The BRZ / FR-S / GT 86 transmissions and driveline: what we know so far

[jruhi4]

Hello, all.

First off, let me congratulate the moderators, administrators and editors of the ft86club community for a kickass job on this site.

I got my start on the Toyota enthusiast community as Editor and co-Administrator of my.IS (a Lexus IS fansite). Beyond that, I've also written for LexusFforums and CT200hForum.com and, a little over a year ago, started writing for the Kaizen Factor blog.

I'm definitely as intrigued, excited and pumped over BRZ / FR-S / GT 86 as all of you are. A good number of the Kaizen Factor articles I've written are related to FT-86 and its production variants, and even possible rumored (and wished-for) spinoffs and derivatives.

Given what I think may interest the ft86club community, and how a number of you have informed it, I wanted to share with you the latest piece I've written: http://kaizenfactor.wordpress.com/20...e-know-so-far/

Although much of it may be old news to the diehards and the well informed, there are a couple of bits in there that haven't been fully addressed before, as far as I've read.

I hope you like it.

[subatoy]

great the damn transmission won't take much torque!
I'm getting a WRX.

[86'd]

Good article, but to address the TQ concerns:

1. I'd personally rather have a good feeling trans, than one that can take a lot of TQ.

2. We don't know how much TQ the trans can take. Cars like the S2000 are boosted to 400-500hp on stock transmissions.

3. Each company switches out components within the transmission as they see fit. A stock AZ6 can mean a lot of different things to each manufacturer.

4. If you want 300hp @ 8000 RPM, for example, you'd only need 200tq anyway... which is well within the comparison to the S15's TQ capacity.

[ft86Fan]

Good first post and good article.

[WingsofWar]

Thank you jruhi4 for the fantastic article and shoutout, and welcome to the forum!

[Dark]

Very informative and detailed article.

[Ryephile]

Very insightful, thanks for sharing! Killer 1st post.

[suprachica79]

Now that is what I call a serious first post.

[MannyO]

Great to have you with us jruhi4! I definitely learned a lot from reading your article.

[brzmaybe]

Originally Posted by jruhi4

Given what I think may interest the ft86club community, and how a number of you have informed it, I wanted to share with you the latest piece I've written: http://kaizenfactor.wordpress.com/20...e-know-so-far/

Great post. Thanks!

jruhi4, you sound well qualified to answer two questions that have been nagging at me.

First, is there any way for you to estimate the weight difference between the manual and automatic transmissions?

Second, do you have any comments on a couple of "first drive" review articles suggesting that the automatic might, all things being considered, be just a little bit faster around the track?

[Guff]

[subatoy]

Originally Posted by 86'd

Good article, but to address the TQ concerns:

1. I'd personally rather have a good feeling trans, than one that can take a lot of TQ.

2. We don't know how much TQ the trans can take. Cars like the S2000 are boosted to 400-500hp on stock transmissions.

3. Each company switches out components within the transmission as they see fit. A stock AZ6 can mean a lot of different things to each manufacturer.

4. If you want 300hp @ 8000 RPM, for example, you'd only need 200tq anyway... which is well within the comparison to the S15's TQ capacity.

I was hoping to swap a WRX engine into this thing but that there is not way this tranny would take the torque. I don't care about HP as much as I care about torque.
only time will tell.

[Kids Heart]

Originally Posted by 86'd

Good article, but to address the TQ concerns:


4. If you want 300hp @ 8000 RPM, for example, you'd only need 200tq anyway... which is well within the comparison to the S15's TQ capacity.

There is a reason s14 tranny's are swapped in.

[mact]

Hopefully there will be some company that will offer strengthened gear sets.