I've really, really been meaning to make one of these but, never got around to it. A local friend has once again pressured me into making on of these darn build logs. I'll be slow to upload as I have sd cards of pictures from each project until now I may get this journal up to date soon.
02C WRB! Really this is probably the only time I ever will likely have a Subaru and this is my go to color for it! Really though the 86 twins don't look bad in any factory color though. Long story short this is my *second brz* after preordering the car that showed up was incorrect. So I had to re-find another one!
Delivery day was a good day. Imediatly took it for a spin, washed and waxed her. The first day was a blast I've never had so many people come up and ask about the new car. I was kinda shocked how many people didn't know of the twins.
The car she replaced, my beloved FC3S, fully 'restored' and built by myself. But, going from a 2 car daily/project setup to 1 car, the BRZ is hard to beat.
One week later I had already stained her. Mods began starting with a full chargespeed styled lip kit, skirts and spats complementing my diffuser.
I grew to hate the stock tailights and planned to tint them as I've done on my past cars. I had an idea to not tint them solid black but a dark red. Turned out pretty good and a few members even wanted them done. A buddy called it "Black Cherry." Black in the shade and red in the sun.
I rocked this for about 2 days until I saw the JDM TOM's lights. Jumped on the pre-order group buy and then sold my OEM lights soon as the TOMS hit the door. Tom's JDM tailights installed.
That weekend my plates arrived. "No Torque"
Parents always have to 1up ya... sold my mom on the Vette. Could not let her buy a Infinity G35!
Started tackeling a few interior pieces with some JDM goodies. First up was trim japan's BRZ tS (tuned by sti,) the euro oem GT86 armrest, black buttons from the Austrailian Brz base trim and JPM Coachwork's gauge cluser hood w/red stitching! Lastly ordered a roll of alcantara suede from Overland Designs that matched the BRZ's factory materials.
Close up of the tS parts. Turns out there more of a metallic black/gunmetal than the base black austrailian parts.
Clean car (for someone who works in a bodyshop all day/night.)
Finished up the year with a perrin 2/5 exhaust and antenna. Which I then ended up removing for their 3.0 setup after deciding to go FI.
Winter had set and I thought I was done for the year until I saw a Japanese GT86 with what appeared to be a GT-R spoiler. After much talking [
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7835] and nay-sayers...
Challenge Accepted
...
Loving this kind of work, I dug my heels in. Not afraid. I've messed up worse shit with fiberglass in my life. Trying to fiberglass a dash in my car when I was 15 rings a bell.
A quick before an after, notice the bottom of the mounts have all be resculpted.
Sadly my fun was ruined 2 weeks later by a "Bro" who wanted to lean on it chipping the paint. A week later I ripped it back apart and repaired it...
Around this time the lack of power really began to bother me. The car is a blast but, needs the kick in the ass to get going. Before I jumped the gun to FI I was convenced to track the car by Mike at Counter Space Garage. So I bought a new Bell helmet and set out...
This ended up turning into a love and 3 sessions later I feel re-assured on where I wanted to go.
My thoughts on this platform is/are that it is simply the most fun I've had stock-for-stock in a car. That includes a comparison with a FC3S and FD R1 RX-7's! The pathetic stock tires made the day a blast. However after a few sessions I really disliked corner exits. This car realy makes cornering a 'must have' skill. Not carrying enough speed in and hitting your apexes and the car will be a dog on the exits. I'm sure this is something that would be a great skill to work on but, I still couldn't help but want more power like my previous cars... being 85% street.
On the 3rd run I got to experience downforce first hand. The GTR spoiler had place enough pressure after my run that it had buckled the decklid and even managed to create a 2.5" hairline crack in the paint. I guess the 70lbs of downforce "at speed" that Nissan claimed on the GT-R may also apply to our platform.
I began to dig into the FI section an all new experience. It didn't take long until I chose Tony and FA20club with all their positive feedback and legion of worshipers posting in each thread. Sadly by the time I ordered my FA20club kit, FA20club went down hill and members flooded the boards with complaints and problems. After no word on my order I immediatly canceled my order by calling my CC card company and got my money back. I never heard back from FA20club after that.
Once again I was aimless and started to drift towards the Innovate/Sprintex 210 root supercharger. After reading many build threads the only downside at the time was members were popping belts off. lol. I blame Swift mostly for my desire to pursue this. His old black BRZ was sex! Sadly the deeper I dug in the information the more I found out about the limits of the Innovate kit. While I only wanted 300hp (crank) at the time I didn't like the lack of overhead (should I ever want more...)
Throughout this Innovate search I came across a little trojan named Kingtut... he and his marry band of men (Eko, Orbital, Sportguy, ftc) all were invading the s/c threads shouting "Turbo, Turbo, Turbo." I bit and then decided Full Blown was in the works. I imediatly got in touch with LJ and worked out a supporting mod list while waiting for my kit to arrive.
First up would be the easiest I wanted to tackle my gauges needed to make sure everything was in check. While browsing vendors I didn't like any of the steering wheel/a-pillar mounting systems I saw. I didn't like the steering ones blocking the car's existing gauges and I didn't like the fact most of the a-pillar gauges were taped on cheap products. What if the side curtain airbag goes off under them? Shortly later I ended up making a joke to one of our vendors when he was asking, "What products would we like to see for the twins?" A few jests later and I paypalled Jason at DSG the money and specs. We set out to creat the first (IMO) good pillar pod for our cars.
Requirments for pillar pod: 1, has to look factory or OEM+! 2, has to be optimal location for reading and utilize smaller 52mm gauges so it doesn't block the drivers view. 3, it has to fit perfectly. 4, It has to have some form of protection should the airbag blow. Jason had already done this with other cars in their "Forever Driven" line including the Evo and GT-R! That sold me~
The result was we were going to modify the the OEM pillars (thus bypassing the legality/DOT/safety testing) this would allow oem fitment, quality and allow the pod to use the green airbag clip that allows the pillar to fall out of the way should the airbag go off. Unfortunatly for Jason and DSG Performance, I was very persistent on matching the OEM textures and dash materials. Ideally we could have just wrapped them in alcantara suede and called it a day. This ended up being a huge challenge eating up alot of time. But, the end result was perfect! Sadly problems with production occured resulting in high lead times and costs so this part isn't (at the moment) being mass produced. So I ended up with a 1-off custom pillar pod. DSG and Evasive Motorsports then hooked me up with a sweet set of Tanabe Revel VLS (O-LED digital) gauges which are pure bliss!
While waiting for the parts to arrived I also ripped off Jive Turkey's badass idea and modified my silver dash/radio trim into a 1-piece part and wrapped in in the alcantara suede I had ordered from Jason at Overland Designs. Easily one of the easiest and best looking interior mods I have done. Completely helps push the twins away from the cheap look. Around the same time I also swapped over my 2.5 Perrin for their 3.0 setup!
As you can see the pillar pod's gauge location is near perfect so they hardly block anything more than the stock gauges!
I wanted to add a bit of more agression to the front end and add some uniquness I love the BRZ's looks but, wanted something different for the meet-ups. I began looking for a body kit. Sadly it didn't work out. First I wanted to mimic the BRZ STI concept car's front end. Extreme Dimensions' had the exact same idea. Sadly having been burnt with their products in the past, the lack of communication, and the lack of damn pictures I didn't bother.
Keeping up the hunt, I was instantly drawn towrards the Amagain and Damd LFT-86 style. With the LFA being my 'deam' car it seemed like a good fit. The front end looked sexy on darker colored cars. Being the weird-o I am though I was going to have to modidy it to suit my personal tastes. I then began tweaking it in photoshop. First I increased the opening in the center to match the side opening's height. More airflow is always good. Secondly I blacked out the visible lights in the side grills. Lastly I changed the top side of the bumper. The Damd kit has a slit that moks the LFA's hood slit. However it just sits in the middle of the bumper. Remove that, and move the emblem back up higher to where it sits on the GT86/FR-S/BRZ bumpers. Lastly I smoothed out the area above the center opening in which they had oversized "frown" lines from the FR-S's styling. I love the LFA look but still wanted to retain something that fit well with the BRZ body. This looked like a great start and I began to look for a bumper to modify.
This is where I hit a large snag. I found 2 vendors who could help import the front bumper. The problem being no matter which I used I'd be looking at $2k by the time it got to my door. Unpainted and I'd still have to cut it up and modify it myself. Pass.