2017 Subaru BRZ hpde build
 

Just picked up a Series.Yellow BRZ, will mod it a bit for road racing while still keeping it stockish as much as possible.

Up-to-date mod list:

Gorgeous!

Such an awesome color

I'm feeling those yellow seat accents.

Welcome to the Series.Yellow club!

The Perrin inlet tube for '17 models is not available for another month so I made my own sound tube delete.

A 1.5" flexible cap from Home Depot (part # PQC101), notched appropriately on the bottom so it slides completely onto the stock intake, $2.97.

On the firewall side, for the time being I reused the stock plastic connector with Gorilla tape on the engine side, works like a charm.

Also, got a Perrin license plate kit installed.

Got a GrimmSpeed master cylinder brace installed. Super easy install, take your time to make sure the master cylinder is not moving, took me two tries to preload the brace with my helper operating the brake pedal.

Will crack 1,000 miles tomorrow and look into a few more mods.

Hello Fellow Banana owner!
:D

What does the sound tube do?

Redirects some of the intake noise into the cabin.

Next batch of mods:

Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R (done)
Motul RBF 600 (done)
Ferodo DS1-11 brake pads
Motul 5W-30 300V engine oil
oil filter
alignment

Both front and rear Brembo calipers have two bleeders per side, serious business!

What size RE71Rs did you go with?

Stock size, 215/45/17. At some point I want to run 17x9 +35 with 245 or 255 tires.

Totally understand doing the 3 year thing. I said screw it and did some NA modes early on, I'm so glad I did. The car now drives the way it should have from the factory. Of course if your running 205Hp and 4.3 gears, it's a bit better than mine was from the factory. If your staying stockish, also pick up a K&N airfilter....

May do a header and tune, but other than that all the mods will be handling related.

Changed the oil to Motul 5W-30 300V (1,189 miles on the car), and brake pads to Ferodo DS1-11. With the Brembo brakes changing pads is like putting sliced bread in a toaster; it takes more time to jack the car up, remove the wheels, lower the car, and torque the wheels than to change the pads. Getting an alignment tomorrow to see where the car is and where I go from there.

Got an alignment today, the factory alignment was barf, wtf. Will definitely need more camber both front and rear, thinking about getting RacerX front lower control arms and rear upper control arms.

Did an HPDE weekend at MSR Cresson. This was my first time at this track and the first time tracking a BRZ. The brakes were fantastic and the oil temps stayed at 270.

Running with stock camber, tire temps were as follow after the 2nd session on Sunday:

Looks like all the 4 tires were overinflated but I was already at 30.5-32 psi hot coming off the track and did not want to go down any further. The right front tire is the worst and needs much more camber, the left rear outside temp looks good so maybe next time I should target 28-29 psi hot? From my conversations with fellow BRZ/FRS/86 drivers it looks like they target around 32 psi hot.

FWIW I run RC1s and 29 hot seems to be just right for me. Another BRZ owner near me runs 28.

Installed the Racer X oil cooler with Setrab 619 and a 2016 airbox.

No leaks after starting the car and getting the oil temp over 190, still want to take the car out on a test drive to make sure before I put the front bumper back on as the side markers are a bitch to remove.

Had to trim the plastic air diverter on the driver side for the hoses to clear, cushioned the trimmed plastic with a door seal from a '91 Miata.

Did another HPDE weekend at MSR Cresson. The oil cooler kept the oil temps in the 240-250 range. Highway driving the temps stay around 185, I have to drop to 3rd and drive with the upshift light blinking for several minutes before the oil temps reach 250.

I was still waiting on camber plates, went as low as 28 degrees hot on stock alignment with the following tire temps:

The day after track day the camber plates finally arrived so I got to work on suspension. Installed:

RaceSeng CasCam camber plates
Whiteline KCA416 16mm camber bolts
RacerX rear upper control arms

The RacerX arms have no provision for the abs bracket, instead they give you two rubber thingies and zip ties.

Heading for an alignment on Thursday.

Flushed the brakes with Castrol SRF and got another alignment.

-3.5 camber, 0 toe in front
-2.2 camber, 1/16" toe in in rear

The tires probably have one more track weekend in them and they are done.

Went to Houston MSR and with the extra camber the tire temps were finally acceptable:

Tire pressure was 35 psi front and 33.5 psi rear.

Corded a tire the first session Sunday and limped back home. I am pretty sure doing two hpde weekends with minimal camber contributed to the corded tire, another tire also started losing small chunks of rubber on the outside.

Got 6UL's 17x9 +40 with Maxxis Victra VR1 255/40/17. The wheels easily clear the Brembo brakes; the clearance between and tire and the spring perch is minimal.

Meanwhile the stock wheels got Hankook RS-4's.

Wow that is a tight fit

Did another oil change today, at 4,074 miles. Got a deal on dented oil canisters at $21.95 per can. :)

The 255 wheels rub at full lock on the body, will probably order 3mm spacers and see if that solves the problem. The lug nuts have 12 turns of engagement so 3mm spacers should be fine on stock studs.

Got STi transmission and motor mounts installed. With the header removed, the install process was easy and enjoyable.

Had the wife crawl under the car to show her things and she says 'Dumbass, you should have waited until you got the header, now you have to remove it again.' And then it clicked.

While the mounts were bolted to the engine and transmission, but not the frame, installed the ACE 350 header, ceramic coated in and out. The install was a breeze, everything fits perfectly with plenty of clearance. Waiting for my Delicious tune now.

Love the car and all the mods. The STI mounts are great at firming up the driveline with little to no NVH increase.

Sweet build, it looks like we have a similar thought process (focus on handling before power and keep it NA). I'm looking forward to seeing how the ACE header works out for you, as that's the one I'm considering for some point in the future as well.

I saw you had an alignment result above, did you find a shop that does performance alignments? I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going to go here in South Texas. Only place I know of is Soulspeed in Austin, doesn't look like there's anything here in San Antonio.

I still have to upgrade the suspension, it just happened the headers came first. :) Soulspeed is good; I thought Rich was closer to or at Harris Hill but guess not. I have my alignments done at Mansel's in Bryan, it is an old school shop, they let me put weights in the driver seat to account for my weight, etc, can't beat that for $75 + tip.

Can Mansel's do corner balancing? If so, I may be road-tripping to Bryan/College Station when I do suspension replacement next year. Soulspeed closed in the Harris Hill location in 2012 and then reopened sometime afterwards in Austin proper. I have never been in there, but it seems to be the best regarded place to go according to folks I've asked around here, but it's quite a hike. I guess Mansel's would be quite a hike too. I wish San Antonio had a proper alignment shop.

pm'd

Finished my Delicious tune. The car is pulling very smoothly and in a linear fashion throughout the entire rev range which makes me very very happy. Totally worth it. :)

So its a nice improvement from the stock 2017 tune? I have DT on the way as well!

It will not push your head into the headrest so to speak, not enough hp for that but you bury the gas pedal and have a nice, smooth, consistent pull from 3000 rpm to 7800 rpm. The torque dip is gone, gone, gone. :)

That's all I care about! For the street, this car is plenty fast at redline. No problems with the power up top as far as I'm concerned. Glad to hear it.

Installed the Essex harness bar and Schroth Rallye Cross harnesses.

The harness bar in the lowest position is a must to keep the harnesses parallel with the ground or at a slight angle. A 255 tire still clears but you cannot fold/unfold the rear back rest, you need to take out the two lower bolts behind the back rest to disengage it from the brackets and then the back rest just slips in under the bar.

Eye balled the location of the harness bar on the side panels (official name is "luggage compartment trim covers") and drilled a 2" hole in the panels, which I later expanded a bit to better match the actual bar location. Put a rubber trim from a Miata around the holes for a cleaner look.

It is possible to re-use the b-pillar covers ("center pillar garnish") but you have to trim them a bit and gut all the plastic ribs on the inside.