Takumi Fujiwara's Cars - New Fiesta ST wheels, AP2 I forgot to post.

[Takumi Fujiwara]

And here are the pics:


TRMotorsport C1M 15x7 by maximstensel, on Flickr


TRMotorsport C1M 15x7 by maximstensel, on Flickr


TRMotorsport C1M Fitment F by maximstensel, on Flickr


TRMotorsport C1M Fitment R by maximstensel, on Flickr

 

[Hei]

Looks good. 👍 I love 2's.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

I need to actually do some stuff with this car, I feel bad neglecting it and having nothing to post. (Well, not really neglecting, but not getting anything new.)

Rear right tire's been leaking, loses like 10PSI after a week. I need to go get that taken care of and have just been constantly busy with one thing after another. I was gonna go to the Mazda Owners Club of California all-state meet later this month but had to cancel because I have to move to a new apartment instead.

I'm hoping I can cover the Monterey Historics this year and get some pics of my Mazda at Mazda Raceway while I'm there! My car really needs a Laguna Seca sticker anyway.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

Sort of an E30 update. Had it in the shop again to fix a bunch of minor stuff recently. It now runs pretty well and has working A/C and power windows lol. Still needs suspension and the driver's seat ratchet fixed before it's really driveable.

I snapped some pics while I was at my parents' place over the weekend. Didn't get a chance to drive or work on it though. I'm considering trying a plasti-dip spray kit, you can get a pretty decent finish, and it's cheap and easy.


E30 Project F by maximstensel, on Flickr


E30 Project R by maximstensel, on Flickr

 

[hemisport15]

Have you thought about tucking the diving boards on the E30?

(Not my car, just pics for reference.)

 

[avens]

*insert obvious initial d joke*

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

I've thought about tucking the bumpers, not sure if I will or not, though. I actually don't mind the way they look as-is that much, and I might just black out the chrome and be done with it.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

So I found out that the 2 does a pretty good job of fitting skis, as long as nobody's in the front passenger seat! Took it up to a ski sale in Tahoe yesterday, bought some pretty decent used skis for $85, and then skied some. One thing that the 2 ISN'T great for is changing into ski pants in the backseat!

Stopped on the way home to snap this:


Overlook on the way back down from Tahoe. Can't believe how much snow there was considering the time of year. by MaxArcher, on Flickr

The area got three feet of snow last week, which was a lot of my motivation for going. Pretty cool to see it like this, covered in snow but with leaves still on the trees. There's a great section on the way there with these awesome vivid yellow trees surrounded by snow, but nowhere to park to take a pic, sadly.

Can't wait to see how the 2 does as it turns into winter for real. I won't be putting winter tires on it since it almost never gets into their temperature range where I live, and CA requires chains on all 2WD vehicles when driving in mountain snow anyway. I gotta figure out what chains to buy.

 

[niky]

Too bad it was so cold. The Mazda2 is fantastic fun to throw at downhill switchbacks and curves.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

Argh, chains wrecked the paint on my front wheels.

Guess it's time for Plasti-Dip, then. Any opinions on what color would look good?

 

[motortrend]

Argh, chains wrecked the paint on my front wheels.

Guess it's time for Plasti-Dip, then. Any opinions on what color would look good?

Are they all year wheels? If winter wheels go with something flashy like line green but if they are the wheels you always use you could experiment with some matte white I guess

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

Year round, unfortunately. Maybe I'll eventually turn them into track wheels.

Anyway, lol, I could just forget ever being stealth, paint them red, grab some vinyl, and have the first Mazda2 GT3 RS.

I hate to admit it but red actually looks kinda cool. Here's a (slightly) more restrained version.

The RS livery looks cooler with a diffuser and sideskirts etc...

Now I really want to do this, haha. Maybe once I've got more performance mods done...

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

The last picture actualy looks so cool. It could pass as some sort of a Mazda 2 Cup car. Just needs a bit more lowering (5mm)

 

[motortrend]

I say start out with the Mirrors and wheels and then with the other performance mods you can progress on to the graphics and aero pieces.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

Yeah, I kept it a bit high since I'm trying to keep it accurate to my setup.

Maybe this is a better shot of that livery:

I'm thinking it's a lot like one of the sporty versions of a French hatch with this livery, a RenaultSport Clio or whatever.

I say start out with the Mirrors and wheels and then with the other performance mods you can progress on to the graphics and aero pieces.

That may be what I end up doing. I might also just do the wheels in matte black for a few months and then redip them in red when I'm ready to do the whole car up.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

I Plasti-Dipped the E30's hood black. It's not a perfect application but it's a huge improvement in person.


E30 hood Plastidip by maximstensel, on Flickr

I need to do something about the trim, mirrors, and front valence now. A real paint job will eventually happen but for now this is better. I'm also gonna do the trunklid the same way I did the hood. I also ordered some racing number panels from Grassroots Motorsports, two for the doors and one that I may put on the hood like on an old Le Mans car.

I was able to shine the roof up quite a bit:


Restored the paint on the roof of my E30. (Pic is from halfway through, on the right is how it looked before polishing.) Took a ton of time and effort, though, and results weren't as good by the time I finished 'cause I was worn out and sick of doing it. by maximstensel, on Flickr

But had no such luck with the hood and trunk, which is why I decided to plastidip.

I'm gonna get and install some Hella 500 driving lights as soon as I figure out the best place to mount them so the hood doesn't hit them when open. The car could definitely use them when driving in the hills at night, and they'll have the side benefit of looking really cool.

As for the Mazda2, I ordered an intake and rear torsion bar stiffener from Corksport today. The intake makes about a 5% gain in peak power and also improves response, plus makes the car sound way better, and the torsion bar stiffener has a similar effect to what a sway bar does on an IRS car. Both come highly recommended by everybody I've heard from that has them. I'm gonna get tires soon too, probably BFG SPORT COMP 2s.

I also came across some yellow Hella foglight bulbs for $25 at Pep Boys, and snapped them up in a second since I'd been thinking yellow fogs would be cool and functional and the stock ones were uselessly weak anyway.


Hella Optilux Yellow Fog Bulbs F by maximstensel, on Flickr

Turns out they're actually MUCH brighter than the stock ones, so they're a performance improvement as well as an aesthetic one.

 

[JrDarknes]

Wow that hood looks sick Plasti dipped

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Is it me or do the rims on the 2 look a bit small?

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

The stock rims are a fairly large 15" it's just that the car has slightly odd proportions. I don't think they photograph well, but they look good in person.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

Wow that hood looks sick Plasti dipped

Thanks, it actually ended up better than I thought it might. Once I saw the hood with paint on it I realized how much it reminded me of a 2002 or something.

Is it me or do the rims on the 2 look a bit small?

They're 15"s, same as stock, just wider and lighter. The car's not lowered by much and the tires are pretty high profile (55 series), so it makes them look smaller I think. 16" can look pretty nice on these but I wanted to keep all the tire options available in 195/ and 205/15, especially since they're cheap sizes, and didn't want the extra weight a 16" would have added. I also would've risked messing up the handling and ride by running tires with less flex and give than the suspension was designed for.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Fair enough. But that car would look amazing as a hot hatch.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

Fair enough. But that car would look amazing as a hot hatch.

Yeah, it's a tragedy that we never got a Mazdaspeed/MPS version of the 2. This car with a bigger (or turbo) engine would be a total rocket.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I think the 2 with the 2.0 skyactiv would be (150hp) would be a riot, and probably improve gas mileage as well. I enjoy that the 2 is such a simple car. It feels like an early 90s hatchback in a sea of infotainment this and touch screen that.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

I think the 2 with the 2.0 skyactiv would be (150hp) would be a riot, and probably improve gas mileage as well. I enjoy that the 2 is such a simple car. It feels like an early 90s hatchback in a sea of infotainment this and touch screen that.

The '90s hatchback thing is exactly what I like so much about the car. I'll admit that I plan on eventually adding a nav-capable headunit just because it's such a useful thing in a daily driver and there's nowhere good to mount a separate GPS unit, plus it'd add USB and bluetooth, but other than that I like cars relatively simple and mechanical.

The 2.0 would be pretty amazing in this car, I'd love to have something like that. I've seen a bunch of guys in SE Asia turbo their stock motors and get a reliable 160HP out of it on low boost too, I'd love to see a Mazdaspeed 2 with a similar setup.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

Installed the SRI and torsion bar today. What a difference!

I'm not sure how much I can feel the SRI's improvements in the high end, although admittedly I probably need to let the ECU program itself before I really know what I'll get. There's a definite improvement between 4k and 6k or so on the highway, which is promising for track work. The noise is the real upgrade in my mind, though, the car finally sounds as sporty as it feels!

The torsion bar makes a gigantic, immediately noticeable difference. I just hit a twisty short road next to my house, which isn't a true test, but even at 5/10ths in a single lane I could feel a little bit of oversteer starting to show its head, and through the really sharp stuff the rear is super solid and the car rotates like no FWD I've ever driven. It's just point and shoot. Heck of an upgrade for $99.

Video coming soon, the parts didn't come until 7:30 so it was dark by the time we were done. I shot a before video and used a decent separate audio recorder for the sound so once it's all edited together it should be a pretty good reference for what to expect with the SRI.

 

[jelms2009]

Liked the story nice 240, but a good ending with the mazda 2 nice car.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I'm anxious to hear that SRI. I'm kind of thinking about doing that for my 2.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

So I got the BFG Sport-Comp2s put on a month or so ago, and did a trackday last weekend at Streets of Willow. Really cool event put on by Extreme Speed track events, started in the afternoon and the last two (out of five) sessions were in the dark with lights at the apexes. Driving at sunset and in the dark is a real experience and just doing it for 20 minutes at a time puts me in awe of the guys who can do a three hour stint at Le Mans in the dark.

Sunset
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Z_UzaBU_0

Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3afnZmehYpk

Sorry about the music in both of them, the camera only really picked up wind noise so I had to put something over it.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

Put some StopTech pads and PowerSlot rotors on the front of the 2 last night.


New pads/rotors. (Stoptech pads and PowerSlot rotors.) by maximstensel, on Flickr

Car definitely needs more work. Suspension is the big thing, the stock shocks just can't cope. I'm leaning toward the Bilstein coilovers right now, they're daily driveable and well-valved. Camber bolts are also a big necessity and a front sway would be nice too. Track wheels and tires would be great as well...

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

The Mazda2 is gone. This is now in front of my house.

ST by maximstensel, on Flickr

2014 Ford Fiesta ST. What an awesome little car, and the first real Euro-style compact hot hatch we've had in the US in a long, long time. More to come.