Pixel67's Daily Driver Build - Journal

[pixel67]

Let me start off this journal by saying... What an awesome car!!! I FINALLY purchased an Asphalt 6AT on September 14 and have really enjoyed every minute. It's been a winding road to FRS ownership (pun intended), but first, a disclaimer:

This will not be a thread dedicated to tricking out my FRS with the latest aftermarket goodies at a breakneck pace, but more of a "life with my car" journal to include some "where have I been lately" mountain runs. I am sure I will continue to add some cool stuff along the way but it will be a slow and deliberate process. Soo, if you are looking for the latest hot rod FRS user threads, go ahead and hit the back button and find the ones with the highest hits and authored by a member 20 years my junior with more disposable cash. They will likely be more entertaining. :happy0180:

I consider myself a casual car enthusiast who likes a little bit of adrenaline to go with my morning coffee. Most recent "nice" cars include a 2005 Pontiac GTO,a 2003 Dodge Neon SRT4 and not so recently a 1979 Pontiac Transam, a 1972 Olds Cutlass, along with some "not so interesting" ones like a 2002 Ford Explorer (Exploder) which is what i traded in on my FRS. The Exploder was on its last leg, needing another round of wheel bearings and brakes, and I was starting a new position at work that required travel across the US Southeast. I wanted a new daily driver that would meet the following criteria:

1. Great gas mileage. This was my #1 criteria believe it or not. I couldn't afford another GTO, both in payment and routine costs, so my new vehicle needed to sip fuel when my right foot wasn't on the floorboard.
2. Livability. It needed to be comfortable enough to travel several hundred miles a day during the week and not require a kidney transplant, offering enough creature comforts to make the long commutes not only tolerable but enjoyable.
3. Handling. Must be able to transform itself on a moments notice into a mountain road hugging weekend warrior, capable of putting a huge grin on my face during weekend excursions that takes an entire week to fade away!
4. Charisma. I wanted something sharp and unique looking, where people would see it and say, "that was cool, what was it" rather than "hey look, there goes another...".
5. Active Community. One of the cool things about the SRT4 was the number of mods, enhancements, and aftermarket parts available for it along with a thriving community that drives tuners and manufacturers rather than the opposite. It's good to be in on the ground floor again.

I slowly narrowed my search down to two vehicles, a 2013 Genesis Coupe 2T or a 2013 Scion FRS (i know, surprise right?). After taking both for several test drives, I came to the following conclusion.

The Genesis was a more comfortable daily driver and felt more modern and plush. It was higher on the interior creature comfort scale than the FRS/BRZ and it would be more comfortable on my long treks across the southeast due to it being a larger, heavier car. However, it had a certain "vagueness" to the steering that I only really noticed after driving back to back against the FRS, and the gas mileage wasn't quite as good as I wanted. The turbo made it fun to drive off the stoplight, though!

In the FRS's column, this thing corners like a slot car and had a very light and nimble feel to it, but had a bit more road noise and didn't exude the same "luxury" feel the Genesis did. The FRS offered better gas mileage in auto trim when comparing the spec sheets.

It really all came down to what I felt i could "fix" and what i couldn't using my old GTO and SRT4 as reference points. The Genesis was a larger car and felt a lot like my old GTO. I could tell why after comparing the spec sheets as it was only about 7 inches shorter and 400 lbs lighter. It needed the turbo to push around the added weight. The FRS was over 900 lbs lighter and 20 inches shorter than the GTO! So in the end, i knew i could eventually make the FRS faster and more comfortable if it became evident that i needed to however i couldn't make the Genesis any shorter and only marginally lighter.

So, that is how i talked myself into buying an FRS as a middle aged mild car enthusiast and have been loving it everyday since! I have 4600 miles of highway driving, city driving, and mountain road driving behind me and am quite happy with my decision. I will be sharing some recent road trips, performance thoughts, and mods that i have done in the coming entries and will end this initial entry by reposting one of the first pictures i took while visiting mother nature in Northern Georgia...
Safe Travels!!



**Repairs**

• High Pressure Fuel Pump #2, chirps like crazy
• High Pressure Fuel Pump #3

**Modifications**

• 86 Piston License Plate Cover
• FatMat Sound Deadener Installation
• Mountek nGroove MT5000 Cell Phone Holder
• J2 Engineering Dual Exhaust***SOLD!
• Zeta Performance Cat Back
• Nexus 7 Installation
  
• FA20Club.com Header Installation
• FA20Club 57 Trim Turbo Kit
• FA20Club Flex Fuel Kit
• Grimmspeed Hood Dampers

**Road Trips**

• Tail of the Dragon and Cherohala Skyway 2012
• Moonshiner 28 Run 2012

[DIM]

Congrats on the pickup!

What are you planning for your first few mods?

[pixel67]

My first mod (if you want to call it that) was very simple. I needed to get rid of the dealer supplied license plate cover! I replaced it with this cool cover from 86_ZN6. It bolted right up and looks so much better than the free advertising i was giving the dealer. These and more are available over on their website.

[pixel67]

One of my early objectives was to improve the "livability" of my new FRS. As a daily driver, it became apparent quite early that I need to do something about the amount of road noise coming into the cabin. Tire hum, especially on grooved pavement, actually creates an intolerable harmonic in the interior. For those that live near Atlanta, beware of I-85 Southbound near the 285 perimeter...

I used Max's Audio build thread as a guide for much of this and give him credit for blazing the trail. I didn't take any pictures of this process as Max did a great job of this already.
You will only need a few screwdrivers, Philips and Flat Head, to do the entire job. Simply remove pop rivets and/or philips head screws necessary to gain access, measure the area you wish to fill, cut the pieces to fit, lay them into place, and roll them out to ensure proper seal. You may need to apply some heat using a heat gun or hair dryer if the fatmat is too stiff. I purchased 50 sqft of Fatmat and used every last bit of it! This may be a little overkill, but I would rather do it once than have to take the FRS back apart to apply more. I applied it to the following areas:

• Interior floors (did not remove front seats)
• Rear Seats. Unbolted and lifted the seat cover and completely covered the bare metal
• Headliner: Removed visors and trim/seals around doors. Completely covered entire area
• Both Doors. Remove door cards by removing 4 screws (2 are hidden behind grab handle. Look on bottom of silver part of grab handle for a pry point to remove silver cover.) I completely covered as much as i could reach.
• Front Fender Wells. Removed pop rivets and spot covered above wheels as well as quarter panels that i could reach. Placed a few extra pieces on plastic wheel well cover as well.
• Rear Wheel well: Removed mud flaps and pop rivets and spot covered above wells, reachable quarter panels, and plastic cover
• Trunk Area. Completely covered spare tire area. Spot treated reachable quarter panel and other areas that didn't pass the knock test
• Trunk lid. Spot treated the different layers in the lid.

This job was very time consuming and took me about 8 hours from start to finish, at times feeling like a contortionist to try and get my hands in the proper position to roll the mat out. I took test drives during the different sections to see what had the most impact. Adding fatmat to the wheel wells and plastic wheel well covers made the biggest difference in tire hum while the trunk was the next biggest difference maker followed by the doors. This may be subjective though as these changes are additive.

The end result was well worth the time spent! The FRS is now just as quiet as my wife's optima from a road noise perspective and i can actually hear folks during conference calls! The doors close with a nice, solid "thunk" and passing cars can't be heard nearly as well through the doors. Heck, the stock radio even sounds better! Wish i would have found this stuff a long time ago...

[pixel67]

I feel very fortunate to live within driving distance of some of the best mountain roads in the Eastern US! Northern Georgia, Southeastern Tennessee, and Western North Carolina offer some killer twisties and scenic mountain roads that really show off what the FRS excels at... confidence in the corners!

I took some vacation time last week and decided I would take a day or two to familiarize myself with how my car handles The Tail of the Dragon and Cherohala Skyway. I believe the maps below say it all! Click on the images to go the websites and be sure to stop in and pick up a T-Shirt!





I took HWY 129 out of Atlanta and followed it north to TOTD, with a few stops along the way to enjoy the spectacular views that Autumn brings. My first stop was at a little mountaintop hiking store called Mountain Crossings at Neel Gap. Cool little place...



I continued to head north until reaching TOTD!



The FRS was simply AMAZING going around these curves! High second gear/third gear driving and this thing just stayed planted the entire time! It was like riding a rollercoaster but having control over the experience. Just awesome! Of course, no photos by me during the run itself but I did get one from one of the many photographers that are camped out nearby.

Here are a few afterwards in some of the open sections further north.



I decided to continue north and follow the 120 mile loop to Cherohala Skyway. This is a very scenic run literally along the mountain tops, with a few sections of slower twisties thrown in to keep the adrenaline going.










Great times! Next up is a photo tour of Moonshiner 28!

[pixel67]

For the latter portion of my vacation i decided to try out the Moonshiner 28 run beginning in Walhalla, SC and ending back up at the Tail of the Dragon. This was my first time making this trip and it was excellent! The big bonus here is that the speed limit is 55 for most of it.

The initial entry point near Walhalla offers some sweeping speed limit turns that go around the base of the mountain but starts to get more challenging the closer you get to Highlands, NC. The trip from Highlands over to Franklin is VERY tight and scenic, and you would be hard pressed to get over 15 mph in spots. Lots of tourist activity there during my drive by so I wasn't able to stop and grab any photos. From Franklin on up to HWY19 was some of the best driving I have every experienced! Tight corners exiting into speed limit straights only to hit the brakes hard to make the next set of S turns. 20+ miles of this and I had to take a break!



HWY 19/28 is a 4 lane with several places to stop and gas up. Then 28 turns north again and snakes back through the mountains, alongside riverbanks, and then back up to elevation again. Another really cool country mountain drive with beautiful scenery galore.


HWY 28 dead ends into the Tail of the Dragon and the final picture couldn't be more fitting... A pair of Cobra's parked at the entrance!



I went back down 28 towards home and found another "Kodak moment" shot. Enjoy!


If you ever make your way to North Carolina, you really need to give the Moonshiner 28 a run!

[CBR600RR]

Nice Pics!!!!!

I was there just over a year ago on my motorcycle. living in ottata canada made getting there and back a 4,200km round trip.

[pixel67]

Thanks! Used HDR Pro on an iPhone 4. I used to run them on my YZF 600 a few years ago as well. That is a killer round trip! Hope you followed the blue ridge parkway back towards home.

[pixel67]

One of the "livability" problems I was having with my FRS it how to mount my iPhone4 so that I can actually use GPS. While I could use it to listen to directions before, there wasn't anywhere for me to place it so that I could actually SEE! Making calls was a pain in the rear as well.

Mountek nGroove CD Slot MT5000 to the rescue! I saw another forum members comments and thought it was perfect! Fits in the CD slot nice and snug and the display is at eye level. *hint* go to mountek site to purchase as it's $5 less than buying directly from big river and standard shipping is fast. Ordered mine wednesday night and it was in the mailbox on Saturday. Here is a video of another users experience.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txAzTXWvc10"]iPhone dock in Scion FRS - YouTube[/ame]

[Got3n]

wow thanks for that mount, def gonna put on my to buy list.

[Silverdub]

Wow great photos! One i will drive rhe tail, thats a promise i made to my self!

[pixel67]

I thought I should probably add to the journal repairs that are having to be made to my FRS. I developed the now famous "chirping" sound back in October and took it to the dealer. I informed them of the TSB and they ordered the parts and repaired it a few weeks later. Now the new HPFP is chirping so i took it back again today. They are calling Scion corp on Monday to determine if the new one should be replaced. I would think so, but we shall see...

[ApoNono]

Pixel67 - thanks for the journal. I plan to take the same slow process with my Raven FR-S MT. I look forward to the entries to come!

I was in Atlanta last week and can vouch for the road noise at 85 and 285!

[pixel67]

I've been thinking about my first performance mod over the last few weeks and am torn between the Invidia N1 catback and the stage 1 tune from FA20club. I haven't seen any dynos on the Invidia yet though and realize that with either one i needed a way of establishing my own cars baseline performance without having to find a dyno everytime i tweak.

Soo, i just picked up an OT-2 from Innovate Motorsports as it seems to have a pretty cool "dyno" feature for use with my iphone. If you shop around you can get it for less than list off big river's listed sellers. Now before all of you purists tear me apart, i know this will never compare to the good old tried and true dynos but it should allow me to get semi consistent results that are more reliable than my current but dyno. It should also allow me to monitor the effects on AFR, etc... It just shipped today so i will likely be able to post impressions by the weekend.

Anyone have any thoughts on invidia vs FA20club tune debate?