FS: 2015 Scion FRS 5

Maybe…

The 2017 Model is getting closer, and I’m struggling with my car life direction.  Now two years and a mere 12000km into modern 86 life, and I have very few complaints with my car… but I always imagine that it could be better.

A couple weeks ago I took the car out to our local “road course” for the first time, and had a blast.  The car is great fun at auto-x speeds, but seems to really come alive a couple up shifts later.  On this course (the relatively low speed Castrol Speedway in Edmonton), the car fun and easy to throw around, and seemed perfectly well geared, and  I did discover however, that it really doesn’t have much speed… or tolerance for repetitive use of the brake pedal.  Speed isn’t really a HUGE concern… and preparing the brakes for repetitive hard use is only a few dollars.

But what if there was an off the showroom floor option that gave me a lot of the latter, and a little of the former?

An off-the-lot option that would NOT send me down the never ending road of car building and modding.

Part of the pleasure of my current car, is that it exists, as it is, in a state that is complete.  It is not a money pit.  I can take it to any local solo event and compete with it in a meaningful way, focusing on my driving alone… not concerning myself with some dollars that I need to spend and parts that I want to install.  Moving beyond “Street” class at Solo makes that a near impossibility. Take it to the road course, and there are a wack of modified twins that I can run with… and maybe go slower than… or maybe go faster than to make others feel silly.

Or I could buy a couple of parts and lump myself in with every other twin out there who is NOT far and away the fastest one.  (Most of us could go broke and die trying to lap faster than Orrin MacInntosh.)

Owning a brand new car, and making monthly payments on a brand new car, was a new thing for me when I bought this ZN6… and it was an arrangement that I was quite hesitant to enter into.  Two years later… I have no regrets.  My withdrawals happen every month, and I barely notice.  The wife doesn’t comment.  The car needs no attention ever.  On race day, I throw my helmet in the trunk and never have a need for anything else.

But what if I was to start dropping $$$$$ on coil overs, brakes, or seats? I’d be broke and/or divorced in a couple weeks.  If I was to sell the car and buy another real AE86, I might spend less money in the long run, but wouldn’t feel at all rich, having to throw down a chunk of change just to get started, and then again spend hundreds of dollars every month trying to build some meaningful competition car from scratch.

So what I’m telling you, is that I’m buying in completely to the new car sales plan.  If the Kouki ZN6 ends up having big Brembo’s, gearing changes, HP bump, and the updated interior that Japan got, I will most likely be at my local dealership ASAP to throw down for a new monthly payment… even if it does have a terribly ugly front bumper and a price that rivals some faster machinery.