eikond's WRB premium BRZ - Review and Journal

[eikond]

Originally Posted by Enjuku Racing

any plans for mods?

Yes!

First mod will be an exhaust.. I'm waiting on the BRM product. If they weren't planning one, I'd rock something from Enjuku for sure.. I'm a big fan due to your history with Nissan products.

I'm not jumping on the first run products for other mods yet.. I'm waiting to evaluate more options, and I'm not all about spending so much for the first things on the market. I'll probably get an intake, underdrive pulley, and most exhaust piping... perhaps a header with high flow cat.

I'm not sure if I'll go with a nice set of lowering springs or pay up for coilovers..

If someone makes some 5x114.3 hubs that are reasonably priced, I'll jump all over those.

Someday in the future I'll look into forced induction (most likely S/C) or perhaps an engine swap.. we'll see..

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

Looks great man! I'm still trying to see when I can take off a few more days for BRM...

Hurry up already!!!.. Just kidding... Hopefully you can pull that off sometime soon. But life is busy.. I completely understand.

[kwood9000]

Originally Posted by eikond

...

Now my complaint.. The NAV system completely blows!!! You can't program a destination while driving. You can't get the recognition to come anywhere near understanding your commands.. It's just horrible. I'll stick to my android phone and google maps for my directions.

...

You might be able to trick the system into thinking you're parked to allow you to program your destination while driving. For my Kenwood nav system the installer grounded the wire that was supposed to go to the parking brake and now I can play DVDs, etc. while driving...not that I would.

[eikond]

I finally hit 500 miles this past weekend. Still driving under "break-in" rules.

I was going to do an oil change this weekend, but didn't have the time for it.. I opted to do a full detail instead.


I spend almost the entire day on yesterday detailing my BRZ. I haven't had a new car in a long time.. and certainly never a car as beautiful as this BRZ. So I wanted to do a good detail to make sure I do as much as I can to protect the paint for the long term.

Now.. Keep in mind, I'm no paint snob or prefessional detailer. (I'll spare you the exact names of each product as I suspect nobody really cares that much.. though nearly everything was Meguiar's brand.)


Here's what I did:
1.) Spray tires
2.) two bucket method car wash / dry
3.) IronX
4.) Wash and dry again.
5.) Clay bar
6.) Wash and dry again.
7.) Apply paint sealant with rotary buffer.. let sit for 2 hours to seal then wipe off.
8.) Apply paint glaze/polish and wipe off before drying (per instructions)
9.) Wax (Meg's ultimate liquid wax... I think I like a carnuba wax better.. maybe just because I'm used to seeing it dry to a white film..)
10.) Wash windows and then apply rain-x

I have some thoughts on detailing a car..
-My arms are really tired and sore.
-I couldn't do that for a full time job.
-The attention to detail and concentration to do this job really well.. is impressive. (see point above)


I also have a couple of problems..
- With such a beautiful mirror-like shine, I now have to see my ugly mug in the reflection every time I look directly at the car.. not good!
- having worked so hard to make it perfect, I don't want to ever take it out of the garage again. That's a pretty expensive decoration.


I took some pictures, but they don't do it justice. I'm using a cheap $75 point and shoot digicam. It was a mostly cloudy day.. which is great for waxing a car, but terrible for taking pictures to show off the glassy shine.

[BioRage]

^ Nice.

Yes detailing cars a bitch, your lucky the BRZ is lower than my Forester.

AHHA.

[RYU]

At Invoice??? Oh man.. please tell me how you pulled that rabbit out of the hat!

[eikond]

Originally Posted by BioRage

^ Nice.

Yes detailing cars a bitch, your lucky the BRZ is lower than my Forester.

AHHA.

Man.. I can't tell you how many times I was thinking of how great it is to have such a small, low car. The BRZ is so small... I would have been really crying if I had to try to detail a big car.. or an SUV... yikes

[eikond]

Originally Posted by RYU

At Invoice??? Oh man.. please tell me how you pulled that rabbit out of the hat!

Over-confident sales person who made a promise before he knew how small the BRZ allocations were. But I give him and his manager and the dealership a ton of credit for standing by there word and honoring the deal.

[eikond]

My BRZ must be one of the least driven in the country so far. I'm away at work in MI during the week and home in Ohio on weekend. Since I don't have a garage at my temporary lodging in MI, I refuse to take my pride and joy up to MI.. So it sits all week in the garage at home.

I put over 300 miles on it the first weekend I had it (Thursday, May 31 - Sunday Jun 3). I'm now up to 820 miles!!! So that's roughly 500 miles in 7 weeks.. I might not put 5k a year on this thing at this pace. Oh well.. keeps it nice and cherry.

I still haven't opened it up yet either. I spend the workweek in a 98 civic with 213k miles on it and maybe 90 hp... So the contrast when I get back into the BRZ is amazing.. I don't even need to rev past 4k to enjoy it. So that helps me control the urge to rev it out before I reach 1k break in miles.

I finally got my MI plate and did a debadge. I think it looks pretty cool..

[dsgerbc]

^Nice. Thank me for not reserving that plate

[eikond]

Originally Posted by dsgerbc

^Nice. Thank me for not reserving that plate

I do appreciate that!

I had a couple other ideas in reserve, but I do like this one a lot.

[eikond]

I gave the BRZ an oil change today. I installed the fumitomo oil valve as well.. that will make next time a little quicker and easier. I still can't get over how thin 0W-20 oil is.. It's like water!
Some people have said that they notice a difference in the engine after ditching the original oil.. I can't say that I do.. but then, I don't get to drive the car very much right now, so I probably wouldn't notice something unless it is a big difference.

I'm at 850 miles.. I've been relaxing a bit on the break-in period.. I reved to around 5k a couple times today.. Still treating it very gentle though. It is nice to feel some of that torque come back when you get over 4k.


I got a package in the mail yesterday.. StopTech stainless steel brake lines! I need another bottle of ATE Superblue and then I need to decide what brake pads I want to go with.. So I might be doing a little minor brake upgrade in the next couple weeks..

That's it for now.. Maybe I can find an excuse to get out an drive it again tomorrow

[eikond]

My final update for 2012:

I sure didn't get to enjoy the car as much as I had hoped. I wound up spending all my weeks in Michigan and my weekends in Ohio.. So the car sat in the garage other than just weekend fun. So I only put 3700 miles on it... and a good chunk of that was a trip to Wisconsin and back.

I didnt do a single modification. I didn't even find time to explore all the features that came with the car.. Just never had time.

I'm putting the car in the garage for the winter.. But, at the moment it's at the dealership service center getting some work done. I wanted to have all the TSB's performed (fuel pump crickets, NAV unit, condensation in taillights, and noise rear deck lid) prior to putting it in storage.

[eikond]

First update of 2013.

Now that it's March, I've had spring on my mind.. and with that comes fun with cars. I plan to get the BRZ out of storage later this month. I still won't drive it in the snow if we get any late season storms, but I miss it too much and am looking forward to driving it again.


I have a pretty long list of parts that I've ordered and am looking forward to installing.

Brakes:
Stoptech Pads
Stoptech Stainless Lines
Stoptech Fluid

Suspension:
RCE Yellow springs
OEM camber bolts

Wheels/Tires:
XXR 530 18x8.75 +33 in chromium black
225/40/18 Pirelli P Zero Rosso (were less than half price on tirerack!)

Exterior:
Bayson R front lip
Bayson R side skirts
Koru rear spats
Advanation rear diffuser
JDM clear side markers

Interior:
Aeroforce Interceptor gauge



Hoping to get all this stuff installed late in March or early in April. Will post some pics of installation and before/after shots.

[eikond]

added a Stivo ducktail rear spoiler painted in world rally blue. Should be here sometime in April.


And.. apprently I need to reload all the pictures in my thread.. stupid Google Picassa changing over to Google Plus..

That's a project for tonight maybe.