Back To Basics Toyota 86: STX & 86 Cup Street Build

[Lincoln Logs]

Last weekend marks three in a row for autocross, this car has been getting worked. I have a little surprise that is arriving soon...going to change up the looks a little.



The results from this event were even closer than the last one. I finished a ahead of second place by only .008 seconds. The weather definitely played a roll with lap times, everything past the 3rd lap was a throw away.



Full video report from the event!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORShnAkQR6c"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORShnAkQR6c[/ame]

[Lincoln Logs]

Great photo of the car from the last autocross. Absolutely loving the set up right now, time for new tires already!

[Lincoln Logs]

Ouch, this event was rough. Lots of weekend activities and not enough sleep equated to a less than ideal result. Full event report in the video below!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC3bXZK8DAE"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC3bXZK8DAE[/ame]

This was one of the faster runs, still sloppy though. The car really struggled to put down power with lower tread tires on the stadium surface. I also noticed after the fact I was on the brakes before the timing lights, I have no idea what I was thinking.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO_xNvpLRus"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO_xNvpLRus[/ame]

Preliminary results from the event. I definitely was not on my game and threw away a much better finish. Oh well, there is always next time.

[Lincoln Logs]

Whoa it is a little dusty here. I took a bit of a break from the car scene and went traveling for two months this fall. Now that I am settled in again, I finally made time to dust off the car and take it to the last autocross of the year.

The week before the event my Verus Engineering camber plates decided to lunch the bearings and started clunking. The last event I had the shoulder nut loosed up and allowed some slop during a lap so that may have contributed to their death. Either way, I was happy to have a real excuse to replace these. Out of all the modifications I had made, these were my least favorite. Lots of NVH, poor design and crummy hardware that stripped out. A quick call to Vorshlag and I had new camber plates on the way.



The Vorshlag camber plates are the solution I should have picked up to begin with. They use much higher quality hardware and the secondary bearing in the spring perch eliminates noise and reduces wear and tear on the bearing in the top hat. These camber plates also increase caster by 1*, helps some with camber gain as the suspension goes through it's travel as well as adding a touch more weight to the steering wheel.



Installation went smooth and while I was there I took the opportunity to install the 6kg Swift Springs I had laying around. I swapped both the front and rear springs out bumping the rates up from the relatively soft 5kg springs the Whiteline coilovers came with.



Ride height was not changed in the front and the rear was raised about .25", final ride heights were 13.5" F and 13.75" R (measured from the center of the hub to the top of the fender). New camber plates also meant a new alignment. Specs for that are below:

Front: -3.5* Camber, 0 Toe, 7* Caster
Rear: -2.25* Camber, 1/16th Total Toe In



Trackside the car was a treat. The additional camber makes a huge difference on turn in, so much so it took me half the day to readjust how fast the car would reactl. Tire temps were much happier indicating this was just what the doctor ordered. The additional spring rate was also a massive improvement. The car took a set much quicker and no longer bottomed out over the huge bumps in the parking lot. This also meant on the street it was MORE comfortable. With less grippy tires the 5kg are just fine, but for 245 RE-71s on a 17x9 not so much.



Full video break down from the event is below! Now to ponder the next change to get the car around the cones even faster.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQEaaQyi7gU"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQEaaQyi7gU[/ame]

[Lincoln Logs]

The first autocross of 2019 was a treat. I swapped on my new wheel/tire combo to kick off the season right and get some better data. I was testing on old tires at the last event which is never a good idea. I used the same 245/40/17 Bridgestone RE-71r on 17x9 Konig Dekagrams. Not quite as flashy as the Red Opal Hypergrams but I like the look and I'll be able to rotate between the sets keeping a fresher set of tires for competition days.



My wife couldn't make it down for this event so I co-drove with a great friend of mine, he snapped a few rad photos too. It was fun to get some feedback from another driver and now he has the bug to get his own GT86.



The autocross proved to be VERY interesting. It was raining off and on all day which saved tires but I knew timed runs would be a huge gamble. Thankfully it worked out just right and I was able to throw down some killer runs on dry pavement. Fresh RE-71r meant I was able to snag a first place finish in class and ran the second fastest overall time. The only car that was quicker was an ASP Subaru STi making low 400WHP.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-MOXSZW8C4"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-MOXSZW8C4[/ame]

[Lincoln Logs]

I am very happy to have finally found a solution to the noise my car was making. What was it? The inverted struts had run out of grease and, for once, it was a simple fix.

This all started when I spoke to Vorshlag and they strongly recommend I take these apart to regrease the strut housing before shipping them out to be rebuilt. After watching the video below, I figured it was worth a shot. The struts themselves looked easy enough to take apart.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob1xJ3-q2rs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob1xJ3-q2rs[/ame]

This post is one part PSA and one part how-to. Inverted struts are a great idea and make sense for certain applications, i.e. race cars. The downside to their design is they require a fair bit more service than your standard strut design.

Vorshlag and other shock servicing companies recommend a service interval of 6-12 months for a grease application. The bottom line is that it will depend on your usage and environment. For example, my coilovers went 2000 miles and 20 autocross events before requiring this service. Once you get the shock disassembled, refer the video above to get to this stage, I took time to clean everything up. There was not much grease left on the strut itself when I removed it.



When you take these apart make sure to fish out the bump stop. Mine had lots of crud on it from disassembly. You also want to make sure all debris has been removed so the bushings on the inside of the strut housing do not get damaged.



Once you've cleaned everything back out you want to repack the black rings on the inside with moly grease. I went to my local parts store and grabbed whatever they had on the shelf. Nothing fancy. The next time I do this I'll probably use marine grease for the added water resistance. You'll also want to add a thin coat to the strut itself where it interfaces with the case.



Below is a video documenting part of the process. I used a neighbors garage to get this done so I was a bit pressed for time and did not film every single step. Once I put it back together and I confirmed all the noise was gone and I took it to get realigned. Simple and easy, hope this helps someone else with this type of coilover.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZUjj7NOb0A"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZUjj7NOb0A[/ame]

[Lincoln Logs]

I've been sitting on this Greddy lip since last year, and it has been doing nothing for me other than taking garage space. I finally got a nasty rock chip on my front bumper that I wanted to cover up and it was the perfect time to get this installed. When you order the Greddy lip it ships unpainted but glossy polyurethane. All hardware is included for install as well!



The paint shop I went to recommended spraying the entire lip white, getting the lip properly sanded and masked on the body line would have been a lot of trouble. I may or may not wrap the bottom half of the lip in black vinyl.




The fit and finish of this lip is fantastic and required ZERO massaging. Install is also not permanent and you do not have to drill your bumper. A few minutes with a heat gun and dental floss and this would come off in a hurry.



The most aggressive angle is the front shot but I think it looks like a natural extension of the body. I like this way more than the factory TRD lip! I don't think I'll do any side skirts but I do want a JDM-Spec TRD rear spoiler. Ideally I'd like a carbon one but I'm fearful of replica pieces. Likely will break down and order an authentic paint matched spoiler.



Obligatory install video, enjoy!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncf-PD78PSA"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncf-PD78PSA[/ame]

[warhawk03]

Do you need spacers for the Hypergram or Dekagram with the Essex Brake Kit?

[Lincoln Logs]

Originally Posted by warhawk03

Do you need spacers for the Hypergram or Dekagram with the Essex Brake Kit?

No spacer needed for either wheel, the TRD wheels also clear without any problems.

[Mr.Scion]

Do you do national events? I don't think that lip is STX compliant. I know you could argue there is no performance benefit, but I wouldn't risk it.


-Alex

[Lincoln Logs]

Originally Posted by Mr.Scion

Do you do national events? I don't think that lip is STX compliant. I know you could argue there is no performance benefit, but I wouldn't risk it.


-Alex

No national events yet, if I did run one I'd take it off. It wouldn't be too hard to do so.

[Clutch Dog]

This car and driver combo is cheat codes

[Go Frogs]

I like the lower lip, but now the car looks like it has an underbite.

The lip add a lot of volume to lower front bumper and from some angles, gives odd proportions.

Happy motoring.