FT86 racing
 

I was curious what shop/business is racing these cars. I know drift is a competition but as far as circuit racing, timed with stopwatches. Who is the "go to" place for motorsport FT86? Even if they don't do retail customers. I don't want the place that has the most forum posts or marketing claims. Race results is what I am curious about. North America or English language overseas. I'd like to get in touch with someone that has done a lot of development on these cars.

Thanks

Since you mention race results I'll skip the quagmire of time trials as there are numerous shops with success putting fast laps down on various tracks at varying levels of competition.

Jackson Racing has won SCCA events in STU and T4 including Runoffs
Grr Racing has also won SCCA events
With some googling I found Techsport Racing appears to be successful in PWC


The chassis doesn't have the factory support to compete in the big boy sports car races in the states or Europe so grassroots stuff will have to do. Although the Hoppy 86 and Subaru's BRZ in Super GT300 in Japan are pretty neat hanging with the GT-R's and AMG's that make up most of the class. But language barrier.

Where do you plan on competing?

Tech Sport Racing - championship winning BRZ Ts last year and very likely to win championship again this year - Pirelli World Challenge

www.techsportracing.com

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What disciplines and class(es)?

I can either likely directly help, or point you in the relevant folks for your target class.

Dynasty Racing in Orlando FL ran 86s in the T-4 class of SCCA National Runoffs and the national championship in that class when they raced at Indianapolis Speedway in 2017.

I'm not planning on competing, I just want to see what the guys who are competitively racing are using for engine management solutions. I appreciative all the feedback.

Outside of those required to be on Motec, Ecutek is the dominant tuning solution.

Now that's what I'm talking about. Thanks a lot.

Wouldn't you want to be talking to who tunes their cars, not which shops have backed successful race cars?


Mike already covered it, but motec is the best option if cost isn't a problem, but for the vast majority of people ecutek is more than enough.

Techsport is a somewhat factory backed effort. I'm 99% certain that Subaru of America provided the vehicles.

As for the team, they've competed in PWC for quite a while.....successfully.

In regards to tuning, I believe PWC rules require Motec, but I could be wrong. I'm also not sure if they are tuning "in house", remotely or have someone in their area (they just recently moved....I believe to the Carolina's from NY).

Pro-Am reaching is less about "the car" and more about the driver. They have arguably the best driver in TCA (the class they run in), Nick Witmer.

As far as 86 chassis knowledge goes, @CSGMike is one of the go to's as well as a handful of others. I'm relatively quiet here, but have a lot of experience in motorsport (mostly BMW).

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Yes and no. The shop can answer who is tuning be it in house or contract. I work in motor sports as well doing engine development/tuning/data acquisition, and am a firm believer in results and not marketing. I'm doing my research from the track backwards so to speak. I don't want to find someone to tune my car again, as I have a tune that's been done and it's not running correctly. I need to find out what direction to go be it ecutek, open flash, Motec, or alternative to find a solution. An unacceptable result has been purchased once, the second purchase needs to be the last.

When you say it's "not running correctly", what's going on with it? Feel free to PM if you don't want to post publicly (for any reason).

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Just a side note. Copying what a race team is doing isn't always the best way to get results on track. I have met a few PWC guys at a track day and had a chance to pick their brain on the cars. I asked them why they were running a certain part, thinking it would be a well researched integral part for hp or handling. Their answer 99% of the time was, "Blank company sponsors the event and we have to run that part." Many things they didn't want to run but were forced to under series sponsorship agreements. Example: The aftermarket intake and TS wing.

Just goes to show you. Just because they are running it doesn't mean it is the best option and you should always do your own research.

Agree. I am familiar with sponsor obligations, price caps and spec class requirements. Maybe I wasn't clear, I'm not trying to copy anyone, I'm trying to gain a bit of insight from someone whose job is to win races with the ft86 platform, not sell me something. I have worked with Motec in all kinds of applications (I'm a dealer for them) , but not this car. I have confidence Motec would meet my needs, especially since there is an M150 package specifically for ft86 that has all the time consuming framework part sorted, only requiring tuning. I'd prefer to not have to spend that much money but I will if I have to.

All advice is appreciated.

There are tuners that have WAY more real world results to back up their experience than someone working for a single team.

Like it's been said already, lots of race teams are confined by series rules or something else. You're far better off talking to someone with broad tuning experience about what you're after.

Look up Sasha at OnPoint dyno in Toronto, he has a ton of experience and will definitely be able to get you what you need. Basic EcuTek, full blown custom motec firmware, anything in between. He built a tesla powered lotus Evora running a motec to control everything, and has tuned hundreds of cars with various tuning solutions.

https://www.onpointdyno.com/


There's also quite a bit of knowledge on these forums, you'll probably get close to your answer just by asking your specific questions here instead of being cryptic and vague. Your current tune that isn't running right could just be a crappy tune, not the result of a bad tuning solution. There's tons of high HP cars running EcuTek, unless yours is a swap or something really custom, I'm sure it'll work for you too.

The class and type of competition you want to compete in matters too if asking people to point you in the right direction. Are you road racing? PWC/SCCA/IMSA/other? Are you doing time trials? Are you highly restricted or are the rules wide freakin' open? How would ANYONE know who to recommend without knowing what the heck you want to do?

Also, the guys that sell things will want to sell things but many will also give it to you straight on sound 'go-fast' advice. When I made the switch to the FT86 for road racing I gained a lot great advice from Oscar Jackson Jr and CSG_Mike - both entities sell things and of course recommend their products (as they should) but they gave terrific general "go-fast" advice and significantly truncated my R&D schedule/cost.

Lets have a chat. I'm CSG's development driver, but not a sales person, commissioned employee, or even an employee at all; I've never collect any sort of monetary compensation from CSG.

I'm coaching at the media day tomorrow Road America tomorrow (today?), followed by IMSA GT3/Super Trofeo/MPC friday/saturday/sunday.

I may be able to give you a better sense of direction.