So, I picked up a 2013 Scion FR-S in June of 2020 and instantly fell in love. The balance of this thing in the corners is unlike most other affordable RWD sports cars in the same price, power, weight brackets. Yeah, the power is lacking in the dreaded torque dip, but it is the perfect platform to modify to my liking. Full story below.
To preface my history in tuning, a little over 15 years ago, I owned a sweet little 1st gen DSM that was my daily driver that I also took to weekend autocross and drag strip events. It had a full 3" turbo back exhaust, short throw shifter, lightened ACT flywheel and racing clutch, and a homemade boost controller and a fuel pump mods.
I was too young, carless, and broke to continue driving it, so I moved to luxury sedans. Since then, I longed for the days of having a manual transmission sports car that was always down for some lively driving whenever the feeling was right. Now that I'm a single adult who takes care of his things, I figured why not bring back those memories and feelings that I once had?
For months, I swooned over 90's era JDM masterpieces that I either could never afford or could never afford to maintain. I'm talking potential drift machines that would only break in multiple ways over time. Then I thought, "Miata?" While it is a greatly balanced machine that really shows it's potential on the track, I'm over 6 feet tall, and have not had the greatest of experience driving Miatas in the past due to this. "How about an earlier model BMW 3-Series? Nice, but they're really hit or miss as to the quality of a used one these days."
Many YouTube and forum visits later, I came across something that had not been on my radar at all. "A Scion? How can that possibly be good?...Wait, a well balanced Toyota chassis with a Subaru boxer engine? Compared to Miatas and S2000s in handling performance? Now, you've got my attention!"
Another few hours spent combing reviews and I was hooked. After about a month of hunting for an FT86, a dealership about an hour from me posted one up that had just been traded in. Low mileage for the price. I went and test drove it before they could even change the stock photos on their website that were being used as a placeholder. That first slide into these wonderful seats told me that it was meant to be. This is a drivers car, thru and thru! I'm in love!
