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On June 21, we took the STI to HyperFest. We didn't actually put the car ON the track, but we had it on display at our Mach V booth, and got a lot of nice feedback about the car. Many non-Subaru owners recognized that it was an STI, and knew about the car. "This is the new STI, right?" We continue to get HUGE positive response about the wheels, so it looks like those will stay, despite the slightly-too-low offset.
The drive to and from Summit Point was pleasant. Good weather, nice roads. The early morning light was good, and we got a few rolling shots of the car.
The HyperFest turnout seemed really big -- we had a lot of booth traffic all day long. Organizer Chris Cobetto said he suspected this was the highest turnout they've had.
Our booth was next to the Grassroots Motorsports magazine booth, and we got to chat with associate publisher Greg Voth. My not-so-humble opinion is that GM is a great publication, with some of the best technical content of any of the sports car magazines currently offered. Greg was clearly an enthusiast, and knew a lot about a ton of different cars. We talked about participating in one of their Subaru projects. If that happens we'll post here about it.
We assembled a crack team of photographers and assistants -- okay, okay, it was just me -- to shoot the Mach V STI on a summer evening. Many mosquito bites later, we had a few shots we liked.
If you're interested, I was using a Canon 30D digital camera, with a couple of different lenses, and a tripod.
In my experience, it's MUCH easier to get good car shots during the "golden hour" right after sunset, or right before sunrise. Not only do you get nice sky colors, but the car details are also softened up a lot, and little flaws -- chips or small bits of dirt -- are less obvious. But it's tough because there's only about an hour, and setting up shots and moving the car and equipment around is time-consuming.
You can view more pictures -- and mega-sized versions of them -- over at this thread on NASIOC.
Sorry, I promised dyno testing news, but I'm going to discuss wheels and tires first. The dyno stuff will come later.
Although the stock wheels and tires on this car are pretty huge (18x8.5" wheels, 245/40R18 tires), the fenders are simply gargantuan, and there's a LOT of room in there for bigger rubber. So, not being the type to leave well enough alone, I got out the calculator. Lessee...there's probably an inch of extra clearance...That'd be around a 275mm tire width. A wheel that was one inch wider would be 9.5" wide...might as well go up a size in diameter, mostly for appearances...So that means a 19x9.5" wheel, 275/30R19 tire.
Scouring our various suppliers didn't result in many choices. Most mondo-huge wheels are in lower offsets than will work on the STI. And some that would fit are boat anchors weight-wise, or wouldn't clear the brakes.
One promising wheel was the Rays G-Games 99B. It's really light at 21 pounds. (Trust me, for this large of a wheel, that's light!) It comes in the right bolt pattern and size. But the highest offset is +40. Still, I couldn't pass up the look -- it's like the stock five-spoke, but bigger and more sculpted.
For tires, the choices were again limited. 275/30R19 just isn't something you're going to find at the local Tires 'R' Us. Cooper Tire came to the rescue with their Zeon 2XS. Some of you tire snobs might be asking, "Why not Pirelli or Michelin or some other fancy-pants tire?" Well, to be honest, I didn't want to spend $300+ per tire, and I find that our customers don't either. So I thought I'd try this brand. Plus, Cooper sponsors our friends at CSI Racing, and the team has had good results with the Cooper product.
Here's the result. It looks awesome! To me, the car looks more to scale with the wheels -- the larger wheels reduce the car's bulky appearance, especially at the back.
But there's some sad news, too -- the +40 offset is too far outward, so both front and rear tires are sticking out from the fenders just a bit. We haven't done full testing yet, but it looks like the fenders and tires are going to come into contact at full suspension travel. In theory we could have the pad (the center mounting surface of the wheel) machined down, but I don't think there's enough material on the wheel to allow that. So it's back to the drawing board, looking for an even higher offset.
When we last left our heroes, they were struggling to diagnose a mysterious "Check Engine" light that showed up after the installation of an electronic suspension controller. As I mentioned earlier, I was studying the wiring layout of the car. Had we somehow nicked a ground, causing several sensors to go offline? Was something left unplugged? We went back over all the connectors -- everything was plugged in.
The other weird thing was when the ignition was switched to on, stuff started clicking under the hood. The radiator fan went on and off. I said, "It's almost like it's in pre-delivery test mode." Someone else exclaimed, "The test connector!" I had been looking for that earlier -- turns out it's over in the passenger footwell, not in the driver's footwell like on earlier WRX cars. Well, one of our well-meaning junior mechanics had been putting the interior back together after the suspension install, and seeing a connector unplugged...he plugged it in!
This test mode connector is only intended to be used at the pre-delivery inspection, to make sure all the systems are working. After that it's unplugged. And going back to the wiring diagram, sure enough, the test mode connector plugs into a junction that also attaches to the neutral position switch, which was one of the trouble codes the ECU was telling us about. So we unplugged it on our car, cleared the stored ECU trouble codes, and poof, it's a working car again.
Next up: Dyno testing.
Ah yes, it seems like only yesterday. We had just buttoned up the interior of the STI after the installation of our fancy electronic suspension, and we switched on the car to find...a dashboard full of warning lights! Specifically, the Check Engine light, and its friend the blinking cruise control light. (All late-model Subarus blink the cruise control lamp when the Check Engine light is on. I assume this is to make extra sure you don't drive around forever with the Check Engine light permanently lit. And the cruise control doesn't work when that light is flashing, either! Maybe they think THAT will give you the incentive to seek professional service help...)
Anyway, the car was throwing a bevy of diagnostic codes, including "Rear oxygen sensor signal low" and "Neutral position switch signal low" and something else about air/fuel. Clearing the codes resulted in them coming back on instantly upon starting the car, which is a sure sign of disconnected hardware. A once-over of the various wiring harnesses revealed no obvious plugs left hanging, though.
My next stop was to the excellent Subaru Technical Information System web site. There you can pay a small fee ($35 for 72 hours) and download shop manual PDF files to your heart's content, look at wiring diagrams, get detailed troubleshooting instructions, and more. I scarfed up pretty much the entire STI shop manual, plus the full set of wiring diagrams, and got to digging.
I'll post about the resolution to this problem next time.
As I mentioned in a previous post, we installed the Cusco Zero-2E coilovers on the STI. The "E" in the name indicates that it's compatible with the Cusco E-Con control module, which gives you remote adjustment of the coilovers' five-way dampening.
Installation of the system is a little involved. There are four little motor modules which each sit atop their respective shock. Wiring leads to a junction box, and then a ribbon cable from that connects to the control unit. The only wires you actually have to attach to the car are power (constant and switched) and ground, but running all those wires to the four corners of the car took some time, plus the removal of a good portion of the interior. The innards of the '08 dash are pretty cramped. We decided to mount the control unit inside the center console. The junction box we hid where the rear cup holders used to live. (Sorry rear passengers, you'll have to stash your water bottles in the doors now.)
After everything was popped and bolted back together, I took the car for a spin and tried out the new remote adjusters. They work! It's pretty slick; you just push a button, and faint little clicks emit from each corner of the car. (LEDs blink on the E-Con display at the same time.) After a few seconds, the dampening changes, just as advertised. You can adjust front and rear independently, or you can link them.
As for the actual hardness of the different levels of dampening...my initial impression is that "1" is great for daily use, and "2" through "5" should be labeled "kidney punch" through "liquefy internal organs." I think I'll be using the higher settings for motorsports only. But really, isn't that the whole idea behind one of these systems? Drive to work on Friday, drive to the autocross on Saturday, and switch settings without every having to turn a wrench. Neat.
Now to find the time to actually get this car on the track...
As I mentioned before, I really don't like the factory chrome tail lamps. I thought I'd cover them in red vinyl, but the contour is a little difficult -- thin vinyl tends to wrinkle if you try to curve it too much. There is thicker stuff, like "Rockblocker," but that can't wrap around the edges, so the clear will show through. That leaves painting. We took the lamps to our favorite body shop, and now they're nice and red. The car really looks different from the back.
For those of you who want to remove your tail lamps for whatever reason, here are some pointers on getting the center lamps (on the hatch) off the car:
- First, remove the interior hatch trim. Start at the top, by the hinges. Pop the four pieces loose. The bottom piece is pretty tight, but it will pop free.
- Remove the 8mm long nuts from the sides. Note that these have little teflon washers that are easy to lose.
- There's one last 8mm nut inside the hatch. Use a socket extension or 8mm nut driver to get to it.
- Once all the nuts are free, the lamp will still be tightly attached to the car. It's got a pop fastener that holds it in. We just pushed on that last stud (where the nut was) with the socket wrench, and the lamp popped loose.
While we were in there with the hatch trim apart, we swapped out the backup bulbs with LED replacements.
On June 21, we took the STI to HyperFest. We didn't actually put the car ON the track, but we had it on display at our Mach V booth, and got a lot of nice feedback about the car. Many non-Subaru owners recognized that it was an STI, and knew about the car. "This is the new STI, right?" We continue to get HUGE positive response about the wheels, so it looks like those will stay, despite the slightly-too-low offset.
The drive to and from Summit Point was pleasant. Good weather, nice roads. The early morning light was good, and we got a few rolling shots of the car.
