body lift and taller tires for my 2018?!?!

[SmaxxSmith]

again, i appreciate all the suggestions and thoughts about this! im not just blowing off what you guys are saying and i totally agree with the waiting to see about lifting the body. but lets be honest, most people here are from two camps: low and slow or redline revs while turning right to go left! the vega was great when i was a kid. all balls but no brains. i dont want that now. the brz is set up to be just the opposite. i dont want that either. but in my experience the handling and brakes are the hardest and most expensive things to upgrade on a vehicle. thus the performance package. a motor swap to a fi low compression motor, though also expensive, is the easiest significant (imo) change to be done. im a little more mature person than i was 30 years ago and id like a little more mature hot rod. plus a brz is way better looking than a mug stain, camaro or (tee hee) corvette. corvettes are WAY too overrated in my opinion. ill probably still go with a slightly taller tire, but back to my earlier question, any suggestions of make and model of tire for the street? i normally just get the cheapest grippys for my truck from kan rock. im a bit out of the loop on what is currently a slightly above average tire for street use. id just go with brand name but the name on it doesnt necessarily reflect the quality these days.

[SmaxxSmith]

tell this guy that a brz cant be quick! lol

[Gunman]

I am definitely not a lifted 4x4 guy, but how do you body lift a unibody?

I've seen them body dropped, by cutting out the floor, and re-welding the body shell higher.

[roddy]

Unibody? You mean this isn't TacomaWorld? Crap! I'm on the wrong forum again...

[SmaxxSmith]

http://www.subtle-solutions.com/prod...roducts_id=284

these are what i was talking about for the body lift. and for the record, im not a 4x4 guy myself. i do like my s10s though! it appears that some nice adjustable coil overs would be a better option. not gonna do that any time soon though. i have lots of "plans". e85 and tune for example. i cant get too crazy as long as i have to keep it warranty valid. i have established what i want though, right in the middle between the white drag car and the blue with the knobbies!

[roddy]

I kid! Anyone who admits to owning a Vega (V8 or not) is ok by me...had a few myself.


I drove my FR-S through 4 winters, and at times, some pretty hairy conditions. The car is a champ. Ground clearance isn't as bad as it seems...the car itself is not much lower than a lot of other cars on the road...it's your butt that is lower. I live in a rural area with lots of critters, large and small. I've hit a couple small(ish) ones with little to no damage. The car is pretty well protected underneath.


Like others have said, drive it and enjoy for a while. You may find its capabilities surprise you. If you do decide to get taller or more aggressive tires, take tire weight into consideration when selecting one.

[JazzleSAURUS]

Originally Posted by SmaxxSmith

http://www.subtle-solutions.com/prod...roducts_id=284

these are what i was talking about for the body lift. and for the record, im not a 4x4 guy myself. i do like my s10s though! it appears that some nice adjustable coil overs would be a better option. not gonna do that any time soon though. i have lots of "plans". e85 and tune for example. i cant get too crazy as long as i have to keep it warranty valid. i have established what i want though, right in the middle between the white drag car and the blue with the knobbies!

I would avoid the subtle solutions lift products.

The Lifted BRZ I posted before started life with Subtle solutions spacers in it, and we actually experienced hardware failure. Brad at subtle offered to sell more hardware to us, but was uninterested in helping us look for a heavier duty option that would stand up to what we were doing. (We snapped two studs during a rallyx event, and when we were disassembling found another snapped stud.)

Brad's response? (I'm paraphrasing...) I use the same hardware spec that subaru does so it's fine.
Not, "I see that my component has the potential to act as a lever, adding additional stresses to the mounting hardware, thus indicating some users may benefit from heavier duty hardware."

We got in touch with Patrick at ADF and asked him if he would be willing to work with us on heavier duty hardware, and he replied stating his standard was grade 10.9, and shipped us a set of spacers for free to test out.

[SmaxxSmith]

Thanks for the heads up on subtle solutions. Good customer service is becoming a rare thing. Crappy service should be called out. Thanks again!

[gravitylover]

Originally Posted by JazzleSAURUS

The low CG helps keep this car reasonable. I've been at the wheel on numerous back roads and fields, and in the passenger seat for quite a few rallyx's.

It does well.

It's currently on flatout coilovers, about 1" up with 16" wheels and Grabber AT2's.

My opinion, grab the [S]Showa[/S] Chuhatsu lift spring kit and see what you think. If you want a bit more, grab the 3/8" ADF spacers and have Patrick send you longer studs for the rear tophats. Go 1" if you really want it, but you shouldn't need it with both.

That said, you're still lifting a car that benefits from lowering. Handling WILL suffer. If you're cool with it and that's what you want to make payments on, then do it, enjoy the heck out of it, and if you're happy (and it's safe,) who cares.

These are fun cars, in part because they are a decent platform to modify for whatever you're into, as long as a RWD Coupe can fit that bill, the 86 will do it in spades.

Did you have to do any mods to the driveshaft or rear end to accommodate the different angles? If I still have the car in a year I'm hoping to do something pretty similar.

[Impureclient]

I'm infuriated!

[SmaxxSmith]

i knew it would! all part of my evil plan! BWAAA HAAA HAAA!

[JazzleSAURUS]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

Did you have to do any mods to the driveshaft or rear end to accommodate the different angles? If I still have the car in a year I'm hoping to do something pretty similar.

Nope, all bolts up fine.

That said, we recently did a single piece aluminum driveshaft from DSS. Nice upgrade, everything feels more ready to rock, still fits great.

That said, I strongly recommend the Whiteline rear subframe bushings once you move away from stock suspension, as it helps kill a lot of movement, and wheel hop issues that can become more evident on uneven surfaces. They did a lot in both my car and his. I'm down 1.5", he's up about 2" total.

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by SmaxxSmith

This will infuriate many here, but these are my short term plans for the car: 1 inch body lift and 1 to 2 inch total tire diameter increase.

I'm surprised it took three pages for someone to notice this:

Originally Posted by Gunman

I am definitely not a lifted 4x4 guy, but how do you body lift a unibody?

Originally Posted by SmaxxSmith

http://www.subtle-solutions.com/prod...roducts_id=284

these are what i was talking about for the body lift.

What he's getting at is that you can't* install a body lift on a unibody vehicle. A body lift involves putting spacers between the frame and body, to lift the passenger compartment higher. This car has no frame. Hence, no body lift.

What you're talking about is a suspension lift. A suspension lift raises the whole vehicle, frame and all.

*Unless you just sit the unibody on top of a frame from another vehicle, but that's not really a body lift. That's just a unibody sitting on another frame.

Originally Posted by SmaxxSmith

My ultimate plan is to have everything I liked about the vega

I don't think I would ever have expected to see that line in print.

We had a Vega when I was a kid. My dad bought it brand new. We lived in the deep south where it never saw salted roads. It rusted away. After three years it literally had holes in the body and floor. When I see people put more powerful engines in them I have the mental image of the drive train ripping right through the front of the car and leaving the body in the road in a rusted heap.

Originally Posted by STV3

I had the unfortunate experience of testing my stock ride height FRS vs a very large raccoon when I was up in Vermont a few months ago. I was going a little over 70mph and long story short.....

I-10 between Baton Rouge and New Orleans goes through the Maurepas Swamp. During mating season the bullfrogs come up in the road en masse. You can't avoid them, and they jump when you go over them. In a BRZ, you hear "thump thump thump" as they bounce along off the underside of your car.

Originally Posted by Tcoat

That is the happiest looking BRZ ever. That picture makes me happy to look at it.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

That is the happiest looking BRZ ever. That picture makes me happy to look at it.

Well normally you would have to be about 3 feet under the surface to get that angle of shot.