My SCCA National budget RTR build
 

Bought my FR-S in February, with the plan to autocross it this season while I finished my F-Street Prepared Neon ACR. Well I've been having so much fun in the FR-S, that the Neon hasn't really gotten much attention all year.


Anyway, the car:
2013 Scion FR-S
Mods (in order performed) (Updated 6/11/14 for current setup)
Cosworth Air filter
BFG Rival tires 225/45/17 (31 Psi)Front - 245/40/17 Rear 31.5 PSI
Stoptech Brake pads
22mm Perrin front bar (on soft)
Crash bolts for a degree of negative camber
HKS Hi-Power Spec-L Exhaust
Koni Yellow shocks
Enkei RPF1 17x7 wheels

I took the final trophy spot at the Peru Match Tour with (the old) setup. (4th out of 11), and coned away second place. First place was a black BRZ, and a member on here. Very nice guy, and a great driver.

Anyway, the stuff I have listed above may not be best stuff available, but it's easy on the wallet, and it WORKS.

Stoptech pads, You can get a full set of these pads front and rear for well under 110 dollars, and they're pretty impressive. I'd put them in between a Hawk HPS and a Hawk HP+. They don't have a hard initial bite, but they're easier to modulate at the limit....and they work for lite-medium track use, for 10-15 minute sessions still running hard. No issues with dust on these pads, and squeal is minor. Trying to brake too late and too hard will still put the car into ice mode, but I've been very happy with these pads so far. Fantastic second mod if tires were your first.

Flow Master exhaust - Probably one of the most inexpensive exhausts on the market for this car, but the tone is great, it looks sharp, and doesn't create any drone on the freeway. This thing retails for about 600 bucks...you really can't beat it.


Perrin front bar - I went with the 22mm bar, left it on soft, and initially thought it might be slightly too big when running the car on asphalt...but once I got the car out to some higher speed courses on concrete, I think the balance of the car is fantastic. Turn in still feels crisp and responsive, and I'm able to carry more speed through the slaloms. This bar is about the same price as a Whiteline Front sway bar.

Cosworth Filter - Really improved the in-cabin engine note if anything else. Maybe a few HP from 4k-7k rpm. Normally you think big $$ when you think of anything from Cosworth, but this item is very friendly on the wallet, much like the HKS, or Perrin Filter...but paper design like a K&N, not a foam design.

Video of my most recent event at the Toledo Express Airport Great Lakes Divisional Race:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3v9H-sqwYU"]Sean Grogan SCCA Divisional Solo June 2013 - YouTube[/ame]

Video on asphalt from the Pontiac silverdome (1st on pax out of 140ish cars)
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2khNSnRY-OE"]Sean Grogan The FRS Silverdome SCCA Autocross - YouTube[/ame]

I'm running a local event this weekend to prepare for the following weekend....the Toledo Pro Solo, and then the week after that, the Wilmington National tour. I plan to run the car in Lincoln this year for the SCCA national championships as well. Between my road racing Neon ACR, and my Yamaha 100CC kart, I'm usually racing somewhere every weekend May-October.

I might just bite bullet and use my tax return check on some Koni yellow inserts. What is everyones thoughts on the Koni yellows over stock shocks in RTR trim?

What club is running a local this weekend?

I've got the konis on my BRZ now, havent had an event since though to try them out.

Everyone, NWOR SCCA, SVR SCCA (I'm doing SVR), and Furrin Group at US131.

Did you get Koni's before tires?

Nice to see another RTR competitor. @TRev was the black BRZ

The Konis are definitely worth it if you're running the car competitively. Can be more comfortable than stock if you want to soften up on the street, and controlling the body motion is so nice.

Yup. mainly because I want to get wheels at the same time as the tires and that combo was a little over budget right now. Figured I'd get the konis while the sale was still on.

I'll have all my prep done and ready to go for the start of next season. I'm very much looking forward to next year if you are planning on running the FR-S, or are you planning on jumping back in the grape?

We'll see if I can compete in this car at the national level and go from there I suppose....and I have no idea what's going on for next year as far as rules. I don't keep up on that stuff enough, but it's the reason I haven't even attempted to look at buying wheels yet.

Still 7" for next year. Just have the choice of 16, 17 or 18 (x7" +42).
We will be going to C Street (the new name for Stock minus Race tires)
MSR MX5 is out of C, into B
So it's Twins, 370z, RX8, NC2 MX5 in terms of competitive for C Street

Pretty much the same, just no more indexed class.

I didn't mind the index class, I prefer to race 20 people at a Tour than six...but oh well.

How about the Z0K Soltice, C street, or B street?

I assume the hot setup next year will be 16 inch rims then? I'd assume more gear is always better, I don't have an issue upshifting/down shifting.

All Solstices to B Street.

I dont think 16" will be the way as there is too much sidewall. I have run gearing calculations on nearly every size Z2/RS3/Rival on 16-18" and can't find one in 205-225 that will provide enough gearing to satisfy me :( I'd like to hit 62-63mph but it's just not going to happen. I'm running 215/45/17 RS3s myself.

My automatic transmission goes to 63 MPH in 2nd gear....wanna trade cars? ;) Seriously though, I agree that RTR folks running the manual transmission will probably be better off sticking with 17" wheels and running 225/45/17 or 235/40/17 tires. I don't think there's a magic formula in the 16" and 18" wheel/tire combos that will change things significantly for the better.

For me, if the +/- 1" diameter proposal holds up, I'm definitely going to consider 16x7 wheels and run 225/45/16 Dunlop Z2s. My crappy automatic gearing could definitely stand to be shortened and shifting back and forth between 2nd/3rd is a just a click of a button! I already drop down to 1st fairly often when on small lots because it's so easy to do. It's the only thing that makes the automatic somewhat tolerable.

I did a bunch of calculating and looking through specs and found something interesting but I cannot find a proper wheel :( 18x7s (especially light ones) are rare

Video from today's event.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-xGSCS2C-o&feature=c4-overview&list=UUZcLwIZD4WvPIyX40KOF8QA"]SVR Nexteer 7 21 13 Sean Grogan Scion FR-S - YouTube[/ame]
1st in RTR, 4th on index about 65ish cars total.... The tight 100 degree turn into a long straight away didn't help me much index wise, but still fun....better than sitting home watching baseball, and a good practice event before next weekends Pro Solo in Toledo.

I'm glad you liked the courses.

I should study these videos. Sam, I hear you are setting one course at Nationals, is that correct?

The East Course is mine.

Woke up early Saturday morning and drove three hours north to a divisional event.

Happy with the results, and the car is all ready for nationals.
I also went ahead and got myself a set of Enkei RPF-1 wheels, 14.8lbs each, compared to the stock wheels at 20+lbs..... I noticed how much heavier the BFG Rival tires are compared to the stock tires, so you almost need the wheels just to offset the weight of the non-OEM tires.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...-S/Oscoda2.png

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...-S/Oscoda1.png

I had a BS event just before this one, and tried the shocks on full stiff in the back....yeah that doesn't work at all. The car doesn't feel stable AT ALL...

Oscoda showed my shock settings that I had in Wilmington seemed to be about right, as I ended up around 1/2 turn from full stiff in the front, and 1/2 from full soft in the rear.

Results:
http://www.svr-scca.com/e107/e107_fi...coda_class.pdf

11th or something on index, 120 cars....
Video soon.

I installed my rear Konis upside down too! We fixed them in the paddock the night before the Dover Tour.

But wow, my shock settings are way off from all you fast guys since yours are flipped from mine. I have the biggest bar (Hotchkis), but I've had my Konis at nearly full stiff rear and maybe 0.5-1.0 from full soft front to compensate for the big bar. I'm convinced the big bar has hurt my performance mid-corner understeer and might go back to my stock bar for the rest of the season. Do you really think a sway bar is THAT important?

I've been midpack at the two national events I've done with a codriver trophying at one, but I should have gone to Wilmington.

Have you run on Dunlops or Hankooks, or only the BFGs? Good luck at Nationals!

Biggins, I have not run on Hankooks, or Dunlops yet.

I think the Hankooks might be a bit faster on the right day, at the right site, with the right cycles/remaining tread, and the right amount (but not too much) heat in them.

I like the Rivals because I don't have to worry about all those factors....they're great new at full depth, don't need to be shaved, don't need a ton of heat, and don't need to be watered down, or cycled in. Dunlops seem slightly faster on asphalt than Rivals, but noticably off the pace of Rivals on concrete.

I think the front bar is imporant at national style courses, where speeds are high, and transitions are fast, and abundant. I'm interested that you're running so much rear rebound, the lot that I tried it was very bumpy, so maybe that was why my car felt so terrible with that much rear rebound is dialed in. At smaller courses with tight turns and less slaloms, I could imagine the stock bar being the hot setup. 22mm Whiteline/Perrin bar on soft, or a Strano is probably going to be the prefered setup on a nationals style course.


Runs from the weekend:
Morning
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEWPxD8MM9M&feature=c4-overview&list=UUZcLwIZD4WvPIyX40KOF8QA"]SVR Oscoda Great Lakes Divisional Sean Grogan 8/17/13 Morning - YouTube[/ame]
Afternoon
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV2CL13Tkdk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUZcLwIZD4WvPIyX40KOF8QA"]SVR divisional Oscoda MI 8/17/13 Sean Grogan RTR - YouTube[/ame]

Did the new wheels make you faster compared to factory wheels?

The wheels are about 5-6lbs per wheel lighter than stock....I think that's a real difference that will effect the time...but not sure it's something you'll actually feel in the drivers seat. The car feels a bit more 'responsive' at mid/low RPM acceleration where Torque is low, but this could be in my head.

All in all, 22ish pounds of mass removed from the car is a big deal, but being rotating mass is much more important, should help the acceleration, braking, as well as handling...but all so very slighly...I'd be lying if I said I FELT the car going faster, but the results were definitely favorable.

Is 31 psi still working out for the Rivals?

I'm about to pull the trigger on some Rivals - debating 225 vs 215. Everything I've read on here indicates 225 is the way to go but I do see those various RT-threads elsewhere on the internet that suggest squaring the tire to the rim may be just as fast if not faster.

Thoughts?

The reason I asked was because I'm still on stock wheels. I feel it's slow coming out of tight coners compared to other cars. Thanks for your input!

I'm running 32psi square, been working really well. I think the rival you can get away with 225s because the tire seems to be designed to roll a bit in the sidewall. The shoulders are beefy on the rivals, and I've never had an issue of them rolling over too much, even running just 32psi. Keep in mind the 225s will also give you 1 to 2 mph extra in second gear, very helpful for faster courses.

Re: pressure on Rivals.

I ran 35/34psi on mine the first time out and can't complain. I may try some lower pressures.

GRM did a test on the Rivals and found that they worked well under a range of pressures.

Nearly ready to make the trip out to Nebraska on Monday morning.

Thanks to Gearheadhomes for help making my trip possible
www.gearheadhomes.com (search Gearhead Homes on facebook as well)

New decals applied, along with a new exhaust. I went with the HKS Legamax Spec-L due to its light weight construction. This exhaust should be somewhere around 10-15lbs lighter than stock. Low weight is this cars best attribute, so decided I might as well play to that strenght. Other competitors at the national level are using a muffler delete system, so this was the best option for me since I drive the car daily as the HKS Legamax Spec L exhaust delivers a good exhaust note, with no drone...and it looks fantastic with the carbon fiber tips.

I also went with a fresh oil change into the Joe Gibbs Driven FR20 synthetic 5w20 street oil. Driven oil uses a higher zinc content to extract every bit of horsepower possible, while maintaining all other required additives necessary for a street oil.

http://www.drivenracingoil.com/media...ts_lg_fr20.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...R-S/Homes1.png
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...R-S/Homes2.png
Stay tuned for more updates.....

Where are the updates?

Slacked on this, I appologize.

The car was very, very loose at nationals. Turns out the BFG Rivals were good all year long, but terrible at the grippy concrete in Lincoln. The problem seemed to be the additional rubber laid down on the surface, which seemed to make the other street tires a bit faster (Dunlops mainly) and somehow made the BFG's actually get slower.... I tried to do a few things to keep the rear end planted, lower rear tire pressure, etc etc...but all of this seemed to be a band aid at best, and was a compromise in other areas of the course. I managed to take one of the final trophy spots at nationals, which I'm semi happy with given being on the wrong tires. I think I was 13th of 57 cars in RTR. It's my first trophy at the big dance, after coming up 1 spot short last in my FSP Neon, and running mid pack my first ever trip in 2007 in the same Neon in STS (Knife to a gunfight).

Other than the tires, the car worked great....

The HKS Legamax Spec L exhaust was fantastic for the long drive (14 hours) to Lincoln. Sounding nearly as quiet as stock on cruising speeds, but a good tone when you got on it and hit the high RPM's. The brake pads worked fantastic at nationals, as I really didn't run into ICE mode like I have been locally, but I'm not sure this is a brake pad compound issue at all. The 22mm front Perrin bar on soft seems to be the perfect balance for the FR-S on street tires, as my car was very stable in the slaloms, and didn't seem to push on the slow speed tight corners on day 2's course. Can't say I feel any difference in the Joe Gibbs Oil, but I have no complaints, and the car seems to be pulling pretty well after 20k+ miles with the Cosworth air filter, and HKS exhaust. I've since done a second oil change with the Joe Gibbs FR20 oil, but the car is currently parked due to snow and BFG Rivals with 0 tread.

Next season I'm going to try a staggered tire setup (size and compound), and see how it does in the new C-Street class. I'll be at Both Wilmington national events, and if those go well, I'll make the trip to nationals. Even if our Pax sucks, I'm looking forward to competing against other twins within the class.

Finally, almost all the snow has melted, and 50 degrees and windy felt like a tropicial gift from god.
Not the best event, with a small sealed asphalt lot, but I got a chance to test my new tire setup,

225/45/17 Rivals up front (same)
245/40/17 RIvals in the rear (new)

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...t/GOPR5266.jpg

Pictures of tires:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...t/GOPR5268.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21/seanrt/2.jpg


I ran the car with a bit more rear tire pressure and shock than normal, here's the entire setup:

22mm front Perrin bar on soft
225 45 17 BFG Rivals Front 31.5 PSI
245 40 17 BRG Rivals Rear 34.5 PSI

Front Koni's 3/4 turn from full stiff
Rear Koni's 1 turn from full stiff

Ended up first in class by a decent mag6in, and I think I won first on index out of about 75 drivers (results not out yet)

Video here:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX-0MeFMF1c"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX-0MeFMF1c[/ame]

So the lot is not very good, the surface is rubbish, and the course is not very technical/fast/difficult, but I did get better feedback actually racing then sitting home playing Gran Turismo 6 all day.

The car was never too loose, not even on the first run with cold tires. After the first run, the car was very planted and predictable at the limit. The car would rotate with the throttle mid corner, but was by no means lose. I wouldn't say the car pushed anywhere either...but clearly the balance has been shifted to a more nuetral state, rather than slight oversteer like it was before.

You'll likely see me registered in the very stacked class at Wilmington in two weeks.

is the decision to stagger based on tire temps/math or just a gut feeling based on your previous experience?

Thanks for sharing and nice driving!

No math, no temps....just a lot of events, and a lot of seat time.....

Again, I expect it to push slightly on asphalt, but I think the balance is going to be quite well for concrete....and all the events that actaully matter around here are on concrete.


.....and a lot of late night drives through the round-abouts near my apartment.

Did the Wilmington Match tour last weekend, first real event on the new staggered tire size setup (225/45/17F/ 245/40/17R)

This event featured 13 cars in C-Sreet, including 7 Twins


(C-street on the first page)
http://scca.cdn.racersites.com/prod/...20Results3.pdf

National champion Chris Fenter took the win the MX-5, with Mark Andy about 7 tenths behind him in the RX-8, and I was third about .14 behind Mark Andy, around 9 tenths of the winner, I did win the the battle of the twins by about a full second with the new staggered setup though.

Started shocks from the same spot they ended at the last event:
Front Koni's 3/4 turn from full stiff
Rear Koni's 1 turn from full stiff


The car still started off loose, with 32PSI front, 35 PSI rear, the final slalom I nearly spun, but kept it under control. I then dropped rear tires to 32PSI, and dialed 1/4 turn of rear shock out of the car.

I tried 31.5 PSI in the front on my third run, but the car felt sloppy entering the HUGE showcase sweeper at the end of the run, so I went back to 32 PSI square for run 4, and put 1/8 turn shock back IN the rear.

Forth and final run:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlHiIX0T_9o&list=UUZcLwIZD4WvPIyX40KOF8QA"]Sean Grogan 2014 Wilmington match tour - YouTube[/ame]

3rd/13 in class, within a second of a national champion..I was happy I suppose with that result, the leader was very surprised a twin came that close to his time.

I ended up 6th in heat on PAX and made the challenge for Sunday....but I drove home Saturday night to hit a track day in my other car so I didnt' make it.

Local event on a huge site this weekend on asphalt, I'll post the results.

Great drive saturday Sean. Watching your video back to back with mine it's very obvious where I was giving away a lot of my time, lack of commitment to the throttle early in the high speed sections and final slalom as well as never getting the pin-cone correct.

Looking forward to more locals... are you going to the May 10th Toledo Express event?

I'm pretty much going one weekend at a time (as usual) but I think I'll be there. But if I drink too much Friday and wake up at 7 AM Saturday and say, 'F-this' and go back to bed...that's always a possibility.

Anyway, last weeks local event at the silverdome featured a 50 second course, on busted-ass asphalt, with some loose gravel if you got outside of your line. The course featured a few undesirable tight turns, one leading up hill into a higher speed slaom. I really thought the course was going to be terrible for the FR-S, but the results were favorable.

1st on index, 167 cars:
http://detroit-scca.org/e107/e107_fi...drscca_pax.pdf
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-u...o/DSC00805.JPG

Video:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDpRqZqJmRs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDpRqZqJmRs[/ame]

Good enough to raw time a few local STX hot shoe drivers in an RX-8, and cleared my closest CS competitor in a 350Z but just under a second.

The staggered setup is working. The tight turns need the added gearing advantage of the 40 series tire in the rear, and the balance was actually perfect. I could drive the car hard, and never had any oversteer. As long as I stayed on line, never had any understeer as well.

This was actually the first event I can ever remember in this car, that I didn't change the settings AT ALL. I kept the shocks where I had them the previous event, and never went away from the 32 PSI square tire pressures.

I'm road racing my Neon this weekend, but I'll be running the FR-S on concrete in Toledo the following weekend.

Sean,

Nice job on the recent local and also at Wilmington.

FYI, here is Mark's run that he posted to our local forum:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2v3...ature=youtu.be
His thought was basically he could've been closer to Chris if not for the huge slide in the fast sweeper.

So, no plans for the Toledo Pro? It filled up crazy fast this morning and I'm sure there are many folks on the wait list. It is cool to see CS tied with STR for the most entries as of now and it looks like a good group so far.

Thanks, I'm actually looking forward to a 2-day Rallycross event that weekend, but I saw the entry list for CS this morning, and had to put my name in to get on the wait list....we'll see what happens.

Video from 5/10/14 North West Ohio Region Event

Toledo Express Airport
Incredible site in Swanton Ohio brings drivers from all around surrounding states. We had 205 Register drivers.

13 Drivers in CS, most were BRZ's and FR-S's, 80% of the field on Dunlops.
I ran the same setup as above. 225/45/17F 245/40/17 R BFG Rivals
Wasn't in the best mindset at this event as I was doped up on medicine from a recent back injury, but manged to sqeak out a victory by under two tenths against Tim driving his BRZ. I was ahead of some local 350Z drivers by slightly more than usual on this course, but well off the pace on the overall index. I liked the momentum focused portions of the course, but could have done without the pointless wide open throttle spaced slalomed at the end into the finish line. There should have been another element in there. Not sure if this hurt our index times, but I was well off the pace of the hotshoe leaders on index. I didn't feel like I got the most out of the car though.

Results:
http://www.nworscca.com/attachments/...e2_results.htm

Video of run 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRom...ature=youtu.be

Ran another local club event yesterday, very tight layout, with a small straight section. Kind of ridiculous tight in sections but the car still great.

32 Square PSI, and same shock settings above.
Results not out yet, but pretty sure I was first in class, top 5 on index 80ish cars.

Video:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSmpY4WL83E&list=UUZcLwIZD4WvPIyX40KOF8QA& index=1"]Sean Grogan May 18th 2014, MSCC Schoolcraft - YouTube[/ame]

Rann all 3 days over the weekend, RallyX Saturday in the MR2, AutoX the next two days in the FR-S

Ran with North West Ohio Region again at a smaller lot on Sunday, had about 9 cars in CS, won the class by about 7 tenths...but couldn't quite find any time on this course....all three of the straight sections were wide open throttle again, and I just felt maxed out. I did very poorely on index, like 9th of 80, but we did run first heat. 6 runs, and my best was 35.0....and all 3 of my last runs were 35.0. This was a last minute decision to attend this event, so I actually forgot to bring a Koni tool, if I had a Koni tool, I would have tried softening the front shocks to get a little bit better turn in around those sweepers.

Here's the best of those runs:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBY-oUBY_e4&list=UUZcLwIZD4WvPIyX40KOF8QA"]May26 2014 NWOR Autocross Heat 1 CS Sean Grogan Run 6 - YouTube[/ame]
Index:
http://www.nworscca.com/attachments/...4_e3_index.htm

Next day was back in the Detroit region, where I run in the PRO index class. Course was a lot more challenging, which in turn made it much more fun for me. I had a tremendous battle with a forum member on here (Tim), and we traded tenths, but I eventually took the win on my final run, which was good enough for top index time out of 171 cars. I did remember to bring my Koni tool to this event, and softened the front shocks half a turn, still running about 31.5 PSI square.
Video:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYFpan8eX_o&list=UUZcLwIZD4WvPIyX40KOF8QA"]Sean Grogan Final run 5/26/14 - YouTube[/ame]
Index:
http://www.detroit-scca.org/e107/e10...al_day_pax.pdf
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-b...o/DSC01602.JPG