Keeping it simple BRZ build - (w/minor scope creep)

[PLX92]

Long time lurker here, finally decided it was time to share my ZN6 story!

Prior to my BRZ, I owned a Fiesta St as my daily driver for several years (bought new in 2014) Loved that car and it was a blast to drive. After a bumpy road with some warranty work around 30k miles, it really soured me to the car.

During the course of ownership of the ST, I became addicted to autocross, so naturally this was a big consideration for my next vehicle purchase. Wanting to make the jump to a RWD platform and needing a somewhat practically sized vehicle (ND was just plain too small inside for me) the 86 platform made a ton of sense.

This was January of 2017, and I wanted to purchase new, fortunately a local dealer happened to have the only facelift BRZ available. Price was right as it had been sitting for a few months, no normal person buys a rwd sports coupe in the dead of winter here in the northeast

After a quick test drive (first time behind the wheel of an gt86) I was sold and took delivery of my new "daily driver"



I promptly put a set of snow tires on for the remainder of the winter. For the first few months of the autocross season, I drove the car completely stock including the factory supplied Michelins to get a good feel for the car. The driving dynamics, even in stock trim, really made me fall in love.

After a handful of events, I was eager to add some improvements, first up was a set of 225/45 200tw tires, which I mounted up on a set of cheap FRS wheels. This was a great improvement, the RS-4's weren't the top tire of the time quite heavy in combination with the stock wheels. But the increase in grip was a welcome improvement. I also added a 24mm whiteline front sway bar around this time as well, which I found locally on the cheap.





Last thing I added in 2017 was a Tanabe Concept G exhaust, wanting to add a bit more bite to the driving theatrics and save a few pounds of weight.



At this point I decided this might be a car I want to keep for quite a long time and didn't want to subject it to the excessive salt and corrosion, so I picked up an old Impreza to drive about and tucked the BRZ away for the winter. (Added bonus was the BRZ winter tires fit right up to the Impreza)

For the 2018 season I decided to add more C Street prep, starting with front crash bolts + a proper alignment, Koni sport dampers and eventually a set of RPF1's wrapped in RE71r's. This transformed the car, the lighter wheel and tire setup felt MUCH better and the Bridgestone's had loads more grip. Also added the STI factory front splitter and side skirts, my BRZ came with a prominent dealer installed scratch that transformed itself into a parts counter voucher...seemed to work out in my favor





I put about 15-20K in this configuration and a TON of autocross, only tweaks really were messing about with the front sway bar settings and tire pressures. My only big gripe was the hard engine cutoff at the top of 2nd gear

By mid 2019, I was still very happy with the car in C-Street trim, but had been thinking about moving up to street touring (STX) prep. This was accelerated one night while surfing ebay during a work trip, when I landed a set of lightly used set of Ohlins w/swift spring upgrade from Works Motorsports.





Promptly got these installed along with a set of BLOX rear LCA's which use a poly bushing to remain STX legal. This was a massive improvement over the previous Koni's and stock springs. Large reduction of body roll, better steering response, awesome ride quality. These are setup with 6K front and 7K rear spring rates, coupled with the Whiteline 24mm front sway bar on soft setting, the car felt very neutral. Truthfully, to this day I still haven't messed with the damper settings much, they are set around mid range and set to the Ohlins recommended ride height.





Summer of 2019 also added the rear OEM STI spats and a block off cover for the right side exhaust opening.



Naturally with the suspension updates, and the available upgrades legal in STX, I added a set of 17x9 wheels and 245/40 RE71R's, the wheels were on sale, not particularly light but they were cheap, and the color combo grew on me eventually



Spent the remained of 2019 and front half of 2020 dialing in alignment and tire pressures. Overall, very satisfied with the improvements. Before adding more power/upgrades, I really wanted to improve the nut behind the wheel and learn the car.



Mid 2020, I once again stumbled on a pretty good Ebay deal for a bluetooth ECUTek module. Which of course put me on the hunt for a proper header. I had pretty much concluded that I wanted the Ace350. Not too long after I picked up used, but freshly ceramic coated set right here on the forum for a very reasonable price.





Some really helpful folks on here pointed me in the direction of Zach@CSG and following install of the header and a high flow mid pipe, the car was tuned and feeling amazing. Shoutout to @CSG and Zach for the awesome service and results. We added the 900rpm idle, increased redline and all the RaceRom features. VERY linear power through the rev range and the taller redline with soft limiter helped tremendously carrying speed out on course.



Friend of mine offered up a set of lighter 17x9 Konig Hyergrams, which shed about 6-7lbs of unsprung weight off each corner.







After adding the header and HFC mid pipe, the exhaust was pretty obnoxious (Still running the Tanabe Concept G) Once again, some great info here pointed me to giving the CSG Touring 86 catback a try. This addition took the sound back to a much more reasonable level





Unfortunately, shortly after I had my first minor stroke of bad luck with the car. Despite retorquing and checking all new exhaust fasteners several times post install, several header > overpipe studs worked themselves free at a local event. Since it was about 60 miles from home base and I didn't pack any tools or spares, she went home on a tow truck.



What I was greeted with upon pulling the undertray off:



After doing some searching, it appeared that this was a common issue...some folks have been using high temp thread locker on these studs/nuts with success, I decided that the ACE supplied fasteners were just destined to come free again and sourced some drilled head bolts allowing me to safety wire them through:





So far so good, no more mishaps and finished out 2020 in all its glory:





This brings us to present day! The car is parked for the winter and I've just begun prepping for the 2021 season. Currently the car is at 30K miles, and it was time to do some fresh fluids (Diff, trans, engine oil was also due)





Diff magnet - yum:




I'd like to start doing some track days along with autocross this year, so I have Jackson Racing oil cooler waiting in the garage. Hoping to install in a month or two once it warms up.

Also on the list this year was solving some of the hopping about my rear diff was doing. I had installed a Whiteline trans bushing insert at an earlier point last year, but there was still more room for improvement.

Subframe/diff/steering rack bushings all installed this past week:









Car feels fantastic, sharper steering, the rear of the car feels a bit more stable, definitely an increase in NVH, I do notice the while while cruising around 60-65mph that seems common with the addition of the diff bushings.
Doesn't bother me much, I've experienced worse, and you know...race car.

Here she sits, ready for an alignment and fresh set of tires. With the discontinuation of the RE71R this year, will move on to try the Advan A052's, they require a bit more camber so will figure that into the new specs.



Along with the oil cooler, I recently picked up a lightly used (Seems like a common theme at this point) AP Sprint kit, I have some fresh lines to go with and a set of Ferodo DS2500's. Going to wait a bit to get these installed while I shake out the latest round of upgrades.



Thanks for reading - questions and feedback always welcome, stay tuned!

- Nick

[gen3v8]

Good read and job! My tracking season starts today and your post has me extra hyped.

[Drifter X]

Is that a Ford Probe in a few of those pics??


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[ls1ac]

Nice story. Looks like a house upgrade in the middle of car upgrade.
Good job.

[PLX92]

Originally Posted by Drifter X

Is that a Ford Probe in a few of those pics??


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Sure is, 1989 GT, bought it from the original owner about 6 years ago (sat in a TN barn for 10+ years) and completely overhauled it, just for fun car.

Originally Posted by ls1ac

Nice story. Looks like a house upgrade in the middle of car upgrade.
Good job.

Thanks! I ended up acquiring the 4 post lift in a trade for another vehicle, one of my better decisions as of late!

[Drifter X]

Originally Posted by PLX92

Sure is, 1989 GT, bought it from the original owner about 6 years ago (sat in a TN barn for 10+ years) and completely overhauled it, just for fun car.





Thanks! I ended up acquiring the 4 post lift in a trade for another vehicle, one of my better decisions as of late!

Dude that’s awesome! I seeing them around in the early 90s and I thought they were nice. So cool to see one restored now that I’m in my late 30s.


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[Lonewolf]

Excellent build journal!!!

[cmiovino]

Good luck during the upcoming season.


I ran the first year in my WRB 2017 last year with 200 run RE-71's. Finally picked up some good rubber this year. I'll eventually go the STX route, but it's street class again this year!

[PLX92]

Originally Posted by cmiovino

Good luck during the upcoming season.


I ran the first year in my WRB 2017 last year with 200 run RE-71's. Finally picked up some good rubber this year. I'll eventually go the STX route, but it's street class again this year!

I enjoyed driving the car is street class, our local venue is an airfield and really allows you to carry some speed. One of my biggest motivators for switching to STX was the soft limiter and higher redline. I will say, the amount of grip in STX trim on good tires is really incredible.

[PLX92]

First event in the books and it was a chilly one! Temps started in the mid 30's and made their way up to high 40's by mid day.



A052's were delivered but i didn't have time to get them mounted so spent the day on a well worn set of Bridestones, little slippery to say the least but surprisingly enough with the little heat available they held on for most the day.

Had the car aligned this past week, current specs:

Front:
-3.9* camber (Ohlins plates maxed + oem crash bolts)
0 Toe
6* Caster

Rear:
-2.5* Camber
0.25* total Toe In

Car felt fantastic, compared to last season, steering feels much tighter with the Whiteline bushings installed.

Took 1st/32 in the experienced street tire class for the day (local club not scca)

In the process of shaking the cobwebs off, took a pretty nasty cone hit to the endcap of the passenger skirt, cold cones + brittle plastic rocker cover don't mix well. This set last about 3 years so I'm not too upset, I'll swap it out at some point this spring.



Double header in 2 weeks, hopefully get the Advans on in time.

[PLX92]

Last few months with the car has been very productive.

I've done 2 track days and a handful of autocross events, cliff notes:

The yokes are fantastic, tons of grip for autocross, wear seems reasonable with the currently alignment specs. Surprisingly, they feel really fast with little to no heat in them, and allow for more generous slip angles than I have been use to with the re71r's.

I was able to install the AP sprint kit, along with Speigler ss lines on all corners and a set ds2500 Ferodo pads. The pedal feel is much better and more linear than the factory brakes, stopping power is fantastic, they seem to modulate heat pretty well on track.

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I have been able to post top 5 raw times in most local autocross events where classing is just experienced based + street tires (run what you brung)

The car has also proven competitive at our regions SCCA events (STX class is pretty light with NER at the moment)

The rear of the car still feels a bit tight for my driving style, I should be able to tune out some of this with tire pressure and damper adjustment.

From one of the more recent local deven's events:

End of May, I ran a very rainy trackcross event at a track in NH. STX field was a good spread, with class bumping we were able to bring home 1st/21 in street touring, and 5/69 in PAX for the day. Photographer for the day caught some pretty neat actions shots.

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After a few events, a fluid change was in order so took the opportunity to install my jackson racing track oil cooler kit thats been sitting on a shelf for the past year. Pretty straightforward install, instructions were a bit vague for the 17+ update, which includes a bracket to reposition the horn but fairly simple. Also traded up to a Motul 5w30 for extra protection, no temp logs yet but certainly some peace of mind to be had.

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This coming week, will be towing the car up to a 3 day event in northern Maine for an annual autocross event at Loring AFB. Will be first time trailering the car to an event. I've driven up the past few years (6.5hr drive) and will be a nice break. Will share some highlights from the adventure next week.

- Nick