The Marginal FR-S Final Review | Part 3
 

CHAPTER 3: THE MARGINAL FR-S / BRZ FINAL REVIEW

This is the final review in this series. It will prepare the way for the next series which will take people through the process of installing testing and evaluating forced induction.

• Street Review: Featuring Harry Cash (Comparing S2000 and FR-S)
• Stock Dyno Test
• Alignment
• Safety Prep for Track
  
• AutoX: Comparing the Driver Variable
• Track Test: Gingerman Raceway

0:00 - 3:39 | Dynometer Test: Testing the FR-S on a dyno and issues we saw
3:40 - 9:37 | Test Drive: Comparing S2000 against the FR-S with Harry Cash
9:41 - 16:06 | Autox: Comparing Driver Variable (stock vs. modified)
16:07 - 27:14 | Track Prep: Preparing the FR-S for track use
27:15 - 35:56 | Track Test: At home but far from perfect



VIDEO:
[ame]http://youtu.be/rsWHuEUVK3k[/ame]

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Coming Soon:

Chapter IV:
Americanizing the FR-S | Forced Induction

• Massive Project taking the car from stock boosted
• Step by step installation
  
• The cost of performance and is it worth it?
• Parts overview
• Autox Testing
• Street Testing
• Track Testing
• Professional Level Audio Samples of car during transformation
• db levels before and after, inside and out
• Problems
• The fine print, what the vendors are not telling you
• Conclusion
  

Final Thoughts:


After about 100 hours of testing filming, editing this project has gone from being a joke to just a massive time sink.


Engine:

Pros:

• Class Leading MPG
• Eager to rev
• Excellent build quality and serviceability

Cons:

• Down on power
• Sluggish down low
• Runs out of steam easily
• Finicky ECU tuning for head control

Transmission

Pros:

• No issues with vagueness or hesitation when warm
  
• One of the best gear boxes regardless of price
• Solid Feedback

Cons:

• Poor cold weather performance, notchy
  
• Can be difficult to return to center when cold

Brakes

Pros:

• Excellent modulation on street, low dust
• Solid Pedal Feel
• Easy to service
• Holds up well in autox
  

Cons:

• Not designed for any track usage fades fast
  
• Good cold but poor hot bite
• Not suitable for higher horsepower

Suspension

Pros:

• Well composed over all pavement types
• Extremely predictable and neutral
• Ok for track and autox in stock form

Cons:

• Vague rear, sloppy feel in higher speed transitions
  
• Over dampened
• Jarring on bad pavement
• No factory camber adjustment
• All stamped steel and cast iron/captain rusty
• Factory tires are scrap bin quality
  

Serviceability

Pros:

• Extremely logical engineering very easy to work on
• Easy DIY of all maintenance
• Chassis and suspension subaru esque.
• Aftermarket parts galore
  

Cons:

• Lot of steel/iron means rusty hard to remove parts
  
• OEM parts expensive too many back orders.

Interior

Pros:

• Functional for driver
• Comfortable and spacious for this type of car
• Supportive Seats
• Ergonomics
• Easy to disassemble
  

Cons:

• B Segment quality
  
• Poor gauge cluster
• Creaks rattles and poor fit and finish
• Options non existent
• Non standard head unit size
  

FINAL THOUGHTS:

A sheep in wolf's clothing. Excellent to drive, fun and economical to operate. Has all the makings of a great car, but just short of greatness due to cost cutting efforts.
Lacks the power and refinement of modern era sports cars and hot hatches. These responsibilities were left to the aftermarket and owners to sort out.

Decent video, and I appreciate the time and effort you put into it. I'm a bit confused though. You've taken a completely different approach this time and I don't understand why you're still calling it part of the "Marginal Review" series. The first video was was a lighthearted means of airing some of the well documented negative aspects of this car, and the second video was your rebuttal to fanboy criticism you received from the first. Chapter 3 doesn't seem to have addressed anything. In the other videos, you put the car in its place, with some well rounded criticism of its shortfalls. This time, you drove it around an auto-x course against an STX car (which you beat in your stock car), but we never got to hear about how the two compared. We got a baseline dyno, which is fine, but we didn't really gain any new information in seeing the results. The car got new brake pads and fluid which helped it survive the track day, something that would be recommended for just about any stock car being prepared for light track duty. And finally, it got a new front sway bar, but you don't really tell us how the handling characteristics compare to the stock setup, except that the rear end remains "wallowy" and doesn't inspire confidence. And then some new guy comes in at the middle and end to tell us that the car handles great but lacks straightline speed. A bit of a different direction than you were taking us at the end...

I dunno, it just wasn't as coherent a piece as the old videos. I see where you were trying to go with this one, but it just sort of drags on and you didn't really tell us anything new. I don't have anything to argue with you about. Let's get some solid opinions in there, or some entertainment value! The minivan drag race stands out in my head from Part II. Your well founded criticisms in Part I were memorable. Hope the "Modified" series brings some of the good stuff back.

You didn't mention the Strano bar after installing. Have you noticed any difference? Less roll?

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I think the questions you're asking are going to be obvious on the next section:
Of course not, why didn't you buy a used S2000, you buffoon.

Thank you for taking the time to detail what I believe to be true from a less rigorous "seat of the pants observation" after 11 months of ownership. It is a good car, but the results are too diluted for it to be a great car.

Nine years to go wherein I might change my mind.:burnrubber:

Been waiting for this one to come out. Really enjoyed the first two videos and will watch this later at work :thumbsup:

How about a Mustang with a Performance Package?

Would probably work too. The way I see it is if you're going to buy a car that is inherently under powered and you want to make it 'fast'. You're only doing it for one of four reasons:

1) You really like the styling
2) You wanted a fast car, but can't afford the payments of a faster one
3) So that you can say I beat x-car with y-car (i.e. I beat a Lambo in my Geo Metro)
4) You enjoy tuning cars (or paying for someone else to do it)

Truth be told, I like the FR-S a lot. Despite all of its flaws, I love the car, and that's why I bought it. If I take a car like the Genesis, which is faster, and a lot of the things I like about it, and the price, it seems like a great deal, but I couldn't get over how ugly it looked, so I didn't buy it.

If I wanted Genesis performance I would have gotten the Gen coupe. However, that could put me into the first category if I decided to change it, which would ultimately not be cost effective.

There may be a handful of cases where it actually makes sense to buy the cheaper car and dump money into it. For used cars, I'm sure there's a plethora of situations, so I'll stick to new for now.

Originally this was going to be one huge video, I had to break it down into two parts. So I had to keep focused on testing the car stock. A lot of it was purely done so I could say I drove the pants off a stock car, put it in the hands of people who can drive. Now we have a basis for changing things.

It's more of a warmup for the next video which is going to be back to the original series. Detailing the problems and throwing money to fix it. I want to answer the question of, if we had a 32k FR-S that addressed the performance issues would people put their money where their mouth is?


I wanted to keep all that for the next video but the short answer is it makes a big difference, so much so that I don't think changing springs or shocks is needed for a mostly street driven car. Steering feel is much heavier, and the car is much more flat. However the bar needs the bar centering/slide collar redesigned, they are too big. Talked to Sam about that already.

I owned two S2000s AP1 and AP2 been there done that. But I think for most people thats going to be the solution.

Yep that's the point, but when people actually see the costs of doing this I think it will be a much different story.

Appreciate the video and time spent.. But I didn't expect much different from a car in this price range right out of the box and onto the track. Especially one designed to be tail happy.
In the real world, the performance and balance work just fine..
Does more than I expected , descent comfort ,great handling, balanced feel and great looks.. Could use a bit more power.. But you don't really need more to enjoy its virtues as it is..
It was interesting to see a review of the car being pushed nonetheless.. Even though I found it negatively biased overall..

You left out one of the most obvious reasons a lot of us bought the car. It's LIGHTWEIGHT and RWD. You can count the number of lightweight rwd coupes sold these days for less than $30k on one hand. Miata (only if you cold the retractable hardtop) and FRS/BRZ. And neither is fast.

Believe me, if there was a faster version available I'm sure a lot of us would have bought it instead.