BG: What do you drive? (PICS)

[Quixon]

Boss

[ringthree]

Anyone in here drive a BRZ or FR-S and care to comment on it?

Probably going to be my next car. Wait for the revision. Getting a bigger engine with guaranteed (?) 255 HP. Haven't said how it is getting the power (rumors are 2.4 boxer or turbo).

It's not a Miata, but it is really good and fun to drive. It's like my Celica but it drives the proper wheels. I wish they had made it 10 years earlier.

Also, anyone that says a Miata isn't a good car to drive is an idiot.

[Quixon]

I wouldn't hold my breath on that more HP Revision. There's been different reports sighting different dates and different times since the release of that car. Subaru saying it isn't happening, Toyota saying it is, etc, etc. With the tuning suites available to the BRZ you would be better off going with an aftermarket supercharger. The Ecutek Racerom Suite is available for the BRZ, and is incredibly well refined. My buddy supercharged his BRZ and is using the ECUtek Racerom. I haven't gotten a chance to drive this one yet, but man is it bad ass. It's on bags, and ccw wheels as well.

[ringthree]

I wouldn't hold my breath on that more HP Revision. There's been different reports sighting different dates and different times since the release of that car. Subaru saying it isn't happening, Toyota saying it is, etc, etc. With the tuning suites available to the BRZ you would be better off going with an aftermarket supercharger. The Ecutek Racerom Suite is available for the BRZ, and is incredibly well refined. My buddy supercharged his BRZ and is using the ECUtek Racerom. I haven't gotten a chance to drive this one yet, but man is it bad ass. It's on bags, and ccw wheels as well.

So your friend put a supercharger and chip, then ruined any chance of using that power?

More money than brains.

Anyway, there is no harm in waiting for the revision. Toyota has said that they will make engine decisions independent of Subaru, and that the collaboration with Subaru was the car design and engine, but after that they were on their own to market and sell the cars. They both said that before the car was even released.

So, if there is more power after the revision, win. If there isn't more power after the revision, and you like the revision, win. If there isn't more power after the revision and you don't like the revision, get one used for cheaper, win.

[Artemicon]

[Quixon]

So your friend put a supercharger and chip, then ruined any chance of using that power?

More money than brains.

Money, yeah and a lot of it lol. However, the handling doesn't suffer all that bad from air. He obviously isn't driving it around with the car as low as it is in the picture, that's for parking lol. Again, I haven't driven it myself, but he says the handling is no better or worse than stock at the stock ride height.

I personally would laugh at someone trying to track a car on bags, but that isn't what he built the car for. He drives it around back and forth to work 2 miles each way in the spring/summer/fall, and does some aggressive canyon runs once or twice a month. It's a daily driven show car basically.

I can show you much more horrid examples of wasted power than this for sure. We have some douche in Albany parading his S2K around at every show he can get to. The craftsmanship is phenomenal, but the fucking thing doesn't even start/run. I'll post a picture of it in a second, there's a whole group of kids with cars like that. (RSX, S2K, 350Z, can't remember the last one). They are built with super expensive parts, and trailered everywhere.

[Quixon]

S2K that doesn't even start. But the kid whore's it out like it's the hottest shit on 4 wheels. Funded by his parents. Tried to play off he paid for everything out of his own pocket. He delivers pizza lol.


RSX-S. Started once, trailered everywhere since -_-. This car and shop he runs 100% funded by his parents. Not a bad dude otherwise if not a little arrogant.


RSX-S #2. This one is same as the above. The owner of this one is the one that did all of the body and paint work on both RSX's and the 350 Z i'm posting below. He really does have a lot of talent. All paid for by himself.


Widebody 350 Z. This car used to be electric lime green. Legit money went to this one as well.



It's funny how the people who actually bust their ass to afford shit are the humble ones and are very approachable. You can tell they are in it for the love of the scene and the work it takes to get the car to where it is now. The other ones are the arrogant fucks that just do it to get attention.

[ringthree]

Money, yeah and a lot of it lol. However, the handling doesn't suffer all that bad from air. He obviously isn't driving it around with the car as low as it is in the picture, that's for parking lol. Again, I haven't driven it myself, but he says the handling is no better or worse than stock at the stock ride height.

I personally would laugh at someone trying to track a car on bags, but that isn't what he built the car for. He drives it around back and forth to work 2 miles each way in the spring/summer/fall, and does some aggressive canyon runs once or twice a month. It's a daily driven show car basically.

I can show you much more horrid examples of wasted power than this for sure. We have some douche in Albany parading his S2K around at every show he can get to. The craftsmanship is phenomenal, but the fucking thing doesn't even start/run. I'll post a picture of it in a second, there's a whole group of kids with cars like that. (RSX, S2K, 350Z, can't remember the last one). They are built with super expensive parts, and trailered everywhere.

I call bullshit. His alignment can't be maintained moving up and down like that. Also, there is no airbag suspension that gets that low that has any handling qualities (meh, I guess I could be wrong by now, because I have really paid attention in a while, but I still doubt it). He probably says his car "rides on rails", like every hella-flusher out there. It's fine if they like that style, but it's time to come back to reality.

I spent enough time in the import "scene" to have seen ridiculous crazy shit. I used to judge car shows for a couple different promotions.

Like I said, more money than brains.

[Quixon]

Lol. I'll just leave this here.



http://www.airliftperformance.com/20...ion/#more-4364


Read the link if you think bagged cars have no handling. I have to admit I didn't think they were THAT good either. But they can obviously hang with some of the more refined track coil overs available. Yeah, Ohlins or Penske's will shit on bags, but they'll shit on every other coil over on the market as well at the same time.





Edit:

Found this article online today about the FR-S/BRZ. If you are in the market and don't have all of the information at the cars at hand.... it's worth a watch/read.

http://jalopnik.com/all-the-differen...ium=socialflow

[Omnipotent]

Lol. I'll just leave this here.



http://www.airliftperformance.com/20...ion/#more-4364


Read the link if you think bagged cars have no handling. I have to admit I didn't think they were THAT good either. But they can obviously hang with some of the more refined track coil overs available. Yeah, Ohlins or Penske's will shit on bags, but they'll shit on every other coil over on the market as well at the same time.





Edit:

Found this article online today about the FR-S/BRZ. If you are in the market and don't have all of the information at the cars at hand.... it's worth a watch/read.

http://jalopnik.com/all-the-differen...ium=socialflow

Good link. Thanks for the post

[4riette]

I drive a POS in my day-to-day but my baby is my Steed. It was garage kept by an old guy so it looks amazing for a 15 year old bike (3000km when I got it 10 months ago, 6000km now). Got it for a cool $700 plus the $1000 in repairs it needed (and inspection costs).

http://i44.tinypic.com/2yxhmbl.jpg

[Weederr33]

I think Dantrag owns one. Check out the FRS/BRZ thread from way back

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/108...-86-Subaru-BRZ

haha! my forum lives on!

[ringthree]

Lol. I'll just leave this here.



http://www.airliftperformance.com/20...ion/#more-4364


Read the link if you think bagged cars have no handling. I have to admit I didn't think they were THAT good either. But they can obviously hang with some of the more refined track coil overs available. Yeah, Ohlins or Penske's will shit on bags, but they'll shit on every other coil over on the market as well at the same time.





Edit:

Found this article online today about the FR-S/BRZ. If you are in the market and don't have all of the information at the cars at hand.... it's worth a watch/read.

http://jalopnik.com/all-the-differen...ium=socialflow

There is a huge difference between an normal airbag suspension and that product. If your friend has a performance airbag suspension, then kudos to him. The performance airbag suspension was already around when I was in the scene and all of the future hella-flushers talked about how awesome it was but none of them had it, even the show cars. There are very few airbag suspension products that will compete with a regular performance suspension, and most performance suspension parts are just re-tuned products from a few coil and shock manufacturers.

I will still say this. Getting a performance airbag suspension still means more money than brains.

[Quixon]

That picture is of my buddies trunk.

I don't get the more money than brains comment. He has the best all around suspension set up you can buy for what he wants to do. Very respectable on the track, and he can drive the car at whatever height he wants, and on top of that practically lay frame at car shows... all at the push of a button. He uses the car for all of those things as well, so they match it perfectly. People with more money than the average guy can afford better parts than the average guy. It's the way life works.

$1200/ea wheels I would qualify as more money than brains, but that doesn't seem to be part of your argument.

[ringthree]

That picture is of my buddies trunk.

I don't get the more money than brains comment. He has the best all around suspension set up you can buy for what he wants to do. Very respectable on the track, and he can drive the car at whatever height he wants, and on top of that practically lay frame at car shows... all at the push of a button. He uses the car for all of those things as well, so they match it perfectly. People with more money than the average guy can afford better parts than the average guy. It's the way life works.

$1200/ea wheels I would qualify as more money than brains, but that doesn't seem to be part of your argument.

It could be that I think airbag suspensions are a huge waste of money (you can get better for cheaper with a regular suspension) or it could just be that I hate for the whole hella-flush thing. Either way, it shows me that they are more worried about looking capable of going fast than actually going fast.

/shrug

[Anakron]

It's no different than rear spoilers on front-wheel drive cars IMO. Some people buy for performance, others buy for looks.

I mean, I got an E92 over an E90, so I basically spent more for a less practical car, because of the looks.

[ringthree]

So, I spent some time talking to my friend who is a regionally dominant STU driver in SCCA and NASA events. Good enough to go to Nationals, etc. He drives an Evo IX MR. Anyway...

The first thing he mentioned is that no one runs airbags. So the proof is in the pudding. When I asked him about it he was incredulous at first, but admitted that anything can be done with money. No competitive autocrossers run it.

Other things he mentioned:

It adds a lot of weight.

It means you are only corner balanced and zero-toed on one of your settings.

I could imagine a really tortured scenario where it might be useful - you have a street setting with zero toe and then you lower/raise it to an ideal race setting and the toe goes in a direction that helps you - but that is a lot of assumptions. Not all cars change the same when their ride height changes.

I mean, some pimpy cars, like the Corvette, have fancy magnetic damping thingies. But they don't change the heights as far as I know.

I guess the question is, what's the benefit, versus just setting the car up Right Once and leaving it that way?

Other comments he had about the article on the airlift suspension:

26th out of 49. with 520 whp. Ehh.

He also wondered how you could change the spring rates on an airlift suspension.

Anyway, he is much more technical than I am (I stopped autocrossing a while ago), and he keeps up with a whole bunch of new tech for a bunch of different classes.

[Grieverbk]

The 2012's came factory turbo'd correct? I'm pretty sure I saw online the tuning shop I use is getting near EVO power out of the Ralliarts now with just an ECU Reflash.

Yep, correct.
I haven't bothered to do anything to mine yet, but I could do a simple stage 0 flash and get 'near' evo power. If I actually decide to invest a couple thousand into the intake and exhaust systems i'll pass a stock evo by a pretty decent amount.

[Quixon]

Get on that. For a couple G's that's a real good power/$ ratio for modifications.

Saving $3-7K over the price of the EVO is great, although I would bet the ceiling on the Ralliart isn't even close to the ceiling on the EVO. That being said the ceiling would hardly ever come into play with a daily driver. I'd bet you are saving a fortune on insurance to over the Evo.

[Quixon]

I guess the question is, what's the benefit, versus just setting the car up Right Once and leaving it that way?

The benefit to a competive AutoX'er, nothing. AutoX, especially nationals, 1 tenth of a second can mean the difference between 1st and 5th. The benefit for this specific car is he doesn't have to spend 45 minutes wrenching the coilovers to max low for car shows. And he isn't giving up anything in the handling department for someone who is just fucking around at the track occasionally.

Will he keep up with a fully prep'd AutoX BRZ (assuming equal driver skill level), not a chance in hell. But he sure as hell keeps up with the vehicles that run on the street up here, then he can slam it while it's parked lol.

Kind of like a Jack of All Trades Set Up. (Master of none as you/your buddy pointed out in regards to extremely competitive AutoX/Track Use)