Element Tuning Raven Black FRS Track Build

[Element Tuning]

Originally Posted by Pat

Why retain the A/C?

Because it's a daily driver and Washington, DC summers are hot!

OK so it's not my only car but I do drive it often for R&D reasons or if I want to break more necks than Kim Kardashian; )

[dejxx]

@Element Tuning first of all... goddamn that's an amazing car!!!

second... what would you recommend to keep the engine/oil/coolant cool under racing *track day conditions on a front mounted turbo set up (FBM) doing around 300whp? besides the normal stuff, bigger fans, oil cooler, bigger radiatior, tubes, wrapping, vented hood? I live in Argentina, and im starting a quite bold project, FI GT86, the first one ever in Argentina... i do track my car, and i live in a very hot climate... so, what could go wrong right!! heheheh. read every post i could find... still i might miss something.

Thanks for any input.

[jdmblood]

I'll take those flares off your hands if your not using them

[jdmblood]

@Element Tuning

[Element Tuning]

Originally Posted by jdmblood

I'll take those flares off your hands if your not using them

I already sold them and them sorry. I then bought them back for our STI after said FRS got into an accident.

[Element Tuning]

Originally Posted by dejxx

@Element Tuning first of all... goddamn that's an amazing car!!!

second... what would you recommend to keep the engine/oil/coolant cool under racing *track day conditions on a front mounted turbo set up (FBM) doing around 300whp? besides the normal stuff, bigger fans, oil cooler, bigger radiatior, tubes, wrapping, vented hood? I live in Argentina, and im starting a quite bold project, FI GT86, the first one ever in Argentina... i do track my car, and i live in a very hot climate... so, what could go wrong right!! heheheh. read every post i could find... still i might miss something.

Thanks for any input.

Thanks. The only off the shelf part you can buy would be the Perrin Oil Cooler kit we run and I highly recommend it. Perrin uses all the parts we would if we were going to build our own.

Now coolant temps are an issue racing with a front mounted turbo kit. We did end up building our own bumper beam and radiator supports so we could just mount a real racing radiator that was much larger. We use one large high CFM fan mounted off center away from the turbine housing. Even in street trim in summer traffic it's enough to even keep the AC cool.

We area also running a custom built transmission cooler and pump to help keep the transmission in one piece after killing one box already.

[dejxx]

@Element Tuning thanks for the reply!

Already ordered an oil cooler, just don't remember which one (the shop that's going to do the install order it), but im pretty sure its a Perrin. I plan on putting a drift armor or making one to replace the bumper bean, as it seems to restrict a lot of air flow. Going to use Mishimoto rad, but a bigger one that we are going to adapt to the car. if i remember correctly we ordered 12spal fans, and going to make a custom frame for it.

On the other side... transmission, didn't thought about it too much =( although i don't track the car THAT hard. 1 intro lap, 4-5 fast laps, 1 cool down lap its pretty much what i do. Do you think its absolutely necessary to cool the transmission?

thanks again for the reply!!! awesome car!!!

[Element Tuning]

If you are racing with around 400 whp I would definitely run a transmission cooler. If you have 300 hp or less I would say you're in the safe window.

[SciOnDrifTtSlIdeR]

this is an awesome build nice work on a serious track car.

[Element Tuning]

Thanks. Next year will be a serious year for this car and we will build up accordingly. Up until this point we've mostly been in the R&D stage to see where oem parts fail and where improvements needed to be made.

We'll beef up the driveline next season and toss in some healthy HP (not that it's slow now. LOL).

[Element Tuning]

I'll break the updates into categories as we've done so much since my last update.

Here is the new look for the BC Racing/Element Tuning Time Attack FRS. We went with a some ghosted in coilover images in grey over a matte black wrap.





Toss in a little white, green, and gold to match our team colors this season.


Suspension: We've stepped up to Element Tuning custom valved BC Racing ZR 3 way coilovers and my favorite Swift Springs. So far the ZR with it's independent high and low speed compression dampening has proven superior and just allows me to slam through the curbing on track without upsetting the chassis. I can also run the low speed stiffer and that makes the chassis more responsive at turn in.


Every little bit matters on these MAC Strut front ends so a Perrin PSR kit to help with caster and flex.


Brakes: It's no surprise we've really struggled with the factory ABS/Stability system on this car so we worked directly with RR Racing to design a braking system for our race car that mechanically balanced the front to rear bias to rely less on the "Brake Force Distribution" system.


That's some sexy stuff right there! Some fatty Perrin spacers keep the Rocket Bunny kit from totally swallowing even the biggest of wheel and tire combos. A carefully selected front to rear brake caliper piston and rotor diameter ratio allowed us to shift way more braking to the rear to help balance deceleration. Pretty much took an undriveable braking system when the ABS faulted to one that could be raced and by far the most powerful braking system I've ever had on any of my race cars!

Chassis: With our new BC Racing Time Attack FRS I had a little more time and clarity to build what I wanted/needed. After spending a partial season racing a street car with just a roll bar I just didn't feel safe and I knew we would be going faster soon enough. I honestly stumbled upon http://www.MA-Motorsports.com in Glen Arm, MD and found out we had some mutual friends which allowed me to find out what these guys were really all about. It did not take long for me to find out they built, service, and are the team behind Formula Drift Champion, Chris Forsberg


and then Vaughn Gittin Jr's Mustang RTR Spec 5 Concept

and they build cars for other big drift names like Ryan Tuerek so I decided to do my research on the quality of their cage work. I wasn't sure they would be interested in building a time attack/road racing cage for us but a quick call over and they said they would be happy to and would love to have more road racers for cage fabrication. I spoke with their cage fabricator Dylan Hughes and then I looked up Dylan's work and I was really impressed. He was building rally cages for Rally Fish Dirt School and also some GRC cars I believe. These were some serious cages but that's not what I needed or wanted. He really listened to what I needed and was happy to create it. While I wanted safe, I really wanted a fairly light cage, I need a good amount of room, I need to keep some interior panels/dash in place, I didn't want to spend a fortune on a Scion, and I needed it in 2 weeks. LOL! What really sold me was his tube fitment!
Pretty much there aren't really any need for gussets as he bends so tight to the body that he can weld straight to it! My a pillar bars are right against the chassis which continues across the room and then down the b pillars. His welding beads are nice, consistent, and constant. I have seen many cages at the track and this is definitely a rare!

I have tons of room and they did what they could to fit some panels like I wanted so we could keep somewhat of a "track day" car look. Egress in and out is easy also and I'm 6'-2".

I've since looked with a close eye at many other cages and the quality of the fabrication and I assure you that you owe it to yourself to call these guys and consider their work.

The chassis is really nice now and we currently have the NASA TT2 lap record for VIR at 1:58.8

You can get a good look at the cage in this video of us doing some testing at VIR:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOy3jNop98M"]Element Tuning FRS Races C7 Z06 - YouTube[/ame]

I really couldn't be any happier! If you want to see more pictures in details you can see them here:
http://www.ma-motorsports.com/build_project/15378/

Thanks,
Phil Grabow
Driver #71 BC Racing/Element Tuning Time Attack FRS

[troek]

@Element Tuning did you ever come up with a solution to the power steering issue? i had this happen to me this weekend on hankook rs3s 205/55r16s on the exit of a right hand sweeper that transitions right into a hard left. its a little bit of an uphill right when you change steering directions too so theres lots of force on the front of the car. im also tapping the brake at that time. it was cairly hot out, first time its ever happend to me. i got it to happen probably once ever 2-3 laps. just lasts a split second where you feel like your driving a go kart.

[Stumpygt86]

I am currently looking into this issue. It may be that the stock steering does not have enough torque for the tyre/track combination

[Element Tuning]

Originally Posted by troek

@Element Tuning did you ever come up with a solution to the power steering issue? i had this happen to me this weekend on hankook rs3s 205/55r16s on the exit of a right hand sweeper that transitions right into a hard left. its a little bit of an uphill right when you change steering directions too so theres lots of force on the front of the car. im also tapping the brake at that time. it was cairly hot out, first time its ever happend to me. i got it to happen probably once ever 2-3 laps. just lasts a split second where you feel like your driving a go kart.

I've just been driving around it which isn't ideal but I've had bigger fish to fry. I did buy some copper tubing, a radiator, and a fan (need a pump) so I could make a cooler for it. I just never got around to finishing that project.