starting fresh with a new RC car.

[EVO9_Inside]

So about a month ago i purchased a 2nd owner 1991 gsx with 120K. it was unmolested except for a buscher built bottom end, 16g turbo, punisment BFMIC and dynomax exhaust. it had been in his garage for 7 years untouched. so i picked it up for...1000$ and drove it home.
a bit about me. i love road racing. i had an srt4 with a 25g, and around 7k in suspension setup. ended up blowing the diff out the trans at the strip, parted it out, it saw a couple times at mid ohio and nelsons ledges, so im not new to this, but im by no means an expert.
So i got the car home, and parked it. over my little free time this month ive put the 2 piston 2g front brakes on, poly control arms, sway bars links and bushings, and motor mounts. put on an eibach pro kit with agx adjustables, purchased some evo8 enkies and wrapped them in some 255/40/17s Continentals. removed the head, installed a head with crower retainers, springs ect, a MLS HG, with arp head studs. and thats where i am right now.
it runs perfect, handles fine with no clunks or weird braking issues.
so for a nice road race car. what modifcations should i be shopping for and installing before the season starts.
some things like poly rear end bushings go without saying. but im wondering if i should start investing in the tubular braces or the ATE kit, or what would you have picked to start with if you could do it all over again in your build.
thanks for any opinions guys, looking forward to a much better drivetrain to race on than the FF nightmare that is an srt4 with 500hp

 

[Talyn]

Idk that the stock fuel system can support that 16g to its full potential. For road racing, I would change the diff fluid, trans fluid, lightweight flywheel(I like fidanza because they have a replaceable friction surface), clutch kit with a puck clutch, possibly a radiator/fan upgrade to keep temps down, or possibly running a colder or no tstat, an FP exhaust manifold(getting it coated or wrapped to keep underhood temps down would be a good idea). Make sure all the driveline bearings are in good order, definitely upgrade the brakes, honestly idk if I would even bother with a 2g 2 piston oem setup, I would probably just go straight for a big brake kit. Poly bushings on all the suspension, and the trans and engine mounts(I suggest prothane as they use a higher durometer polyurethane than ES), although possibly avid for the engine/trans mounts, as the prothane only gives you inserts that you put in the factory rubber busings, and idk that they are as effective as a solid poly bushing would be.
Koni shocks, or KW variant 3s if you have the dough, I did a lot of homework on shocks and the people that REALLY know what they are talking about say that pretty much all the other shocks for our cars are junk. Strut tower braces front and rear, make sure they are one piece of metal with no hinges(DC sport makes them that way but they are mild steel, and I have been unable to find any made from CF, aluminum or chromemoly. otherwise they aren't doing much. I think there might be some braces for underneath as well. If you want more power I would probably get some kelford cams, and a quick spooling turbocharger like an FP 68hta or something along those lines, and a jmf or magnus intake manifold, obv a fuel system to handle everything, and either dsmlink or an AEM standalone. Shifter rebuild kits with the metal bushings to firm everything up on the shifter. A sequential BOV would also probably help keep the boost up between shifts. Weight reduction. And if that still isn't enough, aerodymanics upgrades.

 

[cait sith]

KW "Variant 3s" aren't worth it with a 1g when you can adapt much better shocks than KW from Evolutions to 1G AWDs. How much is the budget? TBQH once you get past the bottom rung Megan/D2/Ksport/whatever Taiwanese 800 dollar rebrand coil over shock is out there, you'll be good enough for track days. There's no real sense in blowing 3k-5k for a car that's just doing track days and not competition.

I'd invest the money saved from suspension to better wheels/tires/alignment/better seat.

I'd get rid of the front mount and try to run a big side mount because cooling is a huge issue on these cars. There's not a lot of frontal area on a 1G versus an Evolution/the SRT4.

An FP exhaust manifold is a waste for a 16G. Sure it'll be better but there's better things to be spending on.

The more power you have on the car, the less reliable it's going to be. I'm at the point now where I'd rather keep the car with lower power and focus on better things like differentials or cooling. I'd invest in a bigger oil cooler speaking of cooling.

RRE Black car - This car is old from RRE, but there's a lot of lessons learned from them.