Hi guys - I recently bought a new daily driver (2015 Subaru BRZ) and decided to track prep my 2005 R53 since I no longer have to worry about crashing it on the track.

Since it will only be a track toy I do not have to worry about building to a set of class rules so I have a lot of freedom to mod as I want.

The idea is to keep the car (barely) street legal with an emphasis on performance through weight reduction and suspension (read grip) upgrades, while keeping the powerplant fairly stock.

I am keeping it street legal so I can drive it to the track and even as a grocery getter or to work even should I need it, since I really don't have the budget to buy a truck to tow this thing around and I just can't justify having a car if I cant use it in a pinch.

To keep the budget in check, I will be adding only 1 or 2 mods per month and will be doing at least one track day a month to examine the improvements in the car (if any). The rest of the budget will kind of be a 'upgrade as things break' kind of approach. My local tracks here in Houston Texas are GranSport Speedway and MSR Houston.

This is how the project has progressed thus far:

1. K&N Typhoon intake and intake cowl dremel upgrade - Or see Mini Maddness for their $50 piece
2. Tracked the hell out of some Michelin Pilot super sports and Bridgestone RE11s on stock wheels. I am running HAWK HP+ pads on stock rotors.
3. Full oil service, replaced a ton of gaskets, brake fluid flush and bleed, transmission and clutch fluid service
4. Gutted the car of everything but airbags to remain street legal
5. Schroth Quickfit Pro racing harness
6. Ghetto rigged some brake ducts using dryer ducting, the stock fog light brackets, black spray paint, a dremel, liberal and creative cursing and a lot of zip ties. They are fully functional
7. Enkei Racing RPF1 15x8 wheels with Nitto NT01 tires

Notes on performance so far.

1. The RE11s were super soft and shredded to hell in the Houston heat. Tire deg was insane and will not be using those during the summer. Need to find harder compound for summer track events.
2. Mini engine runs very hot - need to find oil cooling and engine cooling options
3. Brakes became really mushy at the tail end of the last event. Wasn't a problem before this. I bled brakes and added brake ducts. Rotors are scored. Will upgrade.
4. I have yet to test out the Enkei RPF1s yet. My initial impressions is that turning is more responsive. I thought that accel and decel might see noticeable impact from the lighter rotational mass but it is not palpable.
5. Need rear sway bar, neg camber (irregular tire wear) and fresh brakes

Upcoming mods kind of in order but not really -

1. OMP front strut brace - improved turn in and rigidity
2. H sport rear sway bar - gotta dial out some understeer!
3. Wilwood street big brake kit 11.75 - Good option for 15in wheels
4. Alta catback - Seems to be one of the lightest cheapest exhaust designs
5. Sparco Evo seat -bc racecar
6. KW Clubsport - need no explanation
7. What to do about camber ?

I wanted to kind of keep this an open discussion on how to build the car. I am very open to all kinds of suggestions. Again please keep in mind my goals are performance thru light weight and handling.

More pics to follow. Let me know what you guys would like to see

 

Hi guys after the incredible response to my first post I decided to update you on the progress of this mediocre-at-best track car build.

On 15 Nov. I was back at Texas' Grandsport Speedway to do battle with a blue BMW M235i (320hp). Since Sept. I had added my 15x8 Enkei RPF1s with Nitto NT01 rubber while he added KW Clubsports.

And so the battle was on.

Luckily the straights are tiny which limit his advantages and I was able to hang with him. By the end of the day his brakes were starting to go while the brake ducting I had rigged allowed me to keep going. I am sure he will be back with brake ducts next month!

I did really well and duffed up some Porsches and even a Lambo albeit different driver experience obviously is what was involved there.

Tire wear is the big issue to get under control now. Admittedly I was over driving in some fun corners and need to put a stop to that but I also did some cool down laps (or at least portions of the track drove at 70%) but the big thing here is to get some negative camber. I am in contact with Waylan at Way Motor Works who has pointed me toward the Vorshlag setup. These will be ordered next.

BUT First - I have a Hsport competition rear sway bar I will hopefully have time to install with the holiday coming up and all along with an OMP upper strut bar.

Next track day is 5 Dec. My NT01s are wasted and I dont really have the budget for new tires so will probably run those down to the belts

 

Sweet track toy! What's the weight of the RPF1's with that rubber?

 

Hey,
Looks like a fun ride

About camber - you will need the coilovers to get more than ~2 deg. For a street/track car about 2.5 deg in front will work well and about 0 toe.

You say the engine is running hot. Do you have a ScanGage to watch what the engine is doing?

As for brakes, with Rcomps you really need to dump the HP+ pads and get some real track pads like the Carbotech XP10. They can really take some heat and they are good on the street. I cooked the HP+ with street tires. You can really overload those pads with Rcomps. When you get the Wilwoods I would recommend the Poly B or Poly H pads.

Hope that helps a little.
Enjoy

 

ill have to get them on the bathroom scale this weekend

but note there isnt much rubber left on them

 

Okay folks Hotchkis competition rear sway bar going on tomorrow - OMP front strut bar and Madness Motorwerks front underside brace in the mail.

A huge thank you to George at Madness Motorwerks for the great install video. I am sorry I went with the Hotchkis bar bc I am a huge weight **** and the idea of a hollow bar appealed to me. If (when) it breaks ill get a MM bar.

Vorshlag camber plates to be ordered very soon.

Next track day is 5 Dec. I will probably have the Hcomp bar and all the braces on but have very destroyed rubber for that day. Will take it easy and focus on smoothness and figuring out which setting on the rear sway bar works best.

Good bye tendency to understeer hopefully

 

How are you liking the NT01's? I run NT05's and I'm not too stoked on them. Have you thought about running with a group like NASA or SCCA?

 

They were my first time in a car on R compound tires so it was night and day. Tough for me to tell you but they were affordable available and better then RE11s.

Right now I need the car to be streetable so I cant go full racecar with it so for now just HPDEs.

 

Might try them out next time. The NT05's are great tire for 200 rating though, but thinking I might go a bit more aggressive like the NT01's or something else. Yes, so NASA does HPDE's that you have to do regardless to work your way up to their TA or WTW. That way you are at least working your way towards a race license while you're just doing HPDE's.

 

What is TA or WTW. Yea I would like to eventually get that.

The NT01s had endless grip - It came down to tire management rather than finding the real ultimate limitations of the tires. At least for me anyways.

I do have zero neg camber tho so my tire wear is retarded.

 

I stuck with a tread of 200 due to limitations for TT (time trial) events at a local track back home. I'm probably going to go more aggressive for the next set, but not straight up hoosiers just yet. Sorry, TA is time attack and WTW is wheel to wheel racing. So, in order to compete competitively in their time attack series or wheel to wheel series you have to work your way up through their HPDE 1 - HPDE 4. Since you're doing track days, it would be a good investment to go out with NASA in their HPDE's so that you're working towards an official race license.

 

Noted - Ill look into that.

At my track event I always get bumped from the Bronze group to the Gold group so I think I could pull that off.

Something that is holding me back from pursuing racing the car is that I dont want to build the car to a set of specifications. I want to build the car that I want. 15x8 wheels would keep me out of more classes to begin with.

 

Ya, definitely check it out! The nice thing about their TT is that you don't have to build it to specifications like WTW. Their TT is point based and you get put into run groups, after you make it through their HPDE1-4, (TT1, TT2, TT3, TTB, TTU, etc) based off of what you have done modification/aero wise. When I did my build I didn't build it for their specifications. I'm not sure about SCCA as I haven't ever run with them, but I eventually will. If you have any questions about this stuff, if you check it out, feel free to ask. I asked my race friends A LOT of questions when I first started looking into this stuff.

 

I am going to enjoy this build and then probably get a B spec car off someone or whatever the NASA equivalent is.

 

I hear you on that. After this build I said to myself maybe I should have just bought a Miata and run it in Spec Miata. Plus, they're way cheaper if they break than what I currently race. Anyways, I look forward to watching your progress. Kick some butt out there! Let me know if you decide to check out the regional NASA in your area.

 

Welp I installed the beast of a bar this weekend. Car def felt more planted in the medium setting but I think I will be going with most aggressive setting once I get to the track.


Anyways ran in to some problems which are outlined here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4147738

I think I need to get different lug bolts or convert to studs. My hubcentric rings are about to fall to pieces. There was metalic powder everywhere.

Anyways I am going to find a tire shop that will remount my tires with the inside tread on the outside of the tire so that I can get one more track day out of them. I fully expect to get some looks.

Madness Motorwerks lower brace and OMP upper strut mount in the mail. Will likely order a new fuel filter soon.

The project is coming together here. Hopefully Santa will bring me a BBK

 

ok so got some excellent bolt ons for the cooper lined up here:

Alta catback exhaust
OMP/Madness motorwerks strut bar
Madness motorwerks lower stress bar
Cabrio braces
OEM fuel filter and gaskets

Also ordered and on the way are some new hubcentric rings and a fresh set of Nitto NT01s.


Could anyone point me to a good set of install instructions for the Alta catback or even just any catback install with pictures

After this the modding needs to slow pretty badly I need to spend the next paycheck on xmas gifts for others but Vorshlag camber plates will be happening in the very near future

 

Some more pics of the build process so far:

The K&N Typhoon intake

As I mentioned earlier I made sure I tightened the suspension down well - Broke a 13mm socket from a walmart tool kit in the process

The mangled hubcentric rings - Still struggling with exact wheel fitment with the RPF1s

 

This is an older DIY thread here on NAM for the exhaust.

 

Dude thank you - The pics dont work on this link but the info is super helpful

I forgot to mention in my earlier posts I also picked up a new Makita impact wrench basically half off on black Friday (online shopping not that trampling ppl in a store bs)

This will certainly speed up my tire rotations at the track.

 

You're very welcome! Awesome! Impacts make life so much easier.

 

you might say ....they make a big ......impact .... on ones life


(ill go kill myself in the corner now)

 

That was a good one!

 

Ultimately I will probably have my local shop make a custom exhaust that goes straight out the back so I can get a fully functional flat rear difuser ... I am guessing this would require a total hacking of the battery tray and I would just switch to a lightweight battery at that point and build a custom mounting solution on the passenger side

 

Ok so for an update:

This weekend I installed the Alta catback. Excellent quality piece. Fitment was easy. The only issue was a bracket that needed to be filed down with a rat tail file. The sound is great and gurgles when you get off the throttle. Not as loud as I was expecting so very happy with it.

I could certainly feel that it freed up a couple ponies.

I installed the OMP strut bar from Madness Motorwerks. I had some problems with fitment and had to make liberal use of my rubber mallet but this bar is by far the best design on the marketplace.

The OMP bar got rid of some of the dead spot in the steering wheel and the front def feels more planted BUT and dont ask me to explain why very oddly I lost some steering feel which was very unexpected.

So next I installed the cabrio braces and took it for another spin. Steering feel came back and car felt just as planted as before. (placebo effect?)

Lastly I installed the Madness Motorwerks lower stress bar. With the other two braces on I must admit that I couldn't feel the impact of this one. From the reviews I have read it helps a ton and i am sure if i installed this one first I would have noticed something. But with this much bracing on the front I think it made a marginal addition that was just not palpable to me.

Anyways I spoke to Santa (bank of america) and he will not be giving me a BBK for xmas. I will only have enough for camber plates.

So keep an eye out for some pics of my recently installed parts and some negative camber goodness #stancenation