Boss's Entry Into Auto Racing
 

Intro: I'm a semi-retired 43 year old fart interested in auto racing. Scratching that very old itch and checking off an item off the old bucket list.

Last year I sold my 2009 Dodge Challenger that I have owned and modded since I bought it new. Pulled the original motor with 500km on the odometer and went from there. When she was sold, she had a 426 Low compression stroker with a 2.5L Magnuson blower running at 12psi. The only things left stock on that car were the brakes and radiator. She was very fast in a straight line but she had too much power and was too heavy to have fun in the curves. I also had a shitton of money into that car and didn't want to smack her into a wall.

It's been a year without having a fun car and that itch came back strong about a month ago. I've always wanted to learn how to power slide a car, but I wanted to start with the basics and something that's not going to break the budget.

After bit of research I found the car that I wanted to start road racing with. The BRZ/86 is perfect. She's small, light, nimble, rear wheel drive and slow enough in stock form, perfect for a beginner. Add to this the technical nature of this forum, tons of information on here to get started racing this car. I feel right at home.

This will be a dedicated road racing car.

Current Status:


2021-09-30: Weight loss, the easy stuff
2021-09-27: She's home: https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...83&postcount=7
2021-07-19: Shopping for a 2017+ Subaru BRZ / Toyota 86. Not winter driven, low KMs, Automatic and as close to bone stock as possible. Ideally in Red.

Modding Plans:

Phase 1:
Gut the interior, drop the weight (completed)
Oil Cooler (Installed)
Canned OFT Tune (Stage 2+) (Installed)
Racing Seats (I'm 6'1' and too tall with helmet on) (installed)
UEL Headers and Overpipe (installed)
A-Pillar Gauge Pod + Gauges (installed)
Master Cylinder brace (installed)
Axleback exhaust (installed, waiting on exhaust hangers)

K&N Filter (ordered)




Phase 2 (2023?):


Adjustable Coilovers (researching)
Transmission Cooler (researching)
Big Brake Kit
Wheels
Tires
Vented Hood
Aero mods (Fascia, Spoiler, etc)

Phase 3:
Turbo or Supercharger
Transmission (Valve body?)

Phase 4:
Engine / Transmission Swap

At this point, I would wait for a gen2.

If I was shopping for a road car, I'd agree. For a track car, I'd opt for a cheaper 1st gen that I wouldn't care too much about beating on.

Same here, while I understand wanting to start with a low mileage (or at least well-preserved) car, I really don't see the point in starting with a facelift car, especially an auto that didn't get the engine update.

As far as mods order, not sure the BBK is the right place to start.

I'd first do (in that order):
-oil cooler
-pads + disks + fluid (+lines?)
-tyres + RPF1s or other lightweight wheels
-coilovers
-shorter rear end
-headers + tune
-misc. stuff (pedal spacer, seats, etc.)

And then take it from there (E85, gutting, aero, FI, etc.)

Yeah, I thought about it. The price difference isn't all that big. But I like the aftermarket support of the 2013+ model, there's just so many options for building up this car. The engine and platform have been dissected in every way, the breaking point of the parts. I don't want to go through that with the new refresh and wait for aftermarket to catch up.

I imagine as a novice racer, I'll overuse the brakes and I want to make sure they will last the session. Right now the only power adders that I would be interested in are bolt-ons, and only if they make an actual difference at the track.

She came home last weekend
 

After a few months of searching I finally found her and brought her home Saturday.

She's a 2017, off-lease with 21k km's on her and absolutely mint, both under the hood and inside. She comes bone stock, exactly how I wanted her.

Totally different story on the body, someone really liked putting their shit on top of this car. Plus she's got so many scratches all around the her, I can't even imagine how bad the driving skills of the owner were. All rims have been curbed. She's going to need a lot of detailing work.

Some thoughts about this car.

- After looking at A LOT of these cars, one thing is for certain, they are not built for Canadian winters. Pretty much every car I looked at that was winter driven and had over 60k was already showing serious signs of rot and corrosion.

- The market for these cars is still so hot. Good deals get snapped up FAST. Sorry 10am appointment guy, I got there first 😉

- After driving big V8 cars most of my life, I am really looking forward to seeing what this car can do. Driving it around town is a lot of fun, especially tossing the rear through roundabouts. Feels like driving a Go Kart. Probably is going to get me in trouble, sooner or later.

- She's definitely lacking in bottom end grunt, I want to put a turbo on her but that's not going to help much on the bottom. Looking for suggestions how to increase low end torque with bolt-ons.

- She's going to need a name

- Couldn't help myself, did some light modding on her right away.
Quick trip to Crappy Tire and debadged the rear, tinted the tails and side markers and covered up the plates. Her ass looks a lot better now, need to fill in the space where the badge was.

Any good online stores for stuff for this car? (turbo kits, brakes, headers, etc, custom stuff?)

Counterspace garage is great, there's also ft86speedfactory and 86speed (not sure if they do canada?)

A header, tune, and e85 will fix the bottem end for you and depending on dynos you're looking at, pick up anywhere from 20-30hp and tq.

A smaller turbo that is appropriately tuned will give you low end grunt, not sure how familiar you are with newer turbo setups. Smaller gtx's and EFRs can make a lot of boost in the low 3k rpm range.

You can also look at the edelbrock or harrop sc kits if low end is what you're after.

Keep in mind these engines are not the most stout and you really want to stay in the low to mid 200lb/ft range for reliability.

Thanks for all the sites to check out, much appreciated.

Most of my experience is with superchargers, haven't dabbled in Turbos yet which is why I'm doing Turbo on this car. I have a lot of reading to do before I plan this build fully.

She's going on a serious diet soon, hoping that this will help with the launch from standstill. Ultimately though, she's destined for a racetrack, so unlikely that she's spend much time in the lower rpm range.

Before you turbo, I would suggest driving the car stock. Start with an oil cooler, pads + fluid, then tires + wheels as someone else mentioned.

For buying parts I use Subieland.ca located in KW, anything on RallySportDirect he can get and more :). Hope to see you at the track, Grand Bend has a lapping day on the 9th and it's a great track for beginners!

For sure. The old "turbos take long to spool, turbo lag, only add power up high" etc is really based on older turbos. They've come a long way. Obviously if you're looking at a huge turbo to make 700whp on a 2L engine you're going to have lag and not make power for a bit, but a smaller turbo good for 250-350whp will spool very quickly.

I agree, the turbo is a next year project. I want to see first what I can do with just bolt-ons, tune and weight loss.

Thanks for Subieland :cheers:, I'm in KW myself.


I'd like to make at least one trip to the track this year so I'm down for Grand Bend assuming the stars align and my schedule works, where can I find more info on this?

700hp on this car would be insanely fun, but, I want to do a track build so the engine needs to last under boost. Based on what's on this forums, ~400hp seems like a good target for cost/performance. The rest will have to come from weight loss.

https://grandbendmotorplex.com/ ! If you do come, feel free to come talk to me. I'll be in Yellow with the Lava FR-S :party0030: