Anyone else drive their BRZ hard?

[cliff]

Originally Posted by TommyW

I don't think Cliff was stating that he drives easy for resale but was commenting that it would be a nice perk for someone looking for a car like that.

Exactly, Thanks

[gravitylover]

There's hard break in and there's abuse, winding a motor right up to 6k regularly when it's brand new is probably not the right way to do it. I have had a few new cars now and just had this recall work done and my approach is to drive it the way you will drive it later. For me this means some hard running on local streets but I rarely get much over 5k rpm unless I need to. I do a metric shitton of highway miles, this week will easily be 2k so it will see a bunch of steady rpm running but I've been winding it up and down for the last 3 days and will pull hard up some hills and on some back roads. The 3 brand new cars I've had I did keep it at 4k or less for the first 1k miles but ran it up to that limit pretty hard at least a few times every day. I've never had a problem with oil burning other than once in the '12 Crosstrek I had (and hated). Right around 1500 miles it nearly ran dry and I had pretty much babied it because all I was doing up to that point was commute (56 miles each way). When that happened I went back to what I did before and ran it hard for the next two tanks and never had a problem after that for the 63k I had the car.

[atomicalex]

Just a note from someone who sees the insides of bores at work sometimes.

Modern machining technology gets the bores to almost perfect wear condition in manufacturing process. The required running in is complete by the time the car is on the boat for transfer. The running in we do as part of accepting the car into private ownership is a vestige of the past, and generally intended to acquaint the owner with the car over the first few thousand miles more than anything else.

[Vic4uf]

I’ve driven my car hard before but most of time I’m flaccid. ��

Wait...what were you talking about?

[AdrianBRZ]

Hello this is my first post.
I got a 2018 brz last December, wr blue, manual.
Before this all i drove for years were 20 year old auto camerys and just wanted my old manual Tr magna again, haha.
This car was brand new 5km on the clock when i test drove it. It was babied through its run in. The olny time i really thrash it is on highway on ramps. The car only has 8000ks on it at the moment. I do drive the back twisty roads often and its amazing how fast it can take a corner.
At first i was a little jerky with the downshift changes, then I realised blip downshifts and it made it even more fun after i mastered that.
Im not someone that drives like a hoon, i do not have the skills, the car does, i do not. I would love to find a race track or more preferably a skid pan and have an instructor show me how to drift the car, ive never even done a donut or slid a car, never had a car that could.
Theres a particular on ramp on my way home from work, one afternoon i had a wrx sti in front, was happy as its usually a 4wd or suv in my way, see him look back, tried to keep up, like really tried got absolutely smoked buy quite a distance, really no contest, laughed as im sure he did aswell.

[_keepkushin_]

but the other day the car was just running so damn smooth i didn't want to let off the pedal.... that's when it all happened as i came to a rolling stop along side of the freeway. it's been a few weeks and i thought that the problem might be another set of snapped flywheel bolts cause honestly thats what it sounded like to me. but it went on to be something diff {still havent check clutch}. so i got the car home and left it to be... i told myself to worry about it when i had the time. so into further inspection i was getting dtc of 340 340 198 197 all powertrain codes. i tried to clear the codes and restart the car it wouldn't budge so i had the starter tore down it was seized... i replaced my oil temp sensor also and i replaced all of my cam sensors and now i hear a clakking noise that sounds like its coming from the area where the motor meets trans but up top. id like to know if anyone has had this problem before or if this is the horrible vavle spring issue just a heads up i got the motor to turn over and i left it running for close to an hour, it ran normal until i applied the gas then it shut off. wondering if i should just start putting all the oem parts back on ? any ideas or things i should do that may help cars not showing any dtc's anymore. thanks in advance

[mrg666]

Originally Posted by Will BRZ

I drive my car the same way. Loud downshifts when coming up to stops or on the highway to hear the car. Sending it on the freeway or clear road and take turns like I'm on the Nürburgring. I literally don't understand when I see people taking their twins like 55 mph on the right lane. An Accord would accomplish the same task, but it's not my money.

I don't mean to come off as an asshole driver or give us a bad name. I still follow important rules of the road and consider myself a courteous driver. I'll never put anyone's life at risk, but I bought a BRZ to drive it. I'm at about 42,500 miles and no issues. I'm stock and plan to keep it as long as possible. I think we'll be fine lol haven't heard anything catastrophic. I'm always 100% on top of maintenance, let it warm up properly, and overall take care of it as much as I can.

My experience is that loud downshifts give the message to other proud car owners around you to show/prove their car is faster and louder (unbelievably, even minivans). I can drive like I want when there are no other cars around. But I deal with personalities, not traffic, if I show off. The safest is to be quiet and go with the flow when there are others.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by _keepkushin_

but the other day the car was just running so damn smooth i didn't want to let off the pedal.... that's when it all happened as i came to a rolling stop along side of the freeway. it's been a few weeks and i thought that the problem might be another set of snapped flywheel bolts cause honestly thats what it sounded like to me. but it went on to be something diff {still havent check clutch}. so i got the car home and left it to be... i told myself to worry about it when i had the time. so into further inspection i was getting dtc of 340 340 198 197 all powertrain codes. i tried to clear the codes and restart the car it wouldn't budge so i had the starter tore down it was seized... i replaced my oil temp sensor also and i replaced all of my cam sensors and now i hear a clakking noise that sounds like its coming from the area where the motor meets trans but up top. id like to know if anyone has had this problem before or if this is the horrible vavle spring issue just a heads up i got the motor to turn over and i left it running for close to an hour, it ran normal until i applied the gas then it shut off. wondering if i should just start putting all the oem parts back on ? any ideas or things i should do that may help cars not showing any dtc's anymore. thanks in advance

Not the tread to discuss this. Make a new one in in the issues sub. Give far more detail as to what the codes were and what mods you have. With the info on hand at this point it could be several hundred different issues.

[TunaNoCrust]

I bought my car brand new, took it to the track at 600 miles as I needed to put some wear on the rotors, bed the brakes, and got the alignment to a descent point.

On the track my rpms are always at/around red line, I have hit rev limiter a boat load of times, any acceleration I am doing is 100%, my braking is downright savage, I drive right over curbing, and I enjoy every second of it as that is what I bought it for.

Personally, I expect it to blow up, its a Subaru motor they honestly blow up a lot at the tracks...but I have a warranty and a very understanding dealership.

[~el~jefe~]

I always feel a bulge when I drive a BRZ.

[BrZ_Good]

I drive the phuck out of my brz daily. Got it in 2015 with 13k miles.

[PenGun]

Just got it broke in. I think its easier to drive hard than to drive reasonably. Once I get excited, baby just works so well. Driving her to the store is actually harder for me.

[joro2]

Originally Posted by PenGun

I think its easier to drive hard than to drive reasonably.

Agree, the car seems setup from the factory for more aggressive driving, i.e it’s a much smoother performer if consistently held (and shifted) in the mid to higher rev range. It seems way more natural to take turns fast(er) than slow. All the more reason I appreciate the “tepid” (I’m not complaining, just echoing popular sentiment) powerband, I can enjoy a drive @ 8/10s or > on the street and (more often than not) not break any laws.

[iLuveKetchup]

I don't think I've gone over 4.5k rpm on the highway. I only go +5mph the speed limit. Can autos even go beyond 4.5k rpm?