So... where the hell is the FRS/BRZ in sanctioned racing?

[hmong337]

Am I missing something here?

As one of the most hyped cars in decades for the perfect racing platform tuner, where the hell is it in true sanctioned racing? ...sorry guys, drift is NOT racing. I love time attack, but we want race teams and wheel-to-wheel stuff here.

Seriously, I'm dumbfounded by the lack of racing representation with this car

Continental Tires Challenge. No show in Street Tuner class...? vs Civic Si, Miata, BMW, Cayman, Hyundai GenCoupe, etc. It would fit perfect in that class, no?
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9C3rUl9CEo"]2014 Virginia International Raceway Race Broadcast - YouTube[/ame]


Pirelli World Challenge. Only one Scion FRS (supercharged too), Stout Racing, entered ONE race in the 2014 season in which they ended up in a crash. Nothing from them since. Previous to that, they ran in the 2013 season and was plagued by problems. Pretty much last place for both years!
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it_rkFFjiTM"]PWC 2014 Highlights of GT/GT-A/GTS Round 11 at Mid-Ohio - YouTube[/ame]

For the amount of cars sold in North America and the PR of being an "amazing tuner machine", you would think Toyota/Scion/Subaru would prove this car and enter it into solid racing efforts...? I've been waiting two years now. Where the hell is it? Where is Toyota Racing Development in all this? Where are the sponsored teams? Is this stupid of me to ask...? I was thinking people would be all over this!

Sure we got the Griffon (not a wheel-to-wheel car) and a handful of Gazoo cars. The Gazoo 86's being pretty much the only noise of success in terms of an 86 race team.

Subaru, well, they built a GT300 car that really isn't a BRZ. And it looks like they probably kicked their Toyota imbred BRZ to the curb because they'd rather promote their WRX.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7doi-W4by1U"][SUBARU] 2014 Nürburgring 24h Rennen Digest Movie - YouTube[/ame]

I still haven't seen any racing efforts at all from an actual BRZ from Subaru. Nothing FA20 D4S powered.

Will we see any solid entries for FT86 at all?

Where is the Toyota/Scion equivalent of Realtime Acura?

Pipe dreams?

[Zozr]

Some say it's still finishing the lap.

[hmong337]

Originally Posted by Zozr

Some say it's still finishing the lap.

They definitely sold on Monday, but they didn't race on Sunday.

[InspGadgt]

http://www.scion.com/scionracing/580...championships/

[airjonny]

In about 5-7 years, this is gonna be the next 240sx in drifting series.

[swarb]

Many reasons.
1. Money. Factory backing, race team/crew, parts, sponsors. If you don't have a good crew($$$), you just won't qualify or will be a lap marker.
2. Rules/classes. Some rules/classes favor specific cars over others.
3. Development. Some cars are developed and have setups that have been tested and work. Lots of data to work with. No one wants to start at ground zero.
4. Toyota vs Subaru. Subaru has the gt300 car, while Toyota has been pushing TRD/street car parts. Back to number 3, no one wants do all this r&d($$$) and have someone else gain for free.
5. No 2nd gen, no point in developing a car that is going to die. No point developing a 2.0 that toyota won't use(boxer) subaru is going towards 2.5's or turbos and only races 4wd, no use for 12.5:1 compression, low torque, high reving engine.

[Koa]

Originally Posted by hmong337

Am I missing something here?

As one of the most hyped cars in decades for the perfect racing platform tuner, where the hell is it in true sanctioned racing? ...sorry guys, drift is NOT racing. I love time attack, but we want race teams and wheel-to-wheel stuff here.

Seriously, I'm dumbfounded by the lack of racing representation with this car

Continental Tires Challenge. No show in Street Tuner class...? vs Civic Si, Miata, BMW, Cayman, Hyundai GenCoupe, etc. It would fit perfect in that class, no?

Pirelli World Challenge. Only one Scion FRS (supercharged too), Stout Racing, entered ONE race in the 2014 season in which they ended up in a crash. Nothing from them since. Previous to that, they ran in the 2013 season and was plagued by problems. Pretty much last place for both years!

For the amount of cars sold in North America and the PR of being an "amazing tuner machine", you would think Toyota/Scion/Subaru would prove this car and enter it into solid racing efforts...? I've been waiting two years now. Where the hell is it? Where is Toyota Racing Development in all this? Where are the sponsored teams? Is this stupid of me to ask...? I was thinking people would be all over this!

Sure we got the Griffon (not a wheel-to-wheel car) and a handful of Gazoo cars. The Gazoo 86's being pretty much the only noise of success in terms of an 86 race team.

Subaru, well, they built a GT300 car that really isn't a BRZ. And it looks like they probably kicked their Toyota imbred BRZ to the curb because they'd rather promote their WRX.

I still haven't seen any racing efforts at all from an actual BRZ from Subaru. Nothing FA20 D4S powered.

Will we see any solid entries for FT86 at all?

Where is the Toyota/Scion equivalent of Realtime Acura?

Pipe dreams?

Just read all of this in an announcer voice.. 10/10 would read again

[hmong337]

Originally Posted by swarb

Many reasons.
1. Money. Factory backing, race team/crew, parts, sponsors. If you don't have a good crew($$$), you just won't qualify or will be a lap marker.
2. Rules/classes. Some rules/classes favor specific cars over others.
3. Development. Some cars are developed and have setups that have been tested and work. Lots of data to work with. No one wants to start at ground zero.
4. Toyota vs Subaru. Subaru has the gt300 car, while Toyota has been pushing TRD/street car parts. Back to number 3, no one wants do all this r&d($$$) and have someone else gain for free.
5. No 2nd gen, no point in developing a car that is going to die. No point developing a 2.0 that toyota won't use(boxer) subaru is going towards 2.5's or turbos and only races 4wd, no use for 12.5:1 compression, low torque, high reving engine.

Yes, which makes me feel like this inbred bastard FT86 child has already been forgotten by it's creators.

[LucidMomentum]

Michele is doing pretty well:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...&postcount=127

[DarkSunrise]

Phastafrican (a NASA HPDE organizer) had a good post on this a while back, explaining some of the difficulties of getting Scion/Toyota/Subaru to support W2W racing and getting NASA onboard with an FT86 spec series:

Originally Posted by phastafrican

This subject has been discussed numerous times -http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=110611. And while I enjoy speculation and planning as much as the next guy, the simple fact is, a spec series is unlikely to happen at the club level until 5-7 years after a car is launched when it's value falls significantly on 1st year models. I can't speak for other sanctioning bodies, but NASA isn't exactly looking to increase its class counts. In fact, the contrary is true as we are currently pushing to consolidate lots of classes. Until such time when there are more 86s in a given class (PTD/PTC) than other competitors, it would take some serious backing from TRD or Scion Racing for this idea to materialize.

On the subject of contingencies and TRD backing... I've been in conversation with Kevin Kutcha at Toyota for months now, and can categorically say that TRD has no immediate plans of supporting a one-make series or even providing contingencies for wheel to wheel racing. I'm still pushing every month with emails and phone calls to all parties involved. Scion Racing Canada just launched an extensive contingency program with incredible payouts last month, and hopefully this will push Scion Racing USA to consider offering something (although neither Kevin nor I have had an actual response to date from Scion Racing USA on the subject... still hopeful). Unless of course you know something I don't.

For the foreseeable future, the twins just need to be built to run in whatever class they fit in, per the sanctioning body and region closest to you. SCCA T4, NASA PTD, USTCC, etc. The more caged race cars we get on track, the easier it will be to attract interest from other racers and 86 owners. In a few years, a spec series could happen... but I would not begin working on a ruleset today, unless you want me to build my car exactly like yours so we can give each other crap about how slow the other is.
FYI: My door bars go in next week and then my cage will be done, so catch up.

There are a couple of individual drivers to follow though:

Phastafrican (NASA PTD):
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72007

Michelle Abbate (racing in USTCC):
http://m1cheleabbate.com/

Element Tuning (Wheelen TTU class):
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42326
http://elementtuning.com/

BP3D (Canadian Super Production Challenge):
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...hlight=pumalex

Evasive (Pike's Peak and Super Lap):
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78307

Probably a few others I'm missing. I think Brass Monkey racing was using an FR-S in Conti World Challenge towards the end of last year, but not sure what happened to it.

[campy]

These cars have been on the streets for about 2 years now. Give them some time. It's not like the first Miata rolled off the production line and straight into a spec miata race.

[phastafrican]

Sadly, there is no ScionRacing or TRD backing behind any w2w privateer team in the US.
Outside of the US, there are 3 spec series to follow (although only media coverage are the websites).
BRZ One make series - http://gazooracing.com/onemake/86brz/
GT86 Cup - http://www.toyota-motorsport.com/mot...p/tmg-gt86-cup
TR86 Cup - http://www.toyota.co.nz/racing/toyot...-championship/

In the US, there are all those that have been referenced in this thread.
Jim Jonsin (Rebel Rock Racing) tried to get the first one into CTSCC, but TUDOR (now IMSA) wouldn't allow the car to go FI. Max he got within the allowed rules was 215whp, and just couldn't keep up with the civics.
Tony Rivera put a car on the grid in PWC TC this year, but was also underpowered, and doesn't sound like he's up to fight a losing battle.
Robert Stout's dad has decided to sell the PWC GTS car this year... too many problems and no financial backing from ScionRacing. He asked for $300k from ScionRacing and they basically said they wouldn't give any money. The last 2 years cost them $480k.

So the general concensus is there is no support from Scion Racing. I've tried endlessly and had the director of sponsorships from NASA try to establish some form of support for w2w racing like scionracing canada introduced at the beginning of 2014. They basically ignored everything. Bottom line, you're on your own.

So where can the car race? Actually.... lots of places. What it takes to be competitive there is a difference story.
1. NASA Performance Touring (I'm biased so that's #1.. lol): NASA allows you to build the car to whatever specs you want and fall within a classing system. This system is the same used in the NASA Time Trial program... and the rewards/contigencies are the same. So you can decide to compete in TT until you cage the car with the same mods and hop straight into w2w. There are about 7 cars across the country, and 5 more expected to be completed this year in the Northeast.
2. SCCA T4: Only coilovers allowed at this time, but Marty Grand (multiple SSCA champion) is pushing to have this changed to make the car more competitive.
3. SCCA STL or STU: More mods allowed, but again, classing issues to make the car competitive.
4. PWC TC: I get tired of remembering all the rules, but it's actually a competitive package... just needs a little more power to run at the front
5. IMSA CTSCC ST: About 40hp shy of getting to the power limit with the currently allowed engine mods.
6. PBOC: They'll class they car when you show up at the track... but it's not the most robust system so other cars will be over classed too.
7. EMRA: Very similar to PBOC classing.
8. WRL (world racing league): A BRZ competed this year in one race... I like their classing system by lap time deltas.

Anyways... that's a lot of places to race the car if you want to build one. Factory backed effort in North America? Not this year... and I'm still asking for club level support for next year, but not holding my breath.


*** BUT SINCE YOU'RE IN CANADA ****
You have the best support for club racing an amateur could ask for, just no media coverage. http://www.scion.ca/scion/en/lifesty...ng/contingency.
*** GET ON IT!!! ***

[PabloN]

In the 24 Hours of Nurburgring GT-86s have done ok in a couple classes. They race in v3 (stock) & sp3 (some mods).
2012: 1st in v3, 1st in sp3
2013: 1st in v3, 2nd in sp3
2014: 1st in v3, 1st in sp3

[8R6]

because rocketbunny isnt for track...