[ericleerph]

ericleerph's hillclimb / track day RS

The buildup of ericleerph's hillclimb / track day 2000 2.5RS

i bought the car new in april of 2000 with 9 miles on it, drove it off the lot not knowing how to drive a stick. but i was determined to learn and began autocrossing it that summer.

here's where the racing bug all started... World Challenge at Mosport. autocrossing was fun, but i felt like i wanted more like longer runs and higher speeds. and after watching these cars up close, i knew i wanted my own race car, and decided that hillclimbs would be the next step. lucky for me there is the http://www.pahillclimb.org/ and i'm only a hour or so from most of the events.

The Stasis Audi guys were the nicest, they let me park to take the pics and even get in their cars to take pics of me driving them! I asked real time racing to do the same thing, but they were asses, gave me some attitude and said no


Table of Contents of this Thread
Removal of interior and sound deadening tar...
http://www.rs25.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1413032&postcount=5

First attempt at a cost effective cage...
http://www.rs25.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1413033&postcount=6

Painting of the cage version 1.0...
http://www.rs25.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1413801&postcount=8

Back to Area1320 / 10 Point Fabrication to begin cage version 2.0...
http://www.rs25.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1415009&postcount=12

 

[Spatizzle]

Lol sounds good, got a plan for suspension? and pics when you can :]

:EDIT: lol looks good, thanks for the fix Carisma

 

[Geran]

I fixed your pictures for you.

 

[RFFG]

Whoa, nice work...

 

[ericleerph]

Removal of interior and tar

anyways, fast forward a couple years, and after lots of autocrosses and getting another car for a daily driver (an IS350), I decided it was time to do some mods to the RS so i can pass tech for track days and hillclimbs. here's what we got so far...

first i removed of the interior, nice and easy...

then came the removal of the sound deadening material, with a hammer and chisel, big pain in the ass (didn't do the dry ice trick, oh well)...

 

[ericleerph]

This was my first attempt at a "cost effective cage". i got the idea to buy a prefab cage from s&w cages and have it installed by ryan and sheldon at

/10 Point Fabrication, it seemed simple enough, little did i know that the s&w cage would not be the solution i was looking for.all was going well in the beginning...

until the front section...

seems like alot of space between the a-pillar and the cage, but i thought i could live with it, more on that later

 

[SleepySubie]

looking good can't wait to see what happens

 

[ericleerph]

after the cage was finished i picked up the car and decided to paint the cage and interior.

first up was the interior in krylon royal blue

second was the bars in krylon smoke grey

here's the finished product... everyone like the lime green garage?

however after driving the car for a week and jamming my pinky finger into the driver side a-pillar bar... i knew something had to be done.

 

[guesswho]

Car looks good, cage looks nice as well. Going to do a turbo swap? Looking forward to updates.

 

[salvator_rizzo]

that is going to be sweet! if you dont mind my asking, what is the cage costing you to put in?

definitely going to be an awesome setup there

 

[R22B]

I see this car every Thursday.

Looks like you will be having some fun in the future

 

[ericleerph]

so i dropped of the car at

/ 10 Point Fabrication again to get the front of the cage redone. i learned a hard lesson about trying to do things cheap, i should have had a full custom cage put in, but i was trying to save money, and in the end it actually cost me more, not to mention the time lost. i decided to have sheldon do a custom front section, using the rear section of the cage, i couldn't afford to do the whole thing over.

here's Ryan bashing the rear of my car with a hammer... just kidding, but it really looks like he's hitting the taillights!

here's the rear of the cage from s&w fab with the front section cut out

added gussets between the b-pillar and cage

The front of the cage in progress...

the NEW a-pillar bars and hoop being fitted, nice and close to the frame now...

 

[ericleerph]

Test fitting the Sparco Pro ADV seat and Sparco 353 steering wheel...

that's the story so far...

 

[ericleerph]

an update from my last visit to the shop.

the front pillars with the gussets...

the passenger side

the driver side

 

[ericleerph]

The old suspension coming off

Packed up and ready to be shipped off

 

[ericleerph]

current mods in no particular order... always subject to change

Suspension
Cusco rear sway bar (22-24 mm adjustable)
Cusco rear lower arm bar
BC Racing Coilovers 8K-6K
STi carbon fiber front strut tower bar
Whiteline front sway bar (22-24 mm adjustable)

Interior
Sparco Pro ADV seat
Sparco 353 steering wheel
Sparco Racing shift knob in carbon fiber
Sparco 6 point Hans harness
STi pedal set
Area1320 short shifter

Exterior
Vis carbon fiber hood
clear corners and side markers
pink sti "i" grille badge

Engine
AEM short ram intake
Greddy Evo exhaust

------------------------------------

 

[ericleerph]

Got the car home... first pics of it

 

[ericleerph]

The current ride height, some rubbing issues in some turns

 

[SubaruRally555]

nice cage

 

[offspringpunk14]

It says your in macungie pa? Where has this car been? I live in macungie too and have never seen this thing. Looks amazing