When I write a Limelight feature, I always have trouble starting it out. Whenever it’s a car I find from Instagram, (which is a majority of the time) I try to catch myself from saying “when I saw this car on Instagram…” or “I remember seeing this car for the first time on social media” – this BRZ is pretty much that. I didn’t know Jacob at all before reaching out to him months ago on Instagram about doing a write-up on his car. I have seen this car go through a few different iterations and can’t say I disliked any of them. This is one of my favorite 86’s on Instagram. Since this is our first BRZ feature, I figured why not do a somewhat-local one! (Had to do a BRZ first, sorry Toyota/Scion dudes!)

Jacob got his BRZ in the spring of 2016, after coming from an Acura TSX. He wanted a rear-wheel-drive, manual, white Scion FR-S at first. “When the cars first came out and all the praise they got for their handling, I knew I needed something rear-wheel-drive and manual next, because I only had ever had front-wheel-drive automatics my whole life.” Jacob says, “I’ve always had silver cars, I think it shows off the body lines better than any other color.” He ended up with the stock form of what you see today. He was attracted by the OEM styling of the BRZ a little more than the FR-S when it came down to it, though. His love for the 86 chassis began from the Need For Speed video games – games that also drew me into the passion for cars much more.

The BRZ screams body lines, especially in the Ice Silver Metallic – which looks amazing in any lighting. What initially attracted to me to his car was the pure “hot boi” style, which I simply just thought was cool – super low, two different sets of wheels on the front/rear, and a 326 Power wing to roughly sum it up. Now, Jacob has swapped trunks for a ViS Racing AMS carbon trunk that actually works incredibly well with those famous coupe body lines I mentioned.

He also has a set of the Japan-originated Gramlights series wheels from Rays. The 57DR model in Gun Blue is an awesome wheel – basically “baby” TE37’s.

Jacob told me he is actually running a set of 5×114.3’s up front to my surprise, and the presumed factory 5×100 bolt pattern in the rear. The reason for this is he wanted a more aggressive set of wheels for the front. Those are 18×9.5 +12 with a 25mm adapter/spacer. The rear is also an 18×9.5, but only comes in a +38 for the 5×100 variation. You may notice Jacob is running a lot of front camber, -5.5 degrees to be exact, with 0 degrees of toe I might add – getting 0 degrees of toe can actually be quite challenging in the more negative degrees of camber. The camber conversation is one that some either hate or love. I love “extreme” camber in certain applications – it really sets the mood for the car, but I wouldn’t even call this “extreme” camber necessarily.

In combination with the aggressive front end, the Todoroki KMO front fenders give Jacob’s BRZ the extra bit of edge to accompany all the front camber. The fenders give him 30mm more of width to add to the aggressive curves of the car. The rest of the exterior he has kept pretty simple. He’s added a painted 326 style STi front lip, Rocket Bunny V1 style rear diffuser, and some LED’s for the headlights and tail lights that do some cool funky blinky things as well.

The suspension has not been ignored, as you could imagine. To name a few parts, he’s got BC Racing BR Extreme Low series coilovers, Out of System SLANTSERIES top hats (front only), Voodoo13 lower control arms, SPL adjustable toe arms, Whiteline rear sway bar, Whiteline camber bolts, and some RacerX front lower control arms that were sitting at his house, waiting to go on the car. Jacob has put in a lot of time researching suspension modifications that won’t disrupt the cars performance and improve everything, while still maintaining the look he wants. I’ve been pushing Jacob to take his car up north with us to get it on some mountain roads, especially with all of his fresh suspension goodies. I got to ride around in Jacob’s car from the photoshoot spot, to dinner, and to another photoshoot spot. It amazed me at how similar it is to my car. Between the sounds, the feel (as passenger), and just the overall vibe of the car – it basically feels like a more modern Impreza 2.5RS, but rear-wheel-drive, ha. I never really got to hear the car cruising outside since I was riding in it, but CJ and Ethan were saying how similar his car and my car’s sound. All he has are Tomei unequal-length headers that run to a pretty much stock exhaust, minus the custom blast pipes – it sounds great. As we were cruising to the next photoshoot location, I noticed he had a pretty significant looking signature on his dash in front of me. I asked out of curiosity trying to figure out who’s name that was: Akinobu Satsukawa.

Some of you may know who that is without me even telling you. If you’re into the Japanese drift culture it’s probably a no-brainer. It took me a second to recall who Jacob was telling me about before it came to me. Akinobu is the team leader of A-BO-MOON – an R32 Skyline-only drift team which had a signature style, in terms of all cars being the same blue-colored four-door sedans. It’s pretty cool that Jacob actually got to meet him. My favorite interior bit of his though, would be the Vertex 7-Star steering wheel. I don’t know too many locals who have a Vertex wheel, so I am glad to know Jacob loves his. Just another thing I’m tempted to pull the trigger on down the road.

As we got to our last location of the night around 10:30 PM, I asked Jacob what his future plans are with the car, as far as aesthetic appeal and performance. He told me he really wants to run a wider tire set up at a 255/35 and go lower with -7.5 degrees of camber up front and -3 degrees in the rear. Jacob has also been thinking about swapping out his OEM BRZ bumper for an FR-S bumper, which apparently is a semi-popular thing to do in the world of 86’s.

He’s also been playing with the idea of throwing on his Ganador-style KDC mirrors. I actually owned a set of those but the fitment was mediocre, which I kind of expected with a replica part. I’ve heard the fitment is way better for the 86 chassis though, so hopefully he has no problems like I did – we both will probably buy real Ganadors someday. The TOMS clear taillights are in his future as well to finish off the exterior, but let’s be honest, nothing is ever finished. He does have plans for a JDL turbo kit and a Delicious Tuning E85 Flex Fuel kit – all it took was a ride in a friends boosted BRZ to change his opinion on these chassis when boost is added.

Looking forward, I can’t wait to see where Jacob goes with this car in the future. I wish him all the best with his BRZ and I hope we can do some touge runs in the Great Smoky Mountains sometime in the near future. To see more, check out his Subaru BRZ and photography on Instagram at @jvcb.j. Thanks Jacob for taking the time hang out with us!

By Zach Osborne – @momentum.rs

 

Jacob’s Full Build List:

Exterior:
STi Style Front Lip, Painted 326 Style
KMO Todoroki Front Fenders
ViS Racing AMS Carbon Trunk
RBV1 Rear Diffuser

Interior:
Vertex 7-Star Steering Wheel w/ NRG Hub
Raceseng Rondure Weighted Shift Knob
Authentic Tsurikawa

Wheels/Tires:

Rays Gramlights 57DR in Gun Blue – Front: 5×114.3 +12 w/ 25mm spacer, effective et. -13 Rear: 5×100 +38
235/40/18 Nitto Neo Gens

Suspension:
BC Racing BR Extreme Low Coilovers (8k/8k)
OutOfSystem SLANTSERIES Top Hats
Whiteline Adjustable Rear Swaybar
Whiteline Camber Bolts
Voodoo13 RLCA

Exhaust:
Tomei UEL Headers
Custom Blast Pipes and Muffler Delete