Sounds burly! Should've kept it :P

Thanks!

I did keep it... and I put it back on :cheers:

After the full exhaust had some time to break in the loudness went down a bit, but mainly I missed having the Nameless axeback on. They're so purty :wub:

Also, I put them on to show off the car at a memorial day car event. You were right, they do sound burly. I got a plenty of compliments on my car and the exhaust note. I just made sure to either keep the revs really low to tame the rasp or to floor it to redline so that all anyone heard was a snarl. Anything in-between and the exhaust gets all farty :lol:

Speaking of memorial day events. The one that I went to was called Fastivus and it is primarily sponsored by Volks Wagon. Now, I personally am not a fan of VWs. I know they have a huge following and devoted fan base, but I personally do not like the look of any of them. When I think Volks Wagon I instantly think of hippies, beetles, and hippie-buses.

http://images.celebrateexpress.com/m...iser/85715.jpg

I'm sure someone can prove me wrong and change my mind, but I can't currently think of a single factory VW vehicle that actually looks attractive. The only VW I could ever see myself owning would have to have either a Porsche, Audi or Lamborghini badge. Maybe a Ducati badge. Oh what the hell, while I'm at it I might as well throw in the Bugatti badge too. Sure, why not? ...But not Bentley.

Anyway, back to my point (if I ever had one). I'm even more convinced of my FRS purchase after going to the Fastivus event. Especially since the majority of all the cars there were GTIs, and most of those guys want a BRZ/FRS. Apparently the only reason why they won't get one is because they like their "power" (city driving torque) advantage. I found that some of these guys don't know that there is an rpm world beyond 5,000 revs. To some it is a far off mystical land that promises exotic treasures and new sensations, but is fraught with perilous warranty voiding dangers and loud noises.

So guess what Toyota, you want to sell more 86s? Then listen up. Give us more power. This platform has the looks and it has the chassis. All that's left wanting on this platform really is an extra 50 or so horse power. Oh, and proper auxiliary gauges. Get rid of the analog speedo and give us better gauges. Give the people what they want and they will love you for it.

Uh, I think I'm getting off point again.

What I have really been trying to say this whole time actually is that those VW guys are pretty damn cool and they really know how to throw a fun awesome event. Sure I don't really care for the look of their cars; but hey, that's cool because it's just my stubborn opinion. All in all though they're a good group of car enthusiasts who just like to have fun and enjoy car culture.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrRkWqstpM0"]APR Presents Fastivus 2013 - YouTube[/ame]

As I understand it, VW rents out Big Willow for 2 nights and 2 days. This means that an all day track session on Big Willow (managed by Speed Ventures) only costs VW owners $32.

That's just 32 bucks! :eyebulge:

If you don't want to race then that's fine too, because the event is free for all to enjoy. My buddies and I drove up on Friday evening, pitched our tents, set up the BBQ and projector and then watched the movie Rush while eating some dogs and drinking beer.

Good times were had by all :cheers:

The next morning the event got under way and the VW owners started prepping their cars for either the track or for best in show. The VW organizers announced some winners, they had a huge raffle and then they converted the straight on Big Willow into a 1,000 ft drag strip. Drag racing went from 6pm til 10pm. Open to all cars, not just VWs. Yup, I got to finally drag race my FRS.

The supercharger wine was glorious!
My reaction time and throttle technique were not :bonk:

Let's just say that even at 2,000 rpm launches I could never get my worn RS3s to properly hook up :iono:
My buddy's dad's 2006 wrx annihilated me off the line (4WD FTW), but once I gained traction I quickly started to catch up. It wasn't enough though. By the end of the 1,000 ft he still beat me by a good half car length. Perhaps I would have won if it was a full 1/4 mile race? But yeah, I got pwned by a quingenerian baby boomer who wouldn't even give me a re-match :(

Turns out I was more evenly matched with the 2013 Golf R. We were pretty much neck and neck the whole way down. Overall, I did 6 runs down the drag strip and averaged between 13 to 13.2 seconds. Not good I know, but drag racing isn't really my thing. I'm pleased though that the car held up well. The only thing I noticed worth mentioning was that as the transmission got hot sitting in line after a drag run my 1st gear started to get a bit sticky.

Since all of my buddies and I were participating in the drag races none of us actually took any video or pictures. Sorry. But here's a vid I found from last years Fastivus event that more or less shows what I'm talking about.

Jump to 7:51 or 9:35. The time embed isn't working apparently.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M9YGt3WsLo&t=7m51s"]My First Drag Race @ FASTIVUS 2013 - YouTube[/ame]


All in all it was a really fun and impressive event. It really opened my eyes to what can be expected from a giant car meet, especially when the actual manufactures get involved. I must say that in that respect at least, I am very envious of those VW guys. Volks Wagon really does appear to be listening to what those guys have to say.

I got carried away talking about the Fastivus event that I forgot to mention that I finally took my car to the race track after all these updates.

The last time I took my car to the track it was in Feb of this year at Streets of Willow (ccw). At the time the car was completely stock except for a set of rpf1 17x8 track set of wheels with nitto nt01 tires. My average lap times were in the low 1:37s, I told ya I was slow. More to the point, I went back to Streets (ccw) with new suspension, alignment, brakes, oil cooler, radiator and... well, you've seen the parts list. The main addition to the car though was the super charger :party0030:

Yes, the super charger is awesome at the track, especially at SoW.

In stock form, with my sucky driving, the car didn't feel well suited for Streets. While definitely a fun track I found that the lack of power and short gearing made the car more difficult at Streets than at Big Willow or even Button Willow. Most likely because I don't know how to take a corner. While stock I found myself wishing that I had a taller 2nd or more torque/power in third. In stock form the car was bit of a handful in that one little mistake carried a lot of weight in the overall lap time. The car was never scary or unpredictable and it was still a blast to race around. Even if I wasn't the fastest in my run group. I don't mind giving point-bys, in fact I'm well used to that now :)

With all the changes and the extra bump in power I wasn't sure what to expect coming back to SoW. In fact, my rear-end axles have been clicking for a couple of months now so I was actually just afraid of anything breaking. I can tell that the engine runs a lot hotter now compared to before with the SC on, so I was also fearful of overheating the car or busting a oil line from my oil cooler again. The last time I was at SoW my braking and downshift rev matching weren't too clean and I would often over rev and bounce off the limiter.

Off topic, I find it interesting that the car will let you bounce off the limiter when downshifting, but when accelerating if you hit the redline you get the fuel cut off. I really don't like the fuel cut off. It feels more violent then bouncing off the limiter.

Anyway, I found that I would often hit the rev limiter before so I was concerned that if I continued to do the same while FI that I would perhaps blow my motor. Luckily, that didn't happen. In fact nothing bad happened at all. The car ran like a champ all day, even in the 98 degree weather :D

So instead of me giving the point bys it was everyone else in the run group who was giving them to me :thumbup:
Mind you that based off of my previous 1:37 avg times I was put in the low intermediate run group.

So what did all these costly upgrades give me in respect to track times? Well, about 2 seconds a lap. My lap times dropped from around 1:37 to 1:35. If I payed closer attention to my lap times, meaning that if I took the time to walk down and check lap time print outs, I would have noticed that I was was actually bumped up to the next run group- intermediate high.

Not right away though. My first session out I was avg 1:37 seconds again as I was getting a feel for the car. For anyone who isn't supercharged, yes it's a lot of fun but the power isn't anything insane. The car still has less torque and power than a Z, Mustang, Speed 3, V6 Camry or Altima even. Heck, the only thing it has a power advantage over is an NA Miata, but those guys are still faster than me. Anyway, the point I was trying to get at was that the power was a great help and the delivery was never surprising or overwhelming. On a track like SoW I didn't feel like the car wanted to lose control or get away from me. On any track with a long sweeper, such as turn 8-9 at Big Willow or Riverside at Buttonwillow I think I wouldn't be as confident, but that is because of my suspension settings that I'm still tweaking.

In my first session out I found that I was causing the car to go into small 4 wheel drifts that would pull me out towards the edge of the track. It was almost like under-steer, but unlike under-steer where you just get this sensation and feeling of disappointment as the front tires shudder as they plow forward, the 4 wheel drift was actually a lot of fun. With under-steer I would normally straighten the tires out and begin breaking to try and recover. Now I just needed to add a little more throttle and adjust my steering angle a bit and I would continue on my merry way. A lot of fun, but not very fast.

My second session out I adjusted my driving style to better suit the car and that's when I noticed it. I was quickly catching the cars in front of me and one by one they would all point me by. With this car I was used to being faster on the corners, but I was never used to catching anyone on the straights.

You see, in the lower run groups if you are faster than someone in the corners it doesn't help you that much. The reason being that the person who you have been tailing the whole time either doesn't notice you because they are so focused on what's directly in front of them, or they don't care and they figure that if they are faster than you on the straights then your car is "slower" and so you deserve to be behind them :sigh:

However, if you are faster in the straights and they see that they cannot out run you then they will give up and let you pass. Well, mostly. There always seem to be at least one or two a-holes out there who won't give you a point-by no matter what. Then there are also the guys who don't know how to give a proper point-by :mad0259:

The coilovers are not track dedicated so they are still a bit squishy on turn in for the track, but the dampening really absorbs the rough stuff. So the car is only slightly sharper compared to stock, which is fine for me now because if it were too twitchy I don't think I would be able to recover from my many mistakes as easily. The alignment is a huge help, especially with the nt01 tires. Although, I may still need more negative camber up front. The edge of my front tires were really worn compared to the rest of the tire. The tread wear on the rears seemed fine.

The headers still rattled a lot but the overall exhaust was so loud that I don't think anyone else but me noticed. The extra noise helped get me some of those point-bys too I'm sure ;)

I haven't checked my catch-cans yet, but I was checking my oil before and after every session and my levels were good. I didn't have to add any oil at least.

The radiator must have been doing its job because after every session the coolant temp would read between 195-200 degrees F. Those are the same temps that I get when cruising on the freeway at night with 67 degree ambient temps. So the track sessions don't seem to phase it at all I guess.

Unfortunately I didn't have my oil temp & pressure gauge connected yet, so I can't say if the oil cooler was a big help or not. I still want to build a shroud around to focus more air thru it.

So after all the updates I have made to the car I have found that it is much easier to drive at the track. The extra power and stability made the car less of a handful at SoW. The extra power meant that I didn't have to keep the car above 6,000 rpms all the time. My 3rd gear was better matched for SoW. I would rev it out, break, turn and then repeat. If anything it felt like I was putting less of strain on the engine than before, and because I didn't have to down shift to 2nd I didn't over rev my engine either.

I'll continue to tweak the car of course, but with lap times that are still slower than a completely stock FRS I guess I'll just have to try and improve my own driving skills :bonk:

I have already registered for 3 more events next month. Two at Buttonwillow and one more at SoW. Hopefully the car continues to perform well and maybe my lap times will start to get better. Yes I know the extra power is a crutch but I'm ok with that.

Unfortunately I didn't have my GoPro available to take any vids on track. So instead I took some pics and vids with my phone. It automatically edits them into short music videos, so I figured I would post some of my favorites. The vids are a bit repetitive though.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G62OszJ-MA"]Streets of Willow 6-13-2014 1 - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dwfsAiFN4U"]Streets of Willow 6-13-2014 2 - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNFVHq9it9A"]Streets of Willow 6-13-2014 3 - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYMPevHw1hw"]Streets of Willow 6-13-2014 4 - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8mi8v2jFk8"]Streets of Willow 6-13-2014 5 - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC-K2_I1gpk"]Streets of Willow 6-13-2014 6 - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJitZuW4d1U"]Streets of Willow 6-13-2014 7 - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwOSlkGm2Os"]Streets of Willow 6-13-2014 8 - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE9qtCcYSwQ"]Streets of Willow 6-13-2014 9 - YouTube[/ame]

Great build thread man! You and I have very similar tastes

Thanks, I really appreciate it!

:cheers:

I finally got my oil pressure / temp gauge wired up and installed, but now I'm seeing seeing something unusual in regard to my oil pressure readings. Basically the oil pressure will drop to zero at around 3,000 rpm when the engine oil is cold.

Here's a vid of the anomaly
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwYgi7c9Pmw"]Oil pressure drops to zero on cold start - YouTube[/ame]

I posted more details on the Engine, Oil and Transmission thread.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68988

Right away I got some useful feedback.

Went to Willow Springs, 7-26-2014.

I invited my brother along to share my car too. This was his 2nd HPDE track event. His first event was around 5 years ago in my dads 350 Z. He was in the beginner group. Here they are going out for their 2nd session.

A few twins were out racing that day. Most of them in the beginner with my brother. My car shows up at 25 seconds. It's the one with the blue tape over the headlights. Out of all the cars in that vid my favorite exhaust note is from the M3. It sounded really sweet. I stopped recording though when I saw the prius getting ready to go.

EDIT: Looks like the link isn't working. I'll upload to youtube and then replace the link.
UPDATE: Youtube vid has been posted beolow, post #26.

A forum member recently asked me about my RS-R Moto Spec Sports-i coilvers. Since I never got around to writing a review like I intended to, I took this opportunity to talk about some notable impressions that the coilovers have made on me now that I have had them on for almost 7 months.

Here's the original pm that I got and my overkill of a reply.



I always meant to write a review on my build thread but I only got half way thru the install and never made it to the actual review. If I like this pm then I'll just copy & paste it over to my build thread :)

I really enjoy my RSR coilovers. My goal when purchasing them was to make the car a little bit sportier but not sacrifice dd ride quality. I take my car to the track, but I'm not chasing lap times and I'm not concerned with building a track focused vehicle. I go to the track about 4-6 times a year for fun, and the car is fun- even in stock form.

When compared to the stock suspension two things are easily noticed, they are quieter, a bit firmer and the car is one inch lower. Whoops that's three things.

Quieter - The stock suspension actually transfers a lot of road noise and vibrations into the cabin, especially on the freeway when cruising. If you look at the RSR product page you'll see that they have a couple of pictures that show several layers of rubber washers (I believe they're called Thrust Washers/Spring Seat Gaskets) between the springs, top hat and upper strut mount.

RSR Sports-i:
http://rs-r.myshopify.com/collection...r-s-subaru-brz

I believe that it's this extra padding that helps dampen out a lot of unwanted road noise. Does it make the car feel any less responsive or connected to the road? No, it doesn't. Not one bit. In fact the car feels more connected to the road than before (I'll get to that soon).

If you don't have a loud exhaust then this is one benefit that you'll be able to enjoy. Actually, these coilovers with the Nameless downpie w/ high-flow cat & resonator and the stock muffler are noticeably quieter than full stock.

The one thing to address though is that like most people who have swapped out springs or coilovers, I have noticed that they do occasionally make other types of noises. Sometimes when driving really slow (like pulling in/out of a driveway) you can hear what is commonly referred to as coil-bind, but it's not loud or pingy like typical coil-bind. I believe that it would be loud like normal coil-bind if it wasn't for the rubber washers. I've read that the best way to avoid coil-bind is to purchase coilovers that are designed with a type of bearing mount attached to the top of the spring.

I should probably try re tightening the spring lock to see if that is the cause of the noise. I did install them myself afterall, so it's possible that I didn't tighten them enough.

Firmer - These coilovers make the stock ones feel floaty, boat-like and slow when set to soft/medium stiffness. I don't recommend leaving them on full stiff or even near full stiff. I tried it, the car bounced all over the place, it hurt and it sucked. I drove on the recommend settings for about 2 months before I softened the settings by a few clicks. I have really bumpy roads where I live, with a lot of construction so I figured that it would be best to soften the car up a bit.

I really liked the stock suspension and I was afraid of ruining the car because it felt great in stock form. However, when you put really sticky rubber on the stock suspension (and no alignment) you notice that the car will roll a lot and that it takes quite a while for it to transition and recover/settle. This is more noticeable at the track or when driving at high freeway speeds. I was ok putting up with the slower transitions and recovery times, but the body roll was disconcerting. As a result, I didn't trust the stock car as much as I should have.

The stock car with stock suspension is a car that begs to be driven. The semi-stock car with the RSR coilovers and a good alignment is a car that begs to be driven hard. It's a lot of fun and it never gets tiring.

Driving Impressions - In my opinion, the handling on a stock FRS/BRZ makes any typical commuter car feel like a battle cruiser, and most big sports cars like a Mustang GT, Z or Genesis Coupe feel like a truck (I refuse to drive a current gen Camaro based on my driving impressions of the 5.0 Stang. Also, the Camaro is a fat bitch and I don't care for the design). The RSRs make you aware of how wallowy a stock FRS/BRZ is.

There is less body roll and less time spent on transitioning; so turn-in is quicker and the rebound recovery is much quicker than before. You don't have to wait as long for the car to settle, you can just keep driving the car hard and fast on the streets. Remember that this is not a track dedicated/focused coilover system. So on the track, with R comp tires, you will still notice a bit of roll and some lag in transitioning, but the car will still inspire trust and confidence.

Lower - My car is lowered by an inch, but I think they come preset to 1.2 inches lower than stock. I have rear lower control arms and camber bolts so I wasn't too worried about getting my alignment set right, but I was worried about going to low for 3 reasons. The following are concerns for any set of lowering colivers and springs, not just the RSRs

1) Daily Driving - I didn't want to ruin my DD experience. I love driving my car every day. I have friends who have lowered their cars too much and I didn't want to make the same mistakes as them. I didn't want to deal with the anxiety and regret of having a car that was to low to drive faster than 5 mph around town. What's nice about the RSRs is that even though you are lower you are also stiffer, so you don't have drive any slower over typical speed bumps or dips. You still need to watch out for parking curbs, steep drive-ways and large dips though.

Also, the low profile jack from Harbor Freight just barely fits underneath the front and rear of the car.
http://www.harborfreight.com/2-Ton-A...ump-68051.html

2) Stock Tie Rods - At 1 inch lower than stock height the tie-rods are almost completely maxed out. When I jack up the car the front and rear wheels barely droop. As a result, the tires will roll over themselves a bit when at full compression and generate some positive camber. This leads to premature and atypical wear on the outer corners of the tires when driving aggressively.

3) Stock Axles - When the car is lowered the rear wheels get pushed out a bit and as a result the rear axles will separate from the diff some. There's enough slop to rattle the axles back and forth with your hand (I have a video of this that I should post). Multiple forum members have posted cases where the stock axles started clicking on the before they broke entirely. Mine have been clicking for a few months now and I should probably start looking for a cheap replacement set or upgrading.

Final Thoughts
I was fortunate enough to get a ride-along at last years 86Fest in a couple of 86s and these coilovers are the only ones that made a big enough impression on me to even bother asking what brand they were. If you can, I would recommend that you try and get a couple of ride a longs with anyone who already has one of the coilovers that you are interested in.

So I hope this helps. If you have any particular questions about the coilovers that you think I can help you with then please feel free to ask. :cheers:

I've decided to post this on my build thread too, so thanks for asking. I finally got around to writing a basic review :w00t:

I want (no, I need) to get an external mic for my GoPro

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGKRFln299Y&edit=vd"]2013 FRS Exhaust - PPE Headers and Nameless 2.5" Axleback - YouTube[/ame]

Unfortunately the FRS/BRZ aren't the best sounding cars leaving the pit, but were they the loudest?

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUr4kZkpeU&list=UU1e7IXoBYddp_0Ghugo40Hg"]SoW 6-13-2014 - Beginner Group - YouTube[/ame]

Of the group, I think the M3 sounded the best.

Installed the SpeedFactory Rear Diffuser by Velox last Saturday. Unfortunately it wasn't a perfect fit due to my Nameless exhaust. The main reason why I got the diffuser was because the Nameless exhaust was creating a turbulent wind pocket in the rear of the car where the stock exhaust used to be, but I was foiled again. The diffuser scrapes on all driveways unfortunately.

The diffuser looks really slick and you can actually feel it helping the car aerodynamically. The car feels much smoother at freeway speeds and I no longer feel all that drag from before. The metal is pretty thin though and the fins are a little flimsy so I'm worried about how long it will last.

I wrote more on the FT86Speedfactory Rear Diffuser thread. Post number 279.

So far I've taken the car to Buttonwillow and Big Willow since installing the rear diffuser and I must say that it makes a noticeable difference. The car feels much more planted on Riverside (turn 8) at Buttonwillow, and the only thing holding me back on turns 8-9 at Big Willow was my own sense of self preservation. Overall, I definitely happy with the SpeedFactory rear diffuser at the track. My one complaint though would be that I can no longer fit my harbor frieght low profile jack under the rear of the car without first driving onto some blocks of wood. One extra thing to do when changing wheels and brakes.