BE4VER's STX Journal

[BE4VER]

Car- 2014 Raven Black FR-S

The whole idea behind buying this car was the new regulations for SCCA "Street" class. I began with a set of 18x8 wheels with 235 40 18 RS3 tires that were only mounted because they were off my previous STX car, a 2009 WRX. The over all diameter was nearly an inch larger than stock and with only a cat back exhaust and drop in filter there was no need to lengthen my gearing the way they did. The tires had great grip but very sluggish acceleration. After I saw the task I had to catch up to the RX8's and 370's at the time and know my enjoyment of the car would be crippled by having to use 7 inch wide wheels, the whole "save money and run C Street" thing went out the window. STX here I am again.


—Current performance mods

-17 x 9 +42 Rota Titan - 18lbs -
-235 40 17 Dunlop Z2 -
-Feal 441 coil over - 7kf/6kr swift springs - -2.4lbs ea. front, -1lb ea. rear
-Custom race align and corner balance -
-Whiteline adj front endlinks -
-Invida N1 cat back exhaust (need weight?) -
-Blitz drop in filter -
-Kartboy trans insert bush -
-Whiteline rear subframe insert bushings
-Whiteline differential and outrigger insert bushings


—Current appearance mods

-Perrin Stubby antenna
-Grimmspeed plate relocator
-35%f / 20%r tint

—Sold or Removed

-Rota P1 18x8 +48 (19lb) - tested
-Hankook RS3 235 40 18 - tested
-Subaru +camber crash bolts on stock suspension - tested

[BE4VER]

--C Street Findings(Set Up)..
Tested with align, crash bolts, Catback, Filter, 18x8 w 235 40 18 RS3 (bad size tires)

I wasn't sure if I was switching to koni's at the time and still not sure about the sway bar combo Im going with till after I dial in the dampers on the Feal's, so All these results and findings are on the Stock Swaybars.

Didn't get 1.5 from the old crash bolts but the extra bit of camber and a proper align felt good. Dialed the toe out way too much in the rear to see what happened. The rear was slippery but felt awesome in the slow tight sections but very loose at higher speeds. Had a wondering or shopping cart like rear end feel. Had some dramatic lift off oversteer spins. The negative camber before is not accurate since the bolt was installed before the alignment took place.

[BE4VER]

--C Street findings(results)..
Tested with align, crash bolts, Catback, Filter, 18x8 w 235 40 18 RS3 (bad size tires)

NNJR #2 was my first event in the new car. I was shiting myself how much faster the car was through the sections I used to slug through in my WRX. I immediately had the feel for throttle oversteer but got bit by lift off and did a sweet 540 park job without leaving the course haha. I felt much more comfortable by the last run and dropped a few seconds.

I ended up 95th out of 145 pax which was way down from the last event of 2013 in the WRX.
I was about 40 spots higher at the end of last year with same turnout so I thought it was mainly because I had never driven RWD until just a few days before the event and after the second event I found out exactly how right I was..

The next event was a MSNE test and tune. It was a 1 hour session with about 20 cars. I got in 11 runs and the learning how to drive RWD problem was solved! I did a breakdown of 4 drivers(one of them the previous years STX national champion for reference) from event one and my time difference vs the same 4 drivers in event 2 on a course that yielded times nearly identical to the first event. The average pax gain I factored between all 4 was about 30 spots up from the first event.

All cars I compared against below ARE, or almost fully prepped for their class listed v.s my FR-S with a filter, catback, crash bolts/aligned, with the absolute worst sized tire/wheel 235/40/18 (+.784 over stock) I had off my WRX. The Hankook RS3's have great grip but the car was sluggish from the way to large diameter..

-Time I gained on 4 comparison drivers between first and second event with both events having roughly a .6 mi length and :50 second average time.

Event 1 *Entered as limited prep C Street v.s...

Driver A(Cstreet-BRZ)Pax50 = +4.116
Driver B(STX-GTI)Pax68 = +3.072
Driver C(STX-RX8*2013 nat chmp)Pax11 = +6.399
Driver D(STX-FR-S)Pax 5 = +7.120

Event 2
Driver A =+.891
Driver B =+.803
Driver C =+3.611
Driver D=+3.925

Event 1vs2 diff..

Driver A -3.225
Driver B -2.269
Driver C -2.788
Driver D -3.195

I am very happy I was able to adjust to this car so quickly after just two events.

Video of event 1
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk7M7BJqljQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk7M7BJqljQ[/ame]

Video of best 5 runs of event 2
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQU73F16Nag"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQU73F16Nag[/ame]

[BE4VER]

--STX modding begins..

Once I decided I was done with C Street I began researching for the first big piece of the STX puzzle.. Wheels and Coils.

I know RPF1 is the first choice but this is a "budget" build and every penny counts. The next lightest thing I found was the Rota Titan 17x9 +42 weighing in at 18lbs. from wheeldude.com

I'm going to be at stock power for now so I wanted to add a little pep down low to get back into the higher rpm range faster and a lightweight crank pulley is further down my list so I went with a set of 235 40 17 Z2's giving me a 24.402 overall diameter -.216 vs stock. I have a fear i may hit my limiter in second but hopefully while i stay low on power I’m not hitting speeds that would make me need a tune to raise my limit and do soft limiter yet.. cause that’s further down the line right now.

I've repeatedly read the whole regurgitated story of "koni's w springs are best budget option" or "buck up for KWv3 or Tarmac2's". Yes, I wish I could afford the later with a fancy set of top hats but that's not my budget. Also wanted something adjustable and I wasn't in the mood to modify my stock front shocks and then still have to worry about possible wheel clearance issues with stock spring perches and also still have to buy camber plates.. I'd only run springs on my cars till now but had been researching faqs, brands, and reading reviews for years. I first heard about Feal 441's from a fast RT AWD WRX driver who was class champ last year and told me he was moving up to STU this year. Then I remembered I'd stopped by Odi's set up at Formula D and saw the logo before. After a few weeks of researching and reading reviews on this site, nasioc, iwsti, 3gwrx, etc.. there was two words that jumped out at me.. "budget" and "nationals".

I called up and explained to Odi that I'd read threads on the results others had, he answered all my nooby questions, and shipped me out a set with 7k front 6k rear swift springs.

I ordered a set of whiteline adjustable front end links to dial out the preload which I was holding out on buying till I solved the big sway bar question from JSC speed.

[Lonewolf]

Thank you for the informative posts!

[ModBargains]

Sweet! Modbargains will be offering alignments soon

[vroom4]

Im not sure how you even kept it pointed the right direction in CS with the stock front bar haha.

[BE4VER]

Originally Posted by vroom4

Im not sure how you even kept it pointed the right direction in CS with the stock front bar haha.

Still running stock bar now in STX. I'm thinking of upgrading to the 20 mm whiteline now. I'm still getting some exit oversteer now after the coil overs and corner balance and the rear toe adjustment but I think that might also have to do with the weight shifting back to center and loss of contact patch from the slightly excessive rear camber. I'm going to install rear LCA soon and dial back rear camber to -1.5 or so and see if that helps. Car feels loose but very neutral mid turn so I wanna try that first and then test before front sway install. I thoroughly read many of last years STX journals and one problem I heard from a local BRZ that went to Nats was that he couldn't dial out the the understeer after trying many different solutions with the set up he had. So Im hesitant about using to much front bar. I know I need one.. just don't know how big will be best yet.

[finch1750]

Do you DD you car as well? I am curious on the Feal in that respect? I am on RCE Yellow spring with Konis waiting to be installed (already installed in extra housings) but am thinking about coilovers in the future. The springs are much better than the BC coilovers I had on my STi but I have no other suspension experience beyond that.

[BE4VER]

Originally Posted by finch1750

Do you DD you car as well? I am curious on the Feal in that respect? I am on RCE Yellow spring with Konis waiting to be installed (already installed in extra housings) but am thinking about coilovers in the future. The springs are much better than the BC coilovers I had on my STi but I have no other suspension experience beyond that.

I don't use the car for work or during the week often, but I do drive it on weekends when it's nice. I haven't adjusted the dampers yet but the middle setting(15) + the 7k front 6k rear springs do give it a noticeably firmer ride than stock but not too bouncy on decent roads. I haven't tried turning it down yet but I'm sure I can dial them to stock feel or softer possibly. There are several more detailed threads about the Feal's and I remember seeing some people that have turned them down and said they were happy with them for daily driving feel.

From the other threads I've read, the outer housing is the same as BC taiwan stuff but have 'hot bit's' insides which from what I read are better quality but I'm not much more experienced than yourself in this matter IRL I just read as many threads as I can. Also I don't know what springs come with BC, but the general consensus is that the Swift springs are of great quality. Nothing special about the camber plates up front but for the price I'm just stoked they came with the coils at no extra cost.

I was almost going to do the same thing you have but I had seen the trouble's the stock spring perches present on my last 09 WRX for larger wheel fitments and offset limitations, also wanted ride height adj, so I went this route. So far so good.

[BE4VER]

best lap at NNJR #4 last Sunday.. 3rd place STX pax 35 of 110.
[ame="http://youtu.be/kz6lYf4_DUw"]http://youtu.be/kz6lYf4_DUw[/ame]