Having removed the front bumper in order to access the oil cooler, I decided it would be a good time to also swap in STM’s lightweight front crash beam. This was an easy 5.5lbs of savings directly off the very front of the car, while still providing decent protection up front. Since there are a…
Do all work at your own risk. Tools required: 4.5 quarts of oil (Red Line 0w20) new Toyota oil filter 14mm socket wrench panel popper oil pan Toyota oil filter tool 1. Get the Prius up on stands/ramps 2. The bottom of the Prius is covered in plastic. The very back flap contains access to…
Noticed at the end of last year that the Evo’s reverse lights stopped coming on while I was in reverse. Found it unlikely that both bulbs went out at the same time, and they don’t have their own fuse – which meant that the reverse switch (switch on top of the transmission that tells the…
For one of the final pieces of the evo’s track prep, I decided it would be prudent to install an oil cooler, to keep the oil in it’s optimal temp range during these hot lapping sessions. After doing some research, I decided to go with a Setrab oil cooler, one of the top names in…
R56HS has now become QL Motorsport! Due to changes in priorities and cars, I have shifted the blog to become a more driver-focused site. I will still be driving the Mini for nearly half the autocross events, but have shifted the focus more to the Evo, prepping the car for autocross and track, and continuously…
Part 2 of the new wheels – OEM X GSR wheels to use as track wheels. I would be running the 265 width for SCCA autocross, but the limit for AWDs in street and most enthusiast classes for track were 255s. The X GSR wheels ended up being a good compromise that would be relatively…
The other required part of swapping to the Evo X brakes was upsizing to 18″ wheels. There was pretty much only one set of wheels I wanted, which was the CE28N in 18×9.5. After much research, it seemed the only offset that would really work well would be the 18×9.5 +34. The +28 would be…
As part of my winter projects continue, another issue I wanted to address was getting an updated head unit. While the headunit I had was good, I was getting ever so slight static buzzing noises from it. I reached out to the manufacturer, who not only agreed to take it back, but also sent me…
Was lucky enough to score an Evo 8 wing in Wicked White recently. This is a mod I’ve always meant to do on the white Evo, if I happened to come across it. Evo 9 wings are weaker than Evo 8 wings, and heavy winds are able to bend or break these wings. The wing…
Thanks to the chatter on the forums, even after getting brand new rebuilt calipers in 2016, and finally fixing the soft brake issue (titanium shim bending due to poor design), I was convinced to again revamp the entire braking system, this time to the X brakes setup, in the front only. Aside from one minor…
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