*Whew* - the past week and weekends have been a bit of a whirlwind. Also, first post with a blue username
Before last weekend:
Was drooling over BRZ seats, got a friend who has one to let me do a test fit of his in my '80... then promptly succumbed to project car fatigue and too-much-money syndrome, said a hearty "YOLO," and bought a set of Corbeau GTSIIs.
Last weekend:
Swapped the clutch master out for a bigger (3/4") one, and it worked perfectly! Didn't need a pedal stop, engages perfectly, good feel. Success!
Acquired a cobra-style intake (taking inspiration from the B234F+T parts bin I got from JohnMC when I bought his head and intake so many years ago), reworked my intake, and now it looks cleaner and as a bonus, doesn't get slurped in on throttle movement:
Impulse bought one of Runslikeapenguin's nickle VSS blockoff plates, since I wasn't using the sensor in my diff cover:
Over the last week:
Test drove, success! Used it as my exclusive daily driver for a week to get some break-in miles in, got 20mpg on some old gas and seafoam in mixed highway / city / light city hooning. Did a bunch of interior/trim work, and put my GTS2s in, and a set of Wagonmeister/DavidSamuels snowcap repops, taking it another step away from a sub-$500 ****box, towards being... whatever a step below pro-touring is - amateur-touring?
This past weekend:
Saturday, I got my break-in miles finished, and changed many fluids per procedure for both new part break-in and junkyard part reuse. Sunday, the SCCA Targa Southland multi-mode-rally terminated at my home track, and I went, primarily as an event worker for the local SCCA region. Worked a flag station for their lapping sessions, took Randy Pobst on a parts run
cool
, did timing and scoring for their light-cone autocross ("track-cross")... and after the work was done, I got to play myself!
... 1.5 "track-cross" runs later, the car spit out the driveshaft. This is the part where everyone glares at me for not having a GoPro. But **** was it fun before that, and everything else worked as planned. Should have some action stills of the car later this week, as my mother is the track photog and pretty much guaranteed to have been paying attention
Yeah, what? The transmission yoke and axle flange are still on the car. Body contact at the back of the tunnel causing the U-joint's crossbar to punch out a circlip and encap? My father and I tried to play CSI: Turbobricks at the track, and couldn't come up with a definitive answer. I can say with certainty that the STS mount LSx+621 bellhousing+TKO combination puts the output shaft higher than the Redblock+Avalanche adapter+Mustang T5 - complicating driveshaft sizing issues, especially in a lowered car.
Drivetrain issues aside, it's:
1. Actually a pretty balanced power-to-weight-to-grip combination. Seriously, it's easy to quickly drive up to the limit of grip, but without going too far if I don't want to. On my first run, only driving in "feeling out a new and unfamiliar car" mode, I set a quicker time than a friend's reasonably well-prepped Miata, and more a few of the Targa participants. It also has the exact amount of extra oomph that I found lacking from my B234+15G combination in the '80.
2. Great to have a Kaplhenke-suspension-equipped 240 again. Properly adjusted Koni Race shock/struts are the bomb, and although I didn't shout about it much on the un-build-threaded '80, QSRCs are the missing link to lowered 240s feeling and handling awesome.
3. Also, the mopar318-kit ATS-V brake setup works magically with the ABS master cylinder, Wilwood proportioning valve, stock rear calipers, and Hawk HP+ pads all around.
Oh well, time to look for someone to make a 2pc driveshaft. To quote Randy Pobst - "Development!"