RallySport Direct's BRZ: The Albino Rhino
08-17-2012, 07:57 PM
#31
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Car Info: GC,GF,GD,GR,GH
Oh its just that the mountains should be more blurry and more so the curb on the right is at one angle then there is the light behind the wheels like there is no curb, and on the left there is no curb and it goes off in the different direction. It basically doesnt match up.
The car looks great though
The car looks great though
And thanks for the kind words!! Rick
08-29-2012, 05:30 PM
#36
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Car Info: GC,GF,GD,GR,GH
Recently I walked into my office and found a rather long box sitting next to my desk with the label “PST” on it, gave a quick peak inside and sure enough there was a whole bunch of carbon in this box. Yes, our carbon driveshaft has finally arrived!! I was super anxious to put this on, so I called over to Ziptie DynoWerks, our local shop with a Mustang Dynamometer, and they were kind enough to let us install the carbon shaft at their shop so we could get a good before and after. A few days of impatiently waiting like a kid before Christmas, it was finally time! I swung by work early to grab Justin so he could set up the cameras and help with anything needed. We packed up our gear, loaded it all in the BRZ and we were off to Ziptie DynoWerks. Once we arrived we decided to do a baseline so we could get a good before and after reading, so we strapped our BRZ down and let it rip. We did a few runs, as we always find the car makes the most power on the 4th run as the car gets nice and warm and loosens up. We made 161 HP on our final pull and decided it was time to install the PST carbon Driveshaft on the car. The install is super easy and Ziptie DynoWerks was kind enough to let us use their facility even though they knew we would make a mess….and we did haha. The old driveshaft removal literally takes about 30 minutes, and it is always helpful to have a buddy in the car to set or release the E-brake so you can spin the shaft to get to all of the bolts, this is where Justin’s E-braking expertise came in handy. Once all 4 driveshaft to differential bolts are out, you remove the 2 bolts that hold the carrier bearing to the chassis, pop the shaft free from the differential and the driveshaft should slide right out of the transmission.
Next, pick up that new, pretty, and superlight carbon shaft and slide that sucker in! Bolt it all up and marvel at how awesome you are. By the time my ego was nice and inflated, Justin and Ziptie DynoWerks already had the car back up on the dyno and strapped down. Now I am getting excited, not only because I would like to see at least some gains, but there is always that chance that you botched the install, and let’s be honest, seeing a driveshaft come off when the car is doing 100+ MPH would be cool to see, or at least cool to tell your friends about when they visit you in the hospital. My luck was strong this day as the car managed to stay together and after 4 pulls we saw a peak HP of 165 HP, or a gain of 4HP. I was hoping for a bit more, but I was excited as is to see any gains at all, so it was a good day.
We had already weighed the PST Carbon shaft and it came in at a featherweight 13.9LBS and now with the stock shaft off, we weighed it using the same scale, I was surprised to see the scale read 24.14LBS as it really did not feel that heavy to me. Either I ate my vegetables that day, or was just feeling extra strong, but I have to agree with what the scale says, as they never lie, where I have been known to stretch the truth just a bit
. Now it came to the most difficult part of the whole process.. Math. As I struggled to do even simple subtraction, I had a flash back to grade school and my teacher drilling us on math problems saying “You will need to know this stuff by heart, it’s not like you can carry a calculator around with you every day”. Proving her wrong, I whipped out my phone/calculator, punched in a few numbers and voila, the PST shaft is 10.24 pounds lighter than stock. Finally all the work will pay off, I actually get to beat on the car.. err.. I mean, “test” the new driveshaft drive shaft of course, as this is a strict scientific comparison with absolutely no horseplay. Pulling out of the shop, my first impression was that it did indeed feel just a bit more eager to accelerate, which was expected. Being light with the throttle as the car warmed up, I made my way to a place where I could open it up a bit. Ah yes, the Freeway on-ramp, the ultimate, legal, 0-65MPH testing ground for a slow car. Going through the gears the car felt great, I felt the car was quicker to accelerate, and with less fuss too, and even outside of the brunt of its powerband. Now I am not going to say this made a night and day difference, but taking over 10 pounds of rotational mass off the drivetrain did make a noticeable difference for sure, and I love it! Harsh shifts seem less obvious to the driver as I felt the shaft take up a bit of the shock from the drivetrain, some hard/mis-shifts were on purpose, some on accident, but the shaft seemed to do a great job as smoothing them out. Overall I was very impressed, the install is very easy and straight forward, the gains are there, and can be felt without changing the characteristics of the car. The car is the exact same, but now with just a bit more… of everything. I love lightweight mods, anything to reduce weight is a huge plus in my book, I mean we bought this car because it was lightweight, not because it was fast, right? Well, something about being able to add even more to that just makes me feel good.
As always stay tuned for more updates, and let us know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Rick
Last edited by RallySportDirect; 08-29-2012 at 09:06 PM.
09-13-2012, 04:25 PM
#45
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Car Info: GC,GF,GD,GR,GH
Whiteline Front Sway Bar 20mm Subaru BRZ 2013 / Scion FR-S 2013
Whiteline Rear Sway Bar 16mm Adjustable Subaru BRZ 2013 / Scion FR-S 2013
I was really excited when Whiteline told us they had a set of sways for our BRZ, and no more than one day later I got an email with a tracking number. So I cleared my schedule the day they were supposed to arrive here as I was super anxious to get these on. As you may already know, when we installed the Bridgestone RE-11 tires, the car lost its “Magic”, meaning that the rear end was not eager to break away for you on command, but we did receive massive grip. In fact, the car had so much grip that I nearly had to see a chiropractor after our Eibach spring test with the RE11’s as the grip flying through the cones just forced my head to whiplash back and forth. Not that the raw grip is ever a bad thing, but I missed the way the stock tires allowed the rear end to be so alive, it would almost dance as you threw the cars through corners, and was just an amazing experience. So I was really hoping and dreaming that the sways would give us back that magic that the factory BRZ had… and it did!
First lets touch on the install, as this was the first time I installed swaybars on the BRZ, and I figured it would be like the 08+ WRX/STi’s and to be honest, it was for the most part. We jacked the car up in the air, took off the skid plate, and started to rip that tiny front stock bar out. I removed the nuts that attached the sways to the endlinks, then the 2 bolts on the swaybar mounts. The stock bar came out with ease, but getting the new bar in would not be quite as easy. After struggling with it for a few minutes, I decided we just needed a bit more room, so I removed the brace that connects the front subframe to the unibody chassis of the car, once this was gone and out of the way, it allowed the new bar to slide in with ease. I greased up the bushings, put them in the right location and put the swaybar mounts back on, then installed the front endlinks. LAst, I dropped it back on the ground and torqued everything down. Now onto the rear, which I knew was going to be easy, so I left it for last. Once I got the rear end up in the air, it was as simple as removing the endlinks, and removing the swaybar mounts. Everything is easy to get to and you have plenty of space to work. The rear swaybar was about the easiest thing I have ever installed on this car. All in all I would say the front bar took around an hour or so, and the rear about 20 minutes. Once everything was torqued, I cleaned myself up and decided to take the car out for a quick test drive.
There is a stretch of road near work that I drive on every single day, now I am not sure if the city/planners/engineers had messed up, but there is a long 45MPH stretch of perfectly straight road, which eventually makes it way to a very tight, sharp, and bumpy S-turn, and guess what… no reduction of speed, so you can blast around it at 45MPH if desired, and I guess "technically" not break any laws by definition. Now I know if a cop saw me take this S turn at 45MPH, I am quite sure he would give me a ticket, but at least we would have something to argue about right? So anyway, not only do you get this nice tight S-turn, but it is followed by a very nice and curvy 35MPH road which I always find to be a great stretch of road to test out any car. It has a few tight technical turns, some off camber corners, and some nice bumpy corners. Cruising down this road, I could not help but break a smile, the magic was back!!! I had the rear 16mm swaybar on the middle setting, where the front is a 20mm non-adjustable bar. This combination proved to be just the ticket to bring the craziness back into this car. No longer did I struggle to make the rear end feel alive, now it was as simple as tossing the car into a corner, and let that rear end dance around as I controlled the madness with my right foot. It literally made me giggle like a school girl and all my worries that we may never get that feeling back quickly disappeared with the faint sound of tire squeal. My mad car is back, and it is glorious! I would even go as far as to say it is better, as you no longer get the feeling like you are driving on all seasons with the soft sidewalls, instead you get the razor sharp precision from the stiff and sticky RE-11’s, but at will, you can make the rear of the car do your evil bidding, but at the same time, it just feels so right. Everything is at peace with the world now, as I have my crazy puppy dog car back, or should I say crazy, baby albino rhino? Either way, I could not be happier with the car at this point. Other than the power, it is everything I was hoping the car would be. If you ever find yourself messing up the awesome feel of the stock BRZ with grippy tires, do not hesitate to throw on a set of front and rear swaybars, not only will it reduce body roll, which is what I should have really focused on in this write-up, but they will bring the fun back to the BRZ, which apparently means the most to me! Now I am sure we will upset the handling again in the future, but fear not, I will fight tooth and nail to bring the lunacy back to this car, as I don’t want to take away from what made this car so special to me in the first place.
As always, please let us know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Rick
Last edited by RallySportDirect; 09-13-2012 at 04:56 PM.