Fashionably late: my 2013 Galaxy Blue BRZ Limited

[Turbowned]

Update!

Got my BPS matte silver short throw shifter installed along with the JPM Coachworks Alcantara shift boot and e-brake boot. The installation was pretty simple except I tore the lower boot that covers the shift linkage; apparently it's very easy to do. C'est la vie!
I picked up some Elmers craft glue and spray to glue the new e-brake boot to the backing plate. I then used a buttload of paper clips to secure it to the plate while it was drying. There's a little bit of exposed white thread on the back of the boot where the backside of the fabric is showing. but I think a little creative Sharpie use should take care of that.

I LOVE the BPS shifter! The shifts are even more crisp than the already excellent factory shifter. The best part however, is the nice heavy billet reverse lockout mechanism, which no longer makes a lame plasticky suction noise when you pull up on the lockout ring. It just has a solid engagement which gives the car a little more of a solid feel overall. Now if I can just get a heavier clutch pedal I'll be all set!





The STi titanium knob now resides on my WRX STi since the color doesn't really match the reverse lockout; I'll pick up a BPS matte silver shift knob to match soon.


Also got my... ERMAHGERD... TERM'S TERLLERTS!!! (TOM'S taillights)




Installation was a breeze except I kept dropping the little nuts into the spare tire well; clumsy! Thankfully I already installed the TapTurn flasher module so no need to go under the dash again for the flasher relay. I just installed these 10mins ago so when it's darker out I'll take illuminated pics.

Carsmo spoiler is waiting for me at the post office and I have the Beatsonic antenna at home; just waiting to drop it off at the body shop for paint and I'll try to get those installed next week.

[ATL BRZ]

[Turbowned]

Got my car back from the body shop with a shiny new bumper, and installed the Beat Sonic sharkfin antenna. The Carsmo spoiler came with a small crack in it so I need to rectify that (Tim at Carsmo has been helpful thus far), and the BPS matte silver shift knob came in the mail but I forgot to take a picture.

Got her detailed for the Cars and Copters show this Sunday. Normally I do all my own detailing but as I'm going to be representing Driven Perfection (place that did my new car prep, Opti-Coat, clear bra and tint) I figured it was best left to the pros this time. The results speak for themselves!

[Turbowned]

I was gonna buy some form of forced induction by the end of this month but I'm still undecided on supercharger vs turbo. Of all the kits out there, nothing is 100% perfect in my eyes, so I think it best to wait until next year as originally planned. In the meantime I'll try and take care of all the supporting mods (bigger radiator, oil cooler, twin plate clutch, ECUtek license/tune).

Also thinking about doing this but I need opinions:

Awesome? Too much? I would personally go with the silver strut tower brace and silver hardware instead of the gold. I'll also paint all of the fluid caps either silver or black and the stock airbox will of course be replaced with whatever forced induction route I decide on.

[Raven23]

First of all, nice ride! I'm thinking about going the same set up with 18's and the sport line 1.5" drop. This will be the first car I'll ever mod / drop. Was wondering how the set up will be for a daily driver. Will I now have to fear dips, speed bumps and driveways? That's one of my pet peeve and I cringe everytime I scrape haha. Thanks!

[Turbowned]

Originally Posted by Raven23

First of all, nice ride! I'm thinking about going the same set up with 18's and the sport line 1.5" drop. This will be the first car I'll ever mod / drop. Was wondering how the set up will be for a daily driver. Will I now have to fear dips, speed bumps and driveways? That's one of my pet peeve and I cringe everytime I scrape haha. Thanks!

No issues with speedbumps however I strongly recommend getting stiffer dampers (shocks/struts) to go with the springs (Koni yellow would be my pick). I only added the springs to achieve the desired ride height until I could afford coil-overs. The springs are too stiff for the stock dampers so as a result the ride is very harsh going over bumps. You want to be able to adequately match shocks and springs so they work well together.

[Turbowned]

Next week I'm purchasing a set of STi Brembo take-offs from a 2013 STi with 300 miles on them:


The car was converted to a rally car so smaller brakes were needed for 15" gravel wheels to fit. They come with basically brand new pads! I ordered Centric high carbon rotors and Stoptech stainless lines as well. I also ordered a Cusco Sports accelarator pedal, drift knob, and Grimmspeed hood dampers.

I'm trying not to blow all my bonus money right away until I figure out the next logical modification step. Brakes were always high on the list, but after that I'm not sure if I should go more towards suspension (think KW/Öhlins coilovers, Whiteline sways and Racer-X full suspension kit), power (think Vortech S/C, smaller pulley, bigger pump and injectors, catted header and tune) or aesthetics (think a full JPM Coachworks treatment, Recaro SR-7's and a carbon fiber dash panel). Leaning towards putting off F/I until more data is collected with the 2.87 pulley on the Vortech. Either way the car goes into storage next month so I won't enjoy any of it until Spring.

[Turbowned]

Installed my Cusco Sports accelerator pedal and drift spin knob this morning; I'll post pics soon. Got a little clumsy with the vice grips taking the stock handbrake button off and did a little damage to the leather. Grrrr! Luckily it's under the button so you don't really see it, but I hate botched installs. The Cusco pedal makes it a bit easier to heel-toe with out contorting my foot to fit the stock skinny pedal.

My friends and I are renting out a 1500sq ft. garage unit with an office for a year so we'll have a place to store and wrench on our cars. I'm very psyched to not only have a place to store the BRZ for the winter, but to regain the ability to wrench on my own car in a garage again! Time to start hunting for vintage racing posters and such to adorn the walls of the office

This means my MR2 will finally see some attention as well! She needs a lot of stuff including timing belt, new clutch and flywheel, Kaaz LSD installed in spare low-miles tranny, cleaning up the coolant hoses that I jury rigged to do the 20v swap, and installation of Tomei poncams and velocity stacks. Then hopefully get the whole mess together before auto-x season next year and take enough Sundays off to actually use the damn thing! Otherwise I'll just sell it.

[Turbowned]

Pics of Cusco Sports accel pedal and drift spin knob (sorry for the crappy iPhone pics; I really need a good camera!):






Got the Brembos the other night; too. I'll need to have them powdercoated and get new rotors since the '04 STi rotors I ordered don't fit (wrong hat dimension) so I won't expect to see them on the car too soon. Especially since I just put down my deposit for the Tokyo Auto Salon trip and the 1st/last/security on the garage, and soon for the insurance on the garage. Yikes!

[Jive Turkey]

you ever do the forester key swap? i like the back a lot better, curious if you have a part number or know what's involved in that.

[Turbowned]

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

you ever do the forester key swap? i like the back a lot better, curious if you have a part number or know what's involved in that.

Sorry, never followed up with that. It's actually the key that the '14 BRZ's come with now, so may not be too hard to find the covers?

Not much new to report boys and girls. Nearly 7k miles now. Added Grimmspeed hood dampers and that's about it.


My friends and I have been setting up our garage unit and the BRZ is almost ready to go away for the winter. I've been obsessing about a new car; I sold the WRX STi and just put down a deposit on a 2003 Audi RS 6!!! Pics to follow soon

[Turbowned]

Getting the mod itch... just have no money since I bought the RS 6. Still need to get snow tires for her. And my best friend's dog decided to swallow a sock and need immediate surgery to have it removed so I shelled out some loot like a good friend.

Oh well, BEHOLD 450BHP Biturbo V8 good-ness:

[Turbowned]

Update, finally! Put Artemis away for the winter 2 weeks ago; gave her a final bath:



Then this past Thursday I took apart the interior in order to send all the parts to JPM Coachworks for leather and Alcantara wrap:




Everything but the headliner fit in one big box; phew! Shipping was a measly $26


Here's what I'm having done:
Steering wheel - Italian leather, black with red stitch (non perforated)
Center console armrest - Italian leather, black with red stitch
Door panel armrests and upper trim pieces - Italian leather, black with red stitch
Speaker panels - Alcantara, black with red stitch
Knee pads - Italian leather, black with red stitch
Gauge cluster hood - Italian leather, black with red stitch
Center console - Alcantara, black. Relocate seat heater switches to just above 12v plug and fill in indentation where they resided
A/B pillar trim - Alcantara, black
Sunvisors - Alcantara, black with black stitch
Headliner - Alcantara, black


These should hopefully be done before the end of January. SO PSYCHED! I'm going to be in Japan in 2 weeks so I might bring home some more goodies then, too

Also, these pieces in silver will be painted with ALSA Ghost Chrome metallic paint to give the look and feel of real metal, including the chrome parts-bin door handles which I'm excited for. One thing that has always irked me about the BRZ is that these trim pieces look so cheaply painted; other OEM's like Hyundai, Nissan, etc. can make interior plastics look much better but Subaru just cheaped out in this regard. Also, the gauge cluster surround, dome light, center heater vent trim and microphone grille will be painted piano black to give some added depth. Finally, the dashboard trim panels will be replaced with Rexspeed carbon fiber wrapped panels.

[Turbowned]

Parts are still sitting at JPM; I just got back from Japan. I guess they've been battling illness so I understand. I'm also in no rush considering all the snow outside. I got a lot of inspiration and collected a lot of brochures from the Tokyo Auto Salon (86's EVERYWHERE), and I spent some time talking with the guys at DSPORT magazine about their Innovate supercharged FR-S. I might be leaning more towards the Innovate S/C again after hearing about the success they've been having.

I'm hoping to order an HKS catted header soon; I'm trying to save money right now, though. While most people are eagerly anticipating tax returns, I'm nervously waiting to hear how much I'm going to owe... the one bad thing about Subaru's sales bonus program is that it's not taxed

Also, trying to build three cars at the same time without sponsorship is very expensive... Don't do it! I just spent more money on the MR2 in the form of a vintage Recaro LX seat, Scroth/Recaro harness, TOM'S 5v oil cap, and a Setrab oil cooler. Gonna order Tomei poncams soon, too. And the Audi is just dying for a Eurocharged tune to bump the output up to 520bhp and 538lb/ft...