Toyobaru 4 fun

[RWDfun]

Hi everybody!

Current look:

My name is Alex and first of all I'd like to say THANK YOU GUYS for posting a lot of interesting and important information, your advice's and DIY. I will try to keep my story and my experience with toyobaru helpful and interesting.

I always was very close to cars even with my occupation as technology engineer and I always (since fast and furious Tokyo drift) wanted to know how to drift and build drift car.

I've spent more than month for selling my Impreza and choosing new make and model. In my list I've had 370z, IS300, BMW M3 e36, FD RX7 - all of these cars are very exciting, and I hope, some days I'll buy all of them and create my dream garage )) but FR-S/BRZ still seems to me like a good choice for studying drifting and daily needs. I do not like any kinds of credit or lease for buying a car and 16-17k for 2 year old stock car with more than 20k ml on it still a lot for my budget and plans. Watching to other guys, who build interesting cars I've noticed that more and more people buy cars after not very big accident and fix them for their track needs.

After 2 months of reading this forum and searching good deal I finally found 2015 FRS with only 8300mi. on it and damage in the back.

After arriving I've realized that pics will never provide you all information about some scratches, dents and cracks, so my first advice is always look damaged car by yourself before buying. I still happy with my deal but it will help you a lot to calculate budget and see all defects even if they're small, new part can cost you a lot! Here is my car after buying.

I had to replace Rear bumper, trunk, rear body panel reinforcement bar and quarter panel. I was ready to order them from local dealer when my friend found 2013 limited BRZ with front damage with the same color.
We took two days and make a bid for this car and won!

Of course it cost me more than simply buying new parts, but you will have a lot of spare parts like axles, differential, rims etc. And you don't have to repaint body parts which isn't cheap deal.

After all, I'm very happy with this decision and purchase, because almost all needed for repair parts I've used from this BRZ, I trade rest of them I don't need and keep and swap most interesting of them into my FRS.

Today I noticed 9300mi on odometer (my first 1k mi on this car) and I'm very happy with this purchase so far, also I'm happy that I've done a lot of work with this car by myself, now I know this car and understand it much better.

This way is not for everybody, but if you have second car, you like working with cars and you wanna build track ready car for affordable price - I will recommend this way!

After repairing:

Engine:
Perrin 2,5" exhaust

Suspension:
Stance SS coilovers (Stance springs)
Stance V1 RLCA's
Beatrush rear Tower bar
Whiteline rear sway bar with adjustable end links and mount support (going to install stock)
Whiteline positive tracktion kit
MEGAN RACING ADJUSTABLE TOE ARMS
MEGAN RACING INNER TIE ROD ENDS
Whiteline Rear Diff Mount
Whiteline Transmission Mount

Interior/exterior:
Cusco drift button
tinted windows (by first owner)
Limited BRZ Alcantara heated seats (Full Swap with all connectors, buttons and harnesses)
TRD style eBay wing
Winjet headlamps
Clear side markers
T-badges
Subaru HU Swap

Brakes:
SS brake lines
Motul fluid

Wheels:
OZ Racing Futura 1 piece 8j +35 (actual +20) +15mm Project Kics spacers.
Stock tires

Plans of mods on the basis of the importance:

1) Increase my driving skills, more practice with drifting and have fun!

2) Remove "The FA20 Torque hole" by installing Tomei UEL headers + OFT + Drop-in filter (This lack of mid range power is real problem and I'll definitely sign petition to Fuji for recall all cars with EL headers )

3) Oil cooler and catch can

4) Paint wheels


P.s: Sorry for my spelling (moved to the US and studying English only since June of 2014).

[RWDfun]

reserved

[raven1231]

Your english is far from poor, in fact better than most. Interesting story and nice car!

[NyC Zn6]

how are you liking the stance springs. I was considering swapping out for Swift springs as I've only read great things about those springs.

[RWDfun]

Originally Posted by raven1231

Your english is far from poor, in fact better than most. Interesting story and nice car!

Thank you! Very good taste for cars)) and Interesting FRS!

Originally Posted by NyC Zn6

how are you liking the stance springs. I was considering swapping out for Swift springs as I've only read great things about those springs.

Actually that's my first car with coilovers and my expression after 1k miles is even with Stance springs they are very stiff for me with 13 clicks FR / 14 clicks Rear, I've used this setup for only two times when I practice with donuts and fig. 8 at the parking lot, for DD I use 3 clicks Fr and 4 clicks Rear. Maybe on the track with bigger speed I'll find that's not enough but It will be later.

[fumanchu1]

OP I used to own an IS300(still technically do until next week lol) and I can say as much as I loved the lexus you made a great choice buying a frs/brz. These things are like go karts . Also good job on bringing your back from the dead, looks good.

[NyC Zn6]

I am currently at 2 clicks stiffer all around and its decent for nyc roads. I'm guessing it all comes down to your spring rates and how much kg of load they accept. thanks for your response.

[Ramn]

So does it have a Toyota badge on the front and a Subaru on the rear?

[ottoyu34]

Wow, car looks clean.

How much did it end up costing you?

[RWDfun]

Originally Posted by Ramn

So does it have a Toyota badge on the front and a Subaru on the rear?

I actually thought about this but installed Toyota badges.

[RWDfun]

Originally Posted by ottoyu34

Wow, car looks clean.

How much did it end up costing you?

I lost exact number after 14k, it's around 15 maybe a little more and I still have a lot of parts FS and my wife hopes that I'll decrease this number by selling them

[RWDfun]

Thanks to No Limit Motorsport for prices and fast service!
It's real that your tranny will work smother with Motul (especially you will notice that with 1st -> 2nd gear shifting).

And I'll definitely recommend to change it to everybody!
I have 10k on my odometer and there are a lot of metal chips on the magnets (especially tranny).

[RWDfun]

Finally wheels arrived from Japan!
I have to wait for correct hubcentic rings and spacers 2 more weeks.

But i'm very happy with this purchase

Close to Summer i'm going to refinish them with a little darker color (gun metal).

[RWDfun]

Finally it's happened!
Yesterday (02/06/2016) I was on my first drift event at Piedmont Dragway Inc, Hosted by Ryan Deavers.

I met a lot of great, friendly people who helped me and showed how fast should I work with my hands and what can I do with my grippy tires especially when the Sun gets higher.

The car was great, stock power is enough for drifting.
Only my very low coilovers setup got me into trouble (a lot of rubbing). The car was too low for that bumpy track, and I have lost right fender liner, rubbed left one and lost almost all clips, but my experience was great it's worth it!

For the Next event going to try 215/40 and play with pressure and lift the car.
Also I'm going to try a little more camber (may be -3 front/ -2 rear), now I have -2 on all wheels.