"No Power" No More

For a while now I've been fielding questions about the Mach V BRZ's vanity plates, which have spelled out "NO POWER" since the car was new.  It started out as sort of an inside joke about the public reaction to the car's low engine output back when the BRZ/FR-S were first released.  But now the car is supercharged, and it seemed to make less and less sense over time, so we just got some new plates -- see the photo.  It's not super-creative, but Virginia has some of the cheapest vanity plate fees in the country, so if you have any better ideas, let us know and we'll change them up again.

That license plate is mounted on a new, revised Platypus tow hook mount from Craven Speed.  The new mount has a couple of improvements over the older one, including an angled plate to better match the bumper, and a full-size backing plate for the license plate.

I don't have many new modifications to report on the car, save for some very nice Superpro sway bars and Kartboy rear end links.  The Superpro bars installed easily, and the fatter diameter (I went with 20mm front and 18mm rear, compared with 19mm front and 14mm rear for the stock car) keeps the car flatter under cornering.  The Kartboy end links are easy to install and we know from experience on other Subaru applications that they are trouble-free over the long haul.  At this point we don't know of an aftermarket front end link for the BRZ/FR-S.

Other than that change, not much is new.  I drive the car two or three times a week, including lots of plain old commuting with lots of stop-and-go driving.  I continue to enjoy driving it -- the fun handling never gets old, and the Innovate supercharger has delivered reliable and trouble-free power for the past year.

In a previous blog post from last year I mentioned condensation on one of the rear tail lamps.  That lamp was replaced under warranty, but we hear that Subaru has stopped doing that since then.  Our lamps haven't taken on any water in the interim, so with any luck we won't have to worry about it again.

We do have some new Rota RK-R wheels waiting to be mounted up on the car, so when that's done and I've taken some photos I will post up again.

Products referenced in this post: Platypus tow hook license plate mount, Innovate supercharger kit, Superpro sway bars, Kartboy rear end links.

Winter 2014 Update

A couple of our fans have reminded me that it's been almost six months since I updated this blog, so here's a little run-down of what's new.

Bring it on

After running 255/40R17 Sumitomo HTR-Z tires through the warm months, I swapped back to the 215/45R17 Bridgestone Blizzak WS60 tires for the cold -- and boy has it been cold this winter!  With the winter tires, the BRZ has been a solid winter partner, with very good grip in the cold (sub-40 F temps) and wet.  On actual packed snow, the tires don't perform miracles -- this is a light rear-wheel-drive car, after all -- but we never worried about getting stuck or sliding off the road.  After experiencing the scary slithery feeling of driving this car with the stock Primacy tires in the snowy stuff, the winter tires are such a revelation.  I highly recommend them to anyone who lives in a place where it snows.

I had promised an update about tire sizes and different wheel fitment, so I'll get into that now.  First off, I am NOT in favor tire fitment solely for the purpose of appearance.  You might see this called "stance" or "stretch & poke" or other terms that basically imply pushing the wheels and tires out to as far (or farther) as they can go for the sake of looks.  What I am in favor of is larger tires for higher levels of grip.  More grip gives higher cornering speeds, better braking, and better control in all kinds of transitional maneuvers -- planned or otherwise.  I'm definitely not in favor of getting the tire to a point where it will damage the body (or worse) at full suspension compression.  If you can't use the car for its original purpose, what's the point of the whole exercise?

17x9" Mach V Awesome with 255/40R17

Note that for snow, you actually do NOT want wide tires.  Skinny tires will bite harder into the snow, whereas wider tires will tend to plane up on top and not grip.  What I'm talking about from here on out is warm-weather performance.

As I mentioned above, we've been running a 255/40R17 tire on a 17x9" +42 Mach V Awesome wheel at all four corners.  We also run Whiteline Com-C upper strut mounts, which give us extra camber by moving the entire top of the strut, rather than by moving the tire/wheel relative to the knuckle, lke eccentric bolts would do.  I mention this because a lot of BRZ/FR-S guys seem to run the eccentric bolts (or "crash bolts") to gain front camber, and this can lead to clearance problems as a wide wheel and tire can start to run into the spring perch on the OEM shock.

18x9.5" Mach V Wicked Awesome with 265/35R18

I also test fit some 18x9.5" +42 Wicked Awesome wheels with 265/35R18 tires.  This actually did fit okay in the back, but in the front the tire contacted the strut, so we had to use a 5mm spacer to get it to work.  With the 5mm spacer, the front tire was sticking out of the front body work, so without more camber I wouldn't advise running that size on the front of the car.

I could have put a 255/35R18 or 245/35R18 tire on the front 18x9.5" wheel, but those tire sizes would not be as wide as the wheel, and I'm really a big fan of having the right size tire for the wheel, and vice versa.  But if you DID want to run the 18x9.5" Wicked Awesome wheel on all four corners of your BRZ or FR-S, I'd probably do a 265/35R18 in back, and a 245/35R18 in front.

17" Awesome in front, 18" Wicked Awesome in back

Anyway, back to our fitment experiments:  Knowing that our slightly narrower 255/40R17 tire fit the front, I thought I might put the 17" wheels on the front with the 255/40R17, and the 18" with the 265/35R18 on the back.  Some sports cars (Acura NSX, Chevy Corvette) run a staggered front-back setup from the factory.  Why shouldn't we try it?  That actually fit pretty well, and the wheel size matched the tire size nicely.

Plenty of people run different tire widths on these cars front-to-back, but I haven't seen anyone else do two different wheel diameters.

One final question the fans asked me to address is gas mileage after installation of the Innovate supercharger kit.  On my daily commute, which is mixed driving, with a good amount of stop-and-go, I used to get as much as 28.5 mpg pre-supercharger.  Since the supercharger install, I have seen 26.5 mpg when I stayed out of boost as much as possible.  If I drive like a hooligan and flat-foot it every time I leave a stop light, I see more like 20 mpg.  (Of course, when I drove like a nut before the supercharger I would take a pretty big MPG hit, too.)  So basically, figure a 2 mpg penalty from the supercharger install -- a small price to pay for a 37% increase in horsepower!

Links: Mach V Awesome wheels, Mach V Wicked Awesome wheels, Innovate supercharger.

Super. Charge.

It's been a while since I posted, but I've this is a pretty big update.  "NO POWER" now has a bit more power, courtesy of an Innovate supercharger kit we installed.  This is a constant-displacement twin-scroll supercharger that makes a maximum of about 9 psi.  It bolts directly on the top of the engine using a custom intake manifold.  The setup we went with is called the "Tuner" kit, meaning the ECU tuning is up to you.  I did the tuning on our car and came up with a maximum of 218 horsepower at the rear wheels on our Dynojet dyno, up from 160 when the car was bone stock.  For the production tune packages I would expect around 210 rear-wheel horsepower.


 I chose the Innovate setup over one of the centrifugal supercharger or turbocharger options mostly because I liked the idea of a constant displacement supercharger -- for every turn of the engine, a constant-displacement unit also turns and compresses air.  Although it can be more limited in terms of top-end power, it's hard to beat the response.  In addition to having a twin-screw compressor, the manifold design and the finish details of the Innovate package are top-notch.

Installation of the supercharger is surprisingly simple.  You remove the stock intake manifold, then remove the port fuel injectors and throttle body from the manifold and transfer them to the new manifold.  Bolt the new manifold and supercharger assembly to the block, hook up a few hoses, and you're set.  It took us less than half a day.  We'd charge $400 for the install.

I spent a couple of weeks and many, many dyno runs developing our ECU calibration for the car.  I tried for stock-like smoothness and driveability, I think I managed that.  A few customers and friends that have driven the car have given us a lot of positive feedback.

This version of the kit is NON-intercooled, so horsepower gains are limited compared to a more elaborate intercooled system.  The Innovate manifold DOES have hose fittings for a future water-to-air intercooler circuit, so that is an option once that intercooler is complete and available to sell.  I have other plans, though...I'm thinking I will use water/methanol injection to perform the same function as the intercooler.  But we'll see.

So how does the car feel with the supercharger on it?  Like stock, but more.  The power delivery is instant -- you step on the throttle and you immediately have boost, so there's never a sense of any kind of lag or delay.  The torque comes on strong and carries all the way out to red line, so although the top-end power isn't massive, the car picks up speed very nicely.  The biggest difference to me is the throttle response.  Previously I felt like there was very little difference in part throttle and full throttle -- the torque was so low it just never felt like it was pulling very hard, even when you gave it the boot. Now it surges forward.  It's really fun.

Rear-end traction is more of an issue now.  Punching the throttle in a corner will slew the car sideways and get you a bunch of flashing orange tranction control warning lights.  If you happen to have the traction control all the way off, you can get yourself into trouble easily.  I'm still working on feeling out the limits of lateral grip while on-throttle.  I may have to take the car to a track for some play time in a safe environment.

To keep track of manifold pressure, we also installed a new Prosport Premium EVO boost gauge, in a vent pod from ATI.  I'll give some details about that install in my next post.

Products referenced in this post: Innovate Supercharger kit.

Shifter shortening, for sure!

The stock BRZ shifter is one of the tightest and most direct-feeling I've experienced, so I was kind of skeptical about putting a short shifter in it.  Does it really need to be any shorter?  Still, my friend Tom at Kartboy assured me that his short shifter would be an improvement.  I figured I could always take it back out if I didn't like it, so why not?

The Kartboy shifter is beautifully made.  Almost every part is a custom-machined of metal.  It's hefty and solid in the hand.  All the moving parts are pre-greased, and an additional syringe of grease is included for the install.

Installation was straightforward.  (There's a nice do-it-yourself guide over on the FT86club forms.)  We did install the included rear shifter stay.  We had previously installed Kartboy's transmission mount bushing, too.  The stock shift knob fits right on, or you can use any other knob that fits the stock shifter.  We already had a black Kartboy Delrin knob on there, so we transferred that one over.

I hopped in the car after it came down on the lift, and put it in reverse, then drove out into the neighborhood around the shop.  Hey, what do you know?  The feel is tighter, click-ier, more precise feeling.  I know it's a cliche, but it feels like a bolt-action rifle.  No slop, no give, just a tight, mechanical, direct connection to the gearbox.  The slightly (0.35") lower shift knob height feels just perfect to me.  The reduced throws make the shifting feel quick and sure.

So, to sum up, I'm sold!  It's an improvement over the stock shifter.  Good job, Kartboy.

Kartboy short shifter for FR-S/BRZ

Sorting some details

T.I.C. steering rack bushings

Bushings halfway installed

We got the BRZ up on the lift recently to install some new goodies.  In the front we installed some Turn In Concepts solid steering rack bushings.  From looking at them, I worried a little bit that they would generate a whole bunch of noise/vibration/harshness, but I really couldn't feel any comfort penalty.  There's just a nice tight feeling from the steering wheel. The BRZ steering was never vague by any means, but it's just that much more tight and precise-feeling.

Extraction tool we made

Installation was pretty easy, but getting the stock bushings out took a little ingenuity on the part of our mechanics.  We ended up making a little extraction tool using a couple of bolts, some washers, and a section of tubing.  That allowed us to pull the stock bushing out by turning the bolt and using the bolt's leverage.

Master cylinder brace

Up on the top side of the car, we bolted on the Motive Auto Werks master cylinder brace.  This little item could not be simpler, both in terms of construction and in installation.  It's light, simple, and it completely stopped any excess motion of the master cylinder.  (Try taping a thin skewer or a coat hanger to your master cylinder so you can see it from the driver's seat, then watch as you press on the brake pedal!)  I confess I can't quite feel it in the pedal -- the brakes seemed pretty firm even to start with.  But I like that the master cylinder can't flex anymore.

While we were under the hood, we installed some very nice carbon-fiber-wrapped hood struts.  We really like gas lift hood struts -- they make working on the car so much easier.  Install on these was also easy.  The struts have just the right pressure to lift up the hood, but they don't spring it up so hard it's going to hit you in the chin.

The benefit is that you don't have to use the prop rod, and you don't have to worry about hitting yourself in the head with the rod and/or collapsing the hood down onto your head while working on the engine.  Not that that's ever happened to me, of course...

All the parts I mentioned above are available on our web site.  Click the hyperlinks above or below for more info.

Not everything is happy in BRZ Land.  I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the right tail lamp has a bunch of condensed water drops in it, and it's starting to get a little mossy-looking in there.  This is a known issue with these cars, and Subaru should replace the lamp under warranty.  We'll check back when we've resolved the issue.





Products mentioned in this post:
Turn In Concepts steering rack bushings
Carbon-wrapped gas lift hood struts
Motive Auto Werks brake master cylinder brace

Audio system update

I promised to give an update on the audio system some many months ago.  If you've been holding your breath, you probably passed out long before now.  Sorry about that.

The new view from the passenger seat

To review, I didn't much like the interface on the stock head unit.  I don't really use nav much anyway, nor do I like satellite radio (the sound quality is crap, in my opinion).  So I looked for an aftermarket head unit that had a larger screen, better ease-of-use, and that would function well for playing music from an iPod or other external device.  I settled for a Pioneer AVH-P8400BH.  It's got a 7" touch screen, "App Radio" features that can sort of control an iPhone, and more goodies.

I also wanted a little more "oomph" to the sound system, but I didn't want to add two hundred pounds of gear, so I had CAS Designs install a lightweight JL Audio 500/3 amp, and a little custom fiberglass sub box in the hatch area with a single JL Audio 8W3.

One of the problems I had with the OEM audio was it had a hard time overcoming the ever-present road noise.  There's just not much sound deadening in the car, and it's so low to the ground, you can always here lots of wind and tire noise when the car is underway.  We added some Dynamat to the doors and hatch area to try to reduce that.

New sub is compact and lightweight

The end results were pretty good -- the sound quality and volume level increased dramatically.  I hadn't realized how little bass response the OEM system had until we installed the new sub.  I do love the large screen and the crisp audio from the new head unit, and the ergonomics are FAR better.  It's intuitive to use, and answering the phone or changing tracks doesn't cause me to swear in frustration any more.

There are some disappointments, though.  For one thing, simply upgrading the sound system didn't make the car a better place for listening.  The car is still inherently loud inside at speed.  With the better sound system, I can certainly turn it up loud enough to mask the road noise, but after any extended period of time, it's loud enough to be kind of hard on the ears.  The moral is, there's only so much you can do; the car is not a Lexus.

The Pioneer head unit has its issues, too.  The App Radio functions sound great, but in practice they are kind of half-baked.  The system is fussy, and you have to set the phone to a certain app to enable the functions, and occasionally it doesn't work right. Sometimes I have to reboot the head unit to recover from errors.  That happens sometimes just when using the iPod, too.  Someday this will all be debugged and it will work perfectly, but we're not there yet.


Overall I'm happy with the upgrades.  CAS Designs gets a big thumbs up for the excellent quality work.

Winter Mode: Activate!

Mach V BRZ in Winter Mode

This blog has been quiet for a couple of months, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy.  Obviously the BRZ wasn't meant as a snowmobile, what its low slung stance and rear-wheel-drive, but we think any car can be fun and useful in the winter, given the proper equipment.  That means winter tires.  We picked up a set of lightly-used Legacy GT wheels (17x7 +53) with some Blizzak WS60 tires in the stock BRZ size of 215/45R17.  It doesn't really snow that much here in the D.C. area, so we held our breath each time cold weather came around, but we didn't actually put the snow tires on until the snow was falling this past week.

Blizzak WS60. That snowflake means "Let it snow!"

The stock "performance" summer tires aren't what we'd call super-high grip in the warm weather, but they're next to worthless once the temp drops below about 40 degrees F.  The same is true for our Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec track tires.  The Blizzaks, on the other hand, seem to work the same no matter how cold it gets.  That's not to say they're a great tire when it's warm.  The soft tread compound combined with the deep siping cut into each tread block means the dry-weather grip is very low.  We noticed some wheel spin just turning through an intersection -- something that never would have happened with the stock tires.  The tire feels normal in terms of sidewall stiffness and steering response, but the limits of adhesion are very low.

Who says you have to leave the sports car home when it snows?

Then it got cold, and this past week we finally got some snow.  The performance of the WS60 in the slush, snow, and ice, was a revelation.  In particular, braking performance is so good on packed snow or ice, it's hard to believe.  It feels about the same as driving the car on wet pavement.  It's amazing!  I found myself just doing braking tests anywhere I could find snow on the road, just to be astounded all over again.  Acceleration and cornering aren't quite as dramatic an improvement, but still are far better than any all-season tire we've ever used.  (Our 335i is currently shod with Continental DWS, so that comes to mind for an immediate comparison.)  I found myself thinking it would be a lot of fun to throw some skis or snowboards in the back and drive up to the mountains.  (For deeper stuff, factory ride height would probably be a better choice than the Mach V springs we've got on the car.)

That special Blizzak tread compound has a spongy composition that Bridgestone says is made of "thousands of microscopic tubes and cells (which resemble the consistency of Swiss cheese when examined through a microscope)". The tire tread can wick away water that would usually come between the tire and the snow or ice surface. That same light and fluffy compound isn't so resilient in the dry, though, so if you drive these tires around on dry roads for thousands of miles, the special tread compound will wear off. The manufacturer says at half tire life, you only have 10% left of the magic snow tread stuff.

Speaking of wheel and tire swaps, we've been experimenting with some different wheel and tire sizes to fit the BRZ.  I'll have more details in my next blog post.