Brenda the Blue (BRZ)

[Lynxis]

Not really an update, no changes or events, just went to the local coin-op and gave her a quick $4 wash and then took a few snaps with my digital camera which is way better than my cell.





It's bright and sunny and the camera seemed to be a bit confused by the shadows and the wheels because the pictures came out overexposed. Brenda is a bit deeper blue than that. Still, turned out pretty good and shows off the new wheels which cleaned up nicely with a few shots of wheel cleaner before the bath began.

[Lynxis]

So the HKS Hipermax 4 GT coilovers are on!

I went to my friends place at around noon and we started working on the car.

We initially planned to install my RR Racing BBK while we were installing the coilovers but because I already have my alignment booked for Thursday this week, we gave priority to the suspension and we were unfortunately too tired to continue once the coils were on. We're now planning to install the BBK on Friday.

Install of the coils was a huge pain for us, mostly because winter driving has caused a lot of rust. The sway bar endlinks were the worst, they were completely seized. Thankfully the coilovers came with their own endlinks so we cut the originals off. That wasn't the only issue we ran into though and by the time we had all 4 coils installed, it was 2am and we were exhausted so we dropped the car, verified the ride height was similar left and right and called it quits.



It's obscured a bit by this shadow but there is some rake with the rear sitting about an inch higher than the front.





We noticed the rake when we dropped it but decided we were too tired to do anything about it by then. In terms of ride height, the front is about 1.5 inches lower than stock and the rear is about 0.5 inches lower than stock. Optimally, I'd like to raise the front about half an inch and lower the rear about half inch to have about a 1 inch drop all around but I'm not jumping on doing it myself right now because the car still needs to sit for a few more days for the coils to settle. My alignment guy is going to do ride height adjustment anyway so I've told him what I want and he will set the ride height when he is doing the alignment on Thursday.

I do have to note though, I have a major concern. While driving home, I noticed the car now wanders left and right really badly, seemingly randomly. It happens at any speed and it seems to get worse under braking and better under acceleration but it will still happen under acceleration. We were careful to torque everything to spec so I'm hoping it's just a toe issue and the alignment on Thursday will straighten it out but I've never heard of anyone experiencing this after installing coilovers before so I'm a bit concerned.

With the way the car drives right now, any cop who sees me driving my car like this would probably make me take a sobriety test so I'll just be riding my bicycle for the next few days.

[Lynxis]

Small update, I spoke to my alignment guy today and explained what is going on and he's sure it's just a really bad case of toe-out on both sides and will be corrected with the alignment. Just a bit surprised because I've read many journals where people installed lowering springs or coilovers but didn't report anything like this.

[Lynxis]

Another mini non-update. Had Brenda in for alignment yesterday and she drives straight again and they also dialed in the camber as requested so it will be fine for the events this weekend but the tech who did the actual alignment didn't get the message that I wanted to set the ride height to 1 inch lower than stock so that wasn't adjusted. I was clear about it when I requested it so I'm not sure why the tech didn't get it but they said they will fix it on Wednesday which is fine by me.

[Lynxis]

Got the RR Racing Sport Performance front BBK installed last night:



Had to change to my track wheels because my street wheels didn't have enough clearance from the caliper for me to be comfortable with them. It was maybe 1mm:



Running the BP10 pads because I had trouble getting the Yellows to go in and it was really late by that point.

Here is my car how it sits now:



I'll be attending test and tune autocross and track events tomorrow which I'll try to get some video for and post here.

[Lynxis]

Finally got the ride height adjusted and the car looks great now:



Unfortunately I wasn't able to pick it up during the day so all I've got are crummy cell pics. I'll take some good pics soon.

[Lynxis]

Took a quick snap with my digital camera on my way to the car this morning:



It's a just quick snap but looks much better than the crappy cell photo I took last night.

I also got some gopro videos uploaded to youtube of events I attended last weekend.

My 4th and best autocross run of the day:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U93sUorlUug"]st lac 4 24 2016 4 - YouTube[/ame]



Also my best lap at the Touge Motorsports event on the Shannonville Long Track later the same day:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSIPEvl-p9w"]touge shannonville 4 24 2016 1 - YouTube[/ame]

There was too much traffic to put down a really quick lap. The only reason it was that quick was because of light traffic. This was my 3rd lap of the evening with a 2:18 by the video and my driving and shifting were both really sloppy. I was shifting and driving better later on but there was too much traffic to go quickly.

To be honest, I wasn't really happy with how Touge Motorsports ran the event from a safety perspective. I talked about it in another thread so I won't bother mentioning the specifics here but I'll be sticking to club and venue hosted events from now on.

[Lynxis]

Installed my Stoptech stainless steel rear brake lines today. Install was simple and only took about an hour for both sides including time to bleed the calipers but be warned, be careful with the bolts that connect the bracket to the knuckle, I sheared the bolt head right off.



I got the bolt on about 90% of the way normally then I noticed the last 10% got pretty tight but it continued to move with even and moderate pressure so I continued to ratchet it in. Then suddenly the bolt head let go and I twisted it clean off.

The new bracket had to be hammered in in the first place. I tugged at it a bunch and it didn't seem like it was going to move on it's own so I just added a zip tie and called it a day. I'll get it fixed properly this week. Just upsetting that I know removing this bolt will probably cost me more than I saved by trying to do this job on my own.

The other side went on fine:



So other than fixing the fucked bolt and needing some small spacers for my street wheels, Brenda is in the state I want her in for now.

[Lynxis]

A small non-update:

Car was at the shop today to unfuck the bolt I fucked and it's all done and the new bolt is in. $90 later.

Also, my cheap 5mm universal spacers for my street wheels came in today so that's good. I've got a track day on Thursday then I expect my track rubber will be all used up and I'll need to swap back to my street wheels for sure by then.

I want to buy a full set of 15mm hubcentric spacer adapters but with an unexpected $90 bill, I'm not in a good financial position to do so right now. Hoping I can afford to get them in a few months.

[Lynxis]

Had a club lapping day today at Shannonville Motorsports Park. Had a lot of fun and put down some respectable times:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQFZO0U1Lfg"]5 5 2016 212 lap - YouTube[/ame] 2:12:954 My fastest lap of the day and my current personal best.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ6XDBIsx8w"]5 5 2016 213 lap 2 - YouTube[/ame] 2:13:244 My second fastest lap of the day.

Had a lot of fun but some problems too. Early in the event, during my 2nd session, I broke a swaybar endlink. Not the end of the world and I continued to run anyway. Made the front end a little loose but it wasn't a real problem. During my last session, I had quite the butt-pucker moment when I exited turn 4 too fast and the rear end came around on me. I counter steered to stop from spinning out but ended up going through the infield to the left, right towards the tire barrier. I thought I was going to hit it but I somehow managed to miss it and ended up back on the track. Front bumper cover is cracked following the excursion but no signs of other damage so I'll gladly take that over what would have happened if I hit the tire barrier or worse yet, another car. Thankfully traffic was very light when this happened and there was no one around for me to hit. Count my lucky stars on this one. Unfortunately no video, the gopro battery was drained before my last session began. A bit sad too because I think I was faster that session than anything that got recorded.

[Lynxis]

I got the spacers and street wheels on this weekend, decided I should take a pic so people can see how it looks. Track wheels are in storage for now. Car needs a bath but the weather has been inconsistent this week so I haven't washed it.



You can see the wheels with my brakes here:



Finally, I mentioned I cracked my front bumper cover on an off-track excursion during the last session of my last outing so I thought I'd take a picture of it so people can see:



So between the broken swaybar end link and the broken front bumper cover, the car needs a bit of work now. I want to fix both issues but the front swaybar end links are higher priority because they are functional and are also cheaper to fix but even they are on the back burner since I'm in the process of buying a house right now and can't be spending any money that I don't need to. Once that is settled, I can see what type of money I've got left and I'll start fixing things. Unfortunately, this means that I'm not going to be able to participate in any driving events for a while

[Lynxis]

So some minor updates. The house buying is done and over with and and the money spent and I had a bit more money to spare than I thought so I ordered a full set of 15mm spacer adaptors off EBAY and also a set of Whiteline adjustable end links. The endlinks arrived today:



Unfortunately, the adaptors were shipped USPS and spent some time at the border before they were passed to Canada Post. They are currently in Montreal and unfortunately Canada Post is set to go on strike starting the 2nd so I'm not going to be able to get them until the strike ends.

I also noticed I hit 32000kms the other day as I was leaving work and took a snap:



Was also stopped behind one of these the day before yesterday:



Am I the only person who can't see one of these without thinking about that old arcade game Cruis'n' USA?

[Lynxis]

So the strike was postponed for a week and my spacers came in today which makes me very happy!



Unfortunately, I'm still busy unpacking from the move so it may be a few weeks before I get to putting these and the end links on the car but I'll definitely do it some weekend soon.

[Lynxis]

Bit of an impulse buy but I've been keeping an eye out for used winter tires for this winter and I found a good deal on some used 225/45r17 Pirelli Sottozero W210s locally so I picked them up:





One pair is at 10/32nds which is nearly like new and are alone worth more than I paid for the full set:



The other pair is at 5/32nds which is a little more worn than I'd like but still serviceable for a season or two.



They are sitting in storage until winter, then they will go on my black 5 spoke Dai Alloys that I daily drive right now. The DWS all seasons that are on them right now will probably be toasted by then since they are already at 4/32nds and I intend to do a bit of fun stuff to finish them off =D.

I don't think I'll be able to get the swaybar end links and spacers on this weekend, still too much to do around the house. Hopefully next weekend.