Whether you know it as a Subaru BRZ, Scion FR-S or Toyota 86, the little coupe has become a favorite in the paddock, with more people discovering it all the time.
What’s needed to take one from the street to the track? Fortunately, that’s not an untraveled road. Here’s some practical advice from three people with experience: Dan Hurwitz …
Beef Up the Rubber
To start off, Dan recommends upgrading the tires. It’s an easy, relatively inexpensive mod that’ll shave time off your laps.
“The BRZ came with tires that were oriented toward fun, which meant low grip so the car would move around and require more driver involvement at lower speeds,” he says. “Many BRZ models were equipped with Michelin Primacy tires, famous for also being an OEM tire on the Toyota Prius. Changing out for a higher-grip, track-oriented tire compound is going to be one of the most effective ways to reduce lap times.
“A 245mm tread width is an easy fit, and 255 to 265 can work with more aggressive camber settings and maybe some fender modifications.”
Work the Arms
Next, Dan would look at suspension. “Most people who track the car will install coil-overs,” he notes. “There are many options available. Racecomp Engineering has a KW-made coil-over called Tarmac 2. It has a double-adjustable, remote-reservoir damper that works really well. I run that setup on my own personal BRZ.”
All the components of the BRZ rear suspension interchange with the WRX.
Photography Credit: David S. Wallens
“Do keep in mind that if you lower the car very far, you’re going to need to correct the rear camber with adjustable rear lower control arms,” Dan says. “There are several options out there. Whiteline makes a decent and affordable stamped part that works well.”
Steven is running the suspension kit mandated by the SCCA Solo Spec Coupe rules on his Scion FR-S. The package simply pairs adjustable Koni Sport dampers with stiffer Eibach springs and an SPC alignment kit. Then add in adjustable anti-roll bar end links. Tire Rack sells the entire kit for about $2000. While the setup is aimed at the autocross market, Steven reports that it also works well on the track.
Pull Out All the Stops
As you go faster, you’ll need to improve the brakes, another relatively easy mod. The BRZ used brakes from the Subaru WRX: dual-piston, sliding calipers paired with 294mm discs on the front and single-piston sliding calipers paired with 290mm discs on the rear.
“The factory brakes are perfectly fine for a factory setup,” Dan says. “Once you get stickier tires and go around the corners faster, you’ll just wear through your brake pads. The feel of those factory brakes is not too great, either, because of that sliding caliper design.”
BRZ suspension upgrades don’t have to be complicated. The SCCA Solo Spec Coupe setup–shown at top and on Steven Duckworth’s car at Charlotte–uses single-adjustable Konis along with Eibach lowering springs. Brake upgrades come from the aftermarket as well as the Subaru parts bin. Photography Credit: Wayne Presley
One exception to the factory brakes rule: If you have a BRZ with the Performance Pack (starting in 2017), it had beefier Brembo brakes from a WRX STI, four-piston fixed calipers paired with 326mm discs on the front and two-piston fixed calipers paired with 316mm discs on the rear. Dan calls these “excellent,” adding that the stiffer calipers provide better brake feel.
“If you’re on a budget, back in 2006 the Subaru WRX came with a four-piston front caliper setup,” Dan explains. “It uses the same front rotor size as the BRZ rotors, but it’s a rigid fixed caliper and has a matching two-piston rear caliper setup.” Dan can source these Subaru factory setups for you.
Add Some Aero
Want to go faster? Dan says to look at your car’s aero. Nine Lives Racing’s Johnny Cichowski recommends starting off with an aftermarket rear wing:
“By bolting on a rear wing kit–for that car we have one for about $950–you will lose 3 to 5 seconds a lap. Any other part that nets you that much time is going to be $4000 to $5000. You’re going to notice a wing. If you bolt a wing on and you don’t notice it, we’ll give your money back.”
But what about the factory wing found on the Subaru BRZ tS? You can purchase one for around $4000, Dan says.
Photography Credit: Derrick Wooten
Johnny C. adds that the OEM piece isn’t as effective. “A lot of times, OEM wings are fairly small,” he explains. “The shapes of the wings the OEMs don’t really care about. You get a lot of curved trailing edges, which make it easier to produce but not necessarily the greatest for making downforce. Most of the time, automakers just want the wing to make it look like a race car.”
Next, add a splitter to refine your car’s aerodynamic profile. “A lot of times, with a splitter, you won’t lose much time,” Johnny C. continues. “Your front tires will last a lot longer, but other than that, you won’t notice it as dramatically as with a wing.”
Steven runs just the Nine Lives Racing rear wing on his FR-S. On his first outing with the new aero, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he dropped his lap times by about a second and a half. He could also go flat into NASCAR Turn 3 where before he had to lift a bit to settle the car into the banking.
Power Up
At this point you should feel fairly good about your BRZ on the track–except on long straights. The BRZ’s flat-four only delivers 200 horsepower and 151 lb.-ft. of torque. Manual models got a modest bump in 2017, nudging the numbers to 205 horsepower and 156 lb.-ft.
“It’s underwhelming,” Dan quips. “You get on the gas 50% or 100% throttle and it doesn’t feel much different.”
“I’m ambivalent about forced induction,” he continues. “On the one hand, you just can’t get much more power from the stock motor with bolt-ons, which leads you to turbocharging or supercharging. But those options cost a lot, and with that extra power comes reduced reliability, which can be problematic for a track car.”
Don’t stop reading. Here’s the good stuff on forced induction. “I supercharged my BRZ and it did remedy the power problems,” Dan says. “It turned it from an underpowered disappointment to a sporty-feeling sports car.”
We added a Treadstone Performance Engineering turbo setup to the black FR-S, and you can find the details in the Project Cars section of this site. Photography Credit: Tom Suddard
Dan says you can expect to gain about 30 to 100 horsepower. Consider this a big-ticket item, with the cost easily surpassing $5000 for a setup. We spent about that much to add a Treadstone Performance Engineering turbo setup to an FR-S, boosting performance at the wheels to 243 horsepower along with 230lb.-ft. Thanks to the smaller BorgWarner 6258 turbo, the engine didn’t feel laggy.
[Project FR-S: Adding a Turbo to Our Salvage Auction Find]
Whether you’re adding forced induction or not, what about an oil cooler? “It helped a ton,” Steven notes. “I was seeing like 280 Fahrenheit oil temps at VIR a few years ago. After I put on the oil cooler, it’s like 200 tops.”
Not Done Yet
Additional power means your clutch has to work harder. “With the car I have–which has light supercharging that gained 30 to 40 horsepower and 30 lb.-ft.–the clutch would slip when it was cold,” Dan says. “You might need to upgrade the clutch if you increase the torque. To change the clutch on the car is very easy. The gearbox is relatively light and easy to get out of the car.”
You can also find some speed by playing with the final drive. “Cusco makes a 4.56:1 final drive kit,” Dan says. “Stock final drive was 4.1:1 through 2016, and then 4.3:1 for 2017-’21 manual-transmission cars.”
Photography Credit: Perry Bennett
Keep an eye on the coil packs, Dan adds. “Coil pack failure is common on cars that see a lot of track time,” he explains. “Cylinder 1, the right-front, is the most troublesome, but any cylinder can develop problems. Plan to check and replace coil packs as needed.”
But, as Steven notes, this chassis makes a good partner. So far, his has covered more than 92,000 miles.
