Draco-REX

I like Formula E. But I think the car "unveilings" are a little silly since the chassis and aero are all Spec. They're more like Livery unveilings. I love the new look though. It appeals to the kid I have locked up in my subconscious. I do wish they would use slicks. In my opinion, the "street" tires make the cars look less serious.

Thanks guys. I'll be making some phone calls.

Does anyone know of a reliable Landscaper for a house in the Dublin area? We are trying to get estimates on our back yard and so far we've had 3 companies ghost us. We have a plan, but we can't get anyone to give us an estimate. Either they don't show up at all, or they take the time to come out and look, but then never contact us with an estimate. So any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks.

I think I saw you yesterday. I saw a silver BMW wagon with nice wide tires at all four corners. It looked good.

Looks great. I really need to get the BRZ done.

If it's the same problem, I wonder if there's something inherent in the design that causes them to fail since they have similar engines. Maybe heat? I wonder if a little bit of heat wrap would be possible/helpful.

If it's getting fuel, and you can smell it from the exhaust, have you checked to see if you can get an arc to jump to the plug?

I'll have to ask my sister. I'm pretty sure she got to keep custody of the cornhole set in her divorce.

Awesome catch! Looks great. The GT350 is a hell of a car.

I clicked off a 15.8 on the strip and 29.7 (29.6 fun run) at the AutoX. Still a long way to go with the BRZ.

The event was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who made it possible. It's not often I get to be among both the quickest and slowest at the same event.

Packed as well. GOing to run it through the wash tomorrow morning. I'd clean it more but the stock brembo pads will turn everything grey by the time I get there.

Your BBQ trailer is catering? Awesome! I'm a sucker for good BBQ.

No changes to the plans to have an AutoX course, right?

When will you make the decision to cancel or not?

Damn this is coming up fast. I need to get some more parts on the BRZ.

Uber fucked up bad. From another article: Which makes sense until you get to the next point: Ok, so that's short sighted. But the driver should be watching the road, right? Dear god. The shortsightedness is mind boggling. It can't get worse. Right? Pack up shop guys. I don't want you behind the wheel of a normal car at this point.

That looks good. I really enjoyed Pinks! All Out and this looks like they are looking to build on it instead of just reboot it.

The input pipe goes over the LH exit pipe before going into the side of the muffler.

The insanity continues. Ordered some parts for the BRZ and had a pile of parts itching to go on. So I hauled a load of them in to work and set up camp around an unused lift today. Here's what was on the menu for today: From left to right: Subaru Auto Dimming mirror with Home Link TOM'S Tail Lights Radium dual catch-can system GrimSpeed Intake GrimSpeed Belt cover Carbon Fiber drive shaft (I forget the brand) Cusco Strut bar with master cylinder brace ARK Grip catback Whiteline Diff mount bushing inserts Whiteline Rear Subframe bushing inserts Whiteline Transmission mount bushing insert ARK resonated front pipe Got it up in the air: Then removed the stock stuff going away, and started installing parts. I had to take a picture of the driveshaft since it'll never be seen again: And the Exhaust: Also invisible to the naked eye are all the bushing inserts. I did those before with the old BRZ on my garage floor with the car on jack stands. It is SO much easier on a lift with a screw jack. So much... It was getting close to closing but the underside was done so I started with the top-side parts. I tried the TOM'S tailights. And while I really liked them on my old BRZ, they just looked kind of dated on the new one. I think I might try some tinted film or NightShades on only specific portions of the stock tail lights. Haven't fully decided yet. Under the hood is next. Stock engine bay: The red manifold was a TRD add-on previously, but is now standard for 2017+. I think it looks a lot better than the old black plastic one. I don't think I've heard of the plastic one letting go under boost, but the aluminum one will likely be even better. Now with the intake, belt cover and bar/MC brace: I think the red intake pipe with a black belt cover ended up looking good with the red intake manifold, even if they don't quite match. I didn't get to install the catch cans or mirror yet. The mirror I can do whenever I have a free 20 minutes or so. The catch cans, after re-reading the manual, may wait for a lightweight battery. I remember the clearance by the battery being very tight. I may also replace the fittings since I chewed them up chasing a vacuum leak with the old car. Suspension is next. I've got the old RCE yellow springs and their sway bars waiting to go on. And I picked up some wheel spaces to punch the wheels out a bit until I get around to getting new wheels. But that will likely be a couple weeks from now as I have to get the Evo ready for the first event on the 20th.

While I think my issue was largely a fluke and it's likely the "tweaked" engine in the 17+ should be more reliable, I am going to avoid some mods in this car. Since the oil pump is driven directly by the crankshaft, I'm going to avoid things that may cause excess vibration on the off chance that it was the oil pump that failed and it wasn't a manufacturing defect. So this time, no lightweight pulleys, UELs, and a "street" weight flywheel at the lightest. Probably I'm being too cautious, but the gains from these mods really aren't worth much at this power level.

That's about where I was. The issues weren't load related. The problem I was having was that a rocker on the RH side of the engine would just come loose. It happened when the engine oil was fully warm and the engine dropped from cruising RPM to idle. I tried replacing the rockers, going to stronger valve springs, and shimming the oil pump bypass. Nothing worked. The only thing I didin't try was just replacing the oil pump. But when I got to that point I was just sick of chasing the problem and couldn't trust that engine. I'm thinking this engine will prove more reliable. But that's something for down the road.

Thanks for all the replies. I was expecting more CR hate. Going back to the BRZ seemed like it might be a little masochistic, but to paraphrase Doc, sometimes a little insanity is a good thing. I do plan to add forced induction eventually. But I think I'll let some of the warranty run out first. I'm pretty sure the issue with the last BRZ was a loss of oil pressure once the oil got up to temp. It's possible that after all I did, I only had to replace the oil pump, but I was just done with playing whack-a-mole with that engine. This one's supposed to be a little bit more robust from what I'm reading. And either way, I still have those race heads, so I can pick up where I left off. I'm also not going to go to a race-weight flywheel or replace the harmonic damper in the slim chance they contributed to the issue. (And driving around town the the race flywheel sucked.) But in the mean time, I'm thinking of going E85 with a tune and long tube header to minimize the torque dip and get a bump of about 30rwhp. That should help a lot. And of course there's no way I'll be able to leave the suspension or appearance alone. This one might be a little more aggressive looking when I'm done. I plan to be at the 6/3 event for everyone that wants to show me how slow I am. First mod done, just before bedtime last night: Shift knob from the old BRZ. Removed the dealership ads from ALL OVER the car today. Thankfully, when mounting the front plate bracket, they used the least damaging method. I just need to find some really small trim plugs now.