Go forced induction or wait for toyota/subaru to come out with something faster?
 

Guys I am at a point where I am torn here.

I love my FRS, and have been a happy owner since I bought it 5 months ago during the end of March. But I really want this car to be faster. At first I felt like it had some pickup and it would satisfy me, but here I am 5 months later and I know what I want. More power.

So here I am at this point with a n/a frs and I'm wondering: should I be going forced induction on the car I have now, or should I wait (and hope) for Toyota or Subaru to release a significantly better/faster in the United States?

Anybody else having the same decision making dilemma? Anybody who has already made up their mind on this matter with some insight? Thoughts?

you might as well go FI. They most likely will never produce an FI factory car without marking the price up almost 10k

Just go fi if you can afford it. Otherwise you'll always be waiting for the next thing. Buy first(and largly hypothetical) Turbo frs/brz? Or Wait for the second gen turbo model to come out?

Plus, as mentioned by @bkblitzed, the price would be marked up quiet a bit

Go FI, you won't regret it. This car is a BLAST turboed!

I am going to wait and see. I am hesitant to give up the warranty on my engine. This is a still a new engine and a lot of unknowns concerning issues and reliability.

This. I would love to go FI but I just don't trust this engine without a warranty.

any word on the rumors that TRD and the factory supercharger?

I'm waiting to see what this Toyota/bmw thing is going to turn out. If it's out of my price range then FI will definitely be on my list of to-do's.

Earliest warrantied performance upgrade in a vehicle will be a 2015 model, so just under a year of waiting for the possibility of an announcement.

Personally, if I was wanting more power (which I'm not) I'd wait out the warranty and watch carefully for other members and their issues, a year from now, forced induction on the first round of 86's will be relatively ironed out and the limits well established compared to today.

2015 model, which will be announced at the end of 2014?

im thinking maybe MY16 and the announcement will be in 2015

I don't know, American model years don't make any fucking sense.

They announced the changes to the '14 model year about two months ago, figure the same a year from now, probably earlier if there's a significant change that warrants some fanfaire (i.e. styling changes or performance changes).

Either way, you'll be sitting on a car you're not happy with for well over a year ('14 rollout is in October-ish I believe) at the least, 2+ years or forever if you're unlucky. The real question is, how long are you willing to wait.

no waiting for me, thats y i have mine now :happy0180:

Factory Turbo?? hell no

built not bought ma dude

Easy.

Boost it now. Then when a more powerful model comes out, boost that too.

Problem solved.

Perhaps you could go the header + flex fuel route to hold you over for a little while? It's a bit cheaper than FI, but a bit less power... How much more power are you looking to get?

I am 90%+ happy with the current power/output. I would like a little more, but I am willing to wait a few years to see how this plays out for the FT86 platform, as well as what else will be coming out (Mustang, WRX, Gencoupe, etc). FI is an option in a few years as well, like you said, wait out the warranty for a few more years.

I am thinking about 50 more hp and 50 more ft lbs of torque or so would give me exactly what I am looking for.

I've got a hunch that the next Mustang and Miata coming out will blow the 86 out of the water, although that's enough time to come out with a power boost for the 86... for those who are interested in that sort of thing.

imho for street/DD the car has way more than enough power

tracking - ur in another atmosphere... and if you are into tracking, why r u so concerned with factory xyz when you know ur gonna mod the crap out of the car anyway? why not just put what you want into it with a stripped down model...??

Yea, I'm trying to wait it out for the next Mustang, Miata, and maybe refresh of Gen, Z, and BRZ. Going to try to wait until end of next year at least, when supposedly ford should be revealing the mustang details.

I'm in the same place as you OP - I love this car and love how it drives, but the more and more I read about F/I the more I figure out how much it *really* costs not to mention the extra hassle and potentially losing warranty. I calculated it out and for a full track car, F/I (with the Innovate) would cost me ~15k and that's with "budget" mods. Not to mention I'm not even sure if that kit would reach my power goals.

40k is expensive (total). If the next Mustang is really as good as some of the rumors suggest that could be where my money goes. But I'm not so sure its going to be *much* lighter, well we'll see.

I think with the success of the 86 we'll see more "lightweight" sports cars. I'm hoping, at least.

EDIT: I'm also considering doing the Nameless header when that comes out, with flex fuel, and see how a little more power feels in the chassis. Plus, I still want to track this car until I potentially upgrade so I'll be doing some other light mods as well I just wish it had more power from the factory damnit!

factory power isnt fun. You always want more

Yeah my power goals are ~290-300whp. But man will this be expensive, because it's not just the turbo, install, and tune I need to buy, but I will obviously be getting a new exhaust as well.

Then figure, eventually my clutch will go at this power and that will have to be replaced soon after, so thats another chunk of change.

Oh, and after FI, I'll sure as well be buying new wheels for my car. And of course, dropping the car is another desire of mine.

With all these goals in mind, I will probably be spending 15k or so on the car. That's a HUGE amount of money to spend.

Those current frs/brz owners who are looking into other next generation cars (Mustang, Z, genesis), what do you plan on doing with your car now? Trading it in?

except you are comparing a heavily modified car made to your exact specifications (Wheels YOU want, height YOU want, power YOU want, stiffness YOU want...)

Sure after you modify YOUR car you are in the same territory as a stock z, genesis, mustang but then you are in the same average car that everyone in the 60k+ salary range steps into. No connection or feeling towards the car.

It's a pretty big investment to do it properly. If you have money, it can be very rewarding.

Can you please define "properly"

He has a whole video on it :)

See his signature...

There are 2 trains of thought.

1. Get a giant turbo and get big dyno numbers
2. Get a reliable power output then upgrade your tires to make the power use able. Then upgrade your brakes and suspension bits to further improve the car as a whole. Also think about the reliability of the engine and FI setup and how to help, cooling, gauges to monitor things, a stronger clutch. and so on

Nice :)

usually two people for cars.

1. like to to mod
2. "why do i need to spend money to make it go faster or upgrade?" i can just buy faster car.

people around me usually ask me on #2 question all the time. yeah they don't know shit about car. i get tired of this scene all time so i just say "you are right! and go and do that when you buy a car" lol

IF your car was 'well tuned' by a professional master tuner, gauges are almost pointless. If you fear modding, you shouldn't be jumping in the game to begin with. The whole "you get what you pay for" slogan is a constant. Datalog for sure, but you should know if there is something wrong with your car even without gauges.

More important than getting failsafes is getting installed/tuned the right way. Kinda like a warranty, the best warranty is the one never used.

I have my final review on the Vortech kit coming out today with track review and more.

So I will link here when posted but the short of it is:

You are taking a car that was not designed around boost and trying to make it work. It's a high compression motor that tends to run hot, heads get hot. So you need to plan from the start on how the vehicle will be operated and what region you live in.

From there you decide on fuel choice, tuner and safety changes like oil cooling, catch cans or cooling system upgrades. Plan for changing to higher quality fluids and more.

Maybe for some... But I've owned a few cars that were already fast enough right out of the box. This car is by no means "fast" , but it is more than adequate and quick enough to be enjoyable..

I am the type of guy thats never happy until its changed :P My wife on the other hand thinks her 370z is super fast and would never touch it. If it was my z I would be getting it tuned ASAP for MOAR POWA!

I bought the car in June, been following the introduction of various forced induction options as they've hit the market. I'm leaning more towards a supercharger but I want to wait until next year to see how the cars hold up to repeated use and abuse, and also in hope that the power numbers will increase. Ideally I want 280-300whp on 93 octane and the S/C's just aren't there yet, or at least if they are (intercooled Sprintex/Innovate, 12psi Vortech) they aren't available for mass consumption yet.

In other words, patience Grasshopper!

waiting
 

For the 2015 refresh and larger displacement engine. We should know more by middle of next year if this is going to be a reality or not. I am also waiting for a carb legal SC or turbo kit. If neither of the these comes to be, I will keep the FRS as is for my summer ride and buy the WRX coupe if and when it comes out for my winter and speed seeking ride. Either way there will be an FRS in my garage for a very long time.

I am right there with you. I have two friends who have different trims of the FA20club kits so I will wait and see what issues they have along with the overall community. I would love to turbo mine, but I am on pace to obliterate 30,000 miles in my first year of ownership. I will wait and see what happens with all these options and see what other options come out in the next few months.

30K miles in a year :respekt:

Look at it this way.. In another year or so you will no longer even be under the 60K powertrain warranty anyway...

OP...ask yourself...what was your overall goal when you bought the car... i.e. it looked good, someone else had one so I wanted one, I liked the hype, I have to have the latest model car, looking to mod a car, didn't want a Camaro/Mustang/Genesis but I wanted a RWD coupe? Then depending on your reason you'll know whether you want to make it faster or trade it in...so if you only bought it for the hype then trade it in, because you obviously don't believe the hype, if you bought it because you wanted to mod a car then you should start to plan your mods and work your way through what you can/can't do yourself and what you can afford.

17,100 miles in 7 months.

Yeah that is how I am looking at it. Putting some many miles on the car, I hate to kill the warranty now. So I will stick it out and then after that FI will probably happen.

everything changes.. I used to mod everything.. especially when I was younger and had more energy then money.. I would get less car and do mods.. my last few cars were "ready to go" fast and cost more than twice what the FRS cost.
Now im into the less is more thing.. and this car works pretty good as it is..
its all good..:thumbsup: