Project Silver Bullet, Refining the Caliber Options

[Kazz5]

As some of you know, I had a number of mods bolted on almost two years(!!) ago and had a road-tune performed by someone famous, if not infamous, in the business with Evos. Since I commute an hour each way and the car is now not very daily-driveable, the car has mostly sat while I've put 60,000 miles on my "commuter", a 2000 Toyota Celica GT-S (2500lbs, 180hp, 30+mpg!).

Well, I'm sick of not wanting to drive it just because the tune sucked ass. So, I'll be engaging Mellon Tuning's three-month subscription tune with my laptop, some cables, EvoScan and ECUFlash to make it more driveable. Then I'll be having a few more touches finished off by OTHER THAN Mitsu. Mitsu did most of my bolt-on work and it was average work at best. Perhaps you've heard others around here that weren't especially happy with them, either.

I don't have the time and only barely have the money to have someone else do it. So, it needs to be done right. Having it done, say, in Chicago (e.g. AMS) means, when I notice something odd I can't just pull in after a phone call and have it looked at. I've known Mike Benet over the years and he purchased Kauth & Mayeur a few years back. I've decided to give his award-winning shop a try, even though they've not done much Mitsu work. I know whom I'll be dealing with and will manage it from there. We're all hoping good things, of course.

So, other than the tune, what's in order? Really, just some touch-up:

-New, ported and coated exhaust manifold
-Stainless steel O2 housing (getting the cheap knock-off with rattling heat shield off the car)
-Stainless steel brake lines
-Whiteline Center Roll adjustment kit
-Front LSD
-Rear diff upgrade from TRE
-Re-install of short-shifter w/premium lube
-all new fluids, break-in time, and new fluids once more

gauges, sound system upgrade, and perhaps seats will be coming

My auto-x rubber is old and on the stock wheels. Excsta MX rubber is on my 17x9 wheels for the daily driving I don't do. I will put dedicated snows on the stock wheels and get a new set of 17s (or 18s?) w/R-compound OR Dunlop Direzzas. I'm really not sure yet. I want to roadrace and would rather not have a 4th(!!) set of wheels.

I hope to get the tune straightened out in the next two weeks and then get it into K&M. With luck, I may be back out on the street in a month-to-six-weeks with a refreshed tune for 93 octane and, hopefully, a race-gas tune available on my laptop as well.

I'd love to put that thing through it's paces again on the strip, auto-x, road course, and the street!!

I'll keep this place updated.

My first move is getting the Innovate LC-1 installed. Just got the bung cut in. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it's not easy to make time to get this stuff done with my schedule, etc.

Peace!