New owner/New to website and New Racer help please
 

Hi all,

Firstly nice to meet you all. Ive been loomimg through the forum since i bought my 2017 86 in August.

I am a member of the Area 27 Race Track in Canada amd we have a GTU racing series which is a racing class for cars with 250 STOCK hp or less. You can modify the car and install aftermarket parts to an unlimited amount of HP with the following exceptions:

- NO Turbos or Superchargers
- OEM flywheels only
- No flex fuel or racing fuel.

The car has been gutted with a roll cage installed as well as aftermarket intake, exhaust and coil overs.

I have Tomei headers to be installed and an Openflash ECU tune as well as lightweight pullys (yes i know pullys weee probably waste of money)

With that said even hiring the pro driver at the track im 5 seconds off the pace of other cars and at best im in the midpack with miatas and mini coopers. Top 10 usually BMWs E's and porsche carreras.

Can any of you recommend any further upgrades to get some more power and torque to make my car more competitive? Ive maxed out the driving as im down to being less then half a second off the pros time and data analysis.

Look forward to chatting with you all and for my USA neighbors good luck with your upcoming election :)

Sh

Hi ya, bikeguy25 and welcome to the group. - :clap:

I figure that what ya need is more stickers. - :D

Others will be along with some serious suggestions.

I put 6 stickers on which game me 30 hp as well as put a cardboard cutput of Vin Diesel in the passenger side which not only gave me street credit but also an additional 15 hp. I then took a pick axe and made lots of "speed holes" all over the car. After rough caluclatuons i gained 1/2hp per hole so i shouldnhave an extra 127hp.

I also put performance blinker fluid in my turn signals and that is an additional 5hp as well.

Yet with all the extras noted above I am still not fast enough. The only thing im fast at is in bed. Just ask your mom :p

I am no expert, but here's a rundown of things to look at if you are serious about improving time. No idea if it will get you anywhere close, 5 seconds seems like a lot of time to make up.

Headers and tune are the biggest bang for your buck given the restrictions. Open flash leaves a bit of performance on the table, and you could experiment with matching exhaust timing to the headers. That would require dyno time with a tuner who doesn't want to lock the tune. I am assuming this is a MT with the read intake manifold? If so, I don't think you can improve final drive ratio or intake much.

Beyond that, lighter wheels and tire combo will help a little bit, and you could reduce weight and rotating mass a bit more with a CF driveshaft and trunk lid. If your headerback exhaust isn't a single diameter straight pipe you probably have a little bit of performance there.

Then there is aero. Underbody panels (which I believe north american cars are lacking stock) and a diffuser (assuming you now have a big gap where the oem muffler was) should make a significant drag difference at speed. A splitter is usually pretty efficient, but you might have to balance it out with a wing in the back which is likely to be less efficient.

I definitely notice heat soak on my car in the summer. Vents may help here a bit. Radiator seems to be appropriately sized for NA. Oil cooler is more for keeping the oil pressure up, but it's probably a good idea to consider one if you are racing.

After that you can mess with tires and suspension to try and get some advantage in the turns. Stickier tires need more camber and stiffer springs. You could go wider, but that's going to eat into your straight line speed.

Alternatively, you could just get a faster car. Displacement is important looking at the rules you are dealing with. That's why the 6 cylinder cars are doing well.

Depending on the track setup, you can change your final drive ratio and tire height to make better mechanical torque through shorter gearing.

I don't see any mention of you're tire size/compound and brand/model. This may seem like a given, but since you're looking for time, it can't be overlooked.
What coilovers? Alignment settings? Tire pressures? Front and rear swaybar setup? Any of these can add 10ths of a second or cost halves, they're worth discussing.

I'd say tires would make a massive impact on your time. What's the set up?

I forgot to mention the tires. Continental sponsors the race so everyone MUST use the provided Continental Extreme Contact tires.

I was going to put a carbon fiber drive shaft in as well as a BBK as i have the stock brakes and i have essentially melted the brake pads in 8 laps and last race had to retire because caliper got so hot it melted the rubber seals and began leaking.

For brakes im looking at the AP Endurance BBK or the Stoptechs. Brembos i have no issue with but find you are paying for the name when u can get the same and better value with the 2 previous companies; however im willing to be convinced otherwise.

Is the trunk worth going Carbon fiber for? It seems pretty light already just like the hood. Will fuel injectors or fuel pump help?


And to be clear i dont expect to make up 5 seconds as the top cars are produced by owners of a performance shop but if i can shave off 2 seconds then that will put me in top 10.

Suggestions for Aero body kit or a link to one?

Also its an automatic with the paddle shifters (didnt have an option of manual because of a leg injury and pushing in clutch)

Is there a kit to have a removable steering wheel with paddle shaifters. I have a hard time gettimg in to car because of injury but havent been able to find a kit rhat allows paddle shifter removal for that car but maybe im blind.

Thanks for all the help. Its nice being not told to "just F'ing google it"

P.S. ...... GO SAINTS!!!!

2nd hand brembos can come off any of the wrx sti models and the fronts are all bolt up. the rears i think 08 up bolt up and earlier need a dog bone adapter, it`s still bolt up. You also need rotors, 330mm f and 316mm r, my choice is DBA 4000 t3 range they make some that again are plug and play. The t2 can be used in the rear.
You would need to research it but as the fronts and rotors are bolt up plug and play but the correct rear and rotors are specific

Are tires all the same size? Also, if your suspension setup is just coilovers, you probably have a bit more you can do in terms of getting the geometry right.

Trunk is steel iirc. Hood is aluminum. You are taking weight off the back with the trunk though. I am 90% sure you can find what they actually weigh in one of the weight reduction threads. Also, it could compromise the structure if you want to get a wing eventually.

Verus Engineering has a pretty good reputation for aero stuff last I checked. I would take a look at some of the technical forum sections for ideas. I personally don't have any aero mods other than the basic OEM underbody panels.

If it's an automatic, you should look into swapping the rear diff and intake manifold with parts from 17+ manual car. Again, intake isn't going to make much more power, but if you are looking for 10ths, every bit counts. Manual cars have a greater reduction in the diff which should help with acceleration a bit. I am not sure if that would mess with the transmission or engine logic at all (I only have MT problems), but you could look in the technical sections for details.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7iUKaPlBl8 Not that this is relevant however it's always fun to put it out there

Hahahaha that shit is funny.


For tire guys asking im runnimg 225/35/r19s obviously with aftermarket rims.

Andddddd i was just told Aero kits are illegal for GTU series so that throws that idea out the window haha.

Isnt there some secret Russian Fast and Furious movie i can watch that will just give me 50 extra hp????

I love my 86 but might just need to buy a faster car, which is a shame because its kinda emberassing to be losing to miatas amd minis and definitely destroyed by the BMWs and Poraches. Those cars are doing 2:24's with the same similar upgrades, Miatas 2:28's and im around 2:30. BUT i guess thats the reason i am the only one racing a Toyota 86. 2 guys plan on racinf an SRT-4 and S2000 next year and they are gonna destroy i think. Eventhough the Dodge is feont wheel drive, because its a stock OEM turbo its allowed andntheres sooo many upgrades for them. I used to own one and loved that car.

Someone asked about coilovers amd suspension and i have a good set of Teins on them that are fully adjustable.

I might go back to a set of light 17 inch rims and tires and should be able to drop the car another couple inches.

As for brakes i just ordered the AP endurance brake set.

https://www.vividracing.com/-p-15327...IaApGCEALw_wcB

Didnt order them from there cause I am in Canada but thats them.

Look into good coaching. Just sayin...

I would go with lighter 17s and see if there's any more weight savings. Get your camber set and suspension tuned so you lose less speed in turns.

Without FI or E85, I don't think you're going to get any more power beyond headers and a good tune. More powerful cars will make time on you in the straights. Just try to beat the Miatas and forget about the Porsches :D

A 2L NA is only going to do so much.

If you look above I did take good coaching and continue too. I am less then a .5 of a second off from the track pros time. He had my car for the day and was doing data analysis, tuning, suspension, camber etc. So yes there is half a second to be gained but not the 2 seconds I need from just driving.