TBK's Time Attack Build: MK-BRX

[TBK]

Picked up these billet aluminum pedals

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[TBK]

Not a car related post, but a Dubai one. When people ask me what it's like to live in dxb, i usually tell them that it's a city that's built for convenience unlike any other. This picture usually does a good job at illustrating that:

This is a service called Cafu. It's an app. You click a button and within minutes someone comes and fills up your tank wherever you are. You don't even need to be there. I haven't been to a gas station in years.

But today i saw something new. Excuse the shitty photo, but i snapped it real quick because i didn't want to look like a creep. Was walking my dog in the neighbourhood and i saw this van parked. That's a dude in the window, getting his hair cut. On the side of the van it says "mobile salon". I think we've reached peak Dubai.

 

[TBK]

Ayyyy

 

[TBK]

At the shop today (if you're in the UAE, Element Performance ftw)


Cusco brace on

Billet aluminum pedals

rear diff brace

if you shave off a bit of the sides you can use the Verus diff cooling plate with this brace

 

[TBK]

So this is.....a thing

Even though there seems to a lot of clearance, the Eibach sway bar has carved a bit out of the SPL LCA.

The sway bar is on the medium setting, so I'm assuming it would've been worse if it was on the hard setting, with the butt of the sway pushed out more towards the LCA.

I don't know if this was a 1 time thing or if it happens frequently

 

[Rensuhlo]

So this is.....a thing

Even though there seems to a lot of clearance, the Eibach sway bar has carved a bit out of the SPL LCA.

The sway bar is on the medium setting, so I'm assuming it would've been worse if it was on the hard setting, with the butt of the sway pushed out more towards the LCA.

I don't know if this was a 1 time thing or if it happens frequently

Common. My stock sway bar / endlinks hit my SPL arms.

 

[TBK]

Common. My stock sway bar / endlinks hit my SPL arms.

I guess that's a bit comforting. Are we not worried about something breaking here? Marked the LCA chipped area in blue to keep track and see if it gets worse

tf is going to happen if i set the front sway to hard. would get even worse

 

[razorlab]

I guess that's a bit comforting. Are we not worried about something breaking here? Marked the LCA chipped area in blue to keep track and see if it gets worse

tf is going to happen if i set the front sway to hard. would get even worse

Yes, all the track guys already know about this. Some people cut off the end of the ears to gain clearance.

The Verkline LCA's have way more clearance than my SPL arms did.

You can try to not go full lock or get rack limiters if it really bothers you.

 

[TBK]

Yes, all the track guys already know about this. Some people cut off the end of the ears to gain clearance.

The Verkline LCA's have way more clearance than my SPL arms did.

You can try to not go full lock or get rack limiters if it really bothers you.

Thanks

Doesn't really bother me tbh, as long as it's just superficial damage.

And yeah did also think of shaving off the butt of the sway bar. Glad to know it's not an original (read: likely silly) idea. Might end up doing that.

 

[TBK]

Thought i'd share an update on the billet aluminum pedals now that they've been on for a week or so.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the OEM pedals, but i'm a big fan of improving everything that you physically interact with. That would be shifter (for MT), steering wheel, pedals, seats. The pedals have the least impact between the bunch imo, but still improves the driving experience overall. The OEM ones are rubber, and so there's a bit less "feel". The best way i can describe the difference is if you were to wear proper flat shoes made for racing vs regular sneakers. Doesn't come with a any downsides either, unlike most other upgrades that improve "feel". So yeah, no ragrats

 

[TBK]

gah, having trouble with this...

Picked up a powertex battery. Had to shipped internationally, and so the state of charge had to be dropped to 50% before shipping.

I've been trying to charge it back up with no success.

I'm using a CTEK One, which is a smart charger which auto detects the battery chemistry.

As you can see from the pic below from the CTEK app, there's no current at all....as if it's just trickle charging.

From the powertex app. Also the battery health seems to be "perfect" according to the app.

I've tried letting it trickle charge for hours. I've tried the CTEK "wake up" function just in case the BMS shut everything down. I have another charger, but it's a crappy Chinese one, and that didn't work either.


My only working theory is that this specific battery does not want to play nice with a "smart" charger. AFAIK a smart charger like the CTEK will “ping” the battery first. If it doesn’t see a stable voltage, it assumes no battery connected and could refuse to start. I don't know if that's what's going on here. The only way to find out is to get a lithium only charger and have a go. But, i don't have one, and i really want to avoid having to buy one....

Help?

 

[razorlab]

I use this ctek charger with no issues with my PowerTex.

https://a.co/d/5115tSq

 

[TBK]

I use this ctek charger with no issues with my PowerTex.

https://a.co/d/5115tSq

That's what i'm going to try. But then it's a bit weird that my ctek charger hasn't worked. I'm really hoping it's because of what i mentioned, and that the powertex doesn't want to play nice with a smart charger. Otherwise it seems like i've gotten a defective battery, and there's no chance of it bring replaced under warranty.

 

[TBK]

Picked up a Titan Motorsports Titanium exhaust to replace the Ark DTS i have on. The Ark looks and sounds great, but is pretty much OEM weight. The Titan one is 30lbs lighter...no brainer. Retains the OEM valve too. Going on (hopefully) next weekend.

Also have Hardrace rear subframe anti-vibration inserts with me, but i'm not sure if they i'm going to need to re-align after installing them (or even if there's a risk of going out of alignment)....because if that's the case then i'm going to hold onto them for a while until i want i go in for alignment changes later on.

The PowerTex battery issue still hasn't been resolved. It seems the BMS is blocking all current no matter what i do. I've tried a wild number of experiments to try and get it to respond. To their credit, the PowerTex support team have been amazing. They've just never seen something like this before.

The weather is starting to get better here, so track/racing season is starting. Have 3 events lined up in the coming 2 weeks
- 19th Sept - Have an invitation from Pirelli for a free track day as part of their marketing program
- 21st Sept - invited to an AutoX event organized by a local track club. The AutoX track itself is a bit tight and with a lot of close tire walls. So i'm just going to have some fun but at no point will i risk pushing harder than 8/10.
- 4th of Oct - Invited by Toyota UAE to a GR Track/AutoX battle day.

That's 3 free events! After that event on the 4th will be spending more time on standard track days as the Time Attack league should start sometime in October.

Lastly, i forgot to check if the radiator brackets we have here are the EU or US ones when my aux radiators were going on. Will get the wheel off and check next weekend. If anybody knows the part number for the EU bracket, please let me know. I'm usually a pretty proficient googler, but for some reason couldn't figure it out.

 

[razorlab]

Lastly, i forgot to check if the radiator brackets we have here are the EU or US ones when my aux radiators were going on. Will get the wheel off and check next weekend. If anybody knows the part number for the EU bracket, please let me know. I'm usually a pretty proficient googler, but for some reason couldn't figure it out.

Easy to identify. The US ones are black steel and a whole cage, EU are raw aluminum and just L brackets

EU part #'s:

Bottom brackets
FL: 52145WAA01
FR: 52146WAA01

Top brackets
FL: 52144WAA01
FR: 52143WAA01

Top smaller brackets
FL: 52149WAA01
FR: 52148WAA02

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