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Story by Scott R. Lear • Photo Courtesy Scion
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For a track or autocross car, the FR-S’s running costs …
So I was actually looking at the twins to replace my E36 M3 down the road, and I came under the impression that stock cooling is a potential concern on these cars. Am I correct in saying that an oil cooler is effectively a must for hard driving?
Yep these need an oil cooler badly for any performance use, I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned as a necessary mod (I think it was in a previous GRM article).
I'd really like to own one of these, it's really the only car built with the same philosophy as the old sporty Corollas (AE86/AE92/AE111) - a simple and relatively cheap sports coupe that can still haul 3 or maybe even 4 people and a respectable amount of cargo in dignity. Well, at least the only car like that with RWD...
This is still on my list of maybe's after the Abarth. It was one of 5 or so I considered in early 2014 until the Abarth had a $6k rebate down to just over $20k brand new.
I tried to buy an Abarth spider before I got my BRZ. Both are very fun.
You can actually get Impreza/WRX crash-bolts from Subaru (or Scion) that will allow you ~-1.2ish degrees of camber. I think they were about $15 for the set when I had mine.
A lightweight crank pulley also wakes up the response a bit (the stock pulley is about 5lbs, while most aftermarket pulleys from Kartboy, Perrin, etc. weigh about 1lb).
Skip the intake and go for a decent panel filter instead (I got an Injen Short-ram on mine because I found one for cheap on the forums; it made the car bog and sometimes shut the engine off randomly, although it did sound nice a WOT).
Wizard_Of_Maz said:So I was actually looking at the twins to replace my E36 M3 down the road, and I came under the impression that stock cooling is a potential concern on these cars. Am I correct in saying that an oil cooler is effectively a must for hard driving?
Expect open track temps of about 260 stock and 230 if you add a good cooler. 260 isn’t that bad but pressure reportedly drops dramatically at that temp. I have not logged pressures and verified, but that’s what I hear...
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