Will300's Subaru BRZ Build (UK)

[will300]

So today myself and @DeaconRoc made a short video of the exhaust noise from my car.

The microphone is placed on the outside of the car by the license plate, this enables us to capture a realistic sound without any wind noise. The video starts off with a full launch up to 4th gear, then has some steady driving.

There is a longer video, but Deacon hasn't had chance to upload that yet.

A quick reminder my car has the Ace Header CS400 Exhaust Manifold (@AceHeader-MT), Stock 2nd CAT and AVO 2.5" Non Resonated catback exhaust.

[ame]http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t431gYXRSg[/ame]

[new2subaru]

It sounds great! How does it feel compared to stock? Is it enough for you?

[will300]

Originally Posted by new2subaru

It sounds great! How does it feel compared to stock? Is it enough for you?

Compared to stock there is alot more torque in the mid range, the car now pulls how you'd expect it to. Its very aggressive in 2nd & 3rd gear which is fun when powering out of corners. I think for a N/A setup its kind of in a sweet spot, its a good amount of power and torque for daily and fast road car.

On track it could use abit more top end, however this is the trade off due to the manifold design, the CS350 would be better on track. Unfortunately the CS350 isn't compatible with RHD cars.

My issue now is to get any more power would mean spending a lot of money. Ideally i'd like about 230hp/200Ftlb with an N/A setup, but it'd be cheaper to go FI. So is it enough? in short Yes it is. However If I had a couple of grand sitting around would I go FI, Yes I would.

[Scrappydoo]

Originally Posted by will300

Thank you.



Teppei I did look at rear calipers, however I believe the stock ones are good enough. I've also got a good brake balance at the moment, this was the main reason I went with a custom kit. I went on a track day a couple of weeks ago and the kit was faultless, no overheating or fade. For me it's a perfect balance for a daily driver.



Thanks, I'm still not 100% sure on the stripes myself. They'll stay until I book the car in to be detailed again.

Here are some pictures from the track day:

Yay. Oulton Park. Been round there a few times but not in a car. It's tiny isn't it? Great fun.

[will300]

Originally Posted by Scrappydoo

Yay. Oulton Park. Been round there a few times but not in a car. It's tiny isn't it? Great fun.

That day we ran the full circuit which is 2.6miles, so a decent length. I'd definitely say its one of the best UK tracks.

[will300]

Minor Update:

As I've got a spare couple of hours I've finally got round to fixing the photobucket images on the initial post and the BBK post. I'm also going to do a quick update to let everyone know what's going on, nothing major at the moment.

On the 21st of May (god it doesn't seem that long ago) I attended the Show n Shine meet hosted by a fellow 86 owner, I ended up winning the best present car trophy after spending the previous day*completely cleaning the car inside and out, I also gave the car a*couple of last minute touch ups at the show, I got a total score of 14.5 out of 15 (I think), due to engine bay letting me down. Thanks again to Neal for organising the event. Here's a picture of the trophy and a clean engine bay, which I tided up the following day.



The following couple of months*I attended various shows and meets including both Japfests. I've also done 3 track days since the Oulton Park day back in February. One at Blyton Park with the club hosted by Lotus on Track, what a brilliant day that was. The car was faultless and the brake's were amazing, I definitely surprised a couple of the lotus guys with just how fast the car was. And in the past month I've done two track days (well 1 and a half) both at Bedford Autodrome, the first one was alot better than the 2nd, which I'll get on to shortly.

Here's a couple of photo's from the recent Partbox meet:



This is quite possibly my favourite photo this year of the car.



On the 19th of August I took the car to Tuning Developments for @Mike@TD.co.uk*(& Nick) to service the car (4th year) and check a couple off issue's I had.*

For those that are interested here is the list of issue's:*

1. Exhaust manifold knocking/rubbing the undertray - Unfortunately this is the only niggle with the ACE CS400 manifold. Nick soon fixed this by hammering the undertray out. I'm looking at getting some uprated engine mounts as I'm not entirely convinced the issue has fully gone.

2. Exhaust system blowing - It turns out one of the joins on my AVO exhaust was leaking, so Nick took the exhaust off and resealed it.*

3. Brake pedal feeling a little spongy - Brake system was fully bleed, issue now gone.*

4. Tweaks to the throttle map - When I had the car remapped by Tuning Developments originally they mapped the car with two different throttle maps. One standard map and one more aggressive map. However I always felt the standard map was not responsive enough for my liking and the aggressive map was too sharp for daily driving (aggressive is perfect on track), so I ended up just using the aggressive throttle map. I informed Mike of this and he tweaked the standard map more to my liking, its now perfect for day to day driving.*

All of the above issue were sorted promptly. Once everything had been completed Mike told me that Nick had found an issue with the car which they couldn't fix (didn't have the part in stock). One of my rear ARB drop links had broken, it's that moment you then think **** how long has that been like that, I mean I was on track*at Bedford two weeks before. Anyway I wasn't happy but nothing could be done about it. I then swiftly emailed Fensport who I purchased the droplinks from and they got a new set sent out next day, Thanks Fensport. Let this be a warning to anyone running aftermarket droplinks, check them regularly.*



It was now time for round 2 at Bedford (Thanks Deacon, I'm now broke again ). The day started off well, I meet most of the guys there, did the noise test which I passed and thought that was that. However it turns out that Nick's fix on my exhaust made the drive by noise level alot louder. Unfortunately this meant I got black flagged in the first session, damn Bedford and it's low drive by limit. I was however given a 2nd chance, so on my 2nd session I decided to short shift, no complaints this time. 3rd session, I had Deacon*in the car as he was interested in the stopping power of my AP Racing BBK. I pushed alittle bit to hard and got black flagged again, this was me done for the day. For reference Bedfords drive by limit is 87.5db apparently I was hitting 92db.*I'm going to look*at getting something sorted over the next couple of months to hopefully lower the drive by noise level. I'll also be looking at getting my oil cooler fitted and a oil temp / oil pressure gauge fitted.*

As I now had a free afternoon I decided to help out a fellow club member I'd been speaking with (Alucado). He's*interested in my BBK as he's*looking to*purchasing the same setup. Anyway he was in talks with Lucas @ PartBox about a set of Rays wheel's he was selling, but he didn't want to commit to buying them without knowing if they'd clear a BBK setup. He spoke to myself and Lucas and we arranged to try the wheels out on my car. The wheel fitment is:*17x7 +42. So I gave Lucas a call and told him I was now free for the afternoon, a couple of hours later I was at Partbox. I meet with Lucas and we had a chat about various things,*mostly about me spending money. Anyway here is a couple of shots of the Rays wheels on my car, which as you can see clear the BBK without issue:





That's it for now, thanks for looking.

[EdBoy]

awesome build, i like those rays wheels

[will300]

Been a while since my last update, nothing has changed performance wise.

However today I picked my car up from being detailed. Car now has PPF applied to the front bumper, along with a couple of pieces on the rear bumper. G-Techniq Crystal Serum Ultra Black applied everywhere else. I also had the engine bay cleaned and front brake calipers sealed.

I ordered some new wheels a month or some ago, they are Japan Racing JR29's in Bronze, size: 17x8 +35. Fitted with Michelin PS4's.

Also fitted a new Yuasa 60Ah battery as the standard 48Ah one died on me.

Here are a couple of photo's.

[will300]

Update: 08/09/18 - End of year track prep - Pic heavy

Twelve months ago myself and a few others did a couple of track days in August, of which two of those days were at Bedford Autodrome. Unfortunately the 2nd time at Bedford got cut short due to my car being black flagged for noise, at the time my exhaust consisted of ACE Manifold & AVO Non-Res Catback.

Anyway earlier this year I decided to remove my AVO exhaust and replace it with the standard cat back. The plan was to then get a track friendly custom exhaust made up over the next couple of months. Unfortunately various issue's happened over the next 6 months which meant this never happened.

Come August I realised my car needed its 5th year service, plus I'd ordered various parts which also needed fitting in preparation for the next lot of track days. I therefore decide to get everything done a the same time and finally get the custom exhaust I wanted made up.

After a couple of phone calls to various place, I decided to go with a very busy specialist who could fit all the parts, service the car and make an exhaust to match my requirements.

My exhaust requirements consisted off:

2.5" Catback with a Y pipe design
2 separate back boxes
A large center resonator
Catted front pipe with a 200cell race cat and a resonator.
Track friendly - Most important bit

Interestingly the specialist had a similar design already planned for their own car. The car was then booked in and after 3 weeks the car was ready for collection.

Here's the list of upgrades that have been installed.

Engine and Exhaust:

Custom 2.5" Front cat pipe with Resonator
Custom 2.5" Resonated Catback exhaust
Hel Oil Cooler
SPA Design - Oil Temp & Oil Pressure Gauge (Block8Head guage holder)
Cosworth Sump baffle
Cusco Sump plug
HEL Performance braided clutch line
STi Engine Mounts

Exterior:

Verus Engineering Race Splitter with end plates

Future modifications - I planned on getting these installed with the above, but due to various reason I changed my mind:

Verus Engineering Bonnet vents
STi Rear Brembo's

As you can see from the upgrades I had fitted alot of these will help benefit the car when on track. This should mean I can run longer stints without the car over heating. Unfortunately most of these modifications are hidden away in the engine bay, so there are no pretty pictures.

However here are some photo's of the exhaust system I had made up. I'll also get some updated photo's of the car in a couple of weeks.

[will300]

Myself & @DeaconRoc meet up today to perform some quick noise tests and get a couple of videos of the new exhaust.

Here is some DB readings from the exhaust - These are measured using a proper decibel meter, however there will be some variation due to wind noise and other vehicles.

Static 1m Away - Center of Exhaust:

101.5db Peak / Blip
90.4db stable at 4.5k
63db warm idle

Static 1m Away - Side of the car:

91.3db Peak / Blip
80db stable at 4.5k

Drive by - Near (Curbside):

Normal cars: 70-85db
BRZ: 88db
BRZ: 3rd-2nd downshift: 91.9bb

Drive by - Far (1 lane from curbside):

Normal cars: 70db
BRZ: 79db
BRZ: 83db at constant high revs 6-6.5k RPM
BRZ - 2nd-3rd up shift: 92.6db

Inside:

Cabin windows down up to 7k RPM: 86.2 db
Cabin windows up to 5.5k RPM: 84.2db
Normal cruising windows down: 73db
Normal cruising windows up: 72db


These seem like decent readings for a catless manifold, 200cell race cat and 2.5" exhaust. The static and drive by decibel readings should be fine for Bedford Autodrome, however the peak on gear change could cause an issue. The readings were taken relativity close to the roadside and the noise meters at Bedford are a couple of meters away from the track, which should hopefully help.

Here's a couple of on-board videos - the microphone is attached to the rear license plate.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEbYtESTQM4"]Through the rev range[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLvRUD4563E"]Normal driving - between 50 & 60mph[/ame]

[86_IT]

ACE makes a RHD A350 now!

[will300]

Update 13/11/18 - Bedford Trackday

On the 5th of November I joined several other members of the club at Bedford Autodrome. My plan for the day was to shakedown/test the new exhaust, oil cooler & Verus aero components. And myself as I hadn't done a track day in over a year, due to one reason or another.

First challenge of the day, the dreaded noise test. I knew the new exhaust was quieter than the last setup but I wasn't sure by how much, the static test hit 89db's. However I passed the static test last time, but failed the drive by, by about 2db's. Considering I had also removed the factory 2nd cat and replaced it with a 200 race cat with resonator, I was still alittle unsure about the drive by.

The good news is this time I didn't have any issues with the exhaust passing Bedfords rather strict drive by limit , obvious they don't tell you how much noise it actually makes unless you fail.

The Hel oil cooler managed to keep on top of the oil temps, the highest I hit was 115°c this was after several warm laps. (I wasn't pushing during the day)

Here's some footage from the day, audio is recorded by an external microphone by the exhaust:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6_6CSVrhXc[/ame]


Here's a couple of photo's courtesy of Robert Baxtor & @VAD17: https://www.rbpsphotography.com/

[will300]

Update 02/12/18 - STi Rear Brembo brakes

As I'm sure many of you know a couple of years ago I had the AP Racing front BBK fitted, that is one of my favorite modification to the car.

I've always wanted to get a set of rear calipers to go with the fronts, I was aware that the 08+ STi Rear brembo bolted straight on. After searching for a couple of months I came across a set of used Impreza STi Rear Brembo calipers for a good price on ebay, they also looked in reasonable condition.

A couple of days later these turned up:



As you can see the lacquer had started peeling on both calipers, this wasn't an issue for me as I was going to get them refurbished anyway.

I decided to send them to the UK's top brake caliper refurbishing company, BCS Automotive in Nottingham. Let's just say I won't be using them again any time soon.

Once I got them back they looked good as new. I also made sure to seal the calipers with G-Techniq C5 wheel armour, this helps stop any brake dust from sticking to the caliper.





I then needed to source a set of disc's, I was aware that @smudge had already done the conversion and had several issues with getting the right brake disc's.

A couple of other members use M-Tec discs, however these are know to have some quality issues. I decided to do some more digging, eventually I found a dual drilled DBA plain rotor that would bolt straight on.



The next purchase was a set of brake pads, I could have ordered a set of Ferrodo DS2500's to match the AP's up front. However I've never been happy with the cold bite on the DS2500's, so I decided to look for another option.

I did some research and found the Endless MX72 brake pads. These are a Street Circuit hybrid pad with low dust and high initial bite, however they are expensive at over £600 for a full set, if bought in the UK.

I had a quick look around and found them on Nengun, for half the of the UK price. A full set was swiftly ordered, the front pads had to be made to order as they don't keep the AP caliper fitment in stock.



I had to buy a couple of other little bits and pieces before performing the swap, i.e. calipers bolts etc.

The whole kit was then fitted by @Mike@TD.co.uk and the team at Tuning Developments.





The pads haven't been properly bedded in yet, I need to be remove the existing pad transfer from the front rotors, which will be done with normal driving. I'll bed them in properly after winter.

However I can already tell the new setup has much better bite and stopping power than before.

Here's is a spreadsheet with everything I ordered and part numbers for those interested in doing the swap:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r5n...ew?usp=sharing

[will300]

Update 02/12/18 - Hel Oil Cooler

If you read my previous update on the 08/09/18, you'll see that I had a Hel Oil Cooler fitted by Rogue Motorsport with a 92°c thermostat.

As the temperature has now dropped down into single digits I noticed my oil temps were quite low.

I'd already spoken to @Keethos about the issue before the cooler was fitted, he suggested we 3d print a cover that can be easily attached to the oil cooler to block it off.

I also purchased a piece of foam with a sticky backing, which I stuck to the 3d printed cover. This would absorb any vibrations and stop the oil cooler from getting damaged.

The cover has been cable tied around the oil cooler to hold it in place.

A quick test has shown that my oil now gets up to temperature quicker and is at least 10°c higher than before (without the blanking plate).