Brutty's S15 Spec R

[Brutty]

After picking up my S15 yesterday i thought i would start a thread for it, as i have a lot of plans and want to follow it from the beginning.

Roughly the car is an 02 plate, 60k miles, near enough standard, Spec R (Made sure i went through it looking for all the bracing)

My first impressions of the car were really impressive, it feels a lot smoother delivery than my old car, and handles way better than i thought it would for a standard setup.

The only modifications i have seen are:

HKS hi power exhaust.
Hel Braided brake lines.
Enkei ZR 18" Alloys

The car is fairly tidy and as such there is only a small list of things i want to sort to get it right:

The car needs undersealing, it's fairly tidy underneath, but i dont trust it for long in the UK. (Any recommendations for this? as i want it to last)

Front spats are not to my taste, but they have rubbed the bumper where they have been fitted so it will need a little bit of spraying.

Enkei wheels are not to my taste and will be getting swapped later on for my Nismo LMGT3's.


I have a few parts i have been collecting ready:

Apex full alignment kit
Apex lower front and rear strut braces
Apex poly steering rack bushes

But i don't want to fit these until i have picked some coilovers, I have been looking at some Tein's but need to do some more research into what's about first.

I'm also undecided whether to swap some of the parts from my Stage 2 S14A accross before i sell, as it would save a bit of money, mainly thinking intercooler, Sard R2D2, EBC, 555's Etc (I know i would have to hold onto the injectors for a bit though as i would need it mapping)

For now though i think i'll drive it for a bit until i've decided which way to go with it.

 

[pegliobaglio]

First of all welcome to the club mate! Nice blue 15's
sounds like you have decent mods to get you started , if you want a good guide for undersealing etc check out dean, Craig and fruitbooters build threads as they have pretty much step by step guide and products used I believe, I find tein to be pretty harsh on the uk roads with Alex alignment arms, I am going to look at hsd and meister r when I upgrade as good value for money and decent spring rates for our roads too.

 

[Chriscooke]

Looks really good Ryan Apex comfy coilovers would be a huge improvement over what you have on your 14a although you could swap those over also as they are interchangeable. If I was in your situation I'd put the s14 back to as standard as possible keeping the choice parts for the s15 and selling on the rest

Is the rear lower brace needed with the added strengthening on the type r's subframe?

Edit: be careful with the Nismo rims as the 15 has slightly less generous arch clearance than the 14 in standard guise.

 

[Brutty]

First of all welcome to the club mate! Nice blue 15's
sounds like you have decent mods to get you started , if you want a good guide for undersealing etc check out dean, Craig and fruitbooters build threads as they have pretty much step by step guide and products used I believe, I find tein to be pretty harsh on the uk roads with Alex alignment arms, I am going to look at hsd and meister r when I upgrade as good value for money and decent spring rates for our roads too.

Thanks for the welcome, i will have a read through their threads later, as thats the most important thing i want to get done. As for coilovers if u reckon Tein's are pretty harsh i think i'll pass on them as i've had solid coilovers on my 14A and would rather not have that again. I like the drive of the car as it is, i just want to get the ride height down to loose the arch gap.

Looks really good Ryan Apex comfy coilovers would be a huge improvement over what you have on your 14a although you could swap those over also as they are interchangeable. If I was in your situation I'd put the s14 back to as standard as possible keeping the choice parts for the s15 and selling on the rest

Is the rear lower brace needed with the added strengthening on the type r's subframe?

Edit: be careful with the Nismo rims as the 15 has slightly less generous arch clearance than the 14 in standard guise.

I'm thinking of doing as you say and taking most parts off the S14A but i'll wait for a day i can get someone to help as i don't fancy sitting there on my own with parts everywhere lol.

I see what you mean with the subframe there is a nice bar going accross.

I'm hoping the Nismo's will be okay as i used to run them with 25mm spacers so i'll just run them without. They're probably a bit heavier than the Enkei's but i prefer the look of them.

 

[pegliobaglio]

The tein were fine on my car before I put the apex arms on, that's made it pretty harsh tbh and from talking to other people on the forum that's The general concensus Alex gen 2 comfy are supposed to be good for the road too

 

[Brutty]

Here's some better pictures i took of the car today.

 

[shane_o]

Look really nice that mate. looks very tidy. will have to have a look round it at some point

 

[Brutty]

The tein were fine on my car before I put the apex arms on, that's made it pretty harsh tbh and from talking to other people on the forum that's The general concensus Alex gen 2 comfy are supposed to be good for the road too

It's seeming more of a decision than i thought, my last car came specced up when i got it so there wasn't any decisions to be made. I wont be looking to purchase a set until my S14A sells, so i have some time to look into it. The Gen 2's seem good value for money, but i am quite tempted by those Meister R's

 

[pegliobaglio]

Yeah I have to say I am tossing up between meisters and hsd , have heard good reviews about both , not much difference price wise, but if your on a budget drift works do 0% finance on hsd and they are supposed to be slightly bette than meisters ...

 

[Chriscooke]

Meisters used to be of a very similar design as the hsd although they changed suppliers recently from what I read and are more like the Alex gen 1s/early bc's now. Hsd/cs2's are both a good choice if you can justify the fact they are a third more expensive.

 

[Brutty]

Look really nice that mate. looks very tidy. will have to have a look round it at some point

Thanks shane_o, it would be good to have a look around some of your cars too, as i know roughly which way i want to go with mine, but it would be good to see what parts others are using and how they are getting on with them.

Meisters used to be of a very similar design as the hsd although they changed suppliers recently from what I read and are more like the Alex gen 1s/early bc's now. Hsd/cs2's are both a good choice if you can justify the fact they are a third more expensive.

It's always dissapointing when companies do that, i've had a bit of a read around and i think now you've said that i'm just going to get the HSD's, my front nearside coilover has started knocking when turning slow, so it's the perfect excuse to get spending.

 

[Chriscooke]

The hsd's in mine are pretty firm. Quite happy to take you for a spin if your going to be at the rolling road day in Plymouth next month?

 

[Brutty]

The hsd's in mine are pretty firm. Quite happy to take you for a spin if your going to be at the rolling road day in Plymouth next month?

I didn't realize you had HSD's, for some reason i always thought you had Tein's.

I had forgotten about the rolling road day, i will check that i am not working, as i would be keen to see what power the car is making before i start modifying it. If i can make it, it would be ace if you don't mind taking me for a quick spin to see.

 

[Chriscooke]

More than welcome along at the rolling road day mate. I'll be pretty busy but I'm sure I can find time to take you for a spin as long as it doesn't blow on the rollers

 

[Brutty]

It's been a little while since i bought the car and started this thread, but with work and the weather i haven't been able to dedicate as much time to the car as i would have liked.

I got some time off the other day and made a start on a few things.

First i removed the front bumper spats.

I prefer the look without, just a shame theres a few rub marks where they have been. (Just incase any one notices, i dont keep the car that dirty. Beleive it or not that dust was all in some rain we had one night, just lucky i didn't go through with polishing the car the day before.)

I also bought all the pieces i need to do a battery relocation, along with a new Bosch battery and circuit breaker but didn't picture them. I have yet to finish installing this although the wiring is now all in place.

 

[Chriscooke]

Would of thought you would have had more updates by now mate

 

[Mike]

That dust rain was a b*stard wasnt it! Car looks good mate

 

[Brutty]

That dust rain was a b*stard wasnt it! Car looks good mate

Cheers Mike, at least i wasn't the only one who experienced the dust rain then.

Would of thought you would have had more updates by now mate

I would have loved to, but work hours have been all over the place recently.

I do have one more decent update though.

The Enkei wheels that came on the car sold, so i had to fit the Nismo's earlier than i had planned, bit annoying as i hadn't got round to polishing up the lips on them.

I am happy witht how the wheels sit though, they fit exactly how i wanted them. Out to the arch but not poking. (Offset police probably wont be too pleased, but i like it)

Guess it means i will have to get on and get some coilovers now.