Ontario 818C. For street and regular track duty.

[BrianToronto]

I've been following FFR since they first released the GTM Supercar and love what they do. When I finally came up with both some time and funds to do a build, the 818 drew my eye. Easier for a first build and a serious bit of track kit. So after visiting the factory in December to check out the car in person, I picked up my kit in March! I got to meet Jim, Dave, Dave and Tony. All had great advice for me. They certainly made me feel like part of the FFR family before even pulling away from the loading dock. Now because its going to be a Canadian car, I had to go thru the song and dance of importing only part of the kit as a "starter kit" and then ordering the rest of the parts thru WhitbyAuto. That took til June to get the parts from Whitby. I'm now FINALLY ready to start my build.

I have a 2004 Impreza parted out, but consider this a donorless build. I want everything new, and have plans for a built motor. Want the car in the 450 rwhp range. And before y'all lecture me about horsepower to weight, I'll tell you that I used to race a built C5 vette with a similar power to weight ratio. This should be fun. Oh, and I bought ALL of the downforce making carbon bits from FFR. (Front race spoiler, rockers, rear diffuser, bigass wing).

Unpacking the car was an exciting experience.
IMG_20170415_113842 - Copy.jpg

Flipped it on its side to install the bottom aluminum.
IMG_20170415_170836 - Copy.jpg

Next step, figure out how I could move it around the garage while I'm working on it. I found some left over lumber and knocked this together.
IMG_20170419_170912 - Copy.jpg

Now because I work in the tech industry, I found this sentence very funny "I spent the morning installing a firewall". Usually this activity involves use of a computer and a virtual machine. LOL.
IMG_20170622_133125 - Copy.jpg

But I should point out that the aluminum for the stock pedal box fit up perfect, but the aluminum for the Wilwood box (which is what I used) required some grinding and reshaping, and once I got the bolts and masters to line up, the steering column hole doesn't. But perhaps that's intentional?
IMG_20170622_095356 - Copy.jpg

Either way, I'm looking forward to this build. I'm going to learn a lot. I already have.

[UnhipPopano]

While the build threads do not explain the "Why" the builder did things in a certain order, they usually use clecoes to hold the firewall aluminum in place wile the steering wheel, petals and other parts are fitted. One thread that riveted as you did, ended up removing at least one of the panels. Remember that it is normal for a computer firewall to be updated, ports added and to do maintenance.

[flynntuna]

Brian, welcome to the madness . Looks like a great start there, I had the same issue with the wilwood firewall. I had to grind some of the firewall to get the master cylinders to fit. I look foward to seeing more of your build, you'll find a lot of experience and great advice here on the forum, and new ways to spend your money.

[Hindsight]

Enjoy the build. Nice to see another track-minded builder. Welcome to the exclusive club

I'm sure you know this already but I can promise the 818 will behave MUCH differently on the track than your C5. The 818 is technically mid-engine but IMHO it behaves more like a rear-engine car like a 911. I would never lecture someone on too much HP, but I will say that I am very glad I haven't implemented my ultimate power goals with the car because I'm getting into enough trouble at the track with 270WHP as it is. It's heartbreaking to stuff a track-prepped production car into a wall but it's 10x worse on a car like the 818 that you spent way, way more time building (3 years in my case). It's just not easily or cheaply fixable or replaceable. I've had some close-calls on-track and it's made me re-think how hard I push the car and whether or not I want to run a 400WHP map on the track as well. Let me rephrase that, of course I want to run a 400WHP map on the track! It's more that I'm wondering if it's really worth the risk, for me personally.

You are wise in going with the Wilwood setup. I didn't used to think it was needed but I've done a lot of tracking and lot of battling with my donor brakes and while it is true the Subaru brakes are designed for a heavier car, the front-rear balance is wrong for the 818 and there is no GOOD way of fixing that (the FFR-suggested method of limiting the front brakes with a bias valve is just a bad idea - good to save money and keep the kit simple but bad for performance).

[Mitch Wright]

Brian,

Enjoy your build, I enjoyed the process as much as I enjoy ringing my car out on track.
To Hindsights point the car has a short wheelbase so it is vary responsive. As you are getting close to having the car done it is well worth the time to bumpsteer the car front and rear, get the alignment set with a good baseline (a number of us here can provide our settings) and chassis tuning, the car responds really well to spring, shock, tire pressure ride height and aero changes.
Me and my car have gotten vary comfortable together now after being a nervous beast in the beginning.
I lap NCM Motorsports Park at the NASA ST2 record (Corvette) here running my 285hp tune and still finding time as we continue to develop and adjust.

[BrianToronto]

If you have alignment and setup tips, I'm all ears. I was hoping to start with someone else's track setup baseline and personalize from there. I've spent some 25 years racing, first on motorcycles (600cc then superbike) and moved on to cars when I got too old to bounce off the pavement.

[Hindsight]

On the 818C or 818S, I found with my bump-steer gauge that you need about 46mm worth of shim under the tie rod ends. Depending on which year rack you use, it might be slightly different but that should be a good starting point.

Rear bump steer is adjustable with the upper trailing (caster) link. The most basic method is to ensure you set this so the lower lateral links are perfectly parallel but I found that even with a digital angle gauge, this isn't nearly enough. You have to use a bump-steer gauge to get it right. You don't want ANY toe-out on bump. I set it so I have a tiny amount of bump-in.... enough to just ensure that I'm never getting bump out.

I'm running ~5.5 degrees of front caster and you have to both cut down the short upper control arm tube-nut and flip the lower control arm rear hurricane bracket to get that. Less caster than that and I didn't have enough feedback in the steering wheel. -1.0 degrees of camber on all four wheels. About 1/32 of toe-in on the front wheels and about 5/16" toe-in on the rear. The rear needs a lot of toe-in for stability. I've found these settings to be a good compromise between the street and the track. A track-only alignment would have much more camber and probably a little front toe-out or at least 0 toe. The align specs in the FFR manual for the 818R are a good start for track-only alignment.

As Mitch said, the bump steer is CRITICAL. The 818 is super-sensitive to it. Prior to fixing mine, the car was all over the place and looking back, I can't believe I even drove it like that. Shaved 5 seconds off my lap times after fixing it.

[Mitch Wright]

Brian, my car is track only this is what I am currently running.
Front
.062 total toe in
+6* caster
-2.6 camber
3.5" ride height
Bump steer (from memory) from static ride height 1" drupe 2" compression .010 max change.
400lb front springs
Dampeners set on the middle setting
.750 .120 wall front sway bar

Rear:
-3* camber
.1875 total toe in
3.75 rear ride height
Bump steer from static ride height 1" drupe 2" compression .015 max change.
550lb rear springs
dampeners set in the middle setting.

Tires BFG R1S

[BrianToronto]

Mitch - did you use the 818R suspension mounts, or the S mounts?

[Mitch Wright]

I am using the R pick-up points.

[Frank818]

Welcome Brian, nice to see another one in Canada.

Which chassis # you got there?

[BrianToronto]

Just going to mount the front spindles and notice the IFS brackets seem to have spacers welded that exactly block the install? Do I cut and grind off those spacers? Anyone else hit this?IMG_20170808_095034.jpg

[STiPWRD]

Just bend the bracket apart a little bit and the spindle should slide in. No need to cut anything, it should be a tight fit.

Edit: nevermind about the bending, I see you're using 06 sti spindles, which are wider.

[BrianToronto]

I think I've answered my own question searching around these forums. I've got 2006 STI front spindles. It looks like the width is only one of my problems. Since they are brand new, I'll see if the dealer will swap for WRX front spindles. Might be easier.

[BrianToronto]

Now I'm more confused, when I look on the Subaru parts fiche, it says the front axle housing (spindle) fits all these variants, so the fact its an STI spindle shouldn't be the issue here?

Subaru Impreza (257) 6MT 4WD STI Sedan 2006
Subaru Impreza 2.5L 5MT 4WD Sedan 2007
Subaru Impreza 2.5L AT 4WD Sedan 2007
Subaru Impreza 2.5L TURBO 6MT 4WD STI Sedan 2006
Subaru STI (257) 6MT 4WD SEDAN 2006
Subaru STI 2.5L TURBO 6MT 4WD Limited Sedan 2007
Subaru STI 2.5L TURBO 6MT 4WD SEDAN 2006, 2007
Subaru WRX 2.5L TURBO 5MT 4WD SEDAN 2007
Subaru WRX 2.5L TURBO 5MT 4WD TR SEDAN 2007
Subaru WRX 2.5L TURBO AT 4WD SEDAN 2007

[STiPWRD]

In that case, cutting away the spacers may work. Measure the inner bracket gap without spacers and see if that matches well with the width of the spindle. I believe the 04 sti front spindles will work since they are 5x100 and the top of the spindle is the same as the wrx.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showt...l=1#post158287

[wmaurojr]

Definitely looking forward to watching this thread. An 818C for road and regular track use is exactly what I'm planning on. Best of luck with your build--I may look you up if I'm in Toronto.

[RetroRacing]

The R pick up points are going to be really low for around town driving, but you will have a hoot go carting on the twisties!