hi everyone. i'm thinking about breaking into autocrossing for the first time next year and would like to install a rev limiter - mostly for peace of mind. it would be on a new WRX ('05), and i'm wondering how easy it would be to install and remove as needed. i'd like to keep the car as close to stock as possible for awhile, as well as limit any damage to engine and drivetrain, so any advice would be appreciated. happy to be an owner member finally cheers!
Welcome to the club! The few things that you can do bad for your car is to abuse it with a heavy foot and jerking your shifts. Take it easy and the car will love you. There are always events popping up, Chong (Musashi) is a big auto event guy who does road racing for his pasttime. He can hook you up with the coming events.
Gspot or anyone have more specific info on the car's limiter? i'm sure i can find where it comes on somewhere, but what system does it impact and if i stand on the gas in second gear and don't let off (not planning on doing this, just a what if) will it spike past redline or is there good tolerance built in? if i were to install aftermarket i would probably set it right at or above peak horsepower, so i could theoretically mash the pedal without damaging the engine. obviously there are transmission and drivetrain concerns at that point, so i'll be much more careful than i've suggested here... mostly just curious thanks for the welcome kickin_81 - i plan on babying the car its whole life, but we're still gonna have some fun occasionally
it's a fuel cut. believe me the second you hit red, you'll feel it. The car stock wil absolutely not allow the needle to touch red, so don't worry about it. Also keep in mind that almost all chips for the car disable the rev limiter, so you might not want to get one until you're comfortable enough with it to know when you're getting close. I bump my limiter in 2nd quite a lot on some autocross courses (sometimes it will gain you mre time than a quick upshift/downshift, especially if you're headed into a tight turn)and my car is no worse for the wear. Of course i don't have a turbo to deal with but I don't think that'll really make a difference in this case. btw autocrossing wont do any more damage to your engine or drivetrain than being late to work will. It mostly will just kill your tires. The stock re92's are definitely not up to the job for autocrossing, but you also want to beware of buying rims any larger than 16's because going over the factory rim size will throw you straight out of stock class, and a lot of guys have that happen to them becuase they got 17's or 18's. Allowable mods in stock are springs, struts, (not coilovers or camber plates) any catback exhaust you want, and cold air intakes. If you're serious about wanting to autocross, i wouldnt start replacing all those little bits in the engine quite yet, and dont mess around with the weight (CF hoods will throw you allllll the way up to prepared class ><) almost everyone runs falken azenis or kumho ecstsa MX tires, i would highly recommend picking up a set for autocross. they will take seconds off your time compared to a lot of other tires, and definitely are much better when compared to the stock ones.
150 miles on the clock as of tonight... not planning on finding the limiter yet but i'm loving the car. this marks the transition for me from FWD Turbo to AWD Turbo and I may never go back - bring on the snow! thanks for the insights esperunit... i was considering the larger wheel diameter for summer, but now i think i'll shop for the right rims in 16" instead. maybe i'll see ya on the autox circuit next season
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by AWD 101 150 miles on the clock as of tonight...<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote"> HOLY CRAP!!!! my car has almost exactly 1000 times that many, and I consider it very low mileage! sorry for the hijack, oh, and WELCOME
Azenis X 100000 I am going to baptize my first born child in an azenis tire filled with motul gear 300, they are both products I swear upon. I just ran the tombstone rally even with azenis and won!! haahhaaahaahaa!!!
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by AWD 101 150 miles on the clock as of tonight... not planning on finding the limiter yet but i'm loving the car. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote"> Hi! The limiter is computer controlled, look in some of the treads about Utec (www.TurboXS.com). I didn't go that way because my WRX is my daily driver, so I went with plug and play AccessPort tuner (www.cobbtuning.com). If you have the extra time and want more control go with the Utec, there are some very, very knowledgeable people here that can help.
I recently learned that the dealer's short throw pushes me out of stock class anyways, so I might just run on my summer rims (looking at the Prodrive 7's.) -err, yeah, I'll throw some tires on the rims too. Grimm - awesome, I was actually looking at Cobb for most of my tuning options, so maybe I'll end up getting that AccessPort sooner rather than later... I hadn't realised that would give me access to the limiter as well. I love the wide open tuner market on this car, so many options!
Where have I've been, hehehe, didn't know my name was mentioned here. Sorry for the delay! AWD 101 What everyone has said so far is completely true. You can lay your rev limiter to bed. Its really a none issue. Take it from a guy that has 10k on a RR car. I would suggest getting a shiftlight to help you with your concern. Reason being if your planning on autocrossing you won't be needing to rev all the way to 7200rpm, cuz the stock TD04 will not produce all the way up there. One of the keys to being fast is knowing where your powerband is and where to shift to get you back to a good starting point of your powerband. The last autocross I did with my WRX, I had a hard time getting back into first gear, its really sucks even though I double clutched the whole time. EEEK. I highly recommend spending sometime with your car Autocrossing, you will learn alot about yourself and your car. Honestly I am a terrible Autocrosser and never really cared for rules or play by rules, except when it came to safety rules. As far as the rules go for class I never raced fair, cuz I was not out to win one of those plastic thing E's. lol Was more out to just have fun and learn what my car is capable of. What I'm trying to say is do what you want with your car, but learn how to drive it stock first. Oh yeah and if you wanna learn how to drift an AWD Scooby, bring your WRX w/stock tires to an RR event and I'll be glad to show ya! Enjoy! C }
lol stock tires? eww - they're coming off as soon as I get my winters! As for autocross, thanks for the advice... you're right I shouldn't care as much about classes and such starting out. I'll probably be right at the bottom of the list time-wise anyways [xx(] My eyes are bigger than my stomach when it comes to mods right now. That stage 2 Cobb torque curve just looks too sweet! Zola - yeah i figured on the UTEC, I think I like the plug and play aspect of the Cobb unit though.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Mushashi W Oh yeah and if you wanna learn how to drift an AWD Scooby, bring your WRX w/stock tires to an RR event and I'll be glad to show ya! <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Yeah your stock tires.... when you are learning why not just shread the crapy tires? <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote"> I hear that, and not that i have anything against shredding the stock rubber, but I'm planning on getting a dedicated autocrossing set, perhaps on stock rims, perhaps pre-shredded. I'll be wrapping my current set of stock rims in my winters as soon as snow flies and maybe i'll use the stock rubber somewhere down the road, but I want to get Hakka's for winter and won't be able to afford new/used rims for a couple months after getting those (holidays and all.) So all I was saying is that by the time I'm ready to shred tires, I'll probably have a different set to shred. Of course, my stock tires might be shredded by the time the snow gets here, I'm counting down the last 500 miles of break-in...
