Gipper

I may as well add my 2 cents worth in... Listed below are my opinions so please dont flame me for passing on some advice after many years experience in heavily modifying and racing turbo cars... 1. The more you modify, the more problems you run into and the more money seems to dissapear. Have plenty of money ready for things that go "wrong" in the first year, 2. When car compnaies add forced induction to an engine they spend millions making sure everything else still runs well and nothing is overloaded. If the car is designed for 141kw, then anything over that can can overload the engine, drivetrain, etc and you start breaking things. Its very naive to think you can just double the power and everything else will be ok. Unless you are prepared to upgrade everything else, there are better options. 3. I would never supercharge a 4 cylinder car. Superchargers take engine power to give engine power. If a supercharger takes 20kw to run (made up figure), then it is a significant amount for a 4 cylinder. 20kw for more power is not so significant for a V8. Turbo's make use of wasted energy in the form of exhaust gasses, so they are far more efficient and generally produce better power in a smaller capacity engine. 4. IMHO.... don't do it! Get a second hand STI or EVO lancer. Far less problems and you already have a car that is BUILT to make high power. You get the BREmbo brakes, stronger gearbox, AWD, recaro seats and millions have been spent making sure everything works perfectly. Really, no tuning house will have spent anywhere near as much as a manufacturer making sure everything works right. Also you can then upgrade the basics and get better power again... safely 5. From years of modifying i have learnt a few things. 1. Warranties are a bloody fantastic thing! 2. The most i would ever modify an engine is intake, exhaust and chip. You want more, get a better car. (after that it's risk city) 3. Brakes and suspension are as imporant (IMHO more important) as power and more reliable to modify. As I said, these are my opinions, if you dont agree then you are obviously wrong.... he he just kidding :-)

Braking power really has nothing to do with power of the engine when cruising. Bigger brakes help when you are accelerating at higher g's though. So when travelling at 100km/h and a kangaroo jumps out, I would rather be in an echo with 6 pots than a HSV with 4 pots. I have 6 pots with 330mm disks on my stivo and get the same question. Had a truck pull out in front of me today without looking. I had no where to go and stomped on the anchors. 1200kg car with 6 pots. Stopped no worries. The bigger the brakes, the safer you are... its that simple!

Tell me you are joking! You dont think you will notice them? When you have brain damage due to head injuries and you are sucking your meals through a straw, you might wonder why you disconnected a vital piece of safety equipment. The airbag is designed to stop you hitting the steering wheel with your head which is the major cause of head injuries and brain damage in accidents. If the womans head didnt hit the steering wheel without the airbag then the sensors did their job and didnt bother deploying. My brother hit a tree full tilt in his WRX and the airbag saved his life.... Hopefully you will never need an aibag but when you need someone else to help you *****, then you might wonder why you disconnected it for a "nice looking" steering wheel. As far as the cost when they deploy goes... Insurance's problem, not yours. Dont mean to preach mate but I hate the thought of someone getting brain damamge due to a silly decision.

Ok then, i will call you ignorant and dumb... just kidding mate :-) You are right it will not make a huge amount of difference but at the same time, It is only just touching, so I only need a tiny gap to make a difference. Also as the camber is an angle, the further the distance from the start point the larger the gap... as in any triangle. So the gap at the very top of the tyre shoulder should be greater than 1mm. I had the same problem on my STi and -3deg fixed the rubbing...

How big are the new rotors ? ← 330mm discs, 32mm thick.... big buggers

Its a long story... to put the 6-pot brakes on they had to fit spacers to the wheels which increased the front track... now the outer edge of the tyres scrape the inner edge of the guard... it only happens on extremely hard conering or really big bumps... but its annoying the crap out of me when it does happen. 1 more deg camber should fix the problem. I used to run -3 deg on my Sti and was conering so hard it used to wear pretty evenly. I though about using a bolt at the bottom but its a very dodgy way of doing it. I could get 40 profile tyres from 45 profile but I was hoping not to have to waste the money.... thanks for the input guys.... ← Ahh, is that with the Brembo's ? ← Yeah the AP racing 6 pots... Every modification has its upside and downside :-)

Its a long story... to put the 6-pot brakes on they had to fit spacers to the wheels which increased the front track... now the outer edge of the tyres scrape the inner edge of the guard... it only happens on extremely hard conering or really big bumps... but its annoying the crap out of me when it does happen. 1 more deg camber should fix the problem. I used to run -3 deg on my Sti and was conering so hard it used to wear pretty evenly. I though about using a bolt at the bottom but its a very dodgy way of doing it. I could get 40 profile tyres from 45 profile but I was hoping not to have to waste the money.... thanks for the input guys....

Hi guys I still cant work out how to get more camber... I have whiteline camber bolts in but they only allow -2 deg camber It looks like you can only get the cusco adjustable strut tops when you buy the full strut kit. If anyone else has any ideas on how to get -3 deg camber, I would be appreciated. Gipper

Count me in.... got to get those pesky rear calipers done... to match the red fronts This weekend sounds good

In my experience, the chip makes 10% of the difference, the tuner is 90% A good tuner will make better and smoother power from a unichip than an average tuner will with a top of the range Motec (I have used both unichip and motec). IMHO I wouldnt go for anything more than a piggy back chip unless you plan on doing some major internal engine mods. To think that you local guy can tune a full replacement chip for things like cold start, air con, limp mode better than toyota engineers with millions of dollars of resources and time is a bit naive. Piggy backs like the unichip let toyota do all the work and then only change the mapping when you put your foot down. Is the powerFC a piggy back or a full ECu replacement?

Just looking for the load rating of the Stivo as i am thinking of changing my tyres from 205/45/17's to 215/40/17. I need to make sure the tyres is at or above the load rating of the car When i looked on the inseide if the door, its not there. Can anyone tell me the load rating or where to find it? thanks Gipper

Michelin Pilot Preceda's 17" Koni lowered suspension TRD LSD Straight line traction Wet: Crap.... still spin with no effort Dry: Chirp when launching. after that fine unless I hit lift on an uneven crappy road. Corning traction (this is where the LSD and suspension makes the difference) Wet: Not great but better than stock. Dry: AWESOME! No loss of traction, even under full throttle. Understeers far less than without LSD. I have had HSV's almost run off the road trying to keep up with me. Can put power down far earlier than standard and it just grips and shoots.

Thanks mate... you are a lifesaver. I just spoke to the official cusco importer and he said they didn't do them... what a joke!

I think cusco might do them.... anyone know a cusco dealer in Oz that I might be able to get them through?

I am after a pair of adjustable strut tops. whiteline do not have them and I was wondering if there is anyone else who might stock them. Any information would be great. Thanks guys

unfortunately to get bigger you need to spend lots. There is stuff you can do to the originals (fluid, pads, discs, etc), but unfortuntely bigger gets expensive ← Stockers are actually quite good i found. For standard road use they work really well. huge brakes only really come into their own at high speeds or repated hard stops. There is not as much difference at low speeds. Got the car how i want it, so will be leaving it for now.... no Supercharger... yet :-)

unfortunately to get bigger you need to spend lots. There is stuff you can do to the originals (fluid, pads, discs, etc), but unfortuntely bigger gets expensive

The braking is phenomenal.... All I did was change the brakes and put on some braided lines. The brake force distributor took a few hard stops to get things right but no problems now. I am now the last of the extremely late breakers A set up like this will cost way too much money.... over 6k! (i was just lucky I had them from an old race car, 4 pots will be cheaper)

Just got the brakes form my old STI that I used for track days put on the Stivo... Kinda look redicullous.. but cool anyway Stops on a dime :)

Yeah you are right....Porsche 911 Twin Turbo... hunk of crap... he he ;)

Definitely AWD, pretty sure it's Corolla based. 2.5lt Turbo 300PS = 220kw Designed to go up aginst the STi and EVO If it's real then it's about bloody time Toyota released a real high performance car. Haven't seen a real high performance car from Toyota since the Twin Turbo Supra! Logical step up from the Stivo :) :) :)

Same model, same problem, dealer adjusted the clutch, no more problem. B)

hmmm...... when you look at the cost, it just doesnt seem worth it. 30k for a stivo, 8 grand for a turbo, 2 grand for lsd..... voided warranty. Or you could just spend 40k on a WRX, Golf GTi, XR6 Turbo, etc with full warranty and millions of dollars by the manufacturer in making sure nothing breaks. 30k for a stivo... bargain. 40k?... rather something else.

I got it installed at my local Toyota Dealer and they had to replace a few parts that they said often get broken when installing the LSD. They then replaced the parts under warranty.... Long job, pulling apart the transmission, etc I love my toyota dealer!

I paid about $1200 landed, plus about $1000 to fit. Not a cheap ugrade, but definitely the best! B)