Some nice changes in there! I'd be interested to hear how the 5w-40 Sport Motul treats you. I've been looking at it for street oil rather than running 300V all the time as I do now.
It should be great for the street. There is talk that it is basically 300v but with a detergent pack and additives. The 300v shouldn't be used long term in a street car unless you actually require it. 300v does a great job dealing with fuel dilution, so e85/water-meth/massive injectors-rich pump gas idle/cruise type cars, or just if you are really pushing a lot of power and abusing is daily.
I would say go for it and pop in the 300v for track days
Some xmas updates, I can't leave well enough alone
Time for another round of lighting improvements. This time I opted to swap out the OEM HID projectors and retrofit a set of morimoto 4TL-R bi-xenon units. I was thinking about using the larger mini-D2S 3.0 or 4.0 but my goal for this upgrade was simply distance lighting. The OEM setup had great width but spread the output to do this so the hotspot wasn't as intense as it could be. the 4TL-R in our testing vs the OEM and 3.0 shows a more intense hotspot with the 4TL-R which means better long distance lighting. This comes at the expense of some width intensity.... but that will be rectified later
The other reason for the upgrade was simply the ability to have "double" the high beams, so the OEM were retained, still with HIR bulbs and with the addition of the high beam from the projector shield moving to allow light above the cutoff I have LOTS of high beam light now
breakdown, testing, and retrofit :
Completed, before buffing:
After Buffing. I also had a clear protective film from APShield added so that I can reduce the amount of pitting and uv damage better.
On to the output. Still using 50w morimoto ballasts and Philips Xtreme Ultinon bulbs. The wall is just over 200' away so this really shows how well this setup works. Still a nice crisp cutoff and really good intensity at this distance, and the high beams kill it
I was never happy with how low I sat using the BuddyClub rails so I changed them out last week for a setup that fit my size better.
I sourced the Recaro ABE specific aluminium side mounts, a Planted Technology base, and a set of Recaro sliders. I initially was going to use the Recaro side mounts on the buddy club base/slider but was concerned that I would still be too low.
This combo puts me right where I need to be, it actually makes getting in and out a little harder strangely enough as the gap between seat and steering wheel is now smaller :lol:
I'm not too happy with planted, though, after finding that there isn't a threaded boss on for the seatbelt buckle. If you have the tab, it should be a proper nut welded on. Unfortunately I didn't unpack the part until install so this meant I had to remove the seat another day after getting a nut to get it all bolted up properly. Being a standard size, 7/16-20 this should be present on any seat base with a tab for a seatbelt buckle.
The next thing I learned was that now I have the seat a few inches higher, I need a seatbelt extension, so I ordered a 3" buckle extender to make it easier to get in and out.
I've had a bunch of body parts for years now that I haven't installed yet. This summer I will be changing up the look a little bit, starting with some WRX side skirts. I don't really like the STI ones and as I am also changing the front lip I think these will tie it together a little better.
Next up is a Greddy Lip and some Morimoto LED foglights, have to make some custom fit for these.
Thanks, yeah there aren't enough pics floating around so I was always worried if it would look as good as I thought... i'm very happy how it all turned out
That's correct. The front fenders have been rolled but I don't think it was actually needed tbh, just wanted to be safe.
It's much easier and cheaper to just pull the rears I think (and I might end up doing it in the future) but yes, with the combo of camber plates, rear strut slots, and whiteline adjustable lateral links I was able to fit the tire/wheel combo between the strut, fender, and trailing arm with a mm or two there and there to spare.
I've run these with 255/40/17 direzza2 and 255/40/17 r888 and no issues with rubbing. I have driven on rough roads, big compression dips in a straight line, hard slow cornering, fast 120mph+ cornering, and no issues. the balance is more neutral with a slightly larger ratio of front to rear track width (i'm sure the suspension/alignment "nerds" will be able to tall me how bad or good this is but it feels great on the street), so on winter tires for instance on ramps the car will tend to rotate really well off throttle and neutral to mild throttle at the limits of tire grip (suspension is too stiff for winter tires...) and on the r-comps the car will tuck in and rotate under full throttle on ramps as an example (that has a lot to do with my powerband as well though).
Thanks for the detailed info!
It's interesting coming from having a GR with tons of room under the fenders to a GD. I know there's more room than I think there is, but there's more learning to be done for sure.
That lip is.....interesting...never actually seen it before....huh, TIL.
But yeah, it looks WAY better line-wise with the WRX skirts than the STi ones. +1 for style pickyness like me....so many people overlook things like this and just throw things on a car that clash with each other visually....
Yeah, this lip, I remembered it from like 8 years ago when a friend of mine had it but I never liked it too much with the sti side skirts being used. I forgot it existed until I bought some wrx sides a few years ago and found only 1 or 2 bad pics on the net ... still took me a couple of years to finally paint and install everything and I'm glad I did
Just another small update. I had a set of universal Morimoto LED foglights waiting for install. As any other GD owner knows there aren't really any options other than the OEM setup for fogs but those just weren't going to cut it for me so these had to be custom mounted.
Using the OEM foglights, removing the lenses, projectors etc and just using the "cups" we were able to mount the foglights as the bolt patter matched up with the OEM projector pattern. Some studs, jb weld, and some nuts and screws later... success and a clean install that still allows for adjustment.
Its been about 30,000km since the turbo upgrade and supporting mods. Because I only use this car as a toy now most mileage is for fun, meaning attack every ramp, lots of WOT through the gears, fast road driving etc... Still running strong.
Still stock motor, its never been out of the car. 365whp at 7000rpm used often. I love this thing. I've even had the pickup tube crack and lost oil pressure while driving back at around 85,000km and its still running perfectly. Don't skimp on the tune.
I wouldn't say astonishing though. While I can't comment on the first tune being good for longevity (because I tuned it myself at stg2 )... I do know for certain that my goal for having a flat torque curve is definitely keeping it running well at this amount of mileage. My tuner/builder is well known for making high hp stock engine cars and has a number of stock engine records on various platforms so the expertise is there to maximize the benefits of an engine package and exploit them. You have to take into account that I am making less peak torque now than when I (or anyone for that matter) was at stg2 levels, so the stress is technically less. So I get the best of both worlds, quick, responsive spool as well as super wide powerband, and less stress overall. I'd still like to do a few more things to extend the usable revs closer to 8000 and over 400whp though.
Now, if I was making 350-400wtq peak and only revving to 6500rpm making similar WHP I would be slower as well as more damaging and would likely need a rebuild sooner than later.
At the end of the day, I will still likely build a motor, the only difference is that I will have to do it because this one will simply wear out (knock on wood) :lol:
And just like that, 13 years of fun and great memories are over.
Car is sold. On to a new owner who will be continuing with a big build of his own!
The end.
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