What did you do to your subaru today?

Hells yes. Curious to see how long it lasts without coming off. So awesome.

 

Installed LED DRL/High beams... Fixed this new gen STIs biggest half assery IMHO.

 

Found out I can come into turn 1 at BIR at over 130mph.

 

So I take it that you like your new setup?

 

He didn't say he could get through turn 1 at that speed, just that he could come into it...

 

Dunno what speed I came out of it at, but I was braking from around 125 into turn 2, so likely 120, 125. Held over 100 through 2, which was also fun.

 

What, you weren't looking at your speedo when flying into turn 1? haha, can't blame ya.

I was hitting about 135 by the end of the straight heading into turn 1 in my STI, and with the instructor in the car, I guess I was more ballsy and holding about 120-125 mph. I distinctly remember him yelling at me, "Don't you lift your foot off that damn throttle, I don't wanna spin!"

I was using the Race Chrono app to track a couple of my sessions, and I think one of my faster laps on the full course was 1:58. Apparently anything under 2 minutes in a street car is "respectable" so I left happy that day. I doubt the FRS could touch that though.

In any case, I'd say your speeds in the grocery getter are respectable! It'd be interesting to see what your times were for the course, the rest of the turns are where you can really find the time.

 

Guessing you were running the full course to hit 1 that fast @derp ? I'm also guessing that you were running the short course @TMF ?

When I ran there in ChumpCar, I never managed under a 2:00 lap on the short course, though I came close a few times. The actually fast drivers on our team were ticking off ~1:58 laps. I suspect that sub 2:00 wouldn't be at all tough in either my rally car or my '16 WRX, because they're a hell of a lot more car than the Escort. That thing could do about 105 though 2, but it was sketchy as all f***. Braking for 3 was great though, could outbrake a lot of people there, and I think all of my passes (all very few of them) were there.

And now I see you said full course. I never paid attention to how full vs short runs... Full maybe similar in times due to higher speeds? Guess I'll have to look.

 

Yea, I was on the full course when I actually timed a couple runs. Haven't ever timed my runs on the short course. Even though the "full course" (Dooneybrooke?) is longer, the speeds are much higher. Plus, I was running about ~350 whp, derp is probably close to 300 whp, and I'm guessing your chump car is significantly less...HP does actually matter quite a bit on the road course (obviously).

And yea, 105 through turn 2 on the short course in an Escort is cooking! I was doing about 100-105 in my STI.

 

Heh, yeah, in the ChumpCar Escort ZX2 (built by Mike Wray, who maintains Nick Robert's Rally-America SP class STi these days), I basically pinned the throttle from the apex of 13 (short course) through 1 and 2 and then hard on the the brakes for 3. No need to let off, just keep it mashed. 130HP if we were lucky? The BMWs were dramatically faster on that part of the course with the I6.

Then I'd typically try to drive like the rally driver I am, pitch it and spin in 4

 

I doubt I'm that close to 300 whp. I got passed by many, many things on all the straights, but dispensed justice in the turns.

 

That's awesome right there.

 

140 treadwear tires, updated springs and struts, and a 23mm front and 20mm rear sways with kartboy endlinks.

I wonder what it would do with some actual race tires, or with some adjustable rear control arms and camber plates with some properly valved and sprung coilovers... Or with both

 

replaced front and rear brakes, front rotors , sanded off all rust possible, and a tire rotation. no more squeaking/squealing.

 

Wet sanded my headlights with 800 & 2000 grit sandpaper and then clearcoated them yesterday. Today will be wetsamding the clear coat with some 3000 grit and then polishing with some cutting compound.

Looks a million times better already though. No more haze.

 

No before pics (other than a pic of the output for comparison sake), but I'm sure one of my older pics show the nasty haze.

And here are the after:



And a pic of the repainted Hellas (Sharptones and Supertones now instead of 2 pairs of supertones):


I also swapped the rear swaybar and endlinks to a 22mm ebay special and some Heim joint endlinks also off eBay. I'll be swapping the endlinks on the front bar to the same type (already did the 22mm matching swaybar a week or 2 ago) tomorrow (technically today I guess). I guess I'll have to get pics too.

 

I'm assuming the clear is to help block the uv fade in the future, but have any previous experience with it? Curious to see how well it sticks to 2000 grit sanding. And do you add any flex additive or special plastic stuff? I wet sanded and buffed/polished just the plastic on my housings earlier this summer. Made a hell of a difference.

 

Yesterday:
-First oil change on the FRS with Eneos Sustina 0W-20 and installed fumoto oil valve
-Installed Grimmspeed License Plate Relocation kit
-Finally got my tire rack installed in the garage. Thanks to @xluben for posting this product a long time ago...inexpensive and great solution! Let's just hope it stays put...but I think it will. The garage had thick drywall (3" I believe), so I ended up using 5" lag bolts to install the thing. It's a good thing I have my Milwaukee cordless impact to install the lag bots, because I don't think my Dewalt 18v ni-cad would have done the job!

 

Yeah, the clear coat was to prevent a quick rehazing/yellowing of the headlights. It's a UV resistant clear coat on top of adhesion promoter. It should stick pretty well combined with the adhesion promoter, the 2000 grit left visible roughness still, mainly why I stopped at 2000 and didn't use that expensive 3000 grit pad I also bought on the base of the lens.

Used the 2k and 3k after the clear had hardened though, got rid of any of the orange peel pretty well, also helped I did 5 coats of clear too. Looks pretty good out in the daylight now, but it makes the rest of the car look even worse, but no point in doing a lot of work to the paint with monsoon season here.

 

Nice. So did you just use an aerosol adhesion promoter? I've got access to all of these things, just didn't think to use them on headlights.

 

Those cars take 0w-20? Seems really light.

 

Toyota calls for 0W-20 in most cars these days. For fuel economy.

Subaru calls for 5W-30 in the WRX with the FA20F, I don't know about the BRZ.

 

Good fuel economy, but I wonder if there is more wear over time? Good way to make you buy more cars i suppose

 

0W-20 forces you to use a synthetic, so there's that. Also, thinner oil doesn't mean less lubrication if the tolerances are as tight as you see in modern engine designs. Still, it's unnerving draining that **** when it comes out like water...

 

Yessir, I ended up using Dupli-Color AP and Rust-Oleum CC. I would've tried going matched if I could have found both in the same brand. Dupli-Color didn't have any CC that stated non-yellowing or UV resistant and VatoZone didn't have any AP from Rust-Oleum. Turned out pretty good though, but think I said it before, it makes the rear of the car look a bit crappy.

 

Right, definitely seems thin to me as well, especially since I used to run 15W-50 in my STI. But it is a non-turbo car and I'm sure the tolerances are quite a bit higher. Even still some people that track them are seeing some lower oil pressures, so I may jump up to 5W-30 next time.

 

Oh, and the other crazy thing is that BRZ/FRS owners love running Mobil 1, which is complete taboo in the WRX/STI world. But apparently Mobil 1 does pretty well in non-turbo cars. I might use it for late fall/storage/early spring just because the car is basically in storage most of that time and the oil won't be in there for long.

 

Well, at least with the 0W-20 the Fumoto drain valve won't make oil changes take an hour.

 

And that oil filter is right on top...so convenient

 

Replaced this piece of crap with a new piece of crap, unfortunately time and budget did not allow for an upgrade.

 

Finally did some suspension upgrades!


I thought I could get away with setting the rear toe to where it was... But I definitely have to do an alignment as well..... tomorrow
Oh, by the way. No broken/seized bolts, and it's a 98!!!!!

 

Man that thing is rust free, I'm jelly!

 

It's been roughly 65 days since getting a new rear bumper, so I finally put on a couple coats of wax for now!

Driving it maybe 20 miles in the last few months made me miss it a lot. I'm excited to drive it down to Milwaukee tonight. It's going to be comfortable compared to the Miata.

 

Tried plastidip for the first time today, didn't turn out horrible.

 

Ordered my winter tires (General Altimax Arctics in 235/75R17) and wheels (Sparco Terra 17x7.5 in white).

 

Yeah, I think they'll look nice and sexy against the dark blue.

 

Very nice! Love rally like wheels (obviously since I run them on my STi, but mine are Braids); yours should have a bit more spoke length than the one pictured though, since that looks to be a 15" wheel (eyeballing off the bolt pattern diameter). I can agree that they'll look pretty good on dark blue though.

 

Hey @euro if you want to do more plastidip let me know. Im not the best at it but Ive worked with it some. I had a lot of rock chips on my hood so Im like why not plastidip the hood to prevent that so I did and it has helped a lot. Ive had to re hit spots where rocks chipped it down to the paint. Im still not done with the plastidip either. Im going to plastidip the bottom half of the doors for winter so the paint doesnt get eaten up

 

I'm not sure how far I'll end up going but I was thinking about doing the entire car before time permitting. I just need to questimate how many cans I'll need to do each panel.

 

If you want to do the w2hole car youll need at least a can a door maybe a can and a half just to get it good enough of a coating on there. Then idk for the rest but if you want to try stuff on the hood and all that let me know, Ive been wanting to try different things on the hoods of cars lol