BRZBlack: The Journey
 

Hey folks. New to the forums and took delivery of my BRZ on 6/10/13. Just thought I would share some insight on learning to drive MT for the first time and share pictures/future upgrades. This will be an ongoing thread and I wish to chronicle the experience with my car from learning to drive MT for the first time to eventually taking it to track days/motocross events. All in due time. So here it goes.

In the beginning......

Some people will undoubtedly say "learn in a friend/relatives car before you even THINK about..... blah blah". Not me. I decided to introduce myself to the anxiety of learning in my brand new BRZ myself. No coaching. No one riding shotgun to give me pointers. Threw myself to the wolves so to speak. In the worst traffic Chicago has to offer.

The anxiety: I get it. Learning on your own and even with someone else who knows what they are doing with a MT can be scary. Add that to a brand new RWD car that you will spend the next 5 years paying for? Yikes. But no matter how much they tell you, you won't learn anything by listening to that friend we all have. The one who has been driving MT for x years and is a "pro". You need to do it yourself. You have to "feel" the clutch and the sudden shock/helplessness of stalling at a red light with a semi barreling down on you or some asshat honking. Having to stop on a hill (OMG OMG) and have mini freakouts about rolling backwards into the car behind you or worse yet, STALLING on said hill. You have to allow the car to talk to you. Through feel of the clutch and sound of the engine. And you will stall it at first. A lot. Getting discouraged (as I did) is not the path to reaching car nirvana. Patience and time is all you need. That being said, it WILL help you to do a bit of research before you get behind the wheel. Learn the mechanics behind how a standard transmission actually works. Preferably the one in your own car. This will help you visualize what is happening when you are pushing the clutch in, shifting etc.

The joy: The reason, in my opinion to learn MT. Nothing feels quite as nice as getting a nice smooth start from 0, shifting through gears and cruising in 5th or 6th on the highway. Downshifting seamlessly from 4th to 3rd with no whiplash. I am no expert on downshifting technique (yet) but when it is done right, it is satisfying as hell. The amount of control you possess is non-existent in an automatic. And if you love cars, MT is the way to go. From grocery-getter to V8 muscle car, its a "man/woman and machine" connection.

Week 1-Day 1: Waited until dark. My apartment has a fairly large parking lot so I figured I would start out by keeping the car off and learning the shifting pattern. 1st to 2nd is pretty straight forward. 2nd to 3rd, I let the stick center itself in neutral then push straight up. 4th down and so on. Push the clutch to the floor. Its is quite springy towards the middle. Started her up (clutch in, parking break on, stick in the neutral position). Let the clutch out. Thought about what I had to do. Palms sweaty. Clutch in, pulled up the ring R lockout, put in R and released parking break. Started rolling backwards. Let clutch out what I thought was slow, jerked backwards and stalled. Not a good start. Tried again. Was successful the 2nd time. Clutch in, shift to 1st. Hit the break to stop rolling backwards. Let clutch out slower this time. Applied some gas when I felt the car pull forward. Jerky start but at least I'm rolling. Up to 3000 rpm, clutch in, down to 2nd, let clutch out gave it some gas, jerky as hell but made it. Pressed the brake to stop. Stalled. Duh i should have known that. Put it in neutral next time dummy. Repeated this process for a few hours. Got a little easier every time. Parked it and went to bed. What did I learn? Once the car begins to pull from a dead stop, balance a little gas and continue to slowly release clutch the rest of the way. Just releasing the clutch while it starts to grab will give you a jerky start (trans has to catch up with engine speed while clutch is engaging).

Week 1-Day 6: Fathers day. Or what I call F-Day. First time driving MT in extremely heavy Chicago I-90/94 to I-290 "beat yourself over the head with a blunt object" traffic. Talk about anxiety. I'm barely getting the hang of starting from a stoplight.... How the hell am I going to do this? By remembering why I got this car in the first place: Learn to drive it. Sure I could have taken a less congested route but that wasn't the point. Navigation had traffic view turned on. All I saw was red. :mad0260: Made it 2 hours in said traffic without stalling once. A few jerky starts and shifts but the amount of time I spent working the pedals, matching rpm's and whatnot, I was feeling much more confident. Made it all the way to my old man's house.... then stalled it when I parked in front of it. Right in front of my younger brother. He couldn't stop laughing. :lol:

To be continued.....

Ahhh it's been a while. Kinda forgot that I started this. After almost a year and a half of ownership, a full winter of driving under my belt (thank the car gods I got winter tires), I feel like I have settled in to this car nicely. Gone are the days of iffy shifting technique. Hello heal-toe attempts (about 30% successful =/). A few dings and scratches on oddly enough, just the passenger side of the car. Some spirited weekends cruising and parking lot antics (no auto x yet). But I feel it is time. Time for the lightening of the wallet.

It is the point that all folks with a decent blank canvas run in to. What to upgrade first? What brands should I go with? Shut up and take my money. I can live on ramen for a few weeks. Let's begin.

First was the drop in filter. After doing some searching (well, a LOT of searching) I decided that for the money and supposed "gains" in hp, this was the way to go. I went with a K&N oiled drop in. May switch to a dry once at some point, due to sensor possibly crapping out from oil buildup eventually (happened on my last car).
Next was the Perrin intake tube/sound delete.
Why? I wanted a sound tube delete option (quieter in the cabin now) all while keeping the diameter from the filter box to the throttle body consistent. Easy to install, cleans up the engine bay nicely and looks great. Gains in hp? Who knows. Seeing as how I am opting out of a full replacement intake I figured this was the next best step.

What's next? Well, just this morning, I ordered the Perrin radiator hose kit.
Why? Because it looks good. I like red accents. A lot. Sue me. I'll post a pic once I get that crammed in.

Decided to wait to install the radiator hose kit. Ordered a Mishimoto racing thermostat so I will pop them both in at the same time. Might wait until it's not so damn cold out. On the plus side, I've decided the next 2 upgrades. Late summer, I will get the Greddy Supreme SP Catback Exhaust, followed by the ECUTEK Stage 2 tune (once warranty runs out next year). In between, most likely the Mishimoto oil cooler kit. We will see how she runs without one after I do my first few auto-x this year. Things are starting to come together:happyanim: Pictures of the engine bay when I get them tubes in!

Finally got around to installing the Perrin radiator hose kit as well as the Mishimoto thermostat. I am pleased with the results thus far. A word of caution though.... installing a thermostat on this car is a real pain in the ass due to the fact that it is at the BOTTOM of the system. After a few painful hours and some knuckle gashes, I got it all buttoned up. The aluminum elbow piece that the thermostat was housed in wasn't really that hard to remove... Getting it back in was the problem. 2 10mm bolts about an inch and a half in length. Getting the bolt towards the rear of the engine to bite required a bit of "engineering" (electrical tape and a steady hand) and patience because you have about 2 inches of space to get torque on it using a closed end wrench. As a result, my engine bay looks a bit nicer and the engine runs a little cooler. Coming this summer, Ecutek Stage 1 tune.

It has yet again been a while but I did manage to install my Perrin CAI a few days ago. Pulling off the bumper wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. No noticeable gains in power but the sound... The sound alone is worth it. This is just step 1 of 3. Coming this winter, Tomei UEL header and a tune. Not sure which tune I will go with yet. Here are some before and after pics of the install. More to come.