Quote:
Originally Posted by regal
Oh agree, cars are just too heavy these days if you live in hill country. I waited on the FT-86 from the first concept. Thanks for mentioning the Miata I almost bought an old Miata to hold me over and agree this car offers a lot more than any Miata. The chassis is super stiff and the low cog is magic, its surprisingly very well mannered on an occasional long 12hr interstate road trip.
I do believe that the name change from FT-86 to GT-86 means something. The GT means it ended up a lot more Gran Tourish than I think they planned, originally the target was 2500 lbs. If they had hit that or raised the engine to matched the increased weight the car would have been a much more all-rounder.
But as it is I think once the honeymoon phase is over there are three groups who will be happy with these cars long term:
1. Those of us who live on hilly twisty roads who want more than a Miata
2. Those who autocross or track
3. Those who buy the $25k chassis as a building base ($10k in mods and this thing competes with anything under $75k.)
Just a guide and MHO but if don't fit into the above three categories you may want to re-think why you are choosing this car. As much as I love my FRS if I lived in Nebraska I would want that turbo Genesis and if I lived in Maine I'd want a WRX.
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I live in the midwest. Not that many hilly roads, but we do have some fun twisty roads at least and lots of lakes. I don't autocross or track very much. I went in buying this car not planning on adding FI (I am still on the fence).
I owned a 2013 Genesis Coupe that I owned for about 13 months before I took the BRZ out for an extended test drive and the rest is history.
The BRZ is first and foremost a drivers car. The Genesis Coupe is not. You can sit in the BRZ/FR-S and then sit in a Gencoupe or Camaro, or Challenger and tell immediately which car is built around the driver. And you don't need a hill or twisty road to really get it, you can take a 25mph sharp turn at 50mph in this car without thinking twice. Do I sometimes miss the hp/tq advantage of the Genesis Coupe turbo? I would be a liar if I said no. The Gencoupe made peak torque around 2500rpm and could put you in your seat and you could feel it in your gut. But.. The heavier Gencoupe also had vague steering, a laggy throttle response (turbo), a terribly vague manual gearbox, and you feel like you are sitting much higher off the ground. You lose that go-kart like feel of the BRZ, and while the Gencoupe can take corners just fine, it is not nearly as confidence inspiring as the BRZ. The nannies in the Gencoupe also seem to kick on all the time, but it was also the type of car that was less predictable and stable as the BRZ...
Trade-offs for sure. I decided I was much happier owning a drivers car again and sacrificing horsepower and torque. Those things can also be fixed with the FT86 platform. With most other RWD sports coupes on the market it is much more difficult to fix that these cars are large and heavy, and lack the driver feedback and response the FT86 offers.
Some people just don't get it, and might not, until they drive one of these GT cars for an extended time and then sit back in the FT86 for an extended drive.