GR86 What did you do with your GR86 today

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Cheating slightly as it was Sunday and Monday...
Sunday, changed the brake pads all round for the Cosworth Streetmeister ones from Fensport

The factory ones don’t look too hot for 4,900 miles!!

I also washed the car, checked the tyre pressures etc, I’m very fussy with tyre pressures, I like to set them accurate to my Michelin gauge, +- 0.1 PSI. Yes, I know I’m OCD.

Not a great pic, just one of my "this is how it looked from every angle" pictures before going tom the dealership... it is a bloody handsome thing.

Monday went for the service.

All checked out well, but was surprised they changed the cabin air filter as I didn’t think it was part of the first service (and disappointed as in doing so removed an uprated one with an activated carbon filter, car smells funny now!). they also “checked my tyre pressures” and left it as below…

So basically, I spent £314 to have my cabin air filter downgraded, the 700 or so mile oil downgraded (was Millers performance) and my tyre pressures buggered about with! I only went for the stamp, which they forgot to give me!

Still that’s that done. No obvious damage, and at least the thing is “officially” serviced now.



Ooh, passed the 5,000 mile milestone on the way home too.

 

[ZN8]

@TorqueOfTheDevil how much track work have those pads done?

 

[Conscript]

Lots, I hope. Otherwise I'm well overdue at 18k

 

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Three Trackdays, Snetterton, Spa, Anglesey.
I think Snetterton was the heaviest on the brakes.

I wish we had the option of the performance package

 

[Silver Fox]

Happy Tariff Day!

 

[Sonic]

Took a trip up to the Porsche Centre and had a test drive in a MY24 bright blue 718 Cayman.

Obviously being a demonstrator, it had the 'standard' £18-20k of extras bunged into it for onward selling. Priced new at £72.2k last year, it is currently ticketed at £57.9k, which looked decent as a potential purchase until I realised that's showing a £14k depreciation in just 6 months (their MY24 Cayman S showed a similar £16k 'ticket' loss). My idea of buying new may have been kicked into the weeds somewhat!
As for the drive, in isolation it felt great; nice and planted, a solid feeling extended leather clad cabin and decent acceleration from the PDK gearbox, which saw me on a local B road hit 87 before I knew it.
That all said, the return journey in the GR86 was a blast. It might be 70 odd BHP down on the Cayman but you'd be hard pressed to tell, especially when it comes to making good progress on the same type of roads. When I got home and had some time to reflect, I couldn't seem to justify an 'upgrade' - the GR86 offers so much for so little (price wise), is more economical, has better luggage space and offers the same smiles-per-mile IMHO. It's also, around these parts anyway, a lot less common on the roads than a 718 Cayman, of which I spotted 5 in Dunfermline yesterday alone.

Summary: the grass is just as green on this side ...

 

[Biff32gtr]

MY24 Cayman S, road tax £620 a year!! We get 3 years for that amount, another little win

 

[Alistair31]

How did you find the ride quality compared to the GR86?

 

[Sonic]

How did you find the ride quality compared to the GR86?

It seemed to soak up the bumps a bit better and wasn't as 'jostly' as the GR86. I felt a little more isolated from the road surface, which on a long drive probably isn't a bad thing.
One observation (in the rearview) was the big plume of smoke that I generated as I floored it. I reckon it had been needing to stretch its legs, but still a surprise from a petrol engine - it made me wonder about the GPF issues being discussed in the Owners Forum.

 

[GRistopher]

Today I drove myself and my quite pregnant wife around to my dad's house. It's a windy back lane and she gets travel sick so I have to be sensible.

The road surface is awful and the car fealt really crashy over all the ruts and bumps in the surface.

When driving on my own, I tend to find the car rides better than stock when im not stuck behind a generic contact crossover. So, on the way back I tried out a 65% pressing on speed, and the KWs ironed out the bumps beautifully, staying really nice and supported while removing all the crashiness, but still communicating the surface through. I managed to keep the wife on the right side of chundering, and she agreed that the ride was quite comfortable at a higher speed.

Looks like I'll now be enjoying my drives out with her a little more from now on.

 

[Silver Fox]

Congratulations and best wishes to you both @GRistopher

 

[Sonic]

Drove to Parks’ Lotus in Glasgow and took a Lotus Emira 2.0L out for a test drive. Wonderful looking car throughly let down by that (detuned ) AMG engine. Felt Soulless, like driving a family car around. My GR86 garnered more looks in town than the Lotus; mine sounded better too!
The V6 is where it’s at, but new ones will now be £100k
Had a look around their bright blue 23 plate 3.5L V6 on the forecourt (£60k, 3k miles) and observed blistering (osmosis) all along the doors. Wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole - That car shouldn’t be for sale until the doors have been replaced.
Oh yeah, and they don’t even have a coffee machine!
Monday sees me at Alpine Glasgow for a test drive in an A110.

 

[911sse]

Drove to Parks’ Lotus in Glasgow and took a Lotus Emira 2.0L out for a test drive. Wonderful looking car throughly let down by that (detuned ) AMG engine. Felt Soulless, like driving a family car around. My GR86 garnered more looks in town than the Lotus; mine sounded better too!
The V6 is where it’s at, but new ones will now be £100k
Had a look around their bright blue 23 plate 3.5L V6 on the forecourt (£60k, 3k miles) and observed blistering (osmosis) all along the doors. Wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole - That car shouldn’t be for sale until the doors have been replaced.
Oh yeah, and they don’t even have a coffee machine!
Monday sees me at Alpine Glasgow in an A110 for another test drive in that.

You'll be on the dealers watch list if you keep this up. I await your review of the Morgan Supersport when that turns up at Revolutions in Perth

 

[Sonic]

You'll be on the dealers watch list if you keep this up. I await your review of the Morgan Supersport when that turns up at Revolutions in Perth

Gotta get them all done in short order so that I can remember what they were like in comparison. Old man’s memory now innit?!

 

[chopper602]

Car needed a bit of a clean, so I thought I'd use the Meguiar's Ceramic Wash 'n' Wax we were gifted at JapFest last year. It's a bit of a 'faf' to use as you're supposed to measure out the very thick liquid into your bucket and then add the SiO2 liquid into it. Not sure I'd have actually shelled out £30 for a bottle in the first place, but it was free . . .
I snowfoamed the car first, as usual, rinsed and then washed with the Meguiars wash solution. Didn't expect any suds and didn't get any - but straight away the paint felt smoother. Rinsed and dried as usual. Really quite pleased (I used it last year and wasn't impressed, so guess I got the ratios wrong or something - 90ml of the wash, 15ml of the SiO2 liquid).

Very brief You Tube of the hydophobicity

 

[jb1750]

Drove to Parks’ Lotus in Glasgow and took a Lotus Emira 2.0L out for a test drive. Wonderful looking car throughly let down by that (detuned ) AMG engine. Felt Soulless, like driving a family car around. My GR86 garnered more looks in town than the Lotus; mine sounded better too!
The V6 is where it’s at, but new ones will now be £100k
Had a look around their bright blue 23 plate 3.5L V6 on the forecourt (£60k, 3k miles) and observed blistering (osmosis) all along the doors. Wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole - That car shouldn’t be for sale until the doors have been replaced.
Oh yeah, and they don’t even have a coffee machine!
Monday sees me at Alpine Glasgow for a test drive in an A110.

Be super interested to hear what you think of the Alpine. Kinda feeling that an a110 is the only alternative left for me, as everything else I’ve tried in the last couple of years has felt a bit meh compared to the 86. Everything has either been far too fast or too isolating from the action. I’ve only got as far as sitting in an A110 and it did feel a bit ‘snug’ (I’m 6 4) and unfortunately we’ve no dealership over here in Northern Ireland, so I just don’t know if I could risk it myself. Unless the undoubted popularity of the A290 spurs one of the local Renault dealers to man up and embrace Alpine. I drove an Alfa Giulia Veloce (280) and it was surprisingly engaging. Deffo felt rwd and you could sense a fundamentally balanced chassis. 8 gears was just befuddling though and redline at 5.5k ?? in an Alfa???

 

[chopper602]

I drove an Alfa Giulia Veloce (280) and it was surprisingly engaging. Deffo felt rwd and you could sense a fundamentally balanced chassis. 8 gears was just befuddling though and redline at 5.5k ?? in an Alfa???

Great car, it's what I had before the 86. I even took the wifes' Stelvio (same car different body) around a certain racetrack in Germany and it didn't shame itself (that's daughter in the front seat, MrsTheWife was in the car park holding the coats)

 

[chopper602]

Added a 'Just for Japfest' decal to the boot ('cos it's not straight - it is to the ground but not the bootlid!)

 

[Sonic]

('cos it's not straight - it is to the ground but not the bootlid!)

Maybe you have it following the curvature of the earth?

 

[Conscript]

Weathers improving and the mornings are getting lighter, so I got up early for a Sunday blast today.

Really pleased with the mods to the steering rack; it's a subtle improvement but the car feels much nicer when cornering. Occasionally, if I went into a corner a little too hot, I'd feel a bit like I wasn't fully in control at times, as though there was a little float in the steering, just a slight disconnect from the front wheels. Now, it feels more direct around the centre, and subtle corrections have more impact. Sounds a bit wanky and cliche but I can 'think' my way through a corner, and feel more of what the front end is doing. Result is I'm cornering more confidently and tidily than before, with less correction needed.

Also, the car is now more relaxing to drive on the motorway. Even when cruising, I used to keep two hands on the wheel as it felt a little 'busy' at times. Now, I find I can cruise comfortably with one hand on the wheel as the steering responds to those tiny, almost subconscious inputs you make even when driving straight.

Coming to think of it, I remember a couple of years ago posting how I felt that the car didn't have quite the confident, planted feel my old GT had. I'm wondering if this was my issue all along...an alignment and new tyres/lower pressures helped a bit but I still occasionally had that vagueness I didn't like. This seems to have sorted it.