Kaj - 2021 Base build thread

[kaj]

Inspired by Razorlab's thread and mine on another forum, I figure It's time to start a build thread here. My current track car is a 2006 Evo of which I documented the build on EvolutionM.net. I figure it's best to start the build thread on Day one. Or... 15, as the case may be. Without further ado...

What got me here:
Taking my Evo about as far as I wanted, I began to look for a replacement. After some time of bench racing and crunching numbers, I found a 2018 GT350R in town. I checked it out, liked it, and purchased. After about eight laps, I was within 2 seconds of my PB in the Evo. I was seriously impressed. A professional driver, in the same year/make/model/setup ran 4 seconds faster than my PB, so I knew the potential was there. Still... I didn't feel "right" in the car. I sold it three months later.
On to more numbers crunching.
On EvoM, it seemed everyone was jumping to the a90 platform. I followed the thread which led me to YouTube. I started seeing really good lap times from the platform, so my curiosity was piqued. More reading, more reading, and then....
On July 30, I took the Evo to a track day at Laguna Seca. It just so happened I was in negotiations with a dealership in Salinas for a Supra. What better time to test drive to see if I actually like the car, since I'll already be there. Perfect! I really wanted to test drive the car so I didn't end up in another "Mustang" incident.
After terrorizing some GT3s and C8s (hey, they wouldn't give me a point-by ), I packed up the Evo and asked the organizers if I could run my new car for a session to which they happily agreed. Purchased on the 30th, raced on the 31st, as god intended.
My impression: I left all nannies on because I had literally only driven the car for a few mins during the test drive. With all the nannies on, the car handles VERY familiar. What started out as a recon session turned into my going almost all-out haha. The car drove just like my Evo. The rear end would step out just enough to be fun, but not enough to be dangerous...until traction control stepped in and killed it. Up until that time, the car almost had an "AWD" feel. Very cool. The car was about six seconds slower than my Evo, but just as fun. I did have one weird thing happen: on hard, left-hand turns, the stick would move out of manual mode back to auto mode. SERIOUSLY frustrating. I'll have to find a fix for that.
I have an autocross next weekend, followed by a track night coming up that I plan to run minus stability control. I look forward to it.

So that's everything. Here's the car, so far:

2021 Base
tech package
safety package
2006mi
anti-buffeting wind deflector thingies.

That's it. I have pads and fluids coming for my track day. As I make improvements to the car, I'll post it all here, for reference.
Thanks for reading!

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[saik]

Good stuff, what auto-x events are you going to?

Funny enough I'm actually going to Sonoma next weekend and was always contemplating on doing auto-X first instead of the full track day to learn this car. But couldn't pass up the free HPDE thing by NASA.

 

[kaj]

Good stuff, what auto-x events are you going to?

Funny enough I'm actually going to Sonoma next weekend and was always contemplating on doing auto-X first instead of the full track day to learn this car. But couldn't pass up the free HPDE thing by NASA.

I'm just doing a local AX event for fun. It gives me a chance to let the car get loose with no consequence.
I know people say to do AX first, but I don't know. I didn't try AX until doing years of HPDE. Not a bad idea, though, I guess. But My situation is different; my local AX is in a small area where we never get out of second gear and laps are only 40sec or so.... So not sure how much that would help.

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