Im starting this thread to sort of document my slow development of my Gstock MSP. Purchased this car off a member on here. I was specifically looking for a bone stock car in spicy. BTW, its getting tough finding a stock MSP these days!
started off by repainting the front bumper, adding back the stock spoiler, replacing plugs and wires, changing fluids, and cleaning up the headlights. I had to find a stock rear subwoofer/amp/enclosure, which i got off here too, and then got a stock airbox since it came with a cone filter off the airflow sensor. this is what it looked like a few days after i got it home....
I did tint the windows and added the parts back....
next was some freshening up. I had to replace the front bushings....they squeaked like crazy, and since this is technically my wifes baby hauler(i didnt mention this part?), it had to be done right away......
now came some stock class mods. I had to get a rear swaybar that i could adjust! This is a crucial part of the rules, changed a few years back, that would allow front wheel drive cars some extra rotation. I was in Dstock in a JCW mini, codriving the 2nd place car at nats, and this made all the difference in the world! I contacted Toni at AWR, his parts are no stranger to the MSP world. I was in a hurry due to my procrastination to make the first event at Lincoln air park, so Toni got me one asap, but i did have to paint it since he had no powdercoated ones finished when i called.
not only did the AWR bar cure my clunk, it also made a huge difference in stiffness driving around town. i got ahold of some wheels and used some OLD tires we had left over from the Mini, my codriver is now in a TT(it IS the only Dstock car youll ever need). I used the 225/45 Hoosiers all around. they seemed good on the 75* day i drove the OPR off of them in town, but they sucked on the windy 45* day in Lincoln! It was a terrible outting for me. I ended up adjusting the rear bar pretty stiff and ran 60psi in the rear tires, but with the age of the tires and how cold it was, i was chasing handling id never get on that day. I did however get 6runs, but never got used to the car
the next event in the car would be Spring Nationals in Lincoln airpark, a month later. I got some more of the leftover Mini tires we ran last year, BFG's 245's front, 235 rears. forgot to mention earlier that i did get an alignment before the first event, -1.2 front and -.5 rear. decided to run toe out in front 1/8 total. wish i would have tried the rear as well. the Pro went sort of well. I was lumped in a crazy difficult S3 bump class. The ex Priebe/carpenter Celica showed up with Eckert driving. It would be a good test for sure. I managed to come within .2 of it on the left side, but never got a good right side run. The 2nd day was rain, sooooo the first day standings were how it stayed. i ended up T5 out of 13, .6 away from the lead!
The car was pretty good with the AWR rear bar as stiff as i could get it with the endlinks behind the trailing arms( i will try to put the links on the inside of the trailing arms soon for more stiffness, this is the beauty of this bar). I had horrific wheel hop most runs off the line. It was bad! I new i had either a blown front strut or a torn motor mount. We checked after day 2 runs were done and for sure have a passenger side one torn. it never let me get good launches. I wish i would have just replaced all of them before tires and winning$ were at stake, haha.
a couple of random pics. i love everything about this car
740hp Godzilla
started off by repainting the front bumper, adding back the stock spoiler, replacing plugs and wires, changing fluids, and cleaning up the headlights. I had to find a stock rear subwoofer/amp/enclosure, which i got off here too, and then got a stock airbox since it came with a cone filter off the airflow sensor. this is what it looked like a few days after i got it home....
I did tint the windows and added the parts back....
next was some freshening up. I had to replace the front bushings....they squeaked like crazy, and since this is technically my wifes baby hauler(i didnt mention this part?), it had to be done right away......
now came some stock class mods. I had to get a rear swaybar that i could adjust! This is a crucial part of the rules, changed a few years back, that would allow front wheel drive cars some extra rotation. I was in Dstock in a JCW mini, codriving the 2nd place car at nats, and this made all the difference in the world! I contacted Toni at AWR, his parts are no stranger to the MSP world. I was in a hurry due to my procrastination to make the first event at Lincoln air park, so Toni got me one asap, but i did have to paint it since he had no powdercoated ones finished when i called.
not only did the AWR bar cure my clunk, it also made a huge difference in stiffness driving around town. i got ahold of some wheels and used some OLD tires we had left over from the Mini, my codriver is now in a TT(it IS the only Dstock car youll ever need). I used the 225/45 Hoosiers all around. they seemed good on the 75* day i drove the OPR off of them in town, but they sucked on the windy 45* day in Lincoln! It was a terrible outting for me. I ended up adjusting the rear bar pretty stiff and ran 60psi in the rear tires, but with the age of the tires and how cold it was, i was chasing handling id never get on that day. I did however get 6runs, but never got used to the car
the next event in the car would be Spring Nationals in Lincoln airpark, a month later. I got some more of the leftover Mini tires we ran last year, BFG's 245's front, 235 rears. forgot to mention earlier that i did get an alignment before the first event, -1.2 front and -.5 rear. decided to run toe out in front 1/8 total. wish i would have tried the rear as well. the Pro went sort of well. I was lumped in a crazy difficult S3 bump class. The ex Priebe/carpenter Celica showed up with Eckert driving. It would be a good test for sure. I managed to come within .2 of it on the left side, but never got a good right side run. The 2nd day was rain, sooooo the first day standings were how it stayed. i ended up T5 out of 13, .6 away from the lead!
The car was pretty good with the AWR rear bar as stiff as i could get it with the endlinks behind the trailing arms( i will try to put the links on the inside of the trailing arms soon for more stiffness, this is the beauty of this bar). I had horrific wheel hop most runs off the line. It was bad! I new i had either a blown front strut or a torn motor mount. We checked after day 2 runs were done and for sure have a passenger side one torn. it never let me get good launches. I wish i would have just replaced all of them before tires and winning$ were at stake, haha.
a couple of random pics. i love everything about this car
740hp Godzilla
