Porsche GT4RS owner’s view of GR86
 

Frickin’ love it!

Edit: Meant to include BRZ in heading.

I had a chance to test drive a 2023 BRZ last weekend. I used to own a 2016 BRZ which I bought new and loved that one too but the new one really takes care of the details. Soooo glad that torque dip is mostly taken care of. I didn’t want to rev the nuts off of it with the sales lady sitting next to me but could def feel a difference in thrust from what I remember (traded the BRZ for a 2014 Cayman). Brakes felt great, nice feedback. Can always tell what the front end is doing.

I track my cars, mostly at Sebring, but plan on hitting Road Atlanta this Fall. Now I’m seriously considering getting a BRZ/GR86 as a dedicated track car to keep the miles/abuse off of the GT4RS (and the consumables expense, which is really high, especially track insurance and ceramic brakes). There’s so much aftermarket parts available that it’d fun to build a GT4RS-styled BRZ with carbon hood, wing, etc. I’ll still track the GT4RS but I’d travel more to farther tracks like Barber or COTA if I didn’t have to leave a crazy expensive car in a hotel parking lot overnight.

The GR86/BRZ is a truly amazing drivers car, great platform to either keep stock and enjoy or build to your heart’s content. Plus it’s nice to not have businesses/services jack up their prices because you show up in a Porsche, lol.

I guess you haven't heard of all the BRZ/GR86 blowing up their engines on track?
If you are serious about tracking the car I wouldn't buy it to be honest. Even I am starting to get anxiety about it even thought I don't track it, just autocross once in a while.

Shame really because the chassis is set up so well

He can afford a gt4rs he can afford a 7000$ used engine.

You don’t have a warranty? You going to sell yours?

There are way too many dead reliable track cars available to buy one with a flaw there isn't a fix for yet though.

Funny how things escalate over the internet :)

The folks currently doing a deep dive on data on the oil pressure loss issue literally have dozens of track days on their cars. They've probably run my whole season's worth of track days just diagnosing and gathering data since they've realized something is happening. And if you look around on these forums or in FB groups, there are many many folks with 20,30+ track days on their 86... and some of them are doing that many days in a single year.

I like to think I make it out to the track a lot... but if I'm honest, that's probably about as many track days as I've made it to in my entire life haha.

Not saying there isn't a known issue... but right now no one really knows how big of an issue it is. And in the meantime, there's a crazy amount of these cars on track every single weekend happily turning lap after lap.

Glad you liked it! It is a fun and affordable track toy. I really enjoyed mine and it has done over 15 days without issue. It's always fun to be hit up in the pits with folks amazed at the cornering speeds the car can carry. Plus, you can drive the piss out of it without concern of a massive bill if something does happen. Some good coil overs, BBK, and alignment pieces and the car is pretty damn fun. But - just be ready to do the point by thing on all the straights :)

I really enjoyed mine - but its for sale and will hopefully be gone soon!

there's probably going to be a range of aftermarket solutions to mitigate the oil pressure problems - check out the video on flatirons tuning for an in depth discussion with 900BRZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csclgEZeyC8&t=1000s

Such as? I can't really think of any at anything close to a BRZ/GR86's price point.

Just a FYI, peak torque is at 3700 rpm, quite the opposite of having to wait till nearly 5000 rpm just to have the engine wake up in the 4RS!

The factory stock compound for the brakes is different on the 22+ from the 13-20. It isn't however, track worthy.

Keep in mind that wheel/tire fitment is a bit different on the 22+. Front is identical to 1st gen, but rears will need higher offset. You can run high offset all around and space the front to taste.

Have you seen the price of the Porsche rotor carbon content testing tool? :confused0068:

Awesome video. This reminds me a little bit of the IMS bearing issue with Porsche from around 2000-2005. Different mechanical issue but similar end result. Eventually, the aftermarket came up with a solution and I'm sure it'll happen here as well.

Mannn, I wouldn't even want to know, bet you could buy a decent car with the $$$.

Putting together a model car collection of cars I've owned, mine was white but always admired the blues.

https://ibb.co/8DPqYYj
https://i.postimg.cc/BjCqPgLc/BRZ.jpg

Pretty much lol.

I exclusively drive 4RS's with earplugs on. Interestingly, the 4RS sounds virtually identical to the 991 3/3RS's, rather than the 992 with the symposer. I prefer the 4RS note.

Love my 14 Cayman, but still love my 16 BRZ daily. So many smiles per mile. Probably would like the Gen 2 the same or more, need to drive one.

Hey can you provide more details on the cars driving vs the 2016? its really hard to get a test drive or impossible and I don't care about mulling around. I want to know how it feels at the limit. I still can't see adding the weight being worth it but I have no idea as I can't drive a new gen. Thank you. Im mainly interested in at limit handling on bumpy type canyon roads. Is it really better? Convince me!

Just reread my post and it sounds like I have driven a Gen2. I have not. Still have my 16. From my reading the Gen 2 is better torque and more refined. Maybe someone else who has driven both could chime in.

Its still a huge inconvenience to go through even if you have $7000 to throw into a dumpster or a warranty (considering Subaru honors the warranty)

Honestly I don't know what I am going to do. Its not pleasant to see all the cases online where engines blow up, videos of rtv in the pan and videos of oil pressures dropping dangerously low in right turns. After seeing those I start looking how much used M240s go for... This is not what I was expecting when I purchased my first ever new to me car. I was hoping they did their homework with the 2.0 engine and improved on it in the 2.4. But it seems they fixed some issues but others appeared.

But then I take it to autocross and its so much fun to toss this car around and I tell myself: maybe I ll get lucky, well its only autox not track, I don't have that much miles on the car, I ll keep it for another year and see what happens.

But what I am for sure not doing is taking it to the track. The evidence against it is just too much. Maybe with the next car I ll take the local HPDE school and dip my toes into tracking. For now I'll stick with autox

I hope you are right. From what I understand someone already tried to fix this issue with a oil pan baffle but it had almost no affect on the pressure drop issue.

Here is my review driving a ‘13 and ‘22 back to back —> https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...&postcount=638

A good review from the same thread —> https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...&postcount=653

There are a few back to back comparisons in this thread.

There's a ton of different baffles and approaches to baffles out there. We've only got detailed data on a specific baffle. I'm sure theres a baffle design out there that will mitigate the issue.


Worst case, start saving up for a dry sump.

Or for a new car

Funny anecdote, walk out of work yesterday. A guy that was testing the fire alarms in our building is parked besides my car. We start talking, he used to have a 2013 frs. First thing he starts talking about is how he blew his engine twice..yikes.

Thanks, I wish I was able to trade to the grey series years ago. What a beaut.

I have the 100k 7yr warranty and never planned on tracking the car so I’m not worried nor do I plan on modifying the engine to void my warranty. Still waiting on oil pressure info for people that spirited drive on mountain and canyon roads.

Good test would be to do a lap on the �� dragon with all the switch backs.

I’m honestly pretty certain the g loads you get on the track would be insanely reckless to try on the street to be “low oil pressure” detrimental but waiting to be proved wrong.

The stresses exposed to a car on track are close to impossible to replicate on public roads. If a potential engine flaw that's exposed on track is also able to be replicated on public roads there are some serious issues going on.

FYI the IMS issue affects M96 and M97 engines. The years affected are 1996-2009, not merely 2000-2005. And while there's an easy solution for the (weaker) M96 IMS, for the M97 the only way to upgrade the IMS involves engine disassembly. So in reality, no solution for the M97. :sigh:

I think he is referring to how the IMS issue while definitely real was overblown. In many cases if the car had high miles and the IMS did not go yet, most believe it will never go. Not sure anyone has any real good data on it other than maybe Porsche.

So the engine issue while real maybe overblown as well. Time will tell.

Oil starvation from high lateral Gs is a design flaw. I am guessing most street driven cars will not experience this issue.

RTV coming off is a manufacturing defect. Subaru should be able to figure out how to fix this. Are the newer cars still having this? Or is the issue less severe now?

Been wondering about that myself... the cases I've seen showcased on YT, socials, etc were 2022 models.

A very interesting takeaway I got from this comprehensive video late into its runtime is that based on the test car data it appears the noted oil pressure drops from 50-60psi down to 20psi on certain turns happen at 6k rpm and above.

Further, that with at least one of the drivers who submitted analysis data they found that simply dropping into one higher gear on the turns where the pressure drops normally occurred to reduce the RPMs (by 800-1000rpm, say) pretty much eliminated the pressure drops on those turns.

Again, according to what they stated in the video above at 1hr, 14min in.

Someone please correct me if I have misunderstood what they were saying but this makes sense to me since the less your RPMs the less oil pressure you would need anyway at that given lesser RPM.

This isn't something billed by them as an actual solution to the problem but it would seem to be VERY valuable information for anyone who simply might want to play it safe(r) on turns that might concern them.

IIRC, oil pressure would be dependent on rpm and engine load.

Going up a gear could help according to the video. But at the end of the day, we shouldn’t be adjusting our driving habits as a work around for a design flaw IMO.