Curt's WRX mod blog

Weight reduction mods.

Since my last update, I have relocated the battery, removed all of the tar sound deadening, and removed much of the interior stuff in the rear.

My old light weight battery let me down so I picked up an Odyssey PC680 and secured it beneath the passenger seat. I also have a 100 amp breaker in the system now for safety reasons and for convenience. I used 6g wire and the studs come up through the floor.

I removed a bunch of stuff from the back, both for weight reduction and for practicality.

All of that nonsense was replaced with 2 coats of Duplicolor truck bed liner. The magnitude of this project isn’t really visible in these photos. Quite a bit of prep work went into it. Wires were relocated, holes were covered, stubborn tar residu was removed, and then everything was scuffed up, taped off, and sprayed with brake clean.

I’m happy with the outcome. In addition to taking out a decent chunk of weight, this also added quite a bit of practicality. I now have more cargo space, this surface is significantly more durable than the carpet, and cleaning will be very easy. Now, when I go camping and such, I can toss fire wood, wet stuff, stuff that leaks, and just about anything else back there without having to worry. It doesn’t look too shabby either. The interior pieces that can be seen from the drivers seat were left in place. If I extend the cargo cover, there is no evidence of this mod.

Some media.

Here are some recent pictures and video from the two auto-x events I have attended in the past two weekends.

Some runs featuring different camera angles at an Oscoda auto-x.

Belle Isle auto-x.

Here is some footage from a test and tune I went to. This is probably the fastest video of the three since I really had the course down after having driven it all day.

Tonight, the car got a bit of love in the form of a wash, so I went out and shot a few photos.

Weight reduction and under tray.

In the interest of keeping this car nice, I have retired it from rally-x.  Well, at least from the rough events.  Now, for the first time, my car has a direction in life.  Rather than being a multipurpose compromise at everything, I’ll slowly make it more orientated to tarmac performance.  More specifically, I’ll set it up for auto-x and some track.  The logical thing for me to do now would be to buy some coilovers and new wheels and tires.  Since I’m feeling cheap right now, I started working on weight reduction and some other small stuff instead.  This weight reduction includes the sound insulation behind the dash, the ECU bracket and kick plate, the heavy U brace that used to serve as my landing gear, and my thick skid plate.  However, I’m saving everything so I can easily go back if I change my mind later on.

I relocated the ECU so I could remove the kick plate.

Kick plate and ECU bracket

The entire dash had to come out to access the sound insulation.

Here’s what 20 pounds of sound insulation looks like.

All in all, I removed just over 20 pounds off stuff that day.  The difference is hardly noticeable, but every bit counts.  The removal of all that sound deadening made a negligible difference in noise.

Since I removed the U brace and skid plate, the bottom of my car was bare.  That’s not good because crud can get in and air flow beneath the car is turbulent.  Solution: make a big aluminium under tray.

A big metal T-shirt looking thing.  The “sleeves” are held on with rivets.

Not quite done, but close.

When I got home, I finished cutting out the louvers.  This piece turned out pretty well.  I’m curious to see how it will affect high speed stability and fuel economy.