Frs v ND1 v ND2 v BRZ tS gen2
 

Okay I’ve owned lots of sports cars in my life. However I will keep this to the four listed above, as they are still available and fun to drive! I was an early member of this forum! I bought my frs in June 2012 fresh off the truck! I also competed in the very first 86 challenge at thunderhill. My bone stock frs with its joke brakes and metal roller skate Prius tires did 2:16.3 on bypass. Not bad considering. I quit racing my Porsche in 2014 after it blew up, now I bought the brz to get back on track. Here is my impressions of the 4 cars:

Frs: The most simple of all, plain Jane interior, loud and hot in summer. On track the brakes really held it back, just plain awful. 1 lap with traction control on before fade. Maybe 4 laps (10 min max) before pads were done….fluid was fine as pedal stayed high and firm, just never knew if brakes would stop like before. The handling was very good, (the tires sucked but were predictable) sure it rolled a bit but I liked the balance. I would say too loose for a street car, but was very fun to drive on track with all stability off. On the street it was fun, just low on torque, which also was noticeable on track. It also didn’t have good power up top. The math on every gear past 1st was shift at 7k as redline just made more noise and didn’t pull hard.

ND1 club brembo: a much nicer car with higher quality finishes. 1st impression was TORQUE….wow. It did slow down a bit towards redline, which was quite low, 6500 if I remember right. Suspension was soft, so it rolled a bit but ride was nice. With a single layer convertible top it was loud and hot on freeway. Not a long distance cruiser. Brembo worked okay, but clearly had street pads. Tires were much better than frs too. Overall handling balance was good, near neutral with a touch of understeer but enough torque to help rotate. Alignment would make it perfect. Seats were cheap and not very good.

ND2 RF club brembo recaro: the revised engine gained 26hp and a good 7500 redline. Torque was on par or better than ND1 and pulled hard all the way to redline. It also had better mpg, I could get almost 40mpg on freeway if I stayed under 70mph. The rf body did feel stiffer than the old one. Brakes and handling were the same. The recaro seats are much improved over old ones. The rf also was much quieter and better insulated on freeway…my wife would go on road trips in rf she never would in convertible.

BRZ tS: body feels much stiffer than 1st gen, much better interior finishes and technology. Brakes are impressive. Just plain work with a high firm pedal. Tires are great, but suspension is a bit soft and under damped when pushed hard. Handling balance is understeer and hard to modulate with throttle in the limited hard turns I have tried. Will no more once on track. The soft suspension provides a very nice ride on the street and it’s quieter than Miata’s. Power is much better with good torque, but does feel a little weak towards redline, again will know more once on track. Shifter and steering are great just like all the cars.

1st track day in Ts. Ran all sessions in track mode.

It’s a great track day car right out of the gate! Brakes are impressive for a stock car, I guess the pads were picked by sti like they claim. Took me a couple sessions to really find the limit of the brakes, which were quite powerful. In my last session of the day I noticed a touch of heat in the brakes when at the limit, but not enough I would call it fade.

The stock tires are pretty good, Michelin ps4 have a well earned reputation. I started at 32psi cold and would touch 40psi hot (dash gauge). Grip didn’t seem to drop off, I wonder what the ideal sweet spot is?

The suspension with stock alignment is clearly tuned for understeer, had to be careful on turn in to not over cook it and deal with terminal understeer……safe sure, but boring for an experienced driver like me. With a more controlled entry I could really get on the gas hard to improve exit. It puts power down well, even with bumps. I only got really sideways once in a low speed corner when I hit the berm too hard and it upset the car.

The shocks and springs are soft, so there is body roll, but it’s decently damped so it works in bumpy corners. In the hardest braking zone it did feel a little odd, like it was tram-lining a little which at 110+ takes focus on the steering wheel to keep things stable.

The worst thing……eyesight sucks. Even in track mode it doesn’t turn off. Extremely annoying in tight packs under hard braking. Best case it gives a warning on left side of dash. Worst case it says “pre-collision braking” (doesn’t brake any harder) and cuts power for a couple seconds……so annoying. I hope there is a way to disable it for track work.

Glad to see the different viewpoints as well as on the track testing of the BRZ TS and in comparison to 1st gen.


Was really hoping they would do a "Final Edition" Gr86 or BRZ with all the upgrades , suspension, brakes, etc but with far better paint work combined with custom seats of some kind. Thinking of a heavy metallic flake. Like a blue with purple pearl or something to really set it apart and multiple coatings so it was more durable.



Very confused if we will get a final 2027 model or will they discontinue and show a concept this early spring and not have a 2027 for sale(no way they have a production car ready by then)

Wonder if there is a fuse you can yank to disable that Eyesight crap.

Well I found out I can turn off eyesight, which is huge on track. It’s just in the settings on the left screen for PCB and turn it off.

I also found out that Michelin ps4 like at most 35psi hot. That makes sense for some of the late session loss of front end grip, since the tires were above ideal range.

Another factor is the factory front alignment is a joke….. 0’ camber…..yes 0’. So the overpressure (possibly temp too) and horrible alignment would cook the loaded outside edge really bad