Brenda the Blue (BRZ)

[Lynxis]

Finally got around to doing the work I wanted to the car. I swapped the end links but while doing so, found out there was nothing wrong with the existing end links, just that a bolt had just come loose on one of them.



I replaced them anyway and I'll just keep these as spares if something happens.



A quick test drive found that my clunk is gone and the front end feels much more stable now. We will see how it responds at my next track day. Thankfully they are easy to adjust if I need to.

I also tried to do my spacers.



I found out pits in my wheels are too far out so they are effectively useless. My original bolts poke out and hit the hub, they will not go into the pits.



I don't want to be riding on press-on spacers forever so I'll have to come up with something else. I've actually got a lead on some wheels for cheap that might work so we will see.

While I was at it, I checked out my brake pads, all of them are in good condition although worn a surprising amount considering there is only 2 track days, an autocross and around 4000kms of daily driving on them. They still have plenty of material left though.



Finally, I did a partial brake fluid bleed on all 4 calipers. The stuff that came out was pitch black and there seemed to be quite a bit of air in the lines so it is nice to have some fresh fluid in there now. The brake pedal has firmed up substantially as a result so I'll be good for my next track day whenever that happens.

Finally, I tried to adjust the preload on my rear suspension but found that I could not get the smaller collar to move in either direction so I left it alone for now. The wrenches I have fit the large collar but not the small one and I can't move the smaller one by hand so I'll need to find wrenches that will fit the smaller collars before I attempt this again.

[Lynxis]

A small non-update. I found a used set of wheels for a good price that I know will fit over my brakes:



It's another set of TC105N replicas. Specifically, Phatfux Ballzy 17x8 +35, the exact same wheels I'm running on my track tires. I don't care that they're replicas but I really wish they chose a different name for them. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to name your brand of knock-off wheels Phatfux and the model Ballzy? Someone at Dai Alloys apparently... At least Dai Alloys has a good reputation anyway.

My plan is to make what I'm using now work until winter, then get these and my winter tires mounted and sell the black 5 spoke Dai Alloys Revo that I'm running daily right now. Next summer, I'll buy something new that will be decent for both track and daily driving. I'm thinking of running something like Hankook RS3 but I'll decide as I get closer to that time.

[Lynxis]

Note most of the below post is copy and pasted from my HKS suspension review thread here:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107521

So I spent some more time under the car today working on the rear suspension, trying to figure out why it was so harsh. I had asked HKS about my ride quality issues and they suggested that my alignment guy may have set ride height by adjusting preload which isn't correct for this suspension which has separate ride height and preload adjustments. I looked at the preload on my rear coils and I discovered exactly what HKS suggested was the problem. Here is the picture before I started doing anything:



So I undid the preload and watched the coil nearly unwind to the bottom of the shock before it fully loosened. Then I turned it 4 full turns to snug it up and tested. Man night and day difference! I have to say while I found bumps and dips not nearly as jarring as before, I found the car really bouncy now but I figured that was because I set rear damping levels to 5 clicks from full soft so I took a few test drives and ended up turning up the damping setting to 16 clicks from full soft and that seemed to settle it down without making it too harsh. More than 16 clicks was getting a bit too jarring but it's still pretty bouncy over bumps and things. Anyways, I checked ride height and found the car had settled half an inch lower than it was so I turned the shock body a bunch to raise the ride height back up and then I took this picture before I set it back down.



This is much better than it was and I no longer feel my teeth vibrating when I go over bumps or dips in the road. I kind of wish it wasn't quite so bouncy but I'm hoping that will clear up over time as the coils re-settle but knowing that the rear ride height was set by preload, I'm a bit concerned the front coils may also have been set the same way and just because I find the fronts comfortable, doesn't mean that they're right. I'm going to take a crack at that soon and see if that is the case. While I'd like to do it tomorrow, I'm getting the stink eye from my roomates for spending all day on my car instead of helping out around the house which has many walls that still need paint...

[Lynxis]

Another update, no pictures though, just some story time. TL;DR version is: I fixed my suspension finally. Feels great now! Track event coming up. For details, read below:

We had labour day long weekend this weekend so I had another day to spend working on my cars suspension because it still just didn't feel right. I did some digging and found the english users manual for my specific suspension which outlined suggested spring heights in relation to preload so I spent Sunday afternoon working on setting preload and man it is a night and day difference! The car rides like OEM now, no joke, might even be more comfortable. You can still feel small dips and bumps but large ones are now appropriately swallowed up by the suspension without being jarring or excessively bouncy.

Of course, playing with preload meant I had to reset my ride height which also means my camber is probably a bit out of whack due to small variations in ride height. Although my car still drives fine, I DO want to take it in for an alignment just to get it all tightened up and back to my original specs. Knowing that my previous alignment guy screwed up setting the preload on my suspension, I'm not planning to take my car back to him again. Some friends have recommended a good alignment shop locally so I'll be taking my car to them soon.

There is an evening track event at Shannonville on Thursday that I'm planning to go to. It's on the Fabi circuit which would be my first time on that layout which is really cool to try a new layout so I'm looking forward to that. Will be a good opportunity to give the suspension a shakedown too.

[Lynxis]

So I was at Shannonville on the Fabi circuit for the first time ever today. An interesting day to say the least. Lots of fun and met many cool people and saw several familiar faces so it was a nice event although short.

Here is my youtube video of my fastest lap, a 1:20 that I managed early on in my second session:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IydYeTijAco"]shannonville fabi Sept 8 2016 best lap 1 20 537 - YouTube[/ame]

I guess it's a very respectable time for a first timer on the Fabi circuit in a lightly modified car. The only other times I could find on the circuit for twins were a 1:24 in a bone stock car and a 1:19 in a modified one, both by the same guy.

No major off track events, just a few cases where I tried to go too wide and slipped off the track or got too greedy with the throttle while exiting a corner but I was always able to recover. Regarding the suspension, it's vastly improved. Slides are so easy to catch now, even at speed. I mentioned a scary off track excursion at my last event and considering how easy it was for me to catch my slides, now I wonder if I would have been able to catch that scary one if my suspension was set right.

I will say the car is definitely understeer biased. I didn't play with the damping settings much, I started at 16/30 clicks from full soft front and rear and settled on 11 clicks from soft in the front and 16 clicks from soft in the rear. This seemed to help without adversely affecting the ride quality but it was still understeering at the limit. Part of that I think is driving style so rather than play with it more, I decided to focus on learning the track and experimenting with lines instead.

Now the real reason the day was interesting was because it was brought to my attention that my brakes spark like crazy. Both sides in the front. Here is a video of 3 laps taken at the end of the back straight:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BQOlvR36b0"]shannonville fabi Sept 8 2016 sparks from brakes - YouTube[/ame]

It's hard to see but definitely noticeable if you look closely on the 3rd lap. I took a still image capture that shows them pretty well:



I'm not going into detail here because I've brought it up in the RR Racing thread but I will note there didn't seem to be any ill effects. Interesting none-the-less.

I'll be attending my last event of the season next Saturday, the 17th, a combination autocross and lapping day. Expect another update soon.

[Lynxis]

Also want to note that I got an alignment done before I went to the track day. Not terribly far out but it was a bit for sure:

Before:



After:



I had requested -2.2 in front and -1.7 in the rear and they aren't far off the requested values so I'll give it a pass.

[Lynxis]

Took a quick picture before I took my track wheels off:

[Lynxis]

So I was at the track again this weekend. Had autocross in the morning and lapping in the evening. A bit sad that we only had myself and one other guy in a 97 JDM STI show up to the event plus the older guys who were running it so only about 4 cars on track total. A fully built chump car CRX, an MR2, the JDM STI and my BRZ.

I got to drive the CRX for a run at the autocross and man it's a strange beast. fully caged, uncomfortable and loud as hell, steering wheel is sideways but he has it on Hoosier A7s. All the inputs (wheel, clutch, brake, throttle) are sloppy compared to the BRZ making it a lot of work to go fast but the limits are unbelievably high.

Anyways, the forecast was calling for rain and all through the autocross morning, light rain came and went. Not enough to make the track really greasy but just enough to make things interesting when it happened. Because of this, I ran on my street tires, Continental DWS instead of my track tires.

I set the fastest time of the day with a 97.3 I set on my third run but unfortunately, I forgot the memory card so it didn't record. Note this was a faster time than a fully decked out chump car CRX on A7s, an MR2 and a 280hp, 2700lbs STI. On 540tw street tires. Patting myself on the back a bit about this.

Anyways, I ended up taking the card out of my head unit to record but only managed to record my last autocross run.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0ULksD1V2M[/ame]

At this point, I didn't really care about setting a good time because I knew I already had the best lap early on and the whole event was just-for-fun so I was messing around a bit and engaged pedal dance mode for the first time. I drove a bit more cautiously than usual because I had no idea what to expect and midway through the run, rain started coming down and made the track a little slippery so this ended up being a 100 second run.

I only ran the pedal dance for the one run so I didn't get a good feeling for how it was different but I could definitely tell it was a bit different. I need to run pedal dance mode more in the future to get a better feeling for how it changes things.

Anyways, we switched to lapping in the afternoon. Unfortunately, serious downpour was threatening so the MR2 and the CRX didn't run at all so it was just me and the STI. Here is my fastest recorded lap where I am chasing him down:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7scj4Yf8B6o[/ame]

It's not nearly as fast as my best lap last time I was out on the Rivals. About 2 and a half seconds slower on a 1 minute, 20 second course which is pretty significant. And I feel like my driving was better too but I just couldn't carry the speed around or brake as late as I could on the Rivals and it just adds up. Still, I'm chasing down that way faster STI lol.

Almost immediately after this lap, we went into pits for a break and then the downpour started. I decided to use the rest of the session to practice car control and skid recovery and here are some highlights:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID1vjqB4RMo[/ame]

Unfortunately, we are nearing the end of the season. There aren't a lot of events left and my tires, brakes and wallet can't take much more.

There is one more lapping day on the full track at Shannonville on October 22nd that I'm going to see if I can make it. Because of the weather this weekend, my track tires didn't get used and my brakes didn't get the work-out I was expecting either so I think they have one more day left in them so we'll have to see.

[FTA_Dave]

Touge.ca has lapping every weekend until November.

[DarkSunrise]

Originally Posted by Lynxis

I had requested -2.2 in front and -1.7 in the rear and they aren't far off the requested values so I'll give it a pass.

Hey - just curious how you came up with -2.2* camber in the front and how your tire wear has looked. I've been using -2.4* this year on 225 BFG Rivals and I'm noticeably wearing the shoulders in the front, even at 38 psi hot. At my next alignment I was thinking of maxing out the camber (-2.6* or -2.7* on my setup) and seeing if that helps. Have you had similar issues with tire wear?

[Lynxis]

Originally Posted by FTA_Dave

Touge.ca has lapping every weekend until November.

I've run with touge.ca at Shannonville before and there was a variety of things I wasn't happy with so I don't plan on running with them again.

Originally Posted by DarkSunrise

Hey - just curious how you came up with -2.2* camber in the front and how your tire wear has looked. I've been using -2.4* this year on 225 BFG Rivals and I'm noticeably wearing the shoulders in the front, even at 38 psi hot. At my next alignment I was thinking of maxing out the camber (-2.6* or -2.7* on my setup) and seeing if that helps. Have you had similar issues with tire wear?

I heard someone else used -2.2 in front and -1.7 in rear with good overall success for a dual purpose year round daily/track car so I figured I'd just match that. I don't remember who it was but it seemed like a good figure to start with and I've been happy with it.

My Rivals were already wore down to 4/32 when I got them but I haven't had issues with the shoulders wearing down at all. I'm not certain what pressure they are when hot but they were all at 35psi cold before I started.

[DarkSunrise]

Originally Posted by Lynxis

I heard someone else used -2.2 in front and -1.7 in rear with good overall success for a dual purpose year round daily/track car so I figured I'd just match that. I don't remember who it was but it seemed like a good figure to start with and I've been happy with it.

My Rivals were already wore down to 4/32 when I got them but I haven't had issues with the shoulders wearing down at all. I'm not certain what pressure they are when hot but they were all at 35psi cold before I started.

Ah got it, thanks for the input.

[Lynxis]

Originally Posted by DarkSunrise

Ah got it, thanks for the input.

No problem. Something that sticks out to me is that I'm running a 245 on a 17x8 and you run a 225 on a 17x8, otherwise our setup is pretty similar. In my case, the tire is slightly pinched and in your case, it's slightly stretched. I would expect that you get a tiny bit more roll-over onto the sidewall than I do and that might be the difference with shoulder wear.

I've ordered a set of Hankook RS3 in 225/45 that I'm going to be picking up in Toronto this weekend and I'll be keeping a close eye on wear. Not planning to run them this year but they're really cheap right now because winter is starting and people want to get rid of their stock to make space for winter tires.

Also going to be picking up a Skunk2 Alpha header. Then I just need a high flow panel filter and a tune and I'll be where I want to be in terms of power adders. I'll be keeping an eye out for a used OFT next.

[DarkSunrise]

Originally Posted by Lynxis

No problem. Something that sticks out to me is that I'm running a 245 on a 17x8 and you run a 225 on a 17x8, otherwise our setup is pretty similar. In my case, the tire is slightly pinched and in your case, it's slightly stretched. I would expect that you get a tiny bit more roll-over onto the sidewall than I do and that might be the difference with shoulder wear.

I've ordered a set of Hankook RS3 in 225/45 that I'm going to be picking up in Toronto this weekend and I'll be keeping a close eye on wear. Not planning to run them this year but they're really cheap right now because winter is starting and people want to get rid of their stock to make space for winter tires.

Also going to be picking up a Skunk2 Alpha header too. Then I just need a high flow panel filter and a tune and I'll be where I want to be in terms of power adders. I'll be keeping an eye out for a used OFT next.

Yeah you know I was thinking that could be it too. Interestingly my next set of tires are RS3's also, but slightly wider at 235 width on a 9" wheel. We should compare notes on tire wear next year lol. I'm planning to shoot for -2.7*F/-2.0*R alignment (additional -0.3* all around) so we'll see if that helps.

The header and tune should make a nice difference for you btw. There was a stock-power BRZ at one of my track days this year and he said I was pulling on him noticeably on the straight. He said he didn't have to lift to let me pass, so it's nice knowing that bolt-ons actually do something other than sound good.