Build Document: Autocross & Daily Driver (FR-S, Argento, M/T, Base)
 

The purpose of this thread is to track progress of my vehicle from Purchase Agreement to first race and beyond.

Feel free to comment, yell, or whatever. I'm too old to take forum trolling personal.

Changes:

• Tint (clear windshield with 25% upper, 25% rear window, 35% side windows)
• Front plate bracket
• WeatherTech floor mats
• Crash bolts installed at full minimum(?) camber - no idea what it was before or now because my flat metal plates are in the attic
• 3 mm spacers on the front wheels only
• Tires (Hankook R-S3 Ver 2 225/45/17 F & 235/45/17 R, seem to do well in the heat and if I go to a National event, there's money to be gained if I drive my nuts off)
• White LED rear license plate lights
• White LED trunk light

Planned Changes:

• Wheels
  - Waiting for a while since I think I'm going to run STX next year, no reason to buy stock width wheels for a partial season
• Wheel studs & nuts (it is just easier, awaiting installation now)
• Anything else will be after a day of running to determine suspension tweaks

Will be racing in SCCA C-Street class the rest of 2014, which is why the change list is so short. Probably move to Street Touring in 2015, but sometimes plans change. Keep tuned in to see if the plan holds true.

Day -6, 2014-04-22: It was a Tuesday and I went to North Park Scion. Within an hour left with a purchase order for them to get the Argento base model with manual transmission and BeSpoke radio from another dealer.

Scheduled to get car delivered to the house 2014-04-28. (Had to get delivery because my wife is not in San Antonio yet to drive my GTI home.)

Also signed up for this forum and as soon as I'm done here, research starts for tires & tint shops.

The longest 6 days await for me, but thankfully I have a race this weekend, so that will eat up 2 days.

See y'all around.

Cheers,
Chris

Day -4, 2014-04-24: No news is good news? Hopefully the cliche holds true.

Because I am now a resident of a state that requires a front license plate, I went ahead and ordered one of these:
http://www.raceseng.com/media/catalo...late-iso_1.jpg

I used the coupon from this forum, but it didn't even cover the shipping, so I'm not sure it is even worth looking for the coupon. But the price is about the same as the one I got for my GTI, so I can't bitch too much.

And because they work so well, I went ahead and got these also:
http://assets.weathertech.com/assets..._13_444821.jpg http://assets.weathertech.com/assets...Z_13_40582.jpg

Day 0, 2014-Apr-28: She's home

Not much to say right now other than it was a nice ride home.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...%20Day%201.jpg

What's with the Darth Vader Air Conditioner sounds though?

good luck. :thumbup:

Day 8, 2014-May-06: Got the windows tinted. 35% on the sides, 25% rear & windshield eyebrow, and 0-ish% on the entire windshield.

I can't tell that there is film on the windshield and it really hasn't stuck to the glass completely yet. Hopefully the sun comes out this weekend and cooks it on there good.

Ended up going to JoAnn Craft store and getting a sheet of static cling clear vinyl for the inspection (and when it comes, registration) sticker. Seems to be holding up ok, but that might change with age.

Otherwise, nothing to report on yet. Still less than 400 miles, so nothing doing for really getting it race ready. And the Enkei wheels are still out until July, so I'm unsure of what to do about that right now.

Day IDK, 2014-May-23: I have the rattle in the driver's door after 900 miles.

But, it is what it is. I think @Extreme86 knows how to fix it, so I need to ask him next time I see him.

My GTI cost less than this car, has more power, less noise, and many more features. Only it drives less favorably. At least for now.

First Autocross approaching...
 

I am entered (with a co-driver) in the FR-S's first autocross. Not my first thankfully.

Should be a hoot to be out there in a completely stock car running against prepped CS 370Zs. I'm going to try to get style points I think because that is the only chance I have. :D

If you're in the area, stop on by. Retama Park, Sunday, June 22nd. First car around 11:00.

VERY NICE. Argento was my 2nd choice.

I love that colour! Can't wait to see what you have in store

Mine also, but I wasn't going to pay $400 for white, so it became my first choice very quickly.



I'm going for style points I guess because the 370Z seems to be the easy button for CS right now. Should be fun though.
EDIT: Sorry, guess I said that already. Derrr.

I understand. We both apparently know our way around BMW's, they charge more than that for their metallic/individual paints. At this price point I could justify it. Hitting me up for $500 or more dollars after I paid $62k is a little petty.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Car got mad today...
 

I was putting the goodies in the trunk for the autocross tomorrow.

Being used to the GTI, I didn't think about looking when sticking stuff in there.

So, to remind me that this car is not a hatch, I ended up jamming my thumb into the upper edge of the trunk seal so hard that it ripped the thumb-nail-bed off of my thumb about 1/3 of the way up.

I hope my car isn't possessed by a grandmother who only wants to go the speed limit.

I had to put a bandaid on to stop the bleeding, so no pics yet. (Sorry if you're a sadist.)

First Autocross
 

Wow, it was fun.

Totally stock (including the Prius tires). Had an absolute blast even though the day started out wet. This hot TX sun sure dries things out fast.

Anyway, finished 4th of 6 to a bunch of Nissans. But it was fun and this coming weekend is another event. We haven't had time to get tires, but should have them for the July event.

Anyway, here's the video. I'm still adjusting to how much time it takes to prep the car for two drivers, so I screwed up getting data and windshield video.

[ame]http://youtu.be/cSaOMoX_Za8?t=1m9s[/ame]

Cheers,

Autocross No. 2 - Still Bone Stock
 

Nothing much to say because nothing has changed ... yet.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlO36L6y1vE"]2014 Jun 29 Spokes No6 - YouTube[/ame]

Happy Days
 

So my wife put the ultimatum down that I had to sell stuff from the GTI that I was autocrossing before I could buy stuff for the FR-S.

Well, the exhaust and some gadgets are gone already. And I'm super close to getting rid of the Enkei RPF1s, so its time to get busy.

My co-driver already got tires, but a guy at work said he could install them. In the process, he destroyed one by bending the bead, so I'm waiting for a replacement from Tire Rack before I get them installed.

Other than that, I'm not sure we need anything just yet. Hopefully running wider rear tires reduces the oversteer enough that a front sway bar isn't necessary. But we'll see I guess.

Not sure why I'm writing all this other than I'm bored and it is too hot to go outside right now. Carry on with what you were doing.

Cheers,

Tires on, woohoo
 

Man,

What a fiasco getting these fancy tires installed. But I found a pretty decent shop really close to the house and now we are hooked up.

I can't really judge performance yet because:
1) My left eye was cut open 2 days ago and I'm not allowed to experience any stress on it
2) The tires are brand new and will be slicker than greased-owl-dung anyway

But they felt like they launch better than the Prius specials just doing normal green light starts. When my eye heals and I have the release agent rubbed off of them, should be able to get some better judgment. But really need the first autocross to tell if the stagger is going to help the looseness.

Cheers,

A little show
 

So I had some extra LED replacements for the trunk and rear license plate light bulbs. The dome light is one of those stupid shapes that cost too much to replace (maybe). I had bought a tonne of these LEDs from somewhere for my VW GTI and wasn't sure if I'd want red or white, so I ordered both. Had a bunch of whites left over since I liked the reds so...

Figured what the heck and tried them out. I'm not sure I like them (they are kind of bluish-white) but I figure it can't hurt. Especially the trunk light because it never closes correctly the first time and I've left it open more than once.

I know this needs some :coolpics:, but I only have a camera in my phone, so it is impossible to do that.

Looking forward to tomorrow...
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...Map_Layout.jpg

Autocross No. 3 - New tires, new venue
 

Man, what a great event, but so blasted hot. So hot in fact that with "cold" tires, I had to let air out to get them to the correct pressure before the first run.

Four heats for 160 drivers made the turn-around times feel like it was a ProSolo event (about 1.5 minutes for two driver cars, like mine).

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY9dinCMixM"]2014 Jul 20 C Street FR S autocross at CotA SPOKES No 7 - YouTube[/ame]

Comparison of all twins in CS and STX:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...TX_Update1.jpg

Some SHOW to match the GO...
 

I know it is cliche, but I like it. And dumb-luck struck (in my opinion anyway). As I was peeling the tape off around the outside, the dip peeled off the logo. I started cleaning it off and thought "Wow, that looks pretty decent". So I'll leave it that way for a while and see how it holds up.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...Rear%20No1.jpg

Autocross No. 4 - Better pressure, better results
 

Based on my google-fu skills and some thinking time since the run at CotA, I adjusted the tire pressures and came out with a 2nd place of 9 result.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjNSeDCcNuI"]2014 Aug 10 SASCA Spokes Autocross #8 at Retama Park - YouTube[/ame]


I'm really happy that I haven't had to do anything to the car other than tires to be competitive. This is so nice compared to the GTI that I ran last year.

Update of all twins in CS and STX:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...TX_Update2.jpg

The tires clearly benefited my co-driver as well since he has now dropped down to be in the scale of the chart.

I actually got worse percentage wise, but the rest of the field got even worse than I did, so overall I improved some. However, CS John did a test-n-tune and tweaked some alignment, which might be why my percentage of his time got worse.

Some bad driving in the Hill Country
 

Nothing real exciting and the sound on my not-GoPro is pretty bad, so I just dubbed some music on top.

[ame]http://youtu.be/htTlOrbPblo[/ame]

Autocross No. 5 - Data, finally!
 

Here it is. Pretty good day overall. Now I just have to hustle the car like John showed me was possible.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ABbzlhAm08"]Spokes SASCA Event 9 on 2014 Sep 21 - YouTube[/ame]

Check out my Formula 1 style data display too.

Autocross No. 6 - Unofficial, but fun
 

So I went out and stood in the hot Texas sun for an entire day to get about 6 minutes of run time in.

I am leaning toward track events after this, but will probably finish out this year doing autocross.

Anyway, here's the show:
[ame]http://youtu.be/FP2htU4beo0[/ame]

I'm famous (along with everyone else at the last AutoX)
 

Attack the cones...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...55923371_o.jpg

STX Chris analyzing the mad-lean of a completely stock car...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...66571651_o.jpg

Need moar camber...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...94938371_o.jpg

Thanks to 50|50 Photography for the pics. :)

Autocross No. 7 - Back to earning points
 

Another autocross. Pretty decent result and finally got tire pressures that work with an empty fuel tank and no spare tire.

[ame]http://youtu.be/IljZU5oGAr4[/ame]

Autocross No. 8 - Back in Austin at CotA
 

Back at CotA. Really cool that they let us use the parking lot. Just wish we could use the track like at Harris Hill a few weeks ago. Oh well, what can you expect for $35?

[ame]http://youtu.be/1qRHohNXTW8[/ame]

Is it strange that the course looks a bit like those virus pictures on TV?

Nice thread. And the Scion logo badge does look pretty good like that:thumbup:

It is funny. I did that months ago and not until a week ago did someone comment about it at an autocross, and then you caught it yesterday. Must be a stars alignment or something.

Thanks for the words.

Cheers,
Chris

I'm severely behind on making videos. Probably because my mind is focused on our crap can racecar now.

Anyway, here's the end of the year results for comparisons of drivers in a twin at local autocrosses.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...e2014Final.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...r2014Final.jpg

First HPDE and I want more!
 

Best day in a car ever!

I definitely want to do more track events, so the budget racing leagues will start seeing me with the crap-can Corolla next year.

[ame]http://youtu.be/VDAJIk46wfo[/ame]

Well, I got a wild hair yesterday and sold the FR-S, so I guess that closes this thread.

Maybe I can convince some locals to let me run their car at autocrosses or something, but I'm moving on to other vehicles and vehicle types actually.

It's been real, it's been fun, and actually it has been real fun. Keep an eye out for the red and white Corolla on the tracks.

Cheers!

Thanks for your contribution. I enjoyed this thread and the videos!

Good luck in your next adventure