Pat Cyr here! Very excited to write my first blog post for the new FR-S chassis we are building for the 2015 season at my shop, Cyrious Garageworks!
At the end of last season, we knew that we wanted to make some major changes for the 2015 season to be more competitive and keep up with the high horsepower cars that dominate drifting these days, so we decided it was in our best interest to swap in a 2JZ engine, taken from the iconic sports car the Toyota Supra! The 2JZ is known around the world as one of the most reliable engines ever produced, and when modified, it can produce upwards of 1000hp! For next season, reliability is a key thing for me. We push the car and its engine to its limit, so having a set up where I can just focus on driving will be great for us!
The other major change is the Wisefab steering system we will be running this season. It is a purpose built drift steering system just for the FR-S and produces loads of steering angle so I should be able to achieve those crazy backward entries!
For the past 3 months we have been focusing on getting the chassis prepped. You have to start with a strong foundation, so we had the new chassis acid dipped to remove all of the factory paint and seam sealers, then we went to town with the welder, spot welding every seam on the chassis to stiffen it up and also adding longevity to it as well. After that, we built the all-important roll cage. Roll cages are one of our specialties here at Cyrious Garageworks, we like to build them tight but also try to add in a bit of style where we can! I also wanted a really clean engine bay to showcase the 2JZ engine, so we went ahead and filled every excess hole in the engine compartment to give it a clean, smooth look. After all that was done, we sent the car over to our good friends at Davis Autobody to get a fresh coat of epoxy primer laid down on the entire chassis to prevent rust and protect the chassis.
Back from the body shop, we mounted the 2JZ engine and transmission in the FR-S chassis and fabricated mounts to bolt that big engine in the car! When building cars, a key thing is mocking everything up. Sometimes things will get mocked up 2 or 3 times before final assembly. So after the engine was mounted, we mocked up the Wisefab suspension. From there our focus switched to the interior of the FR-S. First thing to do in there was to mount the dash which had to be modified to fit with the new roll cage. Then we installed the pedals and set up my new Sparco seat. Once I got it in a comfortable position, we built a custom steering column, made a custom shifter for our Tremec transmission, and mounted up our hydro e-brake handle. We spent a decent amount of time doing this, laying everything out, moving things around and making it as perfect as possible, as driver comfort is a very key factor.
Next on the to-do list is the paint. We will be heading back to Davis Autobody in the next few days to have the interior and engine bay painted up in gunmetal metallic; then they will lay the base coat down for our new livery design! The look of the car this year will be different than anything I have ever run before, so I can’t wait to show it to everyone at the Montreal International Auto Show in January! Next season will be an exciting one for us and I’m looking forward to sharing our journey with you.
That’s it for me today, now it’s time to get back to work!
