ryoma's CWP 2015 Subaru BRZ Limited

[ryoma]

Originally Posted by Chad11491

Did the reverse LED make it brighter? I find it hard to see out the back in mine reversing

Yeah, it makes it brighter but not outrageously bright. by just looking at it during the night in my garage, it's bright but I haven't had a chance to actually reverse in a completely dark parking lot yet.

[JS + BRZ]

Awesome progress man.

I've been to about 8 track days in my BRZ. two were with the stock brake pads and stock brake fluid. It wasn't fun. Since then, I've switched to Project Mu Club Racer pads and Motul brake fluid. The brakes are SO MUCH BETTER at the track.

It's really up to your capability at the track. I know plenty of FRS/BRZ guys at the track with stock rotors and track pads/fluid/lines having success out there.

Which track are you going?

Oh by the way, which LED blinker did you get for the headlight?

[ryoma]

Originally Posted by JS + BRZ

Awesome progress man.

I've been to about 8 track days in my BRZ. two were with the stock brake pads and stock brake fluid. It wasn't fun. Since then, I've switched to Project Mu Club Racer pads and Motul brake fluid. The brakes are SO MUCH BETTER at the track.

It's really up to your capability at the track. I know plenty of FRS/BRZ guys at the track with stock rotors and track pads/fluid/lines having success out there.

Which track are you going?

Oh by the way, which LED blinker did you get for the headlight?

I'm going to Willow Springs (Streets of Willow). It will be the first time in this car (and in general) so I'm not sure what to expect from the stock brakes. It's the full track so the brakes will probably be stomped on pretty hard at the end of the long straights and whenever I mess up. How are your Project Mu pads for daily driving? Do they bite reasonably well without warming them up? Looks like I need to do some research into a good DD pad that holds up at the track. I'm definitely changing out my brake fluid though since I have a few bottles of RBF600 left over and a cool vacuum pump bleeder. Might as well do SS lines while I'm at it.

The blinkers are the HP11's. They're in the middle of the 3 options at 310 lumens and slightly brighter than OEM. I didn't opt for the brightest option since it was more expensive and too bright is sometimes a bad thing haha

EDIT: did some quick looking into pads and EBC redstuff seems to be what I want... good performance and not so much brake dust. will probably just go pads, lines, and fluid though. rotors are so expensive! Is there actually a noticeable difference between stock rotors and the speed factory t2/t3 rotors? Cant really say if 400+ for just rotors is worth it

[JS + BRZ]

My very first track day was at SOW. It's super fun with our cars. You will have plenty of fun!

Brakes:
You should most definitely change out the brake pads for the track day. The stock pads will fade super quickly with those tires.. they fade with the stock tires as well, so yes, please change them!

My Project Mu CR pads squeak a lot. I believe these are very track oriented brake pads. I've been DDing and tracking on these pads for more than a year now, so I don't mind the noise, but some will dislike it. I thought about switching to the stock pads between the track days, but I do go up to Angeles Crest Highway once every week, so I've on these brake pads forever.

I would recommend Winmax W4 for you. That's what a lot of people who DD and track their FRS/BRZs use. Winmax is also a main sponsor for our 86CUP in SoCal. You can get a pretty good deal on them. You should be totally fine with the stock rotors. I'm still on my stock ones, and they are still good. People usually just change out the brake pads, not rotors. If you really want to go hardcore on track regularly, you should just upgrade them to AP Racing brake kits. I would just recommend getting the pads and try them out for a year thought.

[ryoma]

Originally Posted by JS + BRZ

My very first track day was at SOW. It's super fun with our cars. You will have plenty of fun!

Brakes:
You should most definitely change out the brake pads for the track day. The stock pads will fade super quickly with those tires.. they fade with the stock tires as well, so yes, please change them!

My Project Mu CR pads squeak a lot. I believe these are very track oriented brake pads. I've been DDing and tracking on these pads for more than a year now, so I don't mind the noise, but some will dislike it. I thought about switching to the stock pads between the track days, but I do go up to Angeles Crest Highway once every week, so I've on these brake pads forever.

I would recommend Winmax W4 for you. That's what a lot of people who DD and track their FRS/BRZs use. Winmax is also a main sponsor for our 86CUP in SoCal. You can get a pretty good deal on them. You should be totally fine with the stock rotors. I'm still on my stock ones, and they are still good. People usually just change out the brake pads, not rotors. If you really want to go hardcore on track regularly, you should just upgrade them to AP Racing brake kits. I would just recommend getting the pads and try them out for a year thought.

cool, I'll check out Winmax. thanks for the info

[ryoma]

I recently got the Forester oil cooler from Never Ending Details. They claim it is a direct plug and play kit, which is true for the most part. It connects to the throttle body nipples. However, the supplied hose diameter fits the oil cooler but not the throttle body nipples and is a size too large. They supplied 4 OEM quick clamps, two of which were not useful at all. The quick clamps worked for the oil cooler but did not have enough pressure to clamp onto the smaller diameter throttle body nipples. I went out to the store and bought a pack of worm clamps and tightened the shit out of them. I am still worried that coolant might work its way through since there is still some play in the hose even though I have the clamp as tight as it can go. Here's some pictures of the items:




The hardest part was taking off the original U-shaped loop from the throttle body nipples. That was a pain in the ass and cut my fingers up hard.



Next, I had bought a GrimmSpeed intake off a forum member a while back and never got to installing it. I thought that this was a great time to install it since I had to take off the intake anyways. It was an easy process.




I also changed my oil too and installed a Fumoto quick valve. I kind of warped the hex on it when tightening with a wrench so it might be sketchy if I need to ever take it off. I'll be on the look out for leaks too since I didn't tighten to what I felt I needed to, but is still on there tight.


Then burped the coolant and took it for a drive. No leaks so far!

[ryoma]

I recently got a good deal on an MXP catback from a buddy, only catch was that the resonator was a little scratched due to his car being too low. only the finish though and there was nothing wrong. I wasn't going to get an exhaust until later, but I couldn't pass this up.

I love the sound of the exhaust. it's very deep from 1k-4k then it starts getting louder from there on up. at idle, you can barely hear it with the windows down. with the windows up, I can't hear the exhaust at all at idle. this is a very nice sounding exhaust. I didn't want anything too loud but still wanted a deep sounding tone, and this met my requirements. I like it.

I do have to say though, installing the catback solo was a pain. I was like holding the mufflers up with my knee while trying to get the hangers on lol. took me about 2 hours. here's some pictures of the exhaust:

[ryoma]

got a Mini 0806 dashcam a few days ago and put it in. the quality of the video is pretty good (using 2304x1296, also has 2560x1080) and the dashcam is extremely small, even with a screen. it has GPS too, but I don't have the speed overlay on. I hid it behind the rear view mirror and I can't see it at all from the driver's side. wired it into the glovebox adapter, through the A pillar, and through the headliner to above the rear view mirror.





here's a quick video showing the quality of the dashcam video:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilQ66BL8YuY"]dashcam test - YouTube[/ame]

youtube compresses their videos so the quality isn't as good as the original. daytime is pretty good, but night time lights overpower the camera kind of. not bad for a $120 camera though.

[ryoma]

I recently had the short shifter done with a transmission/diff flush. I have to say, the throws are much shorter, but the shifter feels extremely tight. I'll see if it loosens up over time or not. The only gripe I have with the short shifter is that reverse is impossible to get to with one hand. It's so tight that I have to use both hands to bring it all the way over to the left and then push it up, otherwise it just hits the plate and goes into 1st gear. I had it done at Evasive and they told me that it's just how the Kartboy SS is designed, making it hard to get past the reverse plate (either make reverse really hard to get to, or make it easy but have 1st and 2nd gear hard to get to). I haven't heard anyone else having this problem so I'm gonna be checking it out myself later and possibly make it better by shifting the reverse plate a little bit.

I still like the short shifter though, it feels really good. a lot of vibrations come through it as well. with the whiteline transmission bushing and the short shifter, it sounds like I have a SC now with that gear whine lol. it gets audible at freeway speeds around 3.5k to 4k RPM but doesn't bother me that much.

The MTEC springs are good as well. it makes everything slightly tighter, but doesn't bother me much. it was a cheap thing too, but I didn't notice a big difference like everyone claims. however, I did do everything at once so my shifter is drastically different from stock.

[JS + BRZ]

You have to use two hands to put it in reverse!?? Omg

[ryoma]

Originally Posted by JS + BRZ

You have to use two hands to put it in reverse!?? Omg

ya it's some crazy shit lol. gotta muscle it in.

[ryoma]

After installing the W5 pads, SS lines, and RT700 fluid, the brakes are much more firmer. the stopping power is extreme too. I have stomped on them hard when bedding in the pads and the bite is incredible. It has good bite too when cold, which you don't really expect from a set of "track" pads. the only thing is that they are a bit squeaky, but I assume it's because I haven't fully bedded them in yet since I have heard that they're supposed to be quiet, even if not up to temperature once properly bedded in.

I have a track event on the 23rd and will see how well they hold up on a hot day and getting worked good.

[CSG David]

Good to see you worked out the issue. Most track pads are silent with proper bed-in. They will make noise if the transfer layer gets scrubbed off, but at the expense of a little noise, you get way more heat capacity, higher friction coefficient at all temperatures, and great depths of modulation that is not found in OEM-ish, street, and hybrid compounds.

[JS + BRZ]

That won't fade at the track. Have fun man.