BRZ/frs vs Toyota Altezza Beams
 

Hi guys. long time lurker here. Surprised to find this thread had not been made already.

Altezza:

Toyota's last fr sports car

2litre na engine with 220 bhp (beams yamaha tuned)

front and rear double wishbone suspension

1340kg

cost: 3000-4500 euro


Seems to me the frs doesnt offer much over this approx 14+ year old car apart from a coupe profile, 90kg weight loss, and a little better mpg.

The altezza also has more sophisticated front suspension, a more powerful 2l na engine and can be picked up cheap as chips with many having trd diffs and other tasteful mods already completed

Unfortunately, we didn't get the Beams Altezza in the US.

The coupe layout, 200lbs lighter, and better MPG. Less HP and the MacPherson strut front suspension. Yep, sounds about right.

Used vs new isn't a fair comparison though.

It's all relative.

To me a 14-year-old car doesn't offer much of anything if it is to be a daily driver (which I intend the FRS to be).
If the Altezza was available new right now that'd be a different story.

Isn't Altezza just a IS300?

:word:

the altezza the OP was referring to had a 2.0L tuned yamaha engine.

the IS300 has a 3.0L non-turbo Supra engine.

I had a 3SGE Beams in a MR2.... :)

Ok I agree that new vs used is unfair however my point is the lack of progress since the launch of the altezza. This car offers little more than the altezza that could not be achieved by removing the back doors (weight reduction) and a marginally more efficient I4 engine.

@Mike: I am very tempted to purchase a beams mr2 which is for sale here (in Ireland) :)

Red or black top? Is the engine out of a celica or mr2/altezza? I can offer you some insight.

Dimman posted a very lengthy post about the lack of progress when we saw the official numbers, which he figured was hidden or missing from the official numbers. That was before we saw the significant amounts of of torque the FA20 makes. The FA20 is torque tuned compared to the BEAMS, and it even makes peak power a couple hundred rpms lower. I think it makes about 10-20 more ft-lbs of torque below the BEAMS peak torque range but I don't know the BEAMS power curve. :iono:

Many ranty posts, more like...

7000 rpm power peak is the same between the automatic-tuned BEAMS and the FA20. Rest looks good.

There is still 170+ lb-ft in this motor @ ~5000 rpm, waiting for some acoustic tuning to unleash it, dammit...

An RS200 Beams Altezza is pretty much an FR-S sedan. Not as low CoG, but the dynamic isn't bad and it's pretty close on the p/w, maybe not so much on the s/m.

If the rumours are true and we get an 86 sedan its probably gonna be called a Altezza :D

Id like to point out that the FRS is a very low 2+2 sports car with a wonderfully smooth engine and sexy low nose/hood line. Whereas the IS300 is a fat, tall sedan that in the US is borderline ugly. The IS300 wasnt designed from the ground up to be a sports car, its just a sporty touring sedan -- apples to oranges.

misedaithi, all I can suggest is, drive the two back-to-back and see which one you like best. Obviously not many people on here have experience driving a BEAMS Altezza. In the U.S. we're stuck with the mediocre 2JZ-GE powered Lexus cousin. I've seen some crazy tuned Altezzas running around Japan, and TRD made a lot of really cool parts for it back in the day. I think they're really great, but quite different. The age wouldn't scare me away from driving it daily; it's a Toyota after all!

http://media.photobucket.com/image/t...RD_Altezza.jpg
http://www.altezzaclub.org.au/forumi...RD_Altezza.jpg


http://blog.bespokeventures.com/wp-c...pec_ima_01.gif

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2402/...6c972c68_o.jpg

Altezza was the first 'spiritual successor' to the AE86.

IS300 is what happens when you give a highly competent sports sedan to an image-conscious luxury brand known for boring marshmallow cars.

FTFY.

:w00t:

I used to hate working on the top-ends of those yamahas slapped on yota blocks. People would rebuild or mess with their lotus's and bring them back to us when they realize they had no idea what they were doing. Itty biddy rocker arms where you need a microscope to try and measure clearences. Why I always got stuck with em who knows but I always ended up spending more time than needed on those things.

From what I've read, the (dual VVT-i 3S-GE equipped) JDM Altezza RS200 from ~14 years ago seems very different than the JDM 86 today (mass and wheelbase converted for USDM readers):

To be fair to the RS200, I'm not sure if that price included consumption tax, but it was definitely a larger, heavier, more expensive vehicle.

So have you driven the 86? If so how would you describe the engine smoothness to other engines?

Still, you can buy 5 of them for what a new 86 costs... I think that's something you guys might've glazed over...

Its a boxer, meaning it has perfect primary balance by design but the secondary balance is not as close to perfect as say an inline6 or v12. Its is about as smooth as any low displacement inline6 or v12, though.

Its night and day compared to a high strung inline4.

I own an 86, and I would buy it over an IS300 any day, assuming both were brand new, 0 miles, etc.

Thank you good sir! You have answered one of my issues I have had with owning my RSX and Ichi answered the other one about the auto tranny. I believe I will fall in love with the car because I like my RSX(Not 100% in love with it more like 75%) but this is my problem with it

FWD(UNBALANCED):mad0259:
Strunged out 4 banger with weak low end TQ :cry:
Automatic with terrible gearing and no rev-match feature.:mad0260:

The FRS/BRZ fixes all of that.

the FRS/BRZ is a slow bastard in a straight line too, almost identical quarter mile times as the type-s RSX

Is the tq curve really that much better than that of the rsx?

Dyno shows a bit of richness before 3200 rpms than the RSX base I own. I need to drive the car to find out though.

I think you'll be disappointed by low end power, I think it's fair to consider the K20 (any K20) torque delivery to be superior to the FA20 as the dual cam profiles really help make the torque more consistent whereas the FA20 has nothing at all below 2000rpm...but the rest of the issues should be fixed.

???

You talking about 2ZZs? We're talking about 3Ss.

Have any of you owned an IS300? I haven't, but I was a valet when they came out & I always liked them (in my very limited driving). It's interesting learning about the car it was based on.

Oh okay havnt seen to much of them around here.. The 2Z was the only yota motor with yamahe heads around here. Were the head designs the same on both motors?

3S had Yamaha head since like ~87.