iLaw's 2015 Subaru BRZ, Aozora Edition (Updated Jun 14, 2016)

[iLaw]

iLaw's 2015 Subaru BRZ, Aozora Edition

Mod List: (In order of Installation)

Power:
Cosworth Air Filter
Invidia Q300 (Stainless Steel Tips) Exhaust
Invidia Uncatted, Resonated Front Pipe

Suspension:
Eibach Sportline Lowering Springs
Eibach Anti-Roll Kit (aka Sway Bars; 25mm Front, 19mm Rear)
SPC Camber Bolts
SPC Lower Control Arms
Bilstein B8 Shocks
Whiteline Front Endlinks
Whiteline Rear Endlinks

Brakes:
WilWood/RR Racing Stage II Front Big Brake Kit (includes Goodrich SS Brake Lines)
StopTech Rear Slotted Performance Rotors
EBC Redstuff Rear Brake Pads
Stoptech Stainless Rear Steel Brake Lines
ATC TYP200 Brake Fluid

Appearance:
3M Clear Bra Paint Protection (Front Bumper, Headlights, Full Hood, 1/3 Front Fenders, Side Mirrors, Trunk/Bumper Area)
TapTurn Flasher Module
Diode Dynamics XP80 LED Bulbs (Front Signals)
Toms Red JDM Rear Tail Lights
Subaru/Toyota JDM Blue Engine Cover
LED Replacement Rear Plate Lights
STi Gurney Flap
Morimoto XB LED Fog Lights
Raceseng Reverse Lockout
Cobb Delran Shift Knob
H&R Trak+ Wheel Spacers (20mm Front, 25mm Rear)
Rexspeed Heated Convex Polarized Mirrors
OEM Replica Rear Diffuser
CQuartz Paint Protection
STI Fender Garnishes
720Form GTF1 Rims, 17x9" +35
Michelin Pilot Super Sport Tires
_____

Vendor Listing:
Pure Auto - www.pureauto.ca
TapTurn Flasher Module - http://www3.telus.net/s_mcphee/orderTAP.html
Diode Dynamics - http://www.diodedynamics.com/store/
FTEightySix - http://www.fteightysix.com
Japan Parts - https://www.japanparts.com
Revomod - http://www.revomod.com
Circuit Motorsports - http://www.brz-parts.com
Clear Cut Detailing - http://www.clearcutdetailing.com
Dynasty Automotive - http://www.dynastyautoservice.com/#!dynasty-home/c14se
Seven Automotive - http://www.sevenautomotive.ca

[iLaw]

iLaw's 2015 Subaru BRZ, Aozora Edition

The Story:

October 4, 2014 - Delivery

On a partially cloudy, fall day, I took delivery of my new BRZ. Purchased from Subaru of Richmond Hill.




Using some LED bulbs lying around, I have swapped out bulbs throughout the car to LEDs as soon as I got home.

January 3, 2015 - Tail Lights & LED Turn Signals
This Christmas, I was fortunate to get some tail lights and XP80 LED bulbs for my BRZ. Below are some pictures, and the final review video I made for these mods:




[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-navQEHf6Q"]Tom's Tail Lights & LED Bulb Comparison vs. Stock - Subaru BRZ - YouTube[/ame]

Although in the video, I talk about the LED bulbs not being as bright as OEM lights, this is only the case when looking head on. From any offset angle, the LED bulbs are indeed much brighter than stock.

To prevent hyper-flash, I installed the TapTurn module.

Rest of January & February 2015 - Miscellaneous Mods

Over the winter months, I have added a few extra things…

From FTEightySix.com, I bought some clear side markers and LED Plate Lights.


From JapanParts.com, I got a JDM Blue engine cover, and the STi Gurney Flap.


From Diode Dynamics, I picked up some LED reverse lights and vanity mirror LED lights.

To complete the front end lighting, I picked up some Morimoto XB LED Fogs from Revomod.




March 27-28, 2015 - Exhaust, Suspension and More Miscellaneous

I guess this is the first major mod session. Over the winter, I got a lot of research done on what I want for my car. I decided to go with Eibach Sportline Springs. The 1.4” drop, in my opinion gives the car the perfect height. Practical, but closes the wheel gap. Based off of review from the forums and other sites, the ride seemed to still be comfortable. With a drop of 1.4”, I needed lower control arms to take care of excess camber in the rear, and camber bolts up at the front. While we would have the suspension apart, I decided to also upgrade the sway bars.

For the exhaust, I wanted something that had a nice sound, but wasn’t overly loud due to the fact that my BRZ is a daily driver. With future headers in mind, I decided to go for the Invidia Q300.

I have family living in Florida (who happens to also be into cars), so ti kill two birds with one stone, while visiting my family in the Orlando area, I also ordered my parts from Circuit Motorsports in Orlando, FL and picked them up shortly after arriving in Florida.

With the help of my brother and some of his friends, We started installing…











In addition to the suspension and the exhaust, I ordered a few small things to complete the look of my BRZ. As you can see pictured above, I ordered a rear diffuser for the back to complete the look from the skirt kit as well as…

A Raceseng reverse lockout (which was actually a gift from friends) and a Raceseng Ashiko shift knob.


And Rexspeed Heated Side Mirrors.
.

After a couple of days, I went to Dynasty Automotive for an alignment:


I seemed to have misplaced the paper showing the front, but the settings are as follows (L/R):
Camber -1.5/-1.5
Toe 0.0/0.0
Caster 5.5/5.9

Here is the end result of all the suspension work:





The final stance:





March 30, 2015 - Detailing

Taking advantage of the amazing Florida weather, I asked Angel from Clear Cut Detailing to detail my car and apply CQuartzUK. They did a wash, engine bay detail, decontamination, compound cleansing, polish and finally the CQuartz.







Here is a picture of the paint before (crappy phone pic, but note the swirls where the flash is):


And after:


Lastly, here is a before and after video for the Exhaust.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwEQ6Q1SF-o"]Subaru BRZ Exhaust: Stock vs Invidia Q300 - YouTube[/ame]

April 1, 2015 - New Side Markers

Unfortunately, the side markers I bought from FTEightySix.com had gone bad. Of the 3 lines of LEDs, one of them had failed. While waiting for a warranty replacement, I bought smoked ones, just to see if I like them better. I installed them, and am going to rock them for a while. Whichever I like less, I’ll probably end up selling them. Here are some pictures of the smoked ones:



UPDATE: After all was said and done, I ended up just buying JDM side markers and illuminating them with Diode Dynamic’s HP5 Amber bulbs.

September 5, 2015 - tS Things

Firstly, I decided to try to replicate the little red pinstripe from the tS. I went to Canadian Tire and bought some red pin striping vinyl. I figured, if it looked like crap, I could just peel it off. Thanks to an OCD friend of mine who installed it, it actually came out pretty good.



And then we went for a bit of a photo shoot...



And the pinstripe, overall, looks fantastic...



So, after contemplating a while, I pulled the trigger on some STI tS fender garnishes. I was hesitant to buy them because they were only available for the 02C (pre-2015) paint code. Since my BRZ has the new 07X paint code, I was hoping that the paint colour wasn't too off.


When I got them I was delighted to find that the silver STI piece was only held on by a screw and double sided tape. Using a heat gun to warm the tape up, I removed the silver piece.


I mounted them to my existing fender garnish (that came with the car) and it turned out pretty damn good.




September 28, 2015 - Osram Xenarc 66440CBI HID Bulbs

As great as the OEM HIDs are, they looked yellow compared to the Morimoto LED fogs. I started researching which was the highest quality, brightest, 5000-6000K HID bulb on the market. Everywhere I looked pointed me to the Osram Xenarc 66440CBI bulbs. These were the only bulbs to have a 5000K temperature, but still maintain the output of their 4300k bulbs. I installed these and now the colour matches perfectly.



I tried to take pictures comparing the two colours, but my camera couldn’t properly capture the colour difference. To most people you wouldn’t notice the difference… until it was compared to a stock HID bulb. When parked beside another BRZ, the difference is actually quite astonishing.


October 25, 2015 - Wilwood/RR Racing Big Stage II Brake Kit

The summer of 2015 is a season in which I really started to understand how the car will act on a track. As such, I felt the stock brakes, specifically the pads, where terrible at the track. Although the calipers were fine, I wanted a bit more stopping power and longevity. Enter the RR Racing Stage II Big Brake Kit. Originally I was just going to buy new pads and rotors, but at the price I got the RR Racing BBK, I couldn’t really resist. Designed by Wilwood, then tuned by RR Racing, they arrived at the end of October. They will be installed in Spring 2016, seeing that my snow tires, which have one more season on them, are on 16” rims (which would not clear the BBK).




Although I have nothing against RR Racing, I didn’t like their logo on the caliper. Thankfully it was just a vinyl sticker, so I peeled it off…





December 25, 2015 - Christmas Presents!
Over the last few months of 2015, learning a lot at the track, I started compiling a list of things that I wanted for my car. Thankfully, Santa (and myself… mostly myself) decided to get some of the items I’ve been wanting for Christmas.

These items included everything I needed to upgrade the rear brakes (since I was upgrading the front ones, I wanted some minor things for the back), and Bilstein struts to match the springs I got last spring.




The Christmas Haul:


Not pictured here are also the front and rear Whiteline end links.


April 10, 2016 - Brakes & Struts

Now that winter is over (officially, but not realistically, as I write this it is snowing outside of my window) I have had the opportunity to install some of the goodies I got during Christmas.

First the Bilstein B8’s and the Whiteline Endlinks.




And finally the BBK:




I have new rims and rubber but the rubber is back ordered. I am waiting until the tires come in. Then I will take my car on a well deserved photo shoot.

April 15, 2016 - Rims and Rubber

I have always wanted to get wider rims and rubber for this car. I love the Primacy tires for how much fun they were, but I wanted more grip in my car. I decided to go with 17x9" 720form GTF1 rims:


However, I did not like the matte black and silver combo. Since I have an Aozora, I liked the look of gloss black. I visited Brightside Customs, and got them powder coated gloss black with a little sparkle:




They are now wrapped in 245/35/17 Michelin Pilot Super Sport Tires. Here are some pics of the final product:

[iLaw]

Reserved...

[jimmillion]

the car looks great man! Glad to see you went with the toms too, they're imo the best looking aftermarket tails for our car.

Good choice nailing down the stance. Once you're back I'll have to come to the wednesday meet to check it out.

-Jimmy

[chermo12]

Looking good! Nice progress.
How does the car handle with the spacers?

[iLaw]

Originally Posted by chermo12

Looking good! Nice progress.
How does the car handle with the spacers?

The car handles great from what I can tell...

But I did install the springs, sways, LCA and camber bolts along with the spacers all at once. So any sluggishness caused by the spacers has been vastly undone by the rest of the suspension.

Since I did it all at once, its hard for me to say what the specific affect of the spacers are.

[vividracing]

Very clean, good on ya! Where did you get the LED fogs from? I may want to look into that.

-RyanG

[iLaw]

Originally Posted by vividracing

Very clean, good on ya! Where did you get the LED fogs from? I may want to look into that.



-RyanG

I bought them from RevoMod. I don't think they are fully up and running yet (shop or website), but you can contact them at sales@revomod.com.

[chermo12]

Originally Posted by iLaw

The car handles great from what I can tell...

But I did install the springs, sways, LCA and camber bolts along with the spacers all at once. So any sluggishness caused by the spacers has been vastly undone by the rest of the suspension.

Since I did it all at once, its hard for me to say what the specific affect of the spacers are.

Ah no worries. Where did you buy them from? You're pics have me debating if I should get a set myself.. lol Probably 20mm spacers all around. I have the 18" STi wheels which are a bit wider (18x7.5) than the 17s (17x7), so hopefully it won't poke out too much.

[stevesnj]

Did apply the 3M clear paint protection yourself?

[iLaw]

Originally Posted by chermo12

Ah no worries. Where did you buy them from? You're pics have me debating if I should get a set myself.. lol Probably 20mm spacers all around. I have the 18" STi wheels which are a bit wider (18x7.5) than the 17s (17x7), so hopefully it won't poke out too much.

I bought them with the rest of my suspension from Circuit Motorsports. Link to their website and contact info is in the first post of this thread.

Originally Posted by stevesnj

Did apply the 3M clear paint protection yourself?

I did not. I had a local shop, Pure Auto, install it for me, since they had access to getting it computer cut and had a good reputation for tinting windows and installing the 3M clear bra. www.pureauto.ca

[akahenry]

Just out of curiosity, how's your ride right now with the Sportlines and other related suspension modifications? I'm seriously considering these as my choice of modification for my car's suspension. Any feedback would be highly appreciated!

[iLaw]

Originally Posted by akahenry

Just out of curiosity, how's your ride right now with the Sportlines and other related suspension modifications? I'm seriously considering these as my choice of modification for my car's suspension. Any feedback would be highly appreciated!

So the ride in a straight line is a bit harsher than stock. Bumps are more pronounced and big dips you kinda have to brace yourself for (with the crappy Ontario highways, especially around the 427 and the airport, you can feel them). BUT, if the road is average or better, the ride is still comfortable. The car bounces a bit more than stock.

In the corners, its superb. The sways keep the car really flat, and now the tires are basically what is holding me back. In the corners the car is solid, flat and I LOVE IT. Taking the car to tail of the dragon as I came back from Florida, it felt right at home. The tight curves and hairpins really let me test the suspension. There is NO body roll and the suspension still feels very well balanced, not bias to any one side, nor front or rear. I thought the car was flat in the corners stock... but this suspension setup makes stock feel squishy. The Eibach Anti-Roll kit increased the diameter of the sways by 7mm in the front and 5mm in the back; which every so slightly reduces the tail happiness of the car. But as much fun as that is, I wanted more grip than drift, so I'm very happy with the result (don't get me wrong, the tail still happily come out if you want it to).

Overall, I'm very happy with the setup. This car is my daily, so those who don't want as harsh as a ride may want to consider the Pro-Kits instead. But the extra 0.4" drop that the Sportlines provides, allows me to use the stock Aozora/Series.Blue wheels and still fill the fender gap nicely; which is how my reasoning for getting springs started in the first place.

[akahenry]

Originally Posted by iLaw

So the ride in a straight line is a bit harsher than stock. Bumps are more pronounced and big dips you kinda have to brace yourself for (with the crappy Ontario highways, especially around the 427 and the airport, you can feel them). BUT, if the road is average or better, the ride is still comfortable. The car bounces a bit more than stock.

In the corners, its superb. The sways keep the car really flat, and now the tires are basically what is holding me back. In the corners the car is solid, flat and I LOVE IT. Taking the car to tail of the dragon as I came back from Florida, it felt right at home. The tight curves and hairpins really let me test the suspension. There is NO body roll and the suspension still feels very well balanced, not bias to any one side, nor front or rear. I thought the car was flat in the corners stock... but this suspension setup makes stock feel squishy. The Eibach Anti-Roll kit increased the diameter of the sways by 7mm in the front and 5mm in the back; which every so slightly reduces the tail happiness of the car. But as much fun as that is, I wanted more grip than drift, so I'm very happy with the result (don't get me wrong, the tail still happily come out if you want it to).

Overall, I'm very happy with the setup. This car is my daily, so those who don't want as harsh as a ride may want to consider the Pro-Kits instead. But the extra 0.4" drop that the Sportlines provides, allows me to use the stock Aozora/Series.Blue wheels and still fill the fender gap nicely; which is how my reasoning for getting springs started in the first place.

That's awesome! Thanks for the in depth reply and I'm glad that you're enjoying your set up!

Would you reckon that it's necessary for me to get the lower control arms and camber bolts, if I were to buy and install the Eibach Sportlines and sway bars? In other words, how necessary are they, in regards to the stock wheels (I'll be using my stock wheels until they literally fall apart lol), if I'm looking to maximize the handling given my limited budget. Would the alignment be that bad that I must install lower control arms and camber bolts? I know I'll be needing to get an alignment no matter what, after the installation of the springs, but I'm not sure if I need the camber bolts and lower control arms, given that I pretty much daily drive my car and do spirited canyon runs (weekly). I mean, I of course, want to maximize my suspension's potential, but given if I the camber bolts and lower control arms aren't necessary, then I'd rather save the extra dollar on something else.

I see a few other members that run similar springs, also run lower control arms with the stock wheel set up, but without the camber bolts, any suggestion to why they do that? I'll most likely copy your suspension set up, but I just need to do a little bit more research before fully committing.

Oh and where did you purchase your suspension parts, if you don't mind sharing.