2022 BRZ double duty build
 

I got a head start on this build by purchasing @Simmons old autox car. He already had quite a few parts that I was already looking at, like the MCS 2WNR, Karcepts front sway bar, 2 sets of 17x9, and more.

The purpose of my build is as a double duty car. Low street miles, low track miles. Wish I could get on track more these days, but I don't have the time or energy to get out as much as I used to. She'll get driven to the track, as I don't have a tow vehicle at the moment. Not sure if I'll continue doing that and pick up a tire trailer, or just go back to truck and trailer. I need more parking and garage space :(

Edit: that car has come a long ways! I ended up going with a Leroy Engineering tire trailer, which is amazing!
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Alignment

• Height (center to fender):
  • LF: 13 5/16, RF: 13 5/8
  • LR: 13 3/8, RR: 13 5/8
• Weights with 185lbs for driver and gear, just over 1/2 tank of gas
• Total: 3026 lbs
  • Cross weight: 50%
  • LR: 856, RF: 813
  • LR: 700, RR: 658
  • Front balance: 55.1%
  • Rear balance: 44.9%
• Camber: -4.5 F / -2.5 R
• Toe: 0 F / +.0625" R

Suspension/brakes/chassis

• Karcepts MCS 3W 400F/500R
• Karcepts front sway bar
• Cusco rear upper control arms
• Cusco rear toe arms
• Cusco rear trailing arms
• Cusco spherical bearings in both front lower control arm locations
• Cusco engine mounts
• Cusco transmission insert
• Jackson Racing anti dive kit
• GP Sports traction mod mounts
• 17x9 +48mm Apex SM-10RS 12mm spacer in front
• 17x9 +45mm Enkei TFR wheels, 12mm spacer in front
• Diff and shifter bushing inserts
• CSG Brembo BM4 front brake kit (CSG C1 for track, CSG CP for street)
• CSG Brembo GT rear brake kit (CSG C11 for track, CSG CP for street)
• 4x jack point reinforcements
• STI Duracon shift knob
• XPEL PPF, track kit
• ARP extended studs, front and rear
• TRD door stabilizers
• OEM+ front speakers

Aero

• Trackspec Civic Type R Hood Vent
• APR front air dam
• APR side skirts
• APR rear spats
• APR GTC200 wing
• Subaru vortex generator
• paint matched duck tail spoiler

Drivetrain/Intake

• AEM dry intake filter
• Removed carbon on stock intake filter
• JDL Equal Length Headers
• JDL overpipe
• JDL Ultra Quiet front pipe with GESI catalytic converter
• CSG Tuned by Zach
• OS Giken LSD

I'm leaving out little things, but these are the major changes to the car.

In it’s prior form. Eric even has my old race numbers!

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A few changes and a shakedown event at VIR in November. Had to settle for some random numbers since 71 was taken.

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Stablemates
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The M3 is a better cruiser. Feels like a tank compared to the BRZ though.

Easy mod. I did the tape only install



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Extended studs to prep for Brembo BM4 kit


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Brembo BM4 fronts and GT rears from @CSG. Many thanks to @CSG Mike for putting up with my many questions and comments


The BM4 calipers are huge compared to stock. The pad size is the same as the previous performance pack Brembos, but the caliper itself is much much larger. The main downside is having no removable bridge, meaning the caliper has to come off for pad changes. This made me nervous because it's bolted into an aluminum bracket instead of using studs, and threads in Al tend to strip or wear out quickly.


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I found a set of Tarett caliper studs that address the same issue on Porsches. I have them in hand, but haven't had a chance to install yet. If you want to do something cheaper, I strongly suggest keeping a Timesert repair kit on hand when the threads eventually strip out of the Al bracket.
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The rears were a pain to install. I was doing this the day before heading off to VIR, so that didn't help. The heat shields are too small, but unlike the front, the rear shields are spot welded on, and the welds are ground and painted, so you can't see them. The first side took longer as I identified and drilled out each weld methodically. The second side was much faster with a big hammer to whack the shield a few times, exposing the spot welds, and then attacking them with a chisel. After that's done, I ground them down and hit it with some black paint.

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The rear parking cable is ridiculously stiff/short. I had some problems reattaching til I figured out a combination that let me keep the cable extended to easily hook it back into place. This is the combo of tools that I used, then I just squeeze the handles together to get the cable to extend.

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Purdy.

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Last corner put up one more fight. OEM casting was inconsistent and caused the bracket to not fit. Time to file the knuckle down!
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How do they perform? Really well! Almost too well with CSG C1 up front and C11 in the rear. The brake pedal is phenomenally stiff, making it a bit hard to heel-toe without over braking. This took some re-calibrating on my end. I may throw a few fender washers under the throttle pedal to reduce the pedal offset.

APR Front air dam. I should have used riv nuts to make this removable from the bottom, and will likely do that when I inevitably remove the bumper again for an oil cooler install.

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Puts me in the danger zone. I'm going to raise the car. It's a little too low anyways. The bumps on the bottom are Sliplo add ons. They really help pieces like this slide over pavement instead of grinding into oblivion.


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More APR aero :)
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I attached it differently from what APR recommended. They provide a typical nut and bolt set, meaning you have to hold a nut on the backside to install and remove. What a pain. I decided to install rivnuts instead. This made the install much faster, once I figured it out on the first side, but isn't it always like that?

Howto rivnut video: https://youtu.be/a75bbOsuNFs


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Now I can remove the side skirts in about a minute.

Cusco rear upper control arms and rear toe arms. Pretty straightforward install for once, other than having to eyeball the toe. No string gauge and too lazy to attempt to properly box in. Took it into my friend’s shop to raise height front/back +.5” front, +.75” rear. Add some rake while we’re at it.

Going to try -4.0F/-2.5R camber. Zero toe front, 1/16” toe in back.

Shipped position. I biased towards more of the larger rod being extended than the smaller rod end.
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Still need to re-wrap the ball joints. Brake lines temporarily wrapped til I get steel lines installed.
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Jack point reinforcements. They’re very handy and cheap off Amazon

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Trying to learn how to PPF some pieces. Wrapped all the APR aero in PPF. What a pain. Took longer to wrap than install the pieces themselves.

The wing is sitting boxed waiting for warmer weather. Even I have my limits. It’s been really cold even with the garage closed.

I watch a lot of Obsessed Garage and other detail channels on YT. I did a full decon wash, clayed, polished, wiped down with Prep-All and had front facing surfaces plus side skirts covered with PPF by The Film Source. For the rest of the car, I coated with The Rag Company's Diamond Protech Body 36. It was a little easier to use than CQuartz UK 3.0. We'll see if it lasts. The Adam's graphene coating was already gone. I think Eric applied it just earlier this year too.

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Probably no benefits from these mods.



Perrin strut tower bar, because I like to triangulate chassis reinforcements. This maybe illogical here as I have no idea if the struts deform.


Also plugged the resonators. I really like how it cleaned up the front of the engine bay. No advantage to removing these. Arguably the smaller one might even change performance, but they're not on the GR86 Cup cars. Really I just like the look of more space and hopefully more induction sound.

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Mounted the APR GTC200 wing finally. This one is a really hard install by yourself if you have the duck tail installed. Some install tips:

• temporarily remove stock spoiler. Would have made install much easier
• cut larger holes and use M6 fender washers, at least in a few spots
• have spare M6 washers. you're gonna drop them into the trunk
• centering the mounts and wing is very tricky. Don't measure. Use stock centering points like the camera, trunk button, and antenna. I used a laser level to draw a line between all of these
• square and parallel the mounts on the wing before you pick the permanent mounting points on the trunk
• my endplates REQUIRED tapping the M6x1.0 holes in the wing to screw in the bolts. Failure to do so would have caused the bolts to snap. Shoulda seen the chips that came out