DS-BRZ: October 2017

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.