Kaleb’s 86
 

Hey everyone, just wanted to start a car journal for my FRS since I enjoy reading everyone else’s so much! I am a huge lover of Japanese cars, in particular Toyota. I went to work for them in 2012 and moved over to Lexus mid 2014. Lexus is an incredible company and is meticulous with the details of their cars they produce. They use a term “Kaizen” which is a Japanese word meaning “continuous improvement” as they are always looking to make the cars better and put an emphasis on fine craftsmanship. I wanted to to apply this same type of idea to my car, be meticulous and use quality parts, and take the time to do it the right way. The goal is to build a fun car for twisty roads that occasionally gets to see the track. I’m really trusting of Toyota’s (TRD) factory engineering, and plan to use a lot of their parts.

My 86 is a black 2015 FRS that I bought as a CPO from a Toyota dealer. This is actually my 2nd FRS, I was working for Toyota when the car launched in ‘13 and I leased one, but after the lease was up I toyed around with buy a bunch of different cars, but everything I drove made me miss the feeling of the 86! So I just picked up this black one up August 2018, it was all stock aside from an MXP Comp RS catback that was installed at the original dealership.

So far the mods on my FRS are currently:

Engine:
-Motul engine/trans/diff fluids
-TRD Intake
-Greddy Intake Snorkel
-Openflash V4 tune
-Braille lightweight battery
-MTEC shifter springs
-MTEC clutch spring

Exhaust:
-Tomei UEL catless header
-Tomei overpipe
-HKS duel resonated front pipe
-TRD (usa) catback

Suspension:
-KW V1 coilovers
-TRD front strut mounts
-Cusco rear LCAs
-Whiteline adjustable endlinks
-TRD strut tower bar

Wheels/Tires:
-BBS LM F1 Championship Edition 17x8 17x9
-Hankook Ventus V12 225/45 245/40

Exterior:
-OEM RS1.0 Headlights
-OEM Toyota clear sidemarkers
-Valenti sequential taillights (red edition)
-Valenti 4th brake light (black edition)
-TRD aero stabilizing cover
-OEM fog light kit
-Verus rear diffuser

Interior:
-TRD ball shift knob
-TRD suede dash trim
-TRD RS1.0 steering wheel
-Verus throttle peddle spacer
-Cusco wide throttle peddle
-BRZ ts suede gauge hood
-BRZ ts suede upper door trim
-OEM Toyota red door grips

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This was 2 days after I purchased, took a short road trip to some proper roads and just enjoyed having the FRS back, such a fun balanced car! I put like 3k miles the first week I had it!
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And here is a current picture!

Kaleb’s 86
 

So for the first mod I didn’t want to do something cosmetic, I wanted to start off right by doing something small but purposeful. So I ordered the Verus throttle peddle spacer kit and Cusco throttle peddle to help with heel-toe.
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The install was really easy, and I tried to get some photos to show the new location of the throttle peddle, the pictures don’t really show too much of a difference but you notice a HUGE difference when you are driving the car! The instructions from Verus said to make sure to drive the car for a couple weeks for your muscle memory to get used to the new peddle location, and I can see why. At first I thought it was terrible, it felt super weird to drive, but now that I’m used to it i’m liking it. Having the brake and gas peddles basically level with each other really does help.


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Kaleb’s 86 (kaizen project)
 

The next mod on my list was to do something with the exhaust. It was nice to have the MXP Comp RS on the car when I bought it because the stock exhaust does not sound very nice and the MXP has a great deep sound. While I was happy to hear my car as I drive, I didn’t like how loud the MXP was around town, I don’t like the “big can” look of the tips/mufflers, and that system is super heavy, heavier than the stock set up. So I traded it locally for a used TRD catback that was in great shape and then ordered the HKS dual resonated front pipe to ditch some weight and gain a deeper tone without it being too loud.
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I didn’t take many photos of the install, if you have done any exhaust work you know there isn’t much to it, super easy job, especially on these cars. The build quality on both the TRD system and the HKS pipe is top notch, everything I have ever bought from HKS has been exceptional quality and this no different! I couldn’t be happier with the exhaust note now, nice full deep tone without being too loud when I’m driving around at low speeds in town. I’m going to get a header/overpipe in the future, so with this front pipe and the fairly large TRD muffler I think it will sound good but not be over kill on volume.


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Kaleb’s 86 (kaizen project)
 

So there hasn’t been much progress since it’s winter here in Indiana, but I’m really excited that my wheels just showed up! This is a set of BBS LM F1 Championship Editionshttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4873abd13a.jpg
always loved LMs and I’m super excited to run these! They are 17x7 +35, but I plan on widening them down the road, but I’m going to swap my stock tires over and wear them out first!

That color on the wheels look so nice!




If you ever do plan on widening the wheels, I actually have a set of CCW LM20s that's just collecting dust....

Thanks! Normally I like polished lips on wheels, but I’m really digging the solid color on these! Those CCWs are great wheels, what size are they?


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Dude where did you even get those wheels? They are gorgeous!

Thanks I’m super excited about them! I bought them from a company I found on Instagram threepiece.us, this is the 2nd set I’ve bought from them and have had good service. I was saving for coilovers but when these 5x100 LMs came up for sale I had to jump on them!


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I love those, what size are they?

They are 17x7 +35 square, I plan up switching to 8” or 9” barrels though down the road, that’s part of beauty of multi piece wheels! But I’m going to get some use out of the stock tires this summer before the upgrade


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Sweet

18x9.5 +30


Polished lip

Now that you've had the Cusco pedal for a bit, how do you feel about it? I'm looking at possibly getting one for my self.

Im more interested in feedback from the pedal spacer. I got big feet but the difference in height would help with "heel toe" vs left side of foot and right side.