Hawyee's Daily/AutoX/Track Build

[hawyee]

Figured I'd start a thread here to track the progress of my 2018 build. Got the car in July of '23 with 79k and started with a setup for SCCA HS, currently in STH because I got tired of the car overheating and wearing out my tires outer shoulder all the time. The bean is my daily and I drive it to and from events all over the country, and will be bringing it with me to Germany soon. At 110k miles and going strong, current mod list:

Misc:

• Cobb accessport/tunewerks 91/93
• Mele battery mount/odyssey pc680

Interior:

• Razzter pedal spacer
• Etsy stainless dead pedal
• Ford carbon shift knob

Wheels/Tires:

• Enkei RPF1 bronze 16x7 +43
  • 215-45-16 Falken RT660/Bridgestone RE71rs
  • Switching to Continental DWS06+ for daily use soon
• Team Dynamics Pro Race LT 15x8 +35
  • H&R 10mm spacer (f)
  • Falken RT660 245-40-15 (f), 225-45-15R
  • Muteki SR35/Project Kics Leggdura nuts

Suspension:

• Fortune Auto 500 7k/4k
• Eibach rear sway bar
• DNA front traction bar
• H&R camber bolts
• -3.5 deg front, 4.5 deg caster, factory rear camber, 0 toe

Brakes:

• Powerstop coated rotors
• EBC RP-X (f), EBC blue (r)
• Boomba deflectors (not installed yet)
• Motul RBF 660

Intake/Cooling/Engine/Transmission

• Factory air box/ramair drop-in filter
• Whoosh V1 intercooler
• Mishimoto thermostat
• Mishimoto coolant tank
• Mountune radiator
• Vudu coolant cap/oil cap/dipstick
• Wavetrac LSD/new factory clutch and slave (getting installed this week)
• Vudu short shift kit
• Vibratechnics competition mounts all around

Exhaust

• Whoosh spec Thermal R&D catback
• Orange whoosh hangers

The car weighs just under 2800 with me in it, so far won the '24 Phoenix national tour in HS prep but not much competition, placed 3rd at the South Texas tour behind a 2014 WRX and 2023 GTI but definitely wasn't my best driving. I don't think the car is super competitive in STH especially on big national style courses, but it's a ton of fun and has been super reliable. Next up mod wise is picking out a seat and possibly going to stiffer spring rates. I also want to try the 245 Nankang CRS V2 whenever those finally come back in stock at Phil's.

South Texas Tour Vid

 

[hawyee]

Couple small updates: got the car back from getting the wavetrac installed, still breaking in the new clutch but it feels great through corners. Old clutch (on right) still looked great surprisingly not sure how many miles were on it but it took plenty of autox and track abuse in the last 30k as well as additional wear from teaching friends how to drive manual.


Threw on some new brakes too with powerstop coated rotors and EBC blue pads, the EBC rpx got really hot at the track so definitely need to get the deflectors installed before the next one. The LSD should also help keep the brake vectoring from activating, my left side pads were nearly at the backing while the right still had a little life left.


Picked up some Corbeau A4s, they're pretty comfy and they hold you through the turns nicely, only about 6lbs weight savings but that wasn't my main concern. They sit a little higher, install was straightforward with jamming a resistor into the airbag plug and swapping over the passenger occupancy mat. Also got a Vudu short shifter and symposer delete, going to install those today. Headed to Kansas for an autox middiv event this weekend, excited to see what the diff can do!

 

[hawyee]

Had a good weekend in Kansas, definitely more of a fiesta sized course could stay in second all day long. Ran first heat both days, Saturday was a brand new site and Sunday was pretty rainy in the morning. The LSD and new seats made a world of difference. Top 9 pax places were in the afternoon sessions so likely would have ended up a bit higher had I ran in the dry as well but placed 1st in class out of two, 14/50 raw and 11th pax. Really happy with the results considering there were more than a couple national champs in attendance.

View: https://youtu.be/L3XV_BbRZeA?si=LupiOTwdAPUGYg5Y

 

[M-Sport fan]

Which model 'Stang was the "Rusturd" above??

 

[hawyee]

GT with suspension and autocross aero, still not sure why he calls it that haha. He was in my heat running the PS4s.

 

[hawyee]

May was a crazy busy month for the bean with 3 weekend long autocrosses and 2 track days. Overall the car felt great, the biggest issues being brake cooling/wear on track. I installed the boomba deflectors which seemed to help manage fade, but a new set of Powerstop track day spec pads didn't even last the day with the left side being at the backing plates. The torque vectoring is still interfering a lot more than I'd like despite the LSD install. Looking at going to an endurance pad for something that will make it through a whole day hopefully. Also managed to get coolant temp up to 240 deg at Hallett with the mountune radiator, ambient temp was ~90. Ended up running the heat the last session and that helped but definitely not ideal. With the -3.5 deg of camber up front I'm getting a lot of inside wheelspin which is wearing my tires inner shoulder pretty quickly so will likely get a new alignment and take it back to -3 along with replacing the front control arms. The Lincoln Solo National tour was a good experience, I should have swapped out my fronts after Hallett as I understeered everywhere day 1 and when I got them changed for day 2 the car was back to it's normal self. Placed 5th out of 6th in class, the WRX and GTI just have too much power and tire but with a fresh set and my best driving I think I could've closed the gap a bit. Last weekend had probably my best autox event ever with the TX region, finished ahead in raw time of a nationally good driver in his street class civic SI (he was 3rd pax I was 7th overall). Just picked up a '22 BRZ that will be my competitive autocross car and daily, so the bean will likely get a S280 and goodies eventually to make it more of a track dedicated machine. Will post video of all the adventures soon just need to get them uploaded to the Youtubes.

 

[lemonjs]

What a beauty! Will we be seeing this out on the ‘ring when you’re in Germany?

 

[hawyee]

Yes sir!

 

[tri-pedaler]

Great stuff, enjoy the BRZ!

 

[hawyee]

Put new front brakes on today (powerstop track day spec/centric disks) in prep for the track next week, also replaced the right side boost hose that kept popping off with the whoosh one. Somehow snapped the end off of the DNA traction bar as well lol, likely on one of my small offs at Hallett. Think I'm gonna order the DNA control arms and ditch the traction bar all together. Also ordering 9k fortune auto rear springs to try as the car has felt pretty pushy lately. In other news my billet Vudu coolant cap broke into two pieces upon removal so will be contacting them, hopefully they can fix the issue and send a replacement but ordered an OEM style one for now.

 

[Cneu]

This is a fun thread. Keep us updated.

 

[hawyee]

Made some tweaks to the rear suspension over the weekend to include new FA 9k rear springs, power flex black beam bushings and the SEP centering kit from Whoosh. The bushing install was pretty straightforward besides the left side OEM bushing refused to come out, we ended up using a press to get the center sleeve finally and then cut out the rest with a sawzall. The right side came out easy enough with a mallet.



Picked up the DNA control arms as well so will be getting those installed soon and getting the car realigned, need to drop the coilovers and take some camber out at the plate to bring it back to -3, hopefully this will get me a bit more straight line traction and save a bit of tire wear. Still waiting on the 245-40-15 Nankang CRS v2 to try up front, or possibly the 225-50 re71rs. The RT660s have good overall feel but they get greasy as the day goes on and don't have the pace needed. Took the car to Eagles Canyon Raceway in TX yesterday for a really cool trackcross event with an 80+ mph course, with the rear tweaks the car is much more willing to rotate. Ended up 22nd in pax out of 100 something with a very competitive field and got the class win.

View: https://youtu.be/PPe0IMzXkmc?si=P0AU6M1o-50nyuQs

View: https://youtu.be/zpDKzYPm0kU?si=qAHjQnI5G8lyUJEH

 

[hawyee]

Picked up a 2" Lathewerks shift extension and a Subieflow weighted carbon knob, the height is a lot better now with the corbeau seats.



Had an issue with the fortune auto adjustment knob set screw backing out making it impossible to adjust my front shocks, so I took the cowl off, put some loctite on and snugged it back up and cut some holes for ease of access. Not the prettiest work but it's much quicker to adjust them now.


In other news I've been chasing some evap codes, P0442 and P0456, they came on last weekend along with a stumbling idle and a cel. Swapped the harness to the 14-15 spec already and capped off the extra bung, reset the ECU and the cel went away but the codes came back this weekend. Idle seems smoother but boost vacuum is around -7 at idle when I used to see -9/-10. The car still seems to be driving normal, hitting 25psi so not sure what's going on. Possibly the evap canister or capless area?

Had more racing yesterday this time in good old Oklahoma, first event on concrete with the new rear adjustments. The car felt pretty good after some messing with shock settings and ended up 11th overall in pax.

View: https://youtu.be/pgiYDsGBjrk?si=Z-dkXpaZtDHnZrCo


Next up is getting the DNA arms and end links on finally and getting her realigned, will also be trying out some 225-50-15 re71rs takeoffs from a Mini driver in my region.

 

[hawyee]

DNA control arms and endlinks on, have alignment scheduled for Monday and need to adjust ride height/corner balance for the 225-50-15 re71rs. Would not recommend the DNA 2 point brace if you're lowered, lasted all of 2 months on my car lol. Hopefully the control arms hold up better, they seem a lot more solid and will be under less stress.

 

[Woods247]

Cool build! Thanks for sharing

 

[WannabeST]

Looking forward to your review on the control arms. Strongly considering those.

 

[hawyee]

The control arms feel pretty good so far, I don't notice a huge difference from OEM but they seem a little tighter. Unfortunately I took too much camber out at the plate when we dropped the struts and the alignment shop was only able to manage -2 vs the -3 I was shooting for so may end up committing to just drilling out the towers as it's no longer the primary autox car. I like the 225-50-15 re71rs so far as it gains a couple mph in 2nd but definitely missed that extra degree of camber as they were starting to get over on the sidewall up front. Still managed 18/132 in pax at a very hot Texas event, definitely not ideal fwd turbo car conditions. Random pics from the Oklahoma event last month: