Who wants to go shopping? (Preparation)

 

One of the biggest parts of racing One of the biggest parts of life is being prepared. In the world of motorsports, this means $$$. Thanks to the help of friends, the internet, and friends on the internet, my money will at least be spent wisely. Before I am going to get involved in any High Performance Driving Events, I want to make sure my car is up to spec to handle the abuse. Thankfully, I bought a car that even stock it should be able to handle dodging some pylons.


Tires:
In July of last year, my all seasons were near end-of-life and I wanted to kill two birds with one stone. I own a set of winter wheels & tires so I knew I could get away with getting a serious summer tires. I ended up in the middle of extreme performance and extreme cost, and purchased a set of Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Specs. If you go to an AutoX event, anybody who is not using compound tires will be running the Star Specs. ~$700 later (before mail-in rebate) and they were on their way - thanks TireRack. I also have to thank my friend Drew for helping me with the install.

Brakes:

About one month ago, my rotors were looking like they was no meat left, and my ABS light was sporadically coming on. I had tried to drain every bit of life I could knowing the replacement components would be purchasing would be more geared towards track use, as opposed to just daily driving. When I had my WRX I started my research. In doing so I came upon Pr0n (Periodic Review of Nasioc), which informed me of some lovely choices for a brake setup that could be used for both track/street. One of those components were the rotors made by dba (disc brake australia), and I figured the slotted 4000 series best suited my needs. I also decided upon Hawks HPS pads based on some reviews read online. All of these parts will provide great street/track use without a lot of the lovely side effects of a more aggressive options (brake dust, noise, etc). You'll notice most of my shopping is done online, and this case is no different. ~$800 dollars later, and I had some more goodies in the mail - thanks Rally Sport Direct.