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Anyone considering a Subaru BRZ or Scion FRS?

I picked up an FRS. Simply amazing I will be honest...
Congrats! I'm thinking of dropping by SCA tonight with the BRZ if in case you decide to drop by.
Just received a call from the Subaru dealer today and it looks like my pre-order should be here by the end of November! I've obviously purchased another car in the mean time, but i'm looking forward to the test drive....who knows, I may end up trading in the cayman on the brz!

In the (likely) event that I don't go for it, anyone in NorCal interested in taking my spot at the dealer to get a black limited 6MT at MSRP should PM me.
To be honest.. If I had a Cayman it would be difficult to look back. FWIW so far i'm having a blast with the BRZ. Hope you're enjoying the same with the Cayman.

--------------------------------------

The past week has been a frenzy of FR-S/BRZ coverage at SEMA. There are so many quality parts for this car it's mind boggling. As an NSX owner, I wish there was even a fraction of the same interest in our platform.

Suspension: They all have Toyobaru specific kits
JRZ
Ohlins
Suspension Tecknics (formerly Aragosta)
KW
Eibach
Greddy
Cusco
HKS
RS*R
Bilstein
Koni
(insert about 10 Taiwanese companies here)

Brakes: (this is the only segment that seems to be priced the same as the NSX market)
Wilwood
Brembo
Stoptech
Rotora
Endless
Project Mu
AP Racing

I/H/E
Maybe 30? I haven't seen too many junk parts being offered which is a relief.

Superchargers:
TRD (no pic yet)
Vortech
Scion-FRS-Vortech-Supercharger-01.JPG

Innovate
389390_4877120614832_104126551_n.jpg


Turbos:
AVO - sort of like the Comptech for the Subie world has a very nice turbo kit, fully tested in Japan and US at various temps and altitudes, intercooler, ECU, etc... for $3800 MSRP. Yes, you read that price right.
581048_361922997212871_1355848563_n.jpg

Crawford - Also has a nice turbo kit
CrawfordPerformance_SubaruBRZ_TurboKit_Video.jpg

And about 5 others..


Body Kits:
Too many from mild to wild
Pics here
 
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Any news which if any of the FI solutions are CARB legal?
 
The Innovate supercharger caught my attention due to the Laminova intercooler. I always liked that design.

I have to keep reminding myself... This is my daily driver, This is my daily driver...

-J
 
Any news which if any of the FI solutions are CARB legal?
There is a good chance the Vortech and TRD will be CARB legal. I have a gut feeling Edelbrock (and Stillen?) may come out with something CARB legal as well. They have a history of doing so.
The Innovate supercharger caught my attention due to the Laminova intercooler. I always liked that design.

I have to keep reminding myself... This is my daily driver, This is my daily driver...

-J
You and me both! It's even tougher because I got so use to paying the NSX premium that when I go shopping for the BRZ it's like everything is half off. Not to mention you have 10x the selection of good quality parts.
 
Anyone have experience with TRD products specifically? Do they benefit at all from their relationship with manufacturer i.e. for engine management? I understand that some TRD s/c's don't void the warranty...
 
Anyone have experience with TRD products specifically? Do they benefit at all from their relationship with manufacturer i.e. for engine management? I understand that some TRD s/c's don't void the warranty...
Sorry if i'm the only one answering here. Unfortunately, you're only getting one point of view as a result.

TRD Japan has always been top knotch. TRD USA has sort of fallen off the quality scale in recent years. The TRD S/C in my Tacoma is built well (outsourced to Magnusson) but they fell short on the ECU tuning department. The thing ran extremely lean.

In short, TRD USA has been mediocre but it looks like they might be improving with this platform. Notice that they've since started a "Scion Racing" department. I wonder if that spin-off is here to stay or if it's simply an experiment.
 
My local Subaru Shop IAG Performance based out of Westminster, MD was 1 of 3 shops selected to participate in Scions Tuner Challenge when they give 3 shops a budget and one FRS and they have to create a one off car. Needless to say they won :) Oh, and the other two get crushed ;)

Here are the photos, the manifold is one off.

http://maydaygarage.com/2012/11/02/...ss-chris-basselgiascion-usas-2013-scion-fr-s/

Ok. The Toyobaru is not flawless. I absolutely hate the F-N-F ricey chrome taillights. Looks like these guys fixed that. So officially, I hereby declared that I will NEVER again search and build an ultimate Honda CRX as my pocket rocket. This Toyobaru is the bomb.
Steve
 
Anyone have experience with TRD products specifically? Do they benefit at all from their relationship with manufacturer i.e. for engine management? I understand that some TRD s/c's don't void the warranty...

Kind of an old sample, but my 2000 Solara ran flawlessly for 11 years with a TRD supercharger. Sold it last year, but I bet it's still running fine. All but the first few months were with a smaller pulley, so it was boosting more than Toyota intended. Amazingly, the clutch held up, too.
 
My local Subaru Shop IAG Performance based out of Westminster, MD was 1 of 3 shops selected to participate in Scions Tuner Challenge when they give 3 shops a budget and one FRS and they have to create a one off car. Needless to say they won :) Oh, and the other two get crushed ;)

Here are the photos, the manifold is one off.

http://maydaygarage.com/2012/11/02/...ss-chris-basselgiascion-usas-2013-scion-fr-s/


Anyone else notice that one of the contestants in the Scions Tuner Challenge was a Daniel Song from Orange County, CA...who I believe is the same Daniel Song behind the NSXPrime member JDMnsxR
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/member.php/8573-JDMnsxR who built 2 very wild but very well done widebody NSXs back in 2004 and 2008...

I found that interesting.

now On Topic, I do like the look of the BRZ/FRS very much, and if I was in the market for a car like this, I wouldn't really look any further. Saving up some more money for an NSX is the priority now though.
 
Chief Engineer for the Toyota GT86, Tetsuya Tada was kind enough to sign my dash today. Very nice man to meet in person.

Ryu, glad to hear you love the BRZ... lately I've been totally obsessed with it as well and want to buy one as a DD. My wife will kill me if I pickup a 4th sports car of my own, so I may have to sell my Supra or WRX or both. The BRZ/FRS kind of seems like a modern day equivalent of the 85' Supra I have.(too bad the BRZ isn't hatch back)

I never understood the appeal of Subaru at all. This all changed last year when I picked up a WRX (retired audio show car) from my company for an insanely low price. Now I totally see the appeal of a Subaru and understand why owners love their cars so much. I'm a bit worried since part of that affection is related to the confidence inspiring AWD and cool signature grumble sound, which the BRZ does not have. I'm wondering if the BRZ does not have unequal length headers, which is why it doesn't have the signature grumble sound?

Since I work for a supplier of Subaru, I can get invoice price pre-approved, but dealers of course are not honoring that price for the BRZ until demand dies down. I hope I'm not left waiting until the 2014 model comes out before they start honoring the supplier special pricing.

Ryu, I've been reading up on the common BRZ/FRS bugs on the GT86 forums... have you encountered any of those yet? I'm really amazed at how well the BRZ/FRS forum is already documenting every aspect of the owner experience. I've never seen any car forum so on-top of things so quickly.
 
Hey, what's up man? Hope things are well with you. Here's my $0.02 on your questions. Hope it helps!

Ryu, glad to hear you love the BRZ... lately I've been totally obsessed with it as well and want to buy one as a DD. My wife will kill me if I pickup a 4th sports car of my own, so I may have to sell my Supra or WRX or both. The BRZ/FRS kind of seems like a modern day equivalent of the 85' Supra I have.(too bad the BRZ isn't hatch back)
When you say the 85 Supra i'm assuming you mean the MKII, right? That generation is actually one of my favorites though I've driven a few and I think the GT86/FRS/BRZ is much closer related to the AE86 Corolla. Tada's engineers did a good job of making it the true spiritual successor of that car. If you're expecting the Supra feel i'm afraid you may be a bit disappointed. The 86 feels more nimble in an athletic sort of gutless way.

I never understood the appeal of Subaru at all. This all changed last year when I picked up a WRX (retired audio show car) from my company for an insanely low price. Now I totally see the appeal of a Subaru and understand why owners love their cars so much. I'm a bit worried since part of that affection is related to the confidence inspiring AWD and cool signature grumble sound, which the BRZ does not have. I'm wondering if the BRZ does not have unequal length headers, which is why it doesn't have the signature grumble sound?
I never understood the appeal of Subaru at all. I once thought the owners were a bunch of tree hugging hippies (except the STi owners). I now "get it" and you get it too. It's hard to explain when someone asks me lol.

I once read an engineering explanation as to why the BRZ does not rumble. I believe it was only partially due to the UEL headers. This BRZ does not rumble and it's a more modern 4 into 1 header design. It looks relatively equal length. Not many are making power from aftermarket headers, nor intakes, nor exhaust for that matter. Folks are making power from FI and ECU retunes, Flex Fuel, and E85. The FA20 is lightyears ahead of the Subie engines of even just last year. 12:1 compression, Direct Injection, etc. I'm getting 26-34mpg (at the track i was getting 25mpg!!) so it's really an impressive little thing. I just wish it was a 2.3-2.4 litre or a small 1.8L turbo. For day to day it doesn't feel under powered at all but when you're at the track you definitely wouldn't mind an extra 30-50hp.

BTW.. the traction control on this car is very good. You won't notice the lack of grip from the RWD. It's very confidence inspiring w/o being too intrusive. They did the good job with the traction control algorithm here. Actually, they did a very good job with the 6AT shifting algorithms as well.

Since I work for a supplier of Subaru, I can get invoice price pre-approved, but dealers of course are not honoring that price for the BRZ until demand dies down. I hope I'm not left waiting until the 2014 model comes out before they start honoring the supplier special pricing.
A buddy of mine is in the process of buying a BRZ 6AT and at this point in time the local dealers are still marking them up $+4k~ over MSRP. I bought mine at MSRP 3 months ago and honestly, I thought the demand would have settled down; it hasn't. You can find BRZ MSRP deals in the winter snow states that historically have high Subie sales from their AWD offerings (Legacies, WRXs, etc) therefore they get a bigger allocation of BRZs but can't sell them in the winter because their local market wants AWDs. This is why I bought mine in Colorado.

BTW... Subaru also announced they will increase the allocation to the US by 2000 units over the next 4 months. That's a lot!! and should drive down prices back to planet Earth again.
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/12/03/subaru-to-get-more-brz-coupes-to-sell-thanks-to-high-demand/

Ryu, I've been reading up on the common BRZ/FRS bugs on the GT86 forums... have you encountered any of those yet? I'm really amazed at how well the BRZ/FRS forum is already documenting every aspect of the owner experience. I've never seen any car forum so on-top of things so quickly.
Good news: The young community has embraced this car.
Bad news: The young community has embraced this car.

There is a ton of information on this car but there's also a ton of misinformation as well they all seem to fill the online airwaves very very quickly. So tread on those forums lightly. It's easy to be misled lol. The only "bugs" I've experienced is the chirping sound of the direct injection fuel pump (annoying but not detrimental, TSB already issued but i'm too lazy to take it in for service anytime soon), ticking noise in the trunk (easy fix), idle rpm occassionaly dips (ECU reflash available), but surprinsingly the one major annoyance is my squeaky driver's window. It squeaks when you roll it up/down. They must be using the wrong kind of rubber window guides or something. These are all first build quality issues that when compared to the joy of ownership... I honestly don't even think twice about. The car is damn fun in all conditions and situations.

Oh btw.. I know 2 local guys who have had engine trouble (thru mods.. shhhh!) in one way shape or form. Subaru/Toyota replaced their entire engines no questions asked. Which means the companies are heavily supporting this platform and do not want to see it fail.

Hope this helps! Given the increase in allocation.. you might have good luck finding one at special pricing!
 
Thanks for the insightful advice! The extra 2000 units sure is huge considering my latest reports show BRZ sales at 3,647 cars and FRS sales at 9,922 cars for the first 11months of this year.

I think waiting the 6 months for my Advan RSII group buy wheels to arrive has given me too much time to start looking at other cars instead of focusing on my nsx!
 
I've had mine for about 3-4 months now. I have the BRZ Limited with AT. I wanted a fun daily driver that handled nicely and had that go-kart feel which I enjoy. My Accord Coupe, while a nice cruiser, certainly did not have go-kart handling. The BRZ has a nice planted feel that reminds me of my Lotus Elise. Minimal understeer and great turn-in.

I too have noticed that window squeak and the DI fuel pump "cricket" chirp sound. Seems that the chirp is dependent on the brand of gas. Some say it's worse with ethanol-laden gas. I'll be taking it in for service to have these minor but annoying things addressed.

The AT is just fine and when in Sport mode the shifting is firms up and holds the gears longer. The paddles are fun too. Yeah, it's not a fast car but when I drive it - I don't think, wow this is slow, but rather wow, this is a lot of fun. Heck, some say the same thing about the NSX too. I have minor quibbles with the car, like the dead pedal seems too far away for my left foot and the radio head unit has a sucky non-intuitive user interface with tiny virtual buttons. It's tough to aim and hit the spot while you're driving.

I paid list price for my car, BTW.

-Jim
 
I bought a white FR-S on Thursday and returned it Friday so that I can get the Series 10 version coming out in June/july.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showpost.php?p=824114&postcount=1

Although it only comes in silver, I'd rather have that car because it will have the hid/led headlights that the GT86 has along with keyless go and a push button start and automatic climate control..
 
it looks pretty in my driveway:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGArqc6Su6g

plus it's reallllllly fun on the track!

I've owned 3 nsx's and will say the FRS is just outstanding for what we pay. but then you get hooked and drop a ton on mods lol
 
As much as my wife and I love this car, a new kid dictates that we need a 4 door. Word is that this motor will find its way into the new STi. I can only hope beyond hope that either a wagon or hatch version of the BRZ /STi finds it's place in the States.
 
Ryu

Why are you selling the Eibachs?
Would you mind PM'ing me the price of the R1 from the vendor you got it from?
 
Ryu

Why are you selling the Eibachs?
Would you mind PM'ing me the price of the R1 from the vendor you got it from?
I wanted to use my custom piston lift kit on it. As it turns out the extras I had made won't work with the Eibachs. Cheaper to sell the Eibachs and look around some more than to machine a new set of cups.

I got these for $1875. Letting them go for $1850 shipped :(
 
I am really enjoying the white 6spd BRZ Ltd that I picked up a month ago. For just a second I even thought about selling the NSX because I just like the added practicality of the BRZ... but considering NSX resale values have been so strong, there's no reason to sell it. I just don't get time to drive the NSX much anymore.

Here's a photo of it so far with the KW v3 coilovers, Cusco lower camber arms, tint, & Work Kiwami CR wheels in bronze. Next will be a mild body trim kit ;)

16194103_large.jpg
 
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