruins the way the car was designed but its just the way i prefer my cars to be and feel.

So you up for that route 70 run if you find yourself in Japan? I'm sure we could find a few other 86/brz owners around and make a day of it.

As for the garage, i think its mainly "administration and labor" because they didnt actually have alignment gear and said they would need to send the car off somewhere else, and that it could take up to a week.
But then thats Japan for you, the entire systems geared towards making people either have work done by the dealership only, or auction their car off and buy a new one, the garages in my area are all pretty much expensive and its only really people with classics or copious amounts of money that can afford garage repairs and modification, which probably also explains why virtually all of the modded cars here have all had the work done by their owners or friends rather than a specific garage.

An example on such costs is the price to change a wheel, if you buy a new set of wheels at a major chain store, they will charge you anywhere from $40-$70 to install the wheels for you, even though you JUST bought them, from the same company, when I bought these Enkeis they wrote down the pricing and showed it to me, and I was just like "5,500 yen to put them on?, ill do it myself!".

Thankfully I have the experience of working on cars, I just didn't have the right tools so instead of paying them $400 to do it, i bought a nice seep socket set, torque wrench, some jack stands and a 3 tonne floor jack for a grand total of $150 instead.