MrH's BRZ Thread

[hotrodalex]

I could have made you a 3mm spacer and overnighted it to you last week.

[Cookie Monster]

Do you really think anyone will notice 3mm?  An eigth of an inch?  Its not worth the extra weight.

...what? His wheels barely clear the struts so he got spacers to give him extra room...

[r0tor]

Ah, after looking at a brz firment guide, think I understand more...

[MrH]

Wheels are on...

Got the fronts on with 3 mm spacers.  This weekend, I'll stick the spacers on the rears too (they fit fine without spacers, but figured I'd make them even).

Holy grip.  It was raining this morning, but what a difference from shitty snow tires.  Steering feel is more much communicative and loads up quite a bit heavier.  No more tall, squishy tread killing the feedback.  Tracks much straighter, and turn in is immediate now.  Flick the wrist, and the car is loaded up and going that was nearly instantaneously.  A bit quieter too.

The real test will be when it gets dry out.

I'll post pictures later.

[AutobahnSHO]

still jealous. 

[SJ_GTI]

Definitely curious to see the pics.

[LonghornTX]

Wheels are on...

Got the fronts on with 3 mm spacers.  This weekend, I'll stick the spacers on the rears too (they fit fine without spacers, but figured I'd make them even).

Holy grip.  It was raining this morning, but what a difference from shitty snow tires.  Steering feel is more much communicative and loads up quite a bit heavier.  No more tall, squishy tread killing the feedback.  Tracks much straighter, and turn in is immediate now.  Flick the wrist, and the car is loaded up and going that was nearly instantaneously.  A bit quieter too.

The real test will be when it gets dry out.

I'll post pictures later.

Hopefully you have a good experience with your spacers. My collective experience with them has not been positive, i.e. annoying minor vibrations. Hopefully that was not indicative of spacers in general, for your sake

[68_427]

[SJ_GTI]

Definitely looks better with the wheels pushed outward. On my aftermarket wheels the offset pushed them out just a hair, but as the owner it is noticable to me and I really dig it. Think I went from 19x8.5 at ET 43 to 19x8.5 at ET 38.

[Raza]

I think the wheels need to be pushed more outward.  Like this:



Paint job could work too. 

[SVT666]

I like the car a lot, but those wheels just don't work IMO. 

[MrH]

He's a picture.  Need to lower it a bit.  That and an exhaust are next probably.  Maybe sometime late this summer.

[Secret Chimp]

Dang I didn't know the blue popped in the sun like that.

[MrH]

Dang I didn't know the blue popped in the sun like that.

The sun was beating down directly on that fender flare, so it looks really bright in that picture.  I would say it's a bit toned down in person.

I love that this color doesn't show dirt very well.  The car is filthy in that picture.  When I get it all detailed and waxed up, it looks much better.  Color looks very deep then.  I don't remember any of the STIs and WRXs in blue looking quite like my car.  Not sure if it's just because it's still pretty new, so it looks more metallic, or if they actually changed the paint code between models but kept the same name.

[Cookie Monster]

Lower it a bit?! Dog you got dat 4x4 stance goin on.

[MrH]

Lower it a bit?! Dog you got dat 4x4 stance goin on.

Yeah, it's pretty bad...

Looking at it in profile though, It look's like the fronts will just barely clear the fenders from rubbing if I lower it.  With the camber, the bottom actually sticks out slightly wider.  Looks about perfect.  No idea how guys are running 35 mm offsets and clearing everything.

[Cookie Monster]

You thinking adjustable coilovers or just spring and shock setup?

Car looks great though. I love the wheels.

[MrH]

You thinking adjustable coilovers or just spring and shock setup?

Car looks great though. I love the wheels.

Not sure yet.  We'll see where I am financially once I pay this thing off.  That's my number one concern right now.

[Cookie Monster]

Not sure yet.  We'll see where I am financially once I pay this thing off.  That's my number one concern right now.

Yeah probably a good call. I imagine the stock BRZ suspension isn't as bad as the stock NC1 suspension so you don't need to be in any hurry to change it.

[MrH]

Yeah probably a good call. I imagine the stock BRZ suspension isn't as bad as the stock NC1 suspension so you don't need to be in any hurry to change it.

I don't want to go drastically stiffer.  I e-mailed Race Comp Engineering (thanks to Roy's suggestion) about their springs, but didn't really like the answer they gave me.  That's about as least aggressive I could go and still get a decent drop to it.

[280Z Turbo]

1000 lb springs with race valved Konis. 500 hp twin turbos. 20x12 rims. Roll cage. Bride racing seat. Soon it will be so unstreetable you'll have to buy another one for a daily driver and the process will begin again.

[MrH]

1000 lb springs with race valved Konis. 500 hp twin turbos. 20x12 rims. Roll cage. Bride racing seat. Soon it will be so unstreetable you'll have to buy another one for a daily driver and the process will begin again.

  Not that extreme.  But coilovers, turbo, exhaust...  You don't think I'm looking at getting another vehicle for a daily driver down the road?

[Cookie Monster]

I don't want to go drastically stiffer.  I e-mailed Race Comp Engineering (thanks to Roy's suggestion) about their springs, but didn't really like the answer they gave me.  That's about as least aggressive I could go and still get a decent drop to it.

I went as stiff as possible. Over 2x as stiff in the rear and almost 3x as stiff in the front. Stock springs are 110/90 FR and the springs I have now are 300/196 f/r. No regrets, other than some harshness over really really rough roads and bumps and potholes hurt sometimes.

[MrH]

You're running Tokico shocks right?  Are those adjustable?  Did they provide any specs on the shocks (ie, what the damping rate was throughout the adjustable range)?

I asked RCE about upsetting the balance of the car.  Basically, they increase the rear spring rates more than the front (they're running 250 lb/in both front and rear.  Stock, the front springs are stiffer).  They didn't like me asking more technically questions to them.

What's your opinion on that?  Any change in the balance when you swapped suspensions?  There's a handful of people working on a full blown BRZ suspension simulator.  I'm trying to get on board with that, and hopefully have something up and running before I buy anything.

[Cookie Monster]

Yes, the Tokicos are adjustable, but I didn't get a range of their adjustability, though. I set them to 3 turns from full stiff out of 7 turns, but I'm not fully convinced that they do anything, or that the shocks are matched in stiffness turn for turn so I didn't put much thought into it. I did read that halfway between soft and stiff was a good set-it-and-forget-it place so I pretty much did that.

I'm also not sure how changing the f/r ratios affect things. Before I did the suspension the car had a tendency to understeer, but after the swap it likes to oversteer past the limit. It might have to do more with the rear sway being stiffer than the ratios, though.

Suspension is one of those things that goes right over my head. I'm going to buy a suspension tuning book to understand this stuff better.

[r0tor]

A). unless the coilover kit has koni, bilstein, kw, or ultra pricey dampers - dont bother.  All the japanese brands blow.  Its a daily driver so you want digressive valving and not some shitty linear valving you need to stiffen the shit out of to control the spring for handling and kill you when hitting a pothole.
B). your car is naturally balanced and like most OEM probably has a bit higher stiffness ratio in the rear then the front so the car settles over bumps.  Most craptacular coilover makes ignore this and futz it all up.  Find something that proportionally raises the front and rear - if balance needs to be changed then adjust the sway bars.

[r0tor]

From my racing days you want the suspension natural frequencies around 1.7 for an aggressive street car on street tires and a damping ratio around. 7.  A track only car around 2.1 with street tires, maybe 2.3 with slicks and damping closer to. 9.

[r0tor]

There is a shit ton of quality information here written by a passionate business owner with an engineering degree... its mazda based, but the fundememtals transfer

http://fatcatmotorsports.com/index.htm

[Cookie Monster]

There is a shit ton of quality information here written by a passionate business owner with an engineering degree... its mazda based, but the fundememtals transfer

http://fatcatmotorsports.com/index.htm

I know two guys who work there. One of them does all the custom valving. They both have hilarious stories to tell about Shaikh.

I've been watching his videos though. He knows his shit and it's very interesting.

[r0tor]

I went as stiff as possible. Over 2x as stiff in the rear and almost 3x as stiff in the front. Stock springs are 110/90 FR and the springs I have now are 300/196 f/r. No regrets, other than some harshness over really really rough roads and bumps and potholes hurt sometimes.

Technically this should have made the car understeer more. 

The fact that its doing the opposite and that I know the stock suspension is made to corner on the bump stops and the rear shocks on the nc have little travel - I would wager your in coil bind or even worse shock bind during hard cornering... probably causing you to spin out alot.