Aznsky's budget STX build

[Aznsky]

Hey everyone,

My name is Rob and I figured I'd start a thread to log details of my minimal STX build as well as results from each event. I've learned a lot from other builds and I'm hoping this can help contribute as more information for others.

My main goal of this car is to build a capable STX car that not only looks good, but drives well and keeps costs down. The reason I'm doing a budget build is because I believe a lot depends on the driver and not just the parts.

While I may not be very fast myself, I have some good friends that have done fairly well on a national level that will be co-driving with me this year. So I'll leave it up to them to prove the car can do well on minimal parts while I catch up the in driving skill Plus I did the whole Volks / HKS stuff on my last 350Z and I just bought a house so I'm poor now.

So anyways, on to the build (again, this is pretty minimal build):

Suspension -
Shocks/Springs: Used Feal 441 coilovers with the 7k/6k Swift Springs
Camber plates: Feal 441 top mounts that come with the coilovers
Rear camber: None
Anti-roll bars: Strano 22mm front, WRX 16mm rear.
End links: OEM
Upper strut bars: OEM
Bushings: OEM

Alignment & suspension settings -
Ride height: About an inch lower than stock
Rake: Don't know
Camber: -3 degrees in the front, 2.0 in the rear
Toe: 1/32 Toe out front, 1/8 toe-in rear
Shock settings: 5 Clicks from soft in both Front and Rear
Weight: Don't know
Corner weights: Don't know

Engine & drivetrain -
Header: OEM
Over pipe: OEM
Front pipe/cat: OEM
Cat-Back: Nameless axle back with 5" mufflers
Intake: OEM
ECU: OEM
Crank pulley: OEM
Motor mounts: OEM
LSD: OEM
Dyno results: Don't know

Wheels/Tires -
Wheels: 17x9 Enkei RPF-1 35mm offset
Tires: Dunlop ZII 245/40-17
Brakes: Stock
Tire Pressures (based on the first event): 34 Front, 32 Rear

As you can see, focus was more on suspension than power. Plans for power will be next year depending on how this year turns out.

Here are some pics that were taken by PlasticDipisNotamod during the first event:

[Kodi]

Alignment & suspension settings -
Ride height: About an inch lower than stock
Rake: Don't know
Camber: -3 degrees in the front, 2.0 in the rear
Toe: 1/32 Toe out front, 1/8 toe-in rear
Shock settings: 5 Clicks from soft in both Front and Rear
Weight: Don't know
Corner weights: Don't know

How did you arrive at the shock settings for the 441s? I have been experimenting with mine and it seems like the car moves around a bit too much when set that soft.

[Aznsky]

That's what Bart and Lance ran on their cars so I figured it was a good starting point (these are Lances old coilovers).

The first event was in a small local lot with slick asphalt. Next event will be the Wilmington match tour in a couple weeks which should provide a much better comparison to other stx rides


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[Travisty75]

Car looks good Rob! What were the results of the first event? And you said that power mods may be in the cards for next year; what are you thinking? Stay n/a, go super/turbo?

Surprised to see you doing mods. I thought I remembered you saying at the last event that you were staying stock for a while?

I know I'll be doing way more events this year so it won't be too long before I met back up with you!

[SubiePig]

Looks like start to a good build, welcome to the club!

Doing it right, Suspension-->Weight-->Power. I didn't follow that order at first cause I was finding good deals on used parts but I learned my lesson after a few events driving a squishy car with good power I couldn't use. Good luck with the build!

[2superblus]

Originally Posted by Aznsky

That's what Bart and Lance ran on their cars so I figured it was a good starting point (these are Lances old coilovers).

The first event was in a small local lot with slick asphalt. Next event will be the Wilmington match tour in a couple weeks which should provide a much better comparison to other stx rides


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Exactly. Also Lance and I will be in Wilmington for the Match tour too.

[Aznsky]

Originally Posted by Travisty75

Car looks good Rob! What were the results of the first event? And you said that power mods may be in the cards for next year; what are you thinking? Stay n/a, go super/turbo?

Surprised to see you doing mods. I thought I remembered you saying at the last event that you were staying stock for a while?

I know I'll be doing way more events this year so it won't be too long before I met back up with you!

Haha yeah, staying stock didn't last long apparently. As for powermods, I'll be staying NA so it'll be intake, headers and tune. But that'll be next year.

Results were ok, co-driver got first in class, but we both got beat by Grogan in his CS FRS raw time! It's ok though cuz he's a much much better driver.

[Scooby South]

look forward to meeting you at Wilmington also .. Good luck on the build

Bill

[Aznsky]

So the Wilmington Match Tour is this weekend. This will be my very first national event so my goal is to really just soak it all in, have fun, and get that cool tire rack banner!

Well my secret goal is to also not get last place

Unfortunately I have to work Friday so won't be able to go to the test n tune.

Looking forward to meeting a bunch of folks I talk to on the forums!

[Aznsky]

Ok sorry for the lack of updates, bought a house and been busy moving and settling in.

So let's see, 1st event in STX trim was the Wilmington Match (math?) tour. For my first national event, I had a ton of fun even though I didn't place very well (15/18). The car ran very well and was very stable. Almost too stable for my co-driver since it was difficult to get the rear end to rotate, we felt it was due to the 1/8 toe-in that we had.

Sunday I was able to drop some time and made it into the 2nd round of shootout which I feel is a accomplishment for me. My co-driver was able to make it into the shootout and ran some crazy fast times that would have placed second on Saturday. So it definitely shows the car is capable with a good driver.

Here's a vid of my fastest run:

[Aznsky]

Fast-forward to this weekend. Had a local event at the Toledo Express Airport. This is where they hold the pro-solo that fills up with 200+ entrants in less than 40 minutes of registration opening!!

I've always loved this site because 1) It's a large flat grippy concrete and 2) it's only an hour from my place

We made some changes to the alignment before the event:

Front Camber: 3.0
Front Toe: 0
Rear Camber 2.5
Rear Toe: 0

With zero toe in the rear, the car felt kind of unstable at highway speeds during lane changes and honestly scared me a bit. However, I went with these setting based on the recommendation of a few of my more experiences friends. Still, I was a bet hesitant of too much over-steer so I set tire pressures to 34fr/33rr to add in a touch of under-steer.

Anyways, I was given some advice to practice getting on the gas earlier so that was my goal for the day. Well it turns out I was too aggressive the first two runs and was blowing through corners. Also with the alignment changes, I was having a lot of trouble with slaloms due to the rear end wanted to rotate quickly.

I finally drove conservatively my last run and ended up getting the last trophy spot! This is a huge accomplishment for me because it's the first time I've trophied in my own car! Now granted I was still 3 sec. off 1st place, I was still super stoked

On to the vid (as always, any tips are greatly appreciated):

[ame]http://youtu.be/55uiGiwI5H4?t=30s[/ame]

So I'm gonna leave the settings the way they are now and add some damping to the front to see if that helps. If not then I'll probably go back to 1/32 of toe-in in the rear to help stability.

[vroom4]

You just need about 40 more HP haha

[Aznsky]

Originally Posted by vroom4

You just need about 40 more HP haha

Yeah that would help a ton lol. But I don't plan on doing any power mods this year until I can drive better.

[PoorMansRacing]

I love the "plastidipisnotamod"