Church

Speaking about gear knobs. I've searched long and hard but couldn't find any. - Maybe someone can help finding asymmetric/anatomic gear shift knob that fits these cars? I mean something of this style, fit for M12x1.25 thread, AND that can work with reverse lockout? (there are many 'universal' thread-wise, but almost each and every with reverse lockout are of round or cylindrical shape. Asymmetric ones? None .)

Regarding catback exhaust system, you have to understand that: 1) it will be rather expensive 2) it's mostly for sound, not performance. It can give some extra 7-10 ponies, especially with tune, but it comes at price of $1K and it's way less then 15-25 extra whp from header, that on average costs 1/2-2/3 of average catback. If purely max performance NA gains is your target, header itself is better point of investment for this car imho.

IIRC there was one test, where almost all aftermarket dropin filters shown similar results, all were more freely flowing then stock. TRD, K&N, Cossworth .. take whichever is simpler to buy and whichever company you trust in more. Cheapest performance upgrade of them all.P P.S. In most cases you shouldn't consider full intake replacements. They bring only slightly above what dropin filters do, yet cost ten times as much, and often gains are with misscaled MAF sensor for them in stock tune and as result with AFR all around the place, running too lean, and once you do proper ecu retuning, it's far from that big gain some vendors claim.

Bosch? Isn't it made by Denso (used in many car brands though. so i guess it's upto manufacturer designing firmware on to what ecu can or cannot)?

Standard cup holder .. i found it unusable. Too far back in rearmost position to comfortably reach for mug when driving (i know it's bad and dangerous habbit , but it's even more dangerous in this car, as due location i have to divert eyes from road and lean far back/to side to reach it, unlike if it had been in front of gearstick, to easy reach without looking/leaning), and mug interfering with hand on gearshift/handbrake, if it's in frontmost position. And all that center console hole seems just gathering dust and looks silly if armrest is not installed above that. Not much lost, if you don't have standard one - just use door's one (NOT for flexible paper cups in misc drive in junkfood joints). For audio/navi .. i'm leaning to keep using navigation in cellphone mounted next to headunit and enhance audio via some amp (but leaving rest same), or change to different headunit that will tick most of checkboxes i want (better audio, more usb ports, mirrorlink support, preferably native android, torque app support for extra OBD gauges). For later case i'll wait out a bit longer, for android units to appear also from some of top audio vendors. Not sure if current chinese android headunits will have as good audio part as those have. P.S. Don't forget easy & cheap performance gain from drop-in aftermarket air filter (just +5whp .. but for $40 ), and be it decat or not, in both cases i'd do ecu dyno tune. P.P.S. What fix you used on your rear seat latches? IIRC some used velcros there, but it's also of quick wear item.

My comfort/"quality of life" upgrades list goes like: Armrest, Brodit active charging cellphone holder, backup camera, replacing tyre repair kit with skinny donut spare, Weathertech floormats, Wheelhaus' 3rd brake light. Considering: Alcantara instrument dash cluster hood (to not see stock's reflections on windscreen), mudflaps (it was fun driving on gravel roads, but hearing all those small rocks hitting wheel arches .. imho they won't hurt to save better paint on car sides), kit to auto-fold mirrors when locking car. Also thinking how to better hard mount fire extinquisher inside spare donut wheel for it to not rattle and to not use any trunk or cabin space. Not decided on shark-fin antenna, don't like stock, but don't want to get worse radio reception. Not sure yet which way to go with audio upgrades. Todo: better hiding/routing charging wire to phone holder and usb extension wire to ipod in glove department. Didn't like - perrin 'drift' button. Installed it, tried out few times, seen that almost never really used it instead getting sideways using other methods, but in much more cases disliked removed spring, hence put it back, but then should have skipped this purchase in first place. Stock cup holders suck, but seems that my coffee mug fits well in doors bottle holders. Gave up searching one i would like (liked Tom's in airvent, but it's for RHD only) Biggest source of rattles are latches of rear seats (imho ~ 2/3). So far used duct tape around U latching hooks, but it's too short lived. I need to find some plastics that will fit well there and will do better wear-wise, to not need to re-tape after once or twice lowering seats and latching them back. Performance upgrades: biggest gains are from aftermarket decatted header (manifold) + ecu tune. Header upgrade in many cases also helps fixing torque dip. Hence imho you'd be better off with upgrading header and stock frontpipe with second cat, then vice-versa. I am rather happy with rest of car performance and suspension bits in stock, but am thinking of doing some lightening. For example going to some LW 16" forged wheels, lighter BBK, maybe pulleys/LWFW/driveshaft. Or even if 17", still lighter then stock ones. +some good rubber on them once i burn through OEM Primacies. Michelin Super Pilot Sport-s seem well spoken of.

Hmm. From one conversation via mails i recall Nameless rep mentioned, that catted combo FP-OP that they are making for Cossworth have higher cell count cat then their "own" catted FPOP. But even so, most probably cat in stock FP probably is more capable at cleaning out exhaust then any other 'high-flow' one .. hence my thought of line goes - get whichever catless header produces most gains (thinking so far of Aceheader's) and leave stock FP. Even this way performance gains will be very near point where diminishing returns hit (IIRC ~+40whp for NA), so most probably 2nd cat in FP delete's perf gain will be way less above thatm hence not much sense improving that bit too.

I guess there are ones that might be made for stock, eg. koni shocks .. but i've seen not once nor twice mentioned that shocks should match spring rates to not get something over- or underdamped, hence imho buying full set is simplest way to ensure that, if you go for aftermarket, diameter/mounting dimensions aside.

All seems fine with fluidamper .. except that dampening functions aside i'd hate to get even deeper (-5wtq/whp?) torque dip in 3K+/-300rpm range. I mostly daily drive mine, hence slight gain at rpms near redline, that will be seen/used less then 1% of driving time seems at too high of a cost.

Keethos: from what i know, many people had used LW pulleys on subaru boxer engines, both used for long time/distances daily usage and for track racing without much issues. Same for LW FW. But in case of using both for some there were shot bearings in engine sometimes even as soon as after 2K miles. Though maybe some had better luck, i don't want to risk my daily driver car, if there are many other safe for sure upgrades to install that will net more performance per buck. P.S. BTW, if max NA performance matters, imho one should consider installing different ratio Final Drive. Yes, economy and top speed will suffer, but on track it's wonderful companion if staying NA.

I rather bet that simply because of not too optimised too low rpm range with too much throttle open and heavy load for that. Doesn't bother me much (especially if it's mostly on cold starts when most extra noises come from different cam/ignition timings and fuel ratios for some time to quicker heat up catalisator), simpler to ignore. For me it seems that engine normal range for cruising starts no sooner then at 1600rpm in cruising and intended range for enthuasistic driving being 4500 till redline, hence not bothering me how it sounds and what extra noises produces below normal range.

Lightweight pulleys by themselves are not giving enough gains to be noticed by "butt-dyno". But if one goes all the way also installing LW driveshaft, LW wheels, lighter aftermarket brakes, worth changing them too. All of that improves actual acceleration in measurable way, and can be worth doing to squeeze out most performance from underpowered NA car. But just like with doing exhaust upgrades, i'd probably would leave them stock, if i had gone forced induction way. Even milder FI upgrades in SC or Turbo way give more then enough missing power for these relatively light cars to better spend that money elsewhere, for example on more seat time on track As advise to lighten just LW crunk pulley OR LW flywheel came from tuner that rebuilt / overhauled several FA20 & EJ engines, i'd prefer to trust his warning. Yes, boxer engines need less vibration/harmonics dampening among different engines, yes, manufacturers prefer playing on safe side and reusing parts bin, but if in real life mechanics seen issues with subaru engines with both crank pulley and flywheel lightened, i also will choose to play safer for car that i wish to run for at least 150K km.

Those rally cars except no sound deadening also had loud exhausts, and very loud straight cut gears sequential gearboxes with their characteristic noise heard even over engine's. It can be fine for track-only (or rallyish) car, but as most of us also use ours as daily drivers, compromises on noisiness have to be made. I'm actually rather satisfied with compromises in twins. Yes, they are noisier, but not at unacceptable levels (once some biggest noise sources are eliminated, like rear seat latch rattle). Just like with their suspension .. it's harsher then average lexus-boat mode consumer cars, but not too harsh. In my eyes except slight underpoweredness twins are everything i can wish for at their price/niche. Except maybe i don't know how they will do in long term reliability wise, as they simply haven't been around long enough.

Aye. Just not shown in pic two-tube overpipe part that should come in set.

IIRC one should be able to easily find adapters for standard double din units to mount in here. As for stock headunit, it indeed sounds awful .. but i'm not yet sure, is it because it itself generates crappy sound, or because it lacks amplified output, hence at normal volume heavily distorts sound. As even on stock oem shitty stereo speakers on my old '99 corolla i could playback much better sound with old alpine mp3 player (which had integrated 2x45W amp though) i think that adding amp to these T&G headunits as minimum upgrade may help aswell. One of things i plan to try out, but at some galaxy far far away, past long long time, as for now performance upgrades seem to me of higher priority then improving stock sound.

You shouldn't be too scared. ECU monitors knocking accurances when learning fuel trims, and should change cam and ignition timings accordingly. Or in worst knocking cases, cuts a bit power. At worst case you just won't be able to run engine to full capabilities. I highly doubt you'll be able damage anything.

Isn't simpler to stream from smartphone via BT?

1) I suggest fitting Michelin Super Pilot Sport, favourite of many, instead of MPS3. And if those, and if on oem wheels - then 215, simply because actual thread width is same for 215 & 225, hence no need to pay slightly more for not actually wider thread patch. And even at 215 that thread width will be much wider then that of stock primacies & due grippier rubber compound you'll get lot of grip compared to stock. EDIT Or not. Maybe MPSS 235 on aftermarket lightweight 17" (see no need to go for heavier 18") rims, eg. Kosei 4R or Enkei RPF1, after all almost missed that you'll have SC too. 2) Yes, better leave 2nd cat as is (actually i'd leave stock header too .. imho better to stay 100% legal, if all needed extra power you get via forced induction from supercharger. No need for extra few ponies from cat delete on forced induction route imho, as that will net fraction of what SC will bring, and which is more then enough for this lightweight car). 3) Unless mild powergain setup of no more then something like 2.0 cossworth of upto 240whp, i'd change at very least stock clutch. Brakes and such .. no need for daily driving. On track .. depends on how often you race there, some upgrade brakes for more heat capacity of BBKs on NA. Some stay stock (not bad brakes at all), just add steel brake lines, race pads and fluid, and maybe air brake ducts.

Stock spring rate IIRC was staggered. Front OE Spring Rate: Subaru BRZ 27 N/mm (153 lbs/in) Scion FR-S 23 N/mm (131 lbs/in) Rear OE Spring Rate: Subaru BRZ 34 N/mm (195 lbs/in) Scion FR-S 37 N/mm (211 lbs/in) EUDM GT86 somewhere in-between, with front springs like FR-S's, and rear rate between FR-S's & BRZ. But also stiffer then front. link #1, link #2. So i guess, that maybe there is sense to go for staggered aftermarket spring rates too to keep it more tailhappy as stock is, not neutral/understeerish.

Stagger as in staggered tyre setup? Why, to loose tyre rotation capability & to make handling worse just for looks (that rarely someone may notice) sake?

This sidemount seems to me much better placement then stacking before main one. With rad sandwiching not only rad behind is cooled with preheated rad before it, but also total airflow resistance is rised, making harder to blow through and again reducing cooling performance of rads.

Hmm, true, haven't considered used sales possibility. As cars using them as oem stock ones are rare where i live, it's only new ones i can get. And as such they are expensive.

Primacies have one slight problem. They are relatively expensive. Hence if i'd wish to save easy to oversteer character, i'd simply wouldn't go for overly wide tyres or go even to a bit narrower ones if tyres chosen have more grip. By time one wears down oem primacies, one usually has more experience awell on to how swing rear around even with slightly more grip, if wished so. Hence some 215/45 or even 205/45 imho will be fine, without overpaying for Primacies to replace ones that came with car. Of course, what matters more is thread width, as IIRC for example michelin super pilot sports have same 7.7" thread width in both of these two sizes, and for both thread width is wider then that of Primacies.

Ferrodo DS2500 imho in general are ones that are by far most often mentioned regarding twins pads (and i guess, for wrx/sti subarus aswell), and not just in forums, in IRL (eg. from my college) too . I've yet to wear down oem ones, and haven't yet tried DS2500, but that's certainly my planned choice for replacement.

Lauren: have you considered switching pads just on trackdays? As in put on best track performing ones just when on track, and don't suffer their drawbacks at daily driving? I don't know if compromise ones is best choice. Jack of all trades usually master of none, no?