JSC Speed's Project 2015 WRX

[JSCspeed]

JSC Speed picked up a base base base (the sales rep said he's never seen a WRX come through with absolutely zero options before) Lightning Red 2015 WRX. This will be a company project car that will get some track and autocross time.



Many more and better photos are in the works...hope to have a good shoot this weekend. Plus I will have this out on track on Sunday at NJMP, if anyone wants to check it out or wants a ride.

Initial impressions: It had nine miles on the clock when I left the dealership and only had 22 miles on it when I wrote this (has 110 as of this posting), so these are very early first impressions. The WRX is definitely not as soft and rolly as the outgoing version, but not as firm as it could be and still be comfortable. Ride height is way too high, but typical for a Subaru. The seats are too cushy for me, but have decent bolstering....will get a truer sense of their comfort after logging some highway and track miles at NJMP this weekend.

The steering wheel is perfect...just slightly flat bottomed and thick enough to be sporty...buttons are in good locations and not bothersome at all.

Exhaust note is pleasantly throaty...I was surprised that it retained a little bit of the boxer rumble even with the smaller displacement and ELH. I felt a bit of a torque dip after changing a 2-3 gear change...I am sure a tune will help tremendously.

Shifter is good, not S2K good, but better than many other cars. The cable actuation is slightly odd (I track and daily an E36M3 [seen in the background of the pic]) but it's still pretty good. It's going to take a while to get used to using 6th gear.

Brake pedal is decently responsive...but I didn't get on the binders hard enough to really feel them out. Pedal placement is good, will take some getting used to for the H-T, especially compared to the M3.

Dash layout is weird, but will likely grow on me...carbon fiber dash accents are standard and look decent not as out of place as I expected. All of the plasticy bits are very cheap feeling, disappointingly so. My 2005 tC interior has a better feel to it.

The side mirror placement is by far my favorite thing about the ergonomics and styling. It's really an amazing difference it makes.



17x9 Enkei T6Ss in Continental DW rollers are already on as of last night and once I get coilovers on the car I have a set of Gram Lights 57Xtreme 18x9.5s with Dunlop ZII rubber to go on.

[Seven]

Interested to see how this goes

[Bdub215]

FA20 Turbo in these right? subscribed for AWD curiosity

[JSCspeed]

Originally Posted by Bdub215

FA20 Turbo in these right? subscribed for AWD curiosity

Yes, FA20DIT.

I spent a few days just putting some miles on the motor so it would be decently broken in before the JSC Speed WRX got shaken down on New Jersey Motorsports Park Lightning Circuit on April 13th....our target was 500 break-in miles....I rolled out on to the track on what was a perfect Sunday morning with 497 miles on the odometer...pretty much nailed it.



I have an E36M3 that has been my street legal track toy for a couple of years logging 15+ days on Lightning last year plus a few more days where I just instructed and didn't drive...I know every inch of that track, the turn in points, the braking zones, shift points, the run offs...I can drive it with my eyes closed. My HPDE pace is 1:19s all day long with my M3 but I knew I would have to dial it back a considerable amount to make sure the WRX didn't meet an untimely demise on it's first outing. We kept the WRX completely stock for this event with the exception of wheels and tires--as previously mentioned, we put 17x9 +45 Enkei T6S wrapped in 245/40-17 Continental DW tires on to just cruise around on.



The first session I thought I was taking it easy...braking very early, lifting, rolling through corners I normally would be accelerating through...just feeling out the car and tires. After four or five laps of 1:32-34 laps I noticed the brakes were not as responsive so I ended the session--which was fine since I had to go and jump in my student's car for his first session. An hour later I went out for my second session...upped the pace a little and ran some 1:28s but again, the brakes were the weakest point and started to fade after five laps. I skipped the third session to help another driver on track and went out for a few more laps in the last instructor group. The brakes came back enough for me to turn another handful of mid-1:3Xs in the last session. Total track miles: 55.



I never wound the motor out past 5500 rpm and probably only saw 110mph at the end of the front straight. Oil temps climbed to 230dF during every session. I am pretty sure on a hotter day (it was 75dF ambient) those temps would be higher, especially if I had been really flogging the motor and turbo. Besides the oil cooling the biggest weakness are the brakes. Better pads and fluids will certainly help, so that and stainless lines will be installed this week. The next track day is scheduled for mid May by which time I will have had a couple autocrosses including Boxerfest on May 3 and will have been able to get some suspension and exhaust sorted on the car. With any luck it'll have a tune too.

I'll say this: For a stock car, the suspension is very well sorted. A little bit of body roll, a little soft, but overall, a really nice job by Subaru. The seats are adequate for what they are, though the seating position is a little high for my liking...we can fix that eventually. The shifter needs some help for track use, it's just a little to sloppy...we have a solution for that that will be available shortly. I also discovered the gas pedal is a little short/small and combining that with how close it is the center tunnel, heel-toe shifts in anger were a bit tricky...I think I finally got it figured out, but I have to change the way I position my foot on the brake compared to how I do it in the M3.

Justin@JSCSpeed.com

[PaleDSM]

Good for you guys. I look forward to more track reports as you address it's short comings.