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Blaise
Blaise Reader
1/22/18 8:19 a.m.

Tuesday: I see a posting for a very inexpensive, original owner BRZ with a bad TO bearing. I call the guy and he's not your typical 86-bro.

Wednesday: He pays off the loan, as I told him I want to pay cash. Bank releases Title.

Thursday: Title is overnighted.

Friday 5PM: Title arrives. I book a flight.

Saturday: 6:45AM: Drive to airport. Arrive at 9:30. Guy picks me up from airport. Test drive, look it over, negotiate price. Sign paperwork.

Saturday 11 AM: I've got a new car. Other than some paint chips on the front, it's exactly as described:

  • 2013 BRZ Limited, 105k miles, all oil changes since new (even did oil analysis every 10k!)
  • FA20Club Intake, JDL UEL, overpipe, front pipe, HKS Legamax Exhaust
  • ECUtek & Pro Tune: 190whp/155tq
  • Eibach springs, stock shocks
  • Blizzak WS80s on stock wheels, Michelin Pilots on 18x8s
  • SPC LCAs, 1.5* camber
  • New Brakes

Basically, the car checked every box except the damn color. I'm not a fan of black, but this car is a set of shocks away from being EXACTLY what I wanted. Bilsteins coming right up? Anybody got a recommendation?

Driving back was... as expected, not easy while in traffic. The busted TO bearing meant the clutch couldn't fully disengage, so stop and go was tough. Once on the highway, it was smooth sailing. 34mpg on the way back is a handy offset to buying 93 octane.

Sunday: I pulled the trans. The ease of working on this car (at least in this sense) blows the miata out of the water. SO. MUCH. SPACE.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand the result.

All in all, so far so good. Clutch kit and flywheel are in the mail. Looking for a good (fast) source for a clutch fork and the TO bearing retaining clips, which are clearly ruined. And then once that's done and we are approaching spring I'd like to get a set of shocks. Gonna be an interesting change, after (count em) one two three FOUR miatas....

Matt B
Matt B UltraDork
1/22/18 8:51 a.m.

Congrats! She looks like a beaut.  I love black cars because I'm apparently a masochistic southerner.

On a side note - are those numbers expected from just bolt ons?  I admittedly do not follow the twins tuning trends.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ UltraDork
1/22/18 8:52 a.m.

Nice!  If you don't mind me asking, what is "very inexpensive" for one of these at this point?  They interest me but seem like they're still too pricy.

Blaise
Blaise Reader
1/22/18 8:52 a.m.

^^ I paid $8k. You can find em for 10k pretty regularly at this mileage, but the the wheels, tires, and upgrades made this well worth it. I woulda been happy with just an OFT and UEL, along with a 2nd set of wheels and snows.

I think they float around 165-170 stock. Standard boltons (header and off-shelf-tune, most important) get you up to 180ish. I think this got 190 bc of the complete exhaust, intake, and pro tune combo. The big improvement of course is the filling of the dead-zone in the middle of the power range.

Robbie
Robbie PowerDork
1/22/18 8:57 a.m.

SCORE!!

Matt B
Matt B UltraDork
1/22/18 9:05 a.m.

Wow, that does seem like a bargain with all the upgrades and second set.  This may be one of the few models that doesn't automatically drop in value with a few bolt-ons.

Blaise
Blaise Reader
1/22/18 9:06 a.m.
Matt B said:

Wow, that does seem like a bargain with all the upgrades and second set.  This may be one of the few models that doesn't automatically drop in value with a few bolt-ons.

Especially considering that the UEL fixes two things: Both the tq deadzone and the noise becomes subaru-like again :)

dculberson
dculberson PowerDork
1/22/18 9:09 a.m.

Awesome, I'm glad you got it and it held out for the trip home! I hope it's everything you wanted. Seems like a great deal.

singleslammer
singleslammer PowerDork
1/22/18 9:23 a.m.

Nice man! I need to look around for some MPG numbers on the e85 tunes as I can swing $10k for one of these after a year or so. A quick run through a fuel calculator means the on e85, if I can manage 22 mpg on e85, I can save money over my current premium fuelled 28-29 mpgs in the Saab. I doubt the wife would sign off on something with too small of a back seat to really haul kids (which I never do), but oh well. 

Blaise
Blaise Reader
1/22/18 9:36 a.m.

Yeah, the back seat is nonexistent. The seatback touches the rear seat when I'm in it.

Matt B
Matt B UltraDork
1/22/18 9:36 a.m.

I think I've seen more disdain than affinity for the Subaru "burble" on this forum, but I'll openly admit to loving it.  Apparently I need to flatten my hat brims or something. 

Looking forward to hearing about your ownership experience.  These are sort of on the radar for a track rat in a couple of years.  There's cheaper/faster stuff out there for that sort of thing, but their relative lack of maintenance and modern safety features are tempting.  Also, they seem to do well in D-Street and STX - so that's a bonus.

Blaise
Blaise Reader
1/22/18 10:00 a.m.

Track usage requires an oil cooler from what I understand.

Modern safety is what got me here. I DD an NA and with all of my safety upgrades on my track car (halo seat, hans, roll over), I’ve gotten very self conscious of the lack of any safety in the car that I drive the other 340 days of the year.

Ian F
Ian F MegaDork
1/22/18 10:06 a.m.

In reply to Matt B :

Every time I hear a WRX or STI with a cat-back, I have day dreams of getting one. They sound great.

Matt B
Matt B UltraDork
1/22/18 10:11 a.m.

In reply to Blaise :

This is getting OT, but do you drive your track car on the street and what kind of cage configuration do you have?

Matt B
Matt B UltraDork
1/22/18 10:19 a.m.

In reply to Ian F :

I know we've seen a million of these, but what the hey...

 

Also relevant... cheeky

z31maniac
z31maniac MegaDork
1/22/18 10:32 a.m.
Blaise said:

Track usage requires an oil cooler from what I understand.

Modern safety is what got me here. I DD an NA and with all of my safety upgrades on my track car (halo seat, hans, roll over), I’ve gotten very self conscious of the lack of any safety in the car that I drive the other 340 days of the year.

Yes, or you can thicker oil and deal with the HIGH temps.

I have a Jackson Racing dual cooler, and front/rear Winmax W5 pads..............all new in the box if you want them. Now that my BRZ is gone. :)

Tyler H
Tyler H UltraDork
1/22/18 10:34 a.m.

Congrats!  The ease of access to the bellhousing bolts is amazing.  

Blaise
Blaise Reader
1/22/18 10:39 a.m.
z31maniac said:
Blaise said:

Track usage requires an oil cooler from what I understand.

Modern safety is what got me here. I DD an NA and with all of my safety upgrades on my track car (halo seat, hans, roll over), I’ve gotten very self conscious of the lack of any safety in the car that I drive the other 340 days of the year.

Yes, or you can thicker oil and deal with the HIGH temps.

I have a Jackson Racing dual cooler, and front/rear Winmax W5 pads..............all new in the box if you want them. Now that my BRZ is gone. :)

I’ll email you!  I obviously missed what you decided on so I’ll go look :)

Blaise
Blaise Reader
1/22/18 10:42 a.m.
Matt B said:

In reply to Blaise :

This is getting OT, but do you drive your track car on the street and what kind of cage configuration do you have?

Nope, I quickly realized that street and track cars don’t mix. I have a kirkey halo seat with a blackbird SD. I had maybe a month when I ran the Stock (lowered) seats and 3 point belts and figured out that safety wasn’t worth compromising on, especially when I could buy a whole other NA for $2k.

Snrub
Snrub Reader
1/22/18 11:36 a.m.

Nice!  I'm glad the trip home worked out.  I always find it fun to do something slightly sketchy/unconventional and have it work out.  :)

 

These are now at a price point that makes a lot of sense for wide swaths of the enthusiast community.

MazdaFace
MazdaFace Reader
1/22/18 11:43 a.m.

Nice! I keep looking more & more into the toyota 86 as of late because my discount on one would make it a brand new one a pretty sweet deal.....

docwyte
docwyte SuperDork
1/22/18 11:50 a.m.

What's an OFT and UEL?

z31maniac
z31maniac MegaDork
1/22/18 11:55 a.m.

Open Flash Tablet, tuner/Data logger 

UEL, unequal length header. Its what gives the subie rumble.

Sonolin
Sonolin New Reader
1/22/18 12:31 p.m.

Great find, and great set of mods as well! 

For coilovers, there's loads of options. For track work I've heard great things about the RCE T2s (re-valved KWs), Tein SRCs/Flex-Zs, and JRZs (of course). I'm mostly interested in 2-way adjustable, not sure about the bilsteins (pretty sure they're all non-adjustable?). 

Can't believe these are at ~$8k already! Guess I'll be keeping mine for a while. Can't wait to drive mine again.

Blaise
Blaise Reader
1/22/18 12:33 p.m.

They're around 10-12k now at 100k. So it's not far out of price with work needed.

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