Oswald Lightweight Subframe

Today was quite productive as I also installed my Oswald Lightweight Subframe.

It weighs 10 lbs vs. the stock 24 lbs and is MUCH stronger. After taking off the hulking stock subframe it was already twisting and bending in my hands!

Install went butter smooth. Every bolt hole lined up perfectly and with the addition of the undertray mount kit, the splash guard went on flawlessly. I was even surprised that all the plastic clips lined up on the fender liner! Driving it on the street was a similar experience as the rear triangle brace. Front end felt slightly more athletic and took bumps a bit better. Steering also felt tighter. But as with the rear brace, I won't be able to tell the true difference until I hit up the track.

Maintenance remaining: 
- Clean air filter & MAF
- Change spark plugs (LFR6A-11)
- Lube squeaky rear swaybar bushings
- Alignment (haven't decided specs yet)

Mods remaining: 
- Front & rear Oswald bumper beams
- Roo brake ducts & hose routing
- Whiteline roll center kit

Before track: 
- Install KFP front pads before track
- Check track wheel fitment
- Check harness fitment with V9 seats
- Detail car then vinyl

 Two weeks left to shakedown on April 29th... I think I can make it.

Antigravity Lightweight Battery

Installed my Antigravity 16-Cell battery after work today. It weighs 3.2 lbs vs. the stock 30+ lb battery. This thing is tiny but packs a punch! 480 CCA vs. the 500-600 CCA of the OEM battery at a fraction of the weight. The battery is so tiny that I had to use some foam risers underneath the battery, flip the mounting bracket upside down, and add a rally blue yoga block to stabilize everything.

Dropping 27 lbs off the front left corner should definitely help reduce understeer at the track.

After installing the battery my car fired up instantly without any hesitation. So far so good. I just hope my yoga block mod can take the heat Anyone who has ever felt a yoga block before knows the foam is really hard, but you never know. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Roo Ducts Arrived

These arrived today:

Close-ups attached. Incredibly lightweight, box felt empty when I received it. I plan to paint them black for a more stealthy look before mounting them. Anyone interested in them can contact RANDYZIMMER.COM Randy sent me a video of how they were made! I put it pon youtube for you guys.

Oswald Rear Triangle Brace

Installed the Oswald Performance Rear Triangle Brace over the weekend. Installation was pretty straight forward. Remove the back seats, loosen the seatbelt pre-tensioners, drop the strut brace supports in, attach the lower support bracket and bolt in the triangle brace. The only trouble I had was mounting the RH strut tower brace as I had a wire harness in the way, but some twisting and fiddling and it went on fine. Everything else fit perfectly!

The fit and finish of this piece is really top notch. I can't believe how sturdy this thing feels when bolted to the car. It feels like you could use it as a jacking point (although I wouldn't try). Off the car the brace couldn't have weighed more than 3-4 lbs. Well worth it over the Litespeed X-Brace cables I had before, which required tightening every so often!

I haven't really been able to test it on the street, but so far bumps seem to be less harsh than they used to. A similar feeling to when I installed the TiC Fender Cowl Braces, but in the rear instead. Definitely a good thing. Can't wait to try it at the track :)

Porsche GT-3 Brake Ducts

I've looked into the Roo Ducts but on the 06+ WRX/STI they put the washer jug in the fender area which completely blocks the potential to run a hose (see attached). I could revert to an 05 style jug in the engine bay but that would require deleting the air pump at a minimum, which would then be +PIPs if I decide to do OTA. Anwyay, I've asked Randy to find a solution for me as I'm sure he's run into this before. I think the Prova brake ducts will work but they need some airflow directed towards them (see attached photos). Jacopo mentioned he uses these on his STI at the Nurburgring and has no more fading issues. Even Porsche uses a similar style OEM brake duct on their GT-3:

TMP on April 29th with Touge.ca is my scheduled "shakedown" date to test everything out and heat cycle the slicks I bought. I'm also trying to schedule a bit of personal coaching that day too... The Stoptech kit actually keeps the stock brake bias, it's the KFP pads which shift the bias slightly forward because they have a higher mu (0.47) than the DS2500 pads in the rear (0.40). It's not that big of a difference though, and if I wanted to adjust it I could probably just get a more aggressive pad in the rear.

StopTech ST-40 BBK

Stop so hard, that shit cray!!

Stoptech ST-40 is on the car now. As my friend said while helping me bleed my brakes, "the pedal is now harder than a 13-year old on viagra". Funny guy, but the engine was off so there was no vacuum assist on the pedal lol. Despite that, pedal feeling IS amazing. I feel I have a lot wider range of modulation than I did before over about an inch of brake pedal travel. Of course, the stainless lines and master cylinder brace all help with that -- but there's a noticeable improvement over the stock 4-pot setup. My only complaint is that this kit makes the rear 2-pots look tiny!! :P

I'm using the Stoptech street pads for now and haven't bedded them yet as the instructions say to wear off the zinc plating first, but already stopping distance is pretty good. For the track, I have a set of carbon-kevlar KFP Gold pads that have a mu of 0.47. I'll be swapping those in before track days to conserve brake pads. I bought them from Peter Hanson and they came with a free pass to one of his full-day driving schools - sick deal!! As a reference, the ST-40 rotors are 328x28mm and stock STI Brembos are 326x30mm. I went with the ST-40 kit since Stoptech claims that the calipers are designed to maintain the stock brake bias. Big thanks to Chris @ Touge Tuning for hooking me up with a great deal :D

JDM Spec-C V9 Interior & SRS Swap

Did a bit of interior work this weekend.

A few weeks ago I picked up a JDM V9 Spec-C interior so I decided to paint my door cards black. I used Duplicolor Vinyl & Fabric matte black. Much cheaper option than Alcantara... we'll see how it holds up, but for now I think it looks great!

Along with the new JDM seats, I swapped my USDM seat base so the driver side has height adjustment, added the passenger OCS bladder for airbag detection, and also retro-fitted the side airbags back into the seats.

Overall I'm very happy with the JDM V9 seats after figuring out how to keep all of my original safety equipment. The seats add a significant amount of back and leg bolstering, as well as some needed thigh support. They provide just as much bolstering as the Recaro seats in the Evo X, but with a less intrusive feeling since the seat foam is softer. My body dimensions are 5'10", 160 lbs, 34" waist.