BRZ daily driver/weekend warrior questions

[Thongpocket]

I use my car for work and travel alot on freeways. I am looking into upgrading my wheels to some 17x8 front and 17x9 rear and also want to lower it a bit. I love to autoX my car on weekends and would like to do a track day or two but my car is mainly for work and daily driving so I don't want to go too extreme. The other thing is that the car is set up quite well from the factory and I don't want to upset the handling much. Does anyone have experience with just adding some lowering springs like Eibach or H&R for a mild 1" or so drop? Will I need camber bolts if i do? Also, I would like to dial out a little bit of understeer in the car so I also thought about upgrading the rear sway bar. Any suggestions or shared exerperiences would help alot.

Thanks for reading

[Bullnettles]

Although I don't autoX (yet), I've added some 17 x 8 wheels with stickier tires and sways, and must recommend trying that first. The car is a different animal, and no lowering necessary. I have had coilovers on my last two vehicles, but on this car, for DD/fun on weekends duty, I'm not sure it's needed... That being said, I've yet to autoX, just canyon runs, etc. I travel 30 miles each way to work.

[Thongpocket]

Originally Posted by Bullnettles

Although I don't autoX (yet), I've added some 17 x 8 wheels with stickier tires and sways, and must recommend trying that first. The car is a different animal, and no lowering necessary. I have had coilovers on my last two vehicles, but on this car, for DD/fun on weekends duty, I'm not sure it's needed... That being said, I've yet to autoX, just canyon runs, etc. I travel 30 miles each way to work.

I'm down to try that. What size tire are you running? Got a picture?

[ATL BRZ]

Originally Posted by Thongpocket

Any suggestions or shared exerperiences would help alot.

RaceComp Engineering Yellows Springs + RCE Hollow Sway Bars are an excellent combo to preserve the OEM handling characteristics without sacrificing lots of ride height for daily driving.

A 20mm drop and 250lbs/in front and rear make the car very predicable at the limit and it will still oversteer when you convince it. Grip is greatly improved everywhere and while it's a noticeably firmer ride, it inspires much more confidence when you're 65% criticially damped and begin to learn how much more quickly the car turns in and reacts to your steering inputs with the sway bars installed along with the springs. With equal spring rates for neutral handling and the sways set stiffer in the rear, softer in the front, I've found the RCE setup to be awesome for a DD car that sees the track.

Camber bolts are an easy way to get camber in the front, but don't expect more than -1 degrees or so without new top mounts. You'll want adjustable rear lower control arms as well to dial out the excess camber in the rear.

RaceComp are still selling the combo package for $599, sick deal: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...light=racecomp

[Bullnettles]

Originally Posted by Thongpocket

I'm down to try that. What size tire are you running? Got a picture?

Sure, cell number? 235/40/17 Dunlop Star Spec

[CSG Mike]

Come visit the track subforum

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=39

[f0rge]

I don't really DD my car since I walk to work, but I've basically done the same thing you're looking to do.

I did 18x8.5 up front and 18x9.5 in the rear (partly for looks), and to be quite honest, I should have gone with 17x9 all around so i could be in STX instead of STU. I'm running pilot super sports 225f/245r.

I lowered the car (also partly for looks) with Eibach Sportlines, around a 1.4inch drop. I didnt need camber bolts but i got them anyway since the rears ended up with crazy camber and i had to grab some LCAs to get it back into normal-ish spec. I would probably go with a little bit less aggressive drop like with the RCE yellows that everyone seems to love to avoid needing LCAs. But even at 1.4 inches I've never scraped the nose or bottomed out.

IMO the stock shocks can't really handle the sportlines, I'm probably going to pick up a set of coilovers over the winter. The sportlines didn't give me the drop i was looking for either despite being one of the biggest drops for springs.

I will say that the car handles like it's on rails, it grips so hard. I'd wager the tires alone made 80% of the difference but the sportlines hug the road pretty well. I have not touched the sways, nor do i have plans to, but the FRS is supposed to be more tail happy than the BRZ anyway.

[kuhlka]

The really quick guys I've seen at AutoX events changed tires and went with a stiffer front swaybar. Some went with wider wheels, but most just swapped tires. You don't need to do much at all to lob off several seconds and be running laps close to the EVOs and STIs.

[ayau]

Not sure how competitive you want to be at autox, but non-oem sized wheels and springs will kick you out of stock class. Then you're looking at STX class, which the car won't be competitive at all. Again, not sure what your goals are.

[Thongpocket]

Thanks for the suggestions. I just auto for fun. I think I'm gonna do 17x8 front and 17x9 rears and nice tires and see how that does.

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