EXE Winton - Taillights mods = PBs!?

It's time to put an end to the age old debate: are aftermarket taillights faster than stock taillights? To do this I had to go to Winton to cut some hot laps of course.

And the verdict? Tom's taillights is 0.481 seconds faster than stock! Who would have thought!

OEM - 1:44.1580
Tom's- 1:43.6770

Finding time on the track is getting harder and harder, but I still think there is time to be had with the car in its current form. To help out I got 2017 NugNat champion Viv to give me some pointers, and now I have a few things up my sleeve to keep working on. Thanks Viv!

I was given the opportunity to drive BRZ mate Jorge's MY17 BRZ with newly fitted Shockworks coilovers under the condition that if I binned it, I'll need to name my first born after him. Lucky for my first born I kept it on the black stuff haha jk! Compared to my OEM MY13 suspension the Shockworks felt slightly more firm with less roll. I didn't dare go hard enough to see if it hard the same understeering tendencies I have with the OEM. But they definitely felt good to drive on. Comfortable, quick and quiet, definitely a worthwhile upgrade!

Something else I had noticed this time driving the MY17 is how it has better acceleration out of corners because of the the shorter final drive ratio it came with. Feels great coming out of corners but at the cost of hitting the limiter sooner in each gear. I think with semi slicks this shorter final drive will allow for some higher gear, higher speed cornering and better track times.

Casually parked next to the fastest guy around

Awesome weather!

Going just that little faster every time

Track side view. Tyres are loudest part of the car (Credit: Aileen. Thanks!)

Going, going, gone! Nice spin Ailz!

Group buy SC kits anyone?

Quietly glad it was a 43-flat TPB, otherwise I would still be there gunning for a 42.x! Next time...

Brake later there... Accelerate sooner there... Clip that apex better there...

Miss Danas and the mega graphs. I need to use my data skills and do my own mega-graphing.

Pre track - When Subaru don't open Saturdays, OEM-replacement stuff from the local Repco will do.

Bye bye oil. Thanks for looking after my engine!

Reference:

Natsoft Official Timing - 1:43.6770 (Previously 1:44.1580 - 30/7/2017)

Racechrono Timing - 1:43.68

Racechrono Optimal - 1:43.00

Laps: 27

Power/Handling/Brakes: Stock

Tyres: Hankook R-S3 (F:30/R:32 psi hot, Track Count:2)

Engine Oil: Redline 5w30

Diff/Gearbox fluid: Motul Gear 300 75W90

Tracking App: RaceChrono Android

External GPS: Qstarz GPS (5Hz)

Camera: GoPro Hero 3

Overlay Software: RaceRender Povo Edition

This is not a oil cooler? Tom's tail lights!

Shortly after I order my HEL oil cooler, I get a message saying it'll be delayed, but 2 days later I get a package from HEL? Opening the package I see "TOM'S" printed on the box inside the package... Hang on a second....!

SURPRISE! Wifey bought me brand new Tom's tail lights because she knew I've been eyeing them off but would have never bought them for myself because I don't usually buy things that don't affect the cars performance or reliability. She secret organised this with Import Monster and BRZ mate (Hi Jorge!) without me even knowing. Sneaky!

Princess confirms "This is tail lights, not oil cooler. Bamboozled again!"

Woohoo! Oil cooler soon quicker than expected! ....

(Yes, she forged return address haha)

They must of ran out of boxes for the oil cooler....

Brand new Tom's!

Makes me understand why people get hooked on buying parts to dress-up their cars.

Looks fairly easy. Single harness and 4 to secure.

Flasher unit included to replace the OEM one to make sure the indicators flash at the correct rate. Hopefully not too hard to install.

Famous last words.... Removing the OEM flasher from his mess took ages!

OEM flash with its clip that made it rather hard to install along side the new one.

Oh, I've never really paid attention to the OEM indicator. Here it is in all it's glory.

This is the new Tom's one I tested before mounting to the car. 

Rear tail lights removed and cleaned up. Apparently water runs over the top of the housing so the surface needs to be clean for the new gasket to seal without any leaks.

All done!

New (left) vs Old (right)

Looking a quarter of a million dollars!

... Ok, maybe not a whole quarter million, but it's not bad for a fraction of the cost! haha

Car gauge OBD2 scanner nerd fun

How hot does the engine get especially when tracked? No idea! Without any gauges to tell me, I decided to get a OBD2 scanner and my old HTC phone to read out some temps to keep an eye on things.

Very happy with how it all works from the info I can read out to the refresh rate. Long term I'll either mount the phone in the car somewhere or get an Android head unit output this to.

Went with a used Scantool.net OBDLink MX from some guy in WA. Took almost 1.5 weeks to arrive by AustPost. It's so far it's almost a different country! And the bullet casing in the top right was in the box.... 

 

The OBD port is positioned in the foot well near the clutch. A small compact design means I won't hit it when I'm driving, or kick it getting in and out of the car.

The original OBDLink app that came with the scanner. Looks nice and is fairly customisable.

Torque app. Doesn't look as good but is more widely used judging by forums. A small tweak in adding the output parameters was required to get oil temp read outs. Definitely out an out-of-the-box solution by a long shot.

Need to think of a better place to mount this in the long run...

Borrowed one of these type of OBD2 scanners to test before I went the OBDLink MX but unfortunately it didn't work and threw a CEL. Helped me decide to go straight to the MX

Nugget Nationals Winton - Easy PB is still a PB

This was the first track day with the new brakes and tyres combo so the 3 second improvement came easier than usual. If in doubt, just throw money and mods at it!

Stock as a rock: 1:47.4220

Better brakes/tyres: 1:44.1580

This update is 3 months late, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. But a huge thanks as always to the crew and Nugnats for another great event, and to Steur Imagery for some awesome pics!

Attacking the S. Love this shot!!

Why is it I can always see a few tenths when watching the video but had no idea on the day?!

More action shots courtesy of Steur Imagery

Feels (and looks) like it corners fairly flat. Not bad for OEM suspension.

Forgot who I got this shot from, but thanks! WTB wing!

How the RS3s looked after some abuse

Kicked up a lot of dust and muck in general all over myself, and check out how dusty the PMU pads are.

Drained the battery on the GoPro when I forgot to turn it off so I was charging between sessions.

Some random pre-Winton work I did....

Flash back: My own fire extinguisher mount. Just another Import Monster one.

Battery charger cable fitted and found the perfect little gap to tuck it into.

Investigating the metallic ping led me to adjusting the handbrake.

For reference:
Natsoft Official Timing - 1:44.1580
Racechrono Timing - 1:44.18
Racechrono Optimal - 1:43.41
Laps: 29

Power/Handling/Brakes: Stock
Tyres: Hankook R-S3 (32 psi hot, Track Count:1)
Engine Oil: Redline 5w30
Diff/Gearbox fluid: Motul Gear 300 75W90

Tracking App: RaceChrono Android
External GPS: Qstarz GPS (5Hz)
Camera: GoPro Hero 3
Overlay Software: RaceRender Povo Edition

The power of the BRZ revealed. Dyno shootout!

When buying a used car you never really quite know how much power there is at the engine. If you're lucky you might get a monster engine making more than expected, but if you're unlucky, you might have an old tired engine.

So one way to find out is to put it on the dyno and luckily enough, I managed to score a spot with the Nugget Nationals dyno day at Weltmeister Eastside literally down the road from me.

How much power did I think I would have? The stock engine is 147kw on paper... Drivetrain losses... Coming up to 4 years old... Feels healthy with "only" ~15,000km on the odo... Heavier-than-stock tyres... So maybe 100kw at the wheel?

The results:
Run 1: 105.3
Run 2: 107.1
Run 3: 107.9 kw

Woohoo! Got more than my estimated 100kw so no complaints!

Fellow crew and BRZ mate (Hi Jorge!) was also there with his basically-new MY17 BRZ with its more powerful 152kw engine on the same dyno, same day, under the same conditions. It is no better baseline to compare my engine to and he got a mighty 110kw.

Given everything, with just under 3kw difference between us, I'm happy my engine is fit and healthy! Now lets go racing! 😁

Hanging out with some cool S2Ks

Game time!

The results! I can see the infamous torque dip now despite not really feeling it all that much whilst driving.

See anything different? This is not me. This is the MY17 BRZ!

Super clean Evo 6 TME in the best colour

Justice... Salvation... Love Others... Human Dignity... Compassion... 

TME and a heap of nuggets

I never heard of Weltmeister Eastside prior this event because I've never had a Porsche

Love these tofu cars! They're the reason I almost got a 86 GTS instead of a BRZ

 

Stood underneath this 86 whilst we watched the runs and kept looking up to admire the suspension and brakes 🤤