The OTHER Stranoparts STX FR-S - build thread

[trippinbillies40]

There was something wrong with your car when I drove it. It was 1.1 seconds slower than when you were driving it. Clearly the car's fault.

[Kido1986]

Awesome man. You really have a good feeling about the RS3s being as good or better than the new class of tire? Im so torn.

[Wepeel]

Very nice. Are you running a stock ECU? Any power mods?

[apexaddict]

Originally Posted by Wepeel

Very nice. Are you running a stock ECU? Any power mods?

I have a 93oct tune from Moto-East, and had it for NJ (hence the launch control at the starts). I didn't get a chance to update the thread once I had the tune done, since it was just before NJ, but I got it as part of the group buy. I was familiar with Moto-East from when I had an STR MX5, and they also came highly recommended to me by Simmons. And that was probably one of the best mods I've done to the car so far. The torque dip was less noticeable, the car felt stronger on top, and the increased rev limit has paid dividends on faster courses. Not to mention that Mike @ Moto-East is an *extremely* helpful and timely guy, and was happy to answer my emails even late at night and off-hours sometimes. The price is very good as well, as Moto-East only charges a flat rate for whatever maps you want... so if you want just a 93oct tune like I got, that's fine. If you want E85, E70, etc., that is no extra charge. Really good people to work with.

Aside from that, I've had no engine mods up until a week ago when I threw on the muffler delete and Perrin pulley. The pulley made the car more responsive but for the most part the butt dyno reads the same - which is fine, as the main purpose of those parts has been to reduce weight, not increase power.

Originally Posted by Kido1986

Awesome man. You really have a good feeling about the RS3s being as good or better than the new class of tire? Im so torn.

I have zero apples-to-apples comparisons so far, but I have driven the Rivals on an STU STI, and I liked them - but I wasn't blown away. Good tire, very similar to the Hankook in that they are a little soft and numb but still stick. I've also looked at a lot of the data that other people have collected. However, practically none of that data involved a comparison between the RS3 and the Rival. It's like people forgot the RS3 existed. :P

The point is that I don't think the Rival is the magic bullet god tire that the hype has made it out to be so far. That being said, I still intend on trying them at some point. I really want to get the car to work on RS3s or Rivals specifically for the sake of contingency.

As for the Z2s - I don't know yet. I haven't driven on them but I've heard a LOT of mixed opinions. From tire testing I had done a couple years ago, the Z1 was consistently slower than the RS3 for me, so the Z2 seems to just be playing catch up. At the very least, they should be good for intermediates (since the RS3 is *fucking terrible* once the course is wet) but again, that is at the cost of contingency.

I have also heard good things about the RE11A, but there is even less data available for those. They aren't really on my radar yet.

Remember, though, just because a tire is new, doesn't automatically make it faster.

[Dezoris]

Originally Posted by apexaddict

I have a 93oct tune from Moto-East, and had it for NJ (hence the launch control at the starts). I didn't get a chance to update the thread once I had the tune done, since it was just before NJ, but I got it as part of the group buy. I was familiar with Moto-East from when I had an STR MX5, and they also came highly recommended to me by Simmons. And that was probably one of the best mods I've done to the car so far. The torque dip was less noticeable, the car felt stronger on top, and the increased rev limit has paid dividends on faster courses. Not to mention that Mike @ Moto-East is an *extremely* helpful and timely guy, and was happy to answer my emails even late at night and off-hours sometimes. The price is very good as well, as Moto-East only charges a flat rate for whatever maps you want... so if you want just a 93oct tune like I got, that's fine. If you want E85, E70, etc., that is no extra charge. Really good people to work with.

Aside from that, I've had no engine mods up until a week ago when I threw on the muffler delete and Perrin pulley. The pulley made the car more responsive but for the most part the butt dyno reads the same - which is fine, as the main purpose of those parts has been to reduce weight, not increase power.



I have zero apples-to-apples comparisons so far, but I have driven the Rivals on an STU STI, and I liked them - but I wasn't blown away. Good tire, very similar to the Hankook in that they are a little soft and numb but still stick. I've also looked at a lot of the data that other people have collected. However, practically none of that data involved a comparison between the RS3 and the Rival. It's like people forgot the RS3 existed. :P

The point is that I don't think the Rival is the magic bullet god tire that the hype has made it out to be so far. That being said, I still intend on trying them at some point. I really want to get the car to work on RS3s or Rivals specifically for the sake of contingency.

As for the Z2s - I don't know yet. I haven't driven on them but I've heard a LOT of mixed opinions. From tire testing I had done a couple years ago, the Z1 was consistently slower than the RS3 for me, so the Z2 seems to just be playing catch up. At the very least, they should be good for intermediates (since the RS3 is *fucking terrible* once the course is wet) but again, that is at the cost of contingency.

I have also heard good things about the RE11A, but there is even less data available for those. They aren't really on my radar yet.

Remember, though, just because a tire is new, doesn't automatically make it faster.

Most all the fast guys still run RS3, its a hard core dry high temp high grip street tire. I would not even consider anything else, unless like mentioned it gets wet and cold.

[Kido1986]

I liked the Rivals I drove on but I was slower than my RS3s. I chalked it up due to being unfamiliar with them. The feel was epic though.

I wish I had a chance to test my RS3s back to back with Rivals as this was on two different days when I had the chance before.

[Sam Strano]

I figured I'd chime in here, because well it's easier than finding my old thread about my car, which was largely on hold.

Spring Nationals numbers in Super Stock *SUCK* and I'm not dragging my Grand Sport out there to race nobody, so I decided I'd do the few things that we did to Andrew's car to get my car to basically the same spec. I had donated my old R-S3's to Andrew for his car, and I needed to get some tires. I don't know if the Z2 is going to work out, but essentially I opted to take a chance for the team.... Maybe they suck and if they do I'll put the old R-S3's on since Andrew has new ones. But I want to find out for sure. I can tell you they have a LOT more longitudinal grip than R-S3's do, but autocross is still about turning.

Since our cars are soooo similar, and as Andrew mentioned we drive so much alike I figured this was the best way to find out some real information. Personally, I don't believe the Rival is the end all be all answer it was hyped to be. I think it's a great tire for mid-level drivers, Andrew and I are not interested in that.

I've also got a tune from Mike @ Moto-East (who was very responsive), I'm not sure I'll have the small battery, but I'm not also on 17x9" RPF1's too. Realignment from my more street setup that I drove PA-LA-CA-PA and ran the Gateway Road Tour with, to a more full blown setup like we have on Mr. Pallotta's car. My ride height is slightly less low, and where Andrew has a delete pipe, I have a Perrin cat-back. Other than that we will both have the subframe and diff bushings done, the KW's setup the same way (springs and shock setting wise), a Strano Performance 22mm hollow bar, Whiteline C-com mounts. I have Ferodo pads and Andrew, for now at least, is still on stock pads.

[Sccabrz192]

ignoring the how and why... STX just got even more interesting

[apexaddict]

Originally Posted by Sam Strano

The Grand Sport looks so lonely back there on the trailer.

[Sam Strano]

Yeah, tell me about it. Tonight it gets street tires and it will become the primary drive to work car until after Spring Nats anyway. Let me tell you how amused I am. :/

[blkwrxwag]

Sam - are you and Andrew on the +45 wheel, or +35?

I'm sorry about the SS R tires troubles you are going through and I don't want to get into that here, but I am delighted to see that you will be running STX for Spring Nats.

-Max.

[Sam Strano]

45's for both of us. The rest, well... the rest makes my blood boil.

[apexaddict]

More work done to the car yesterday.



Mostly, it was maintenance - fresh oil, new RS3s, a fluid change for the gearbox and diff, and corner-weighting the car. But I also threw in the Whiteline rear diff inserts and the positive shift bushing, which so far has been a huge mistake.

Not sure who else is running this combination (Simmons? Bill? George?), but I'm really irritated at all the noise and clunks created by these. I expected some noise, but not nearly as much as I got. The "shift feel" wasn't substantially improved, and definitely not enough to warrant all the noise and clunks.

The weirdest thing is that Sam put the same bushings in his car, and his car isn't anywhere near as annoying as mine is. The ONLY difference between our cars is that I have a muffler delete and he has a Perrin exhaust. Thinking that because the front pipe bolts to the trans mount, and I likely have more resonance in my exhaust in comparison to Sam, I put a little 1/4" rubber spacer where the trans mount bolts to the exhaust to try to dampen some of the resonance. This didn't help, so it's back to square one.

Has anyone else experienced this? I can't believe how much noise there is - there is enough that it has made the car very un-fun to drive around town. I was hoping that these bushings would help curb some of the wheelhop I was getting at the NJ Pro, but at this point, I'm not sure it's worth the awful drivability penalty. I'm probably going to pull the shifter bushing at the least, as soon as I have the time to.

[xwd]

That's the first I've heard of excessive noise with them, but I'm not running them myself.

You guys do not have any clearance issues running the +45 RPF1s with 245/255? I thought Simmons was using a small spacer with his.

I'm debating on STX for next year right now and trying to figure out whether to do +35 or +45. In the end I'm not sure it matters a huge amount.