Well its been ages since the last update. Currently saving for forced induction so pace will slow down a little bit as that won't be cheap although I'm sure I will still find the time and money to tweak other bits.
Wheels
For those on my Facebook/Instagram you would have seen my BBS RS2's have been stripped down and sent back to the powder coaters. There was an issue with burnt lacquer due to the metal holding too much heat from baking while the clear coat was put on. They are fully rectifying the issue FOC and have agreed to a colour change as I was never 100% sure with the colour once it was on the car. It would work better with a darker car I feel, two light colours together is too dull for me. As usual I am keeping hush on the colour until I see them in the flesh, which should be this Saturday. While fitting them to the car I will be adding some front camber and lowering the a little more to get it even.
Wheels split down by
James Baker, on Flickr
Bring on the noise
Although the GT86 made a nice sound as standard, I want to turn that up to 11 and take advantage of the Subaru engine. I hopefully have a Borla UEL manifold coming in the next couple of weeks for that Subaru burble and yesterday I took delivery of a scorpion 2.5" decatted front pipe with resonator and a scorpion 2.5" overpipe which will make it a fully decade exhaust system
At some point I will also pick up a catback exhaust to go with these, but this won't delay me fitting them. As soon as the Borla arrives I will be fitting all of these myself. Hopefully a job that can be done on axle stands, if not I may need to rent a ramp as I want to do it all myself again, I could pay someone to do it, but wheres the fun it that. I want to learn as I go along and get that sense of achievement knowing I have done it myself, which is what I did with my first MINI.
Scorpion 2.5" over pipe and decatted resonated front pipe by
James Baker, on Flickr
Front Lip
Finally I decided to give the front bumper a more aggressive look for little cost, by spraying the centre section with plastidip to see if I liked it. I changed the lines a couple of times, confering with Rich until I found this line which makes it look like it has fangs. The great benefit of plastidip is you can peel it off and do it again. I will get this section painted properly when I have the front number plate holes filled later in the year. Also if I go for the TRD side skirts then this satin black bumper section will match that on the side skirts.
Front Lip by
James Baker, on Flickr
I am in two minds when it comes to body kits currently. From what I have seen so far, not many fit to my standard and many just look like they are just stuck on and don't flow with the lines of the car. I want the cars looks to flow and potentially OEM+ which may mean that I mix elements from different kits, such as the TRD side skirts, Leg Motorsport ducktail spoiler, Fensport OEM rear splitter etc Or I can go the other extreme of blending in a rocket bunny kit. But all this can wait as I want to get FI sorted.