2022 BRZ - a Boomers perspective
 

OK, I was born in 63, the tail end of the boomer generation. I, myself have dispised boomers since I was a teenager. But I know, most of you will call me a boomer, so I own it.

Since I was a little kid, Porsches were the dream. Me and my peer group all bought older muscle cars for our first couple of cars. They were lots of fun!

I even had an 83 IROC Z Camaro, later on.

My new 22 BRZ is my life long dream car. Some of you will find that laughable, but it's the funnest car I've ever owned. My 72 Monte Carlo with a 327 and a turbo 350 trans ( was hotrodded before I bought it) was almost as fun but that was my first car.

This 22 BRZ is like the Porsche I've always dreamed about. It's soooo cool! It's a great car.

I want to thank ALL OF YOU for creating a market for such a fun car!

I'm old too but I always thought that lumping someone born in 1946 with someone born in 1964 was ridiculous.

Never dreamed of Porsches though i thought the 944s and 928 were cool back in the day. I'm more of a performance value guy. First car was a used '84 "HO" TransAm. Replaced with a new '90 5.7L TA which i later supercharged and still have along with my '03 WRX. Traded in my '17 Civic Si for an '18 Type R which is possibly the fastest car i will ever own. Great car but not one you look back over your shoulder at every time you get out. So sold it to Carvana and ordered a sleek, lightweight BRZ at a bargain price.

Born in ‘52. Seen a lot of cool cars in the 60’s/70’s although I would never consider myself a car buff. However, I do love my new BRZ. I really can’t find fault with anything. Terrific ride!

*Axel: Like you, I’m a Boomer (born in 1964, the last year before Gen X hit the scene). And, like you, I have an affinity for my Toyobaru, albeit a 2019 Toyota 86 TRD SE. It’s definitely “the funnest car I’ve ever owned,” as you wrote. My first car was a ’74 Dodge Dart, and the best-performing vehicle I owned up until now was a 2005 Mazda RX-8 (ugly in hindsight, but that 9K RPM limit was a hoot, even with no torque to accompany it). Lord knows the first-gen twins like mine caught a lot of flak for having an anemic engine, but I’ve found that running E85 with an OFT tune has made this car just about perfect for me. I can only imagine how much better your 2.4-liter engine feels to drive, but I’m totally happy with the performance of my ride as it is. It’s such a rarity nowadays to find a new rear-wheel-drive car with a manual transmission, and I honestly believe that this just might be the last car I ever own. It’s that good. Peace be with you! :party0030:

Even going back to the original launch models it is hard to find a better $$$/fun new car than the twins.

You can drive them hard and not worry (too much) about losing your license like you can with any of the more powerful cars.

They are also a hoot on the track. Again, by no means the fastest cars out there, but hard to top for fun.

It's not weird being your dream car. I share the same feeling and just pulled the trigger a couple years earlier. I never had the itch to modify a new car besides tint until this one. I think the forums feed this. Like you I have no faults with the mechanics of the car although I did by an extra console that slides between the seats.

Congrats on your new ride.

Honestly, I don't blame anyone for taking a BRZ or an 86/FRS as their dream car. It genuinely was my attainable dream car back in 2009 when the Toyota FT86 concept came out. I basically said if it fit the key parameters of what I wanted in a car I will seek to buy it. I wanted a lightweight, RWD, 2+2 coupe, with at least 200hp, 6-speed manual, with a limited slip diff at the $30K CAD range, obviously cheaper is better. When Toyota and Subaru delivered their first ones in 2012, it pretty much matched my wish list almost to the tee, I couldn't believe they actually did it. I'm just extremely fortunate to get this at a fairly early stage of my life. I have not been disappointed, and its been so good that I feel like a million bucks driving it and that is ultimately what makes a car great.

I still have my dream cars on the unobtainium scale. However I have realized that this would require a ridonkulous amount of money where even if I got rich I'd need to be a 1 percenter to realize those dream cars. If I unexpectedly got there, then I might pursue those. If I don't, no matter, I got the one that mattered.

43. I would've paid $50K for this what this car doesn't have let alone for what it does. No joke. To me, it's an engine pushed back a bit further and double wishbones up front away from being perfect. It's like they had an RX8, E30 M3 and a 944 as benchmark cars for feel. Really do think both gen 1 and gen 2 are just more than the sum of their parts.

i'm a lot younger, but dream car makes perfect sense.

i blew through 2 owned cars, and 3 full months of dealership test drives trying to scratch that same itch. maybe a lot shorter time frame, but same end result ;)

I'm 75. Ex-SCCA racer and autocrosser. I'm selling my 6.5:1 power, track STI and focusing on a car that will be almost as fun and less work. It won't have the raw speed and acceleration, but it should be exciting in turns. It already puts a smile on my face every time I get the rear-end out (even in second gear).
It's been a while since I had a RWD, true sportscar. It reminds me of my RX7 R1.
I'll have some Apex 17" wheels next week to put my 245 Proxes 888R tires on and coilovers in a few more weeks. I've already put an IRP shifter in it.
The biggest disappointment in the car is the heavy, mediocre slider brakes. It also pisses me off, as a racer, that younger and less experienced people tell me I don't need better brakes.

OK, boomer!

Seriously, the twins are awesome. You'd have been happier with a 2013 FRS, though. :)

I’m a product of 1963 as well, and like you had some muscle cars. Funny world as I also had a 72 Monte, and damn that was a long hood. It was a hot hatch (1986 GLHS) that changed my outlook on performance and introduced me to autocross. I discovered fun could be more than a stop light drag race.

The BRZ is my first dedicated sports car, and seeing the knowledgeable, helpful forums here have been great to find. I won’t be hitting the mods, just some lightweight stock width wheels, 200 UTQG tires, and Subaru camber bolts

please understand where most of that is coming from though-- for the past 8-ish years, we've had countless new users that within their first 5 posts is

"HEI GUYZ, i just bought a brand new brz, i'm gonna widebody it, and put a bbk on it, sway bars, and cut the springs, and get the bestest tires known to man on it! i've never been to a track, but i'm gonna start going every other day, and twice on sunday! what's the cheapest wide body and bbk kit i can get? i found this ebay bbk kit for $500, will that work? be easy on ur boi, i ain't got lots oh cheddah lying around after buying my new baby!"

if you're at the experience level, and in a lot of new users case, the money level to actually get and make use of better-performing gear, you're ahead of what we've come to expect-- so as a forum, we've shifted to just providing the answer of "hold on, just get on the track first and figure out how capable you and the car are first before throwing your entire inheritance at it"

normally, we never hear back from those people, especially after they realize how they need to pay to go to the track every time...

Dammit! You beat me to it :lol:

I'm in my early 30's but a 72 Monte is one of my top dream cars. In fact I almost bought one a few months back, but it was sold just minutes before I called. Guh!

soundman98...You hit the nail on the head!
I had a very disappointing experience on the Facebook group "2022+ Subaru BRZ / Toyota GR 86 Owners and Enthusiasts" I quit the group because the Administrator/Dictator felt the need to attack me, call me names and insult me because I wouldn't explain all the ways that racing BBK's are better than steel sliders! He wanted to play this circular manipulation game of not accepting my credentials as knowledgeable and wanting me to prove everything I said (as if I was a run of the mill ignorant teen). Nothing I said was acceptable because HE deemed I didn't need BBK's (or fixed calipers) for track days. After a few exchanges I wouldn't play his "Brakes 101, test" game. I've never met such a rude and arrogant admin in my life.

When I've gone to various tracks I've tried to do competitive lap times for ST2. I can do that. I can keep up with the big boys, but I couldn't without BBK's, racing diffs, racing knuckles, aero and more in a dedicated race car.
Here's my IWSTI build journal on my STI that I've been tracking for seven years. I do everything but tune. I did the custom brake cooling work on the car's front fascia. The last engine I built for the car had 60+ hours and could have gone some more. I do datalogging and videos.
At 75, I'm still competitive and active and I sure as hell don't like being talked down to and insulted by someone that is likely half my age and likely not as smart or experienced.
Thanks! I needed to blow off some steam!

yep, sorry we lumped you into the poor-teen-first-car group! stick around, read up on grumpy snappers build for obscene-money-down-a-well, and we'll all get to know each other better!

Hey I like this thread! Y'all make me feel young (born in 74) I'm usually the old fart in my groups.

I'm 71 and going to more funerals now when it used to be graduations and weddings. No one needs to be apologetic about owning an 86/BRZ. If it gets the job done, then there is no need to spend two, three or four times as much money for something all your expert friends think you should be driving. I grew up on second hand British sports cars (Austin Cooper S my favorite) where you spend half your time under the 'bonnet' and the other half driving and hoping you don't have to call a friend for a tow home. Yes, it's true about us Boomers ruining everything for you kids. Suck it up. And we have all the money too, so you better be polite or we'll leave it all in the will to the animal shelter.

Glad to see in this thread I'm not one of the oldest people here...not like it matters to me. I'm just a hair under 50.

I really feel this is the most fun car in my price range. I played with the idea of a used Cayman, but these days it would mean a 987 generation, for my budget, with the "Porsche tax" on maintenance vs a brand new car with a warranty and lower cost of ownership.


Great post!

I'd also add that many people jump down the modding rabbit hole without learning how their car behaves in its stock form for how they drive it. I received wise advice once to learn the car first and then start making mods based on what you learn with that platform. That is the main reason I'm going the run my BRZ in a stock autocross class this season. I've got a few seasons under my belt now an would happily drop a set of wider wheels and 200TW tires and do OK. Instead I'll stay stock, learn the platform and then start a few mild mods for next season.

this bears repeating, as this just came up today, almost verbatim for what i ironically said, lol. maybe the guy does have a ton of track experience that he's not stating. but the words used don't indicate someone that knows their apex from their straightaway...

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...35#post3502635