Road Race Build - SCCA T4
 

My Touring 4 (T4) FRS build to compete with the car @rice_classic is building here and others. We coordinate on a lot of things but there are differences in our builds so some of the details may help others considering a similar build. For the most part, @rice_classic blazes the trail and I try to keep up, at least in the build process. Hopefully others in the Northwest will also embark on building T4 cars.


T4 for is a great platform for the FRS/86/BRZ because the prep is much less intense compared to Improved Touring (IT as in ITA, ITS, etc.) cars which are generally considered entry level racecars. Building a top notch IT car is a costly endeavor. Building a T4 car is also costly, but the advantage is that it requires less custom fabrication, the cars are more modern, and you can compete in national level events. My build, including the purchase of the car will be in the low $20's. I think a car "starting point" car could be built for $15k including the cost of the car.



I'll be updating this thread and my Instagram as the build proceeds. Things are going much slower than I'd like, but it will get finished. Here is the progress so far:


Purchased the car from a local dealer in November 2018 -
Attachment 177112
Removing the Stage 2 clutch, one of the many parts that have to be removed in order to be legal for T4 -
Attachment 177115
Interior removal in preparation for the rollcage -
Attachment 177116
Driving the car down to Portland in the snow for rollcage fabrication -
Attachment 177117
Completed rollcage with paint -
Attachment 176930

I can’t wait!

Thanks for the help with the wheel bearings. I'm feeling pretty good about getting everything done in the next few weeks for the SCCA Majors events. Hopefully the inaugural NW86Cup event on May 11th and 12th becomes a reality.

1st Lesson Learned - Try sitting in race seats before purchasing a seat. Unfortunately, there are few if any show rooms that would have every seat of interest available to sit in. If it were in the middle of the race season I would have gone to race and asked to sit in other people's seats. Keep this in mind if you are interested in buying a seat because many people at the track will let you sit in their cars.

This Sparco Circuit II is a little too big for me and the car. Cushions will be needed to support the sides of my torso. The other problem is that the halo of the seat interferes with the cage preventing the seat from sliding back farther. Luckily, it gives me just about the right amount of room. If you're about my size or smaller you definitely want a regular Circuit instead of a Circuit II. For reference, I'm 5'10" and 155 lbs with a 32" waist.



Attachment 177119

I'm having a lot of trouble removing the rear wheel bearing. Anyone have suggestions on how to get this off? I've tried heating it and cutting slots so I can pry. It hasn't moved at all in any direction. I also may need to take the whole upright off so tips on how to remove the upper ball joint would be helpful as well.

Attachment 177324

I don't have any grand ideas, but I've found an air hammer with a chisel bit helps a lot in getting wheel hubs/bearings out, especially if you've already resigned yourself to replacing it.

Check this video at 9:34. This is how I have done hubs before. I have not done this on a Subaru/FR-S but I have done this on Toyotas.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Y-H8ZVx04"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Y-H8ZVx04[/ame]

You may have to use the punch and hammer on more than one bolt. I have actually had to hit all four before it would break loose if badly rusted. Use lots of penetrating fluid around the hub.

Unfortunately, I don't have an air hammer handy. I think one could help loosen things by vibration. If it were a sure bet I'd go find one. Maybe I'll give my hammer drill a shot.




I'll try this also. I might be difficult for me to swing hard enough laying down under the car. I have hit it many times with a slide hammer secured to the back of the bearing.

Take the whole spindle off and take it to a press rather than messing around. My local Advanced Auto has a machine shop in back and the guy charges me $20 to do it. Hate rusty WI cars and I just don't mess around with it even any more.

Oh I had the same problem with mine. I ended up removing the whole piece that holds the wheel hub (so disconnecting it from the lower control arm, upper arm and toe-arm), and then hammering it out. I did it with a 5lbs hammer agaisnt another hammer against the wheel hub. It took several full strenght swings (both arms, someone else was holding the other hammer and the wheelhub in place) before I even it saw it move. If yours is as stuck as mine, you wont get it out of there without taking it off the car first (short of cutting it off).

Looking forward to watching your build! Any luck with the wheel bearings?

This was the plan. I finally got the spindles off and took them to the machine shop today. Unfortunately, he said they couldn't push them out with their press. I don't fully understand why he was unwilling to do it, maybe it just isn't worth their time.



Now that the spindles are off the car I will probably try some variation of this. First I'll try to drop them off at a local auto repair shop. If they won't take them then I'll start my Saturday morning off by smacking them with the hammer.



Thanks, hopefully I'll have some progress to share this weekend. No luck with the wheel bearings yet, they're really impeding the project. The front wheel bearings did come out with the slide hammer and the new bearings are installed.



Lastly, for anyone trying to remove the rear upper ball joint, use OTC puller 7314A. Any standard size Pitman Arm puller will probably work as well.

For what is worth. The dude that helped me take them out also had access to a press at his garage, but said that for these completely seized cases, hammers are the best. It was hard work but the thing came off after 2-3 minutes of hammering it. It was so hard that I though at some point that the spindle was going to brake or bend.

love this! great looking cage.


In my SM I used a regular circuit, and Im 6'2" 200 lbs, I can see how a circuit 2 would be too big for you!

The repair shop also wouldn't work on it but they directed me to a machine shop that they would use. The new machine shop was able to get the bearings out of the spindles. They didn't remove the parking brake an dust shield from the bearing though. I've was able to separate them by facing them on the ground face up and striking them with a drift and hammer.



Thanks! I really like the design of the cage. There are some execution issues but I'll be able to clean them up fairly easily.



Wish I knew about the seat a few months ago. At least anyone reading this will know that a regular Circuit is the way to go.

Ok, new issue. My car is scheduled to get dyno tuned Wednesday and I'm trying to get the ECUTEK licensing figured out. The tuner said he has a cable so all I need is a license, but I purchased a license and they're asking me for my dongle information. I don't have a dongle and there's not much time for me to get one. Does anyone know if two licenses can be stored on a single dongle so the dongle can be used to tune two cars?


Build Progress:
Shroud removal technique

Attachment 177575
The toe arm bushings were seized to the cam bolts. This is how the left side had to be removed after the bushing broke
Attachment 177576
Complete rear suspension with Eibach sway bar, and SPC camber arms
Attachment 177577
Toe link and extended studs
Attachment 177579
TRD vs Eibach rear sway bars. The TRD is a bit smaller at .642 compared to .754 for the Eibach. The TRD did have a reinforcement plate that the Eibach does not have.

Attachment 177578

If I understand correctly, you should be able to get the information (dongle number) from the tuner. You only need one license and that number goes to the tuner.

I'm not 100% on this, but I'm fairly certain that how it works......when you don't have a cable.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

It sounds like you are correct. @rice_classic also confirmed through @CSG Mike that multiple cars can use the same dongle as long as an additional license is purchased.

Congratulation on your podium finish on Saturday. Until rice-classic said something in his thread I was not sure that #49 was this car.

Thanks! It was quite a whirlwind to even get onto the track. Rice_Classic changed my brakes Saturday morning while I worked on all the other stuff needed to pass tech. Everything was finished up about 20min before the race and I had to start in the back because I didn't make qualifying. Hopefully I can post up some of the build details later this week, a lot of things didn't work out as intended.


For now, here's a video of Saturdays race. I'll get Sunday's race posted shortly.


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY5Q0vUPrrg&t=806s[/ame]

Sunday's video. Another entertaining battle with Rice_Classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKSp...ature=youtu.be

That was fun to watch (for awhile). Clearly I have to sort some things out to find the other .5 second consistently to stay in contention. If I hadn't held you up, you would have been battling with the RX8 I think.
I'm looking forward to getting back to Conference racing so we can have 10-12 cars in class vs 4.

Yes, that was quite a start you had. I was hoping you would stay in front of the RX8 a bit so I could put together a plan of attack. I think I can run at the pace of the RX8 but if a large gap develops I can't make up any ground.

Today's video from Pacific Raceways. Great racing in a pack of 3 T4 cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_r0...ature=youtu.be

Great to meet you guys yesterday. Awesome race! Hope to someday race in T4 as well.

Great to meet you as well. Hopefully the NW86Cup thing will catch on, it would be great to have a large group racing in T4 trim. Since you're nearby, you're also welcome to come by by while I'm working on it.



Here's my video from Monday.

https://youtu.be/PeB59gu5ZI8


My car overheated for the last few laps due to all the rocks being kicked up. Anyone know what the likelihood of the headgaskets surviving is?


The aftermath:
Attachment 178354

Judging by your continued improvement is lap times as noted by rice_classic there must not have been any permanent damage due to the overheating.

Yes, a new radiator seems to be all that was needed. I think it was 90deg when we were racing in Spokane and the temperature gauge held steady. I logged some sessions with Torque and water temp seems steady around 210deg. It even turns out that I won a race in Spokane, but it's not clear how I won and I didn't find out until a week later.



I also started using Track Addict on my phone as a lap timer. It has the ability to monitor water temp and has an alert function so I won't accidentally overheat my car in the future.

In car video per the request of @rice_classic



[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ychH5k98P4w[/ame]


At around 5:30 in the video @rice_classic passes me around the outside.This is a very impressive difference in performance and it begs the question; how is that possible? The amount of grip required to do that is immense considering that I ended up with the best lap time either of us have put down during this race. @rice_classic had sticker 225/40/17 Hoosier A7s while my car had 245/40/17Hoosier R7s that are over half a season old. Unfortunately, the 245/40/17 size that I have is not the optimal size for the required 7" wide wheels that we use. The 225/40/17 provides pretty much the same amount of contact patch on a 7" wheel and have a shorter sidewall that results in better gearing. It also didn't help that my tires required 10 minutes to become usable (due to age).

His turn radius was significantly longer than yours, allowing him to carry more speed. Both your entrance and exit to the turn before the pass were pinched.

Not an expert here, but trying to learn how to extract that little extra speed. So what I see is that after turn-in you get on the gas too early, resulting in having to get off the gas and back on it again. Avoid that, you are transfering weight back and forth, doesnt help you go faster. Everytime you got on the gas and then had to go back out of it, its a mistake, you got on it too hard, or too early. On the turn he passed you its a prime exemple, he was not really gaining on you, more like side by side, the moment you had to lift he went by, my guess is that he did not lift.

Driving style aside, Im pretty sure A7s have more grip than R7s. I know its for classing purposes, but I dont think putting 245 R7s on 7" wheels is doing you any favours. I think you would be faster on a smaller tire and would also get it into working temperature faster.

Generally, going around the outside does not allow for increased corning speed. It's debatable if there's any speed to be gained from taking the outside line without being able to get down to the apex. That's what makes this pass so impressive. Usually, in these situations I can enter on the inside and clear the car on the outside on exit while tracking out, but he managed to get over lap so I had to pinch off the exit as well. I could have made it more difficult to for him, but there's no point with the disparity in grip that was occurring. Even when I have a significant corning speed advantage, compared to say a T4 RX-8, it's not enough to pass around the outside. Car control is more important than car placement for outright lap time. The problem is that driving off-line is not sustainable because it will eventually result in too much heat in the tires.



This is mostly accurate. I have to get on the gas early, otherwise I'm a sitting duck. I also need to get on the gas as hard as possible for the same reason. It's a learning process where I start by trying to get on the gas as early as possible and then adjust to eliminate the lift after accel. Obviously, I haven't mastered it yet. In many cases, I could have stayed on the throttle and rode it out instead of lifting, but I frequently don't have the cajones to do that in many situations. While I was being passed lifting was the only option, I had expected to be able to track out and continue applying throttle but he was already there.



I need to figure out how to get the car to support being on throttle earlier. @rice_classic has the same goal. We will both be experimenting with running the stock rear sway bar. If that doesn't work, then I will attempt using a bit of rear toe-in. Currently, I run zero toe-in front and rear.



I intend to switch to the 225/40/17 A7s next season. I would like to buy a set now, but my budget only allowed for one set of tires this season. I'm excited with the prospect because I think it will allow me to go faster than the current lap record and get to the point where we need to be to make a good showing at the 2020 Runnoffs. @rice_classic likes to sandbag when he's in front so he backed off. I'm fairly certain he can drop some time as well.

Too me it looked like he just drove in a little deep compromising his entry but in turn compromised your exit. Kind of hard to tell in this video.

This is counter to every piece of professional driving advice I've ever heard or read. I know where you're coming from, being over the limit and off line is usually faster than being under the limit and on the right line but you've gotta do it all correctly or you're leaving a lot on the table.

I certainly agree that the fastest time will be achieved by driving at the limit and taking the best line. The penalty for driving off the line is less severe than the penalty for not driving at the limit.



Anyway, the line isn't a factor during this pass. We both had a compromised line. I had the choice to go with the inside or the outside. The inside is going to turn out better most of the time. Extenuating circumstances allowed this pass to happen.

@Totemo_Hayai Thanks for putting up the video buddy. Here's mine - the pass happens at 5:25.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky7pY7o729Y[/ame]


It was ALL grip.

No bones about it. If you and I were on the same tire - that pass would not have happened. We've entered that corner side by side before in the past and the inside car is almost always the victor - the outside pass between T4 and T5 is rare especially from behind and off line. If you watch my start - you can see I over take 2 E30s in that corner.

The only way that could have physically occurred was with a difference in grip. I entered that corner 5mph faster than I had at anytime before that. This was definitely a showcase in the difference between older R7s that weren't up to temp and Sticker A7s.

Strat1caster - I'm picking up what your puttin' down! In this case, this was grip (and car control). Totemo had the placement and by all intents and purposes - owned that corner. I had 5mph more grip and used it to drive around him while off line. What's funny is that while I was passing him the voice in head was like: "This isn't really happening is it?!"



Goddamn I love racing! Unfortunately, this last weekend I had a 6 car battle for 2nd place in a field of 17 and my SD card crapped out so I don't have video. Totemo - can you upload your video from this last weekend? I want to watch us split that car into 3b - I also think others would appreciate it. I just cannot believe how much fun I'm having with this racecar - everyone should be doing this!

I love the E30 sandwich around the 3:45 mark.
Did the E30 touch your car? Did you let off you let him move forward before the turn?

At track out, I lifted to avoid contact. Look closely at the rear of the E30 - he has an Orange Square on the back which in our Conference that indicates he's a novice driver which I was acutely aware of. He was driving pretty well though but I didn't have enough of a run out of the corner and we all want to "drive it back on the trailer".

Here it is:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ2bADmsQvI[/ame]


I need to learn how to use a GoPro now, the exposure on my video is awful. At least I figured out how to use RaceRender. With the change to a stock rear sway bar I'm now able to get on the gas early and stay on. Thanks to a set of 235/40/17 BFG R1s that rice_classic obtained I was able to be somewhat competitive. There's still a grip deficit and I have some other problems like brake fade that prevent me from running the same times through the race. My car doesn't have brake ducts yet, more on that later. I also freaked myself out by setting a water temp alarm for 220F so I unnecessarily was popping out of the draft to reduce water temps.

Nice video!

Inside the car is dark and outside the car is bright and the camera does not have the range to expose both at once.

You could either mount the camera to the windshield behind the rear view mirror (like a dashcam) or manually set the exposure to a lower value so the track is exposed properly (but the car's interior will be black/dark)