2023 Toyota GR Corolla Core w/ all 3 pkgs. #GreatGazoo

10K maintenance this morning.  No one had any input good or bad on Walker (by my house) or Voss (Xenia) so I went with Walker that's about 5 miles down the road.  I skipped the tire rotation since I just put the snow tire wheels on a few months ago, and save some time.  So basically oil change and inspection.

45-50 minutes, not bad.  Wagner Subaru had me spoiled so I wasn't sure what to expect.  They had free coffee and hot chocolate, but no free snacks, just a vending machine.  Minus one point...  Also no charge service so that was a bonus, she said she thinks that runs out in January, so likely a 2 year deal?

Holiday weekend and I spent most of it not feeling well.  But by Sunday I felt a little better so I managed to get myself collected and installed the Forge Motorsport short shifter kit that was on Black Friday sale for $86, vs the Coolerworx that I wanted at $900 including shipping.  This does almost the same amount of reduction, way easier to install, and as mentioned much cheaper.

You can adjust the pin when it's inside that black piece to get between 40-60% reduction if I remember correctly, but if you go full 60% you have to trim some stuff.  Recovering from this cold I had no interest in that and set it in the middle for about 50%.  Once it was installed I checked the shifting and could tell the difference, everything seemed to move correctly, so I put the CAI back in.  That took longer than the short shifter, even with my triple checking the PDF and install video.

Today I finally drove it, and with the 2" extension on the shifter & carbon fiber knob, it feels really nice.  Not as crazy as the Coolerworx would be (or the IRP I had in the BRZ), but I'm happy.  And saved about $800 and probably a few hours of frustration.

Some more random E36 M3 over the last few weekends.  Mishimoto tow hooks for the front and back.  I ended up not using the hole saws I bought just for these, and instead moved up from 1/16" to 1/2" bits in the general area, then Dremel'd the openings a little at a time until they worked.  (The back of the front tow hook cover is very irregular and the hole saw kept jumping around.)

Took advantage of Black Friday sales and splurged on some underhood bits, mostly caps for various fluids.  Also bought an aftermarket dipstick handle but it sounds like a major hassle to replace and likely reselling on the forum unless I get real bored over the holidays.  I also bought the two fender shrouds from Racer-X, aluminum and powder coated.  I don't know why, I just thought they were neat.  (Might add the Tanabe cooling plate that replaces the big one up front, also red and adds another air flow spot.)

And Walker Toyota just called to say they got the only dipstick in inventory in the country in today.  I had tried to order a backup just in case.  Guess I'll try it after all, nothing to lose now but time and maybe $50 total.  (Requires burning or cutting off, then cutting part of it, multi drilling, etc.)

A bit of a pain, but the dipstick handle is done.  All I think that's left is the Tanabe cooling plate over the radiator.

I also drove 30min to buy a 5pc all-weather floor mat set.  $100 was a good deal for front, back, and cargo (cargo still in the wrapper, others used for like a week or something).  I would have paid more for just the front set from Weathertech.

Well E36 M3, guess I'm buying a new shirt.

Finally had an opportunity to drive one of these. Super fun and not overly powerful. You still enjoying the new shifter vs stock? 

In reply to EchoTreeSix :

The short shifter addition evens out the 2" extension nicely.  It's not super short like the Coolerworx would be but for the $ and effort it's still worth it.

Stopped at a local car wash on the way home, $3-4 in quarters took the top layer of grime from the winter so far. And I have a new phone background.

Random vacation day and used it to get some work done.  My friend has his own garage with 3 lifts, he's now my best friend.  I ordered a new mid-pipe from 2J Racing after hearing some sound clips and seeing good reviews.  Here's Chris getting started, I helped hold the pipe in place on removal and reinstall.

It supposedly adds a few HP's but I don't care.  I was looking for a bit more decibels without getting crazy, and a lower tone.  This satisfies both, and I can still add a cat-back down the road if I want.  This bolted in place perfectly, and was well-packaged to keep from getting damaged.  I think it took 30ish minutes with us BSing the whole time and not in a rush.

I was looking for "OEM Plus" exhaust and think I have it now.  It was subtle on the drive home but when you get into the RPMs it's noticeable.  My friend had me fire it up to check for leaks before he reinstalled some brackets and said it was definitely louder than stock.

Jerry said:

 

This weekend was productive. Saturday my friend replaced the generic black calipers with the fancy red  

Were these switched out of personal preference by PO?  I had read all the performance pack cars came with red calipers, but didn't know if the red ones were physically different or just red.  

In reply to xflowgolf (Forum Supporter) :

Yup, he just didn't like red calipers.  From what I've gathered and everyone has said, they are exactly the same just a different color.  At least I have a set I can paint orange to match the wheels if I ever get bored.

I finally ordered the RokBlokz window vents. They've been on my mind since late last year, but with Ohio winter looming I decided to spend my $ elsewhere. Now with spring on the way and this week hitting 70s it was the right time. Drove to work 30min on the highway and the wind noise was fine.

After much more thought and work than most of you would have taken, I have the Hella 500s mounted.  Two simple brackets that attach to the top of the radiator mount behind the grill.  But cutting the metal (that I wish I had used aluminum), getting the holes drilled (same thing), and mounting to the car (involved buying 12" drill bits to reach it) took some time.  The cold weather didn't help my motivation.  I'll wire them up eventually.

And Monday while I was off to recoup from the convention over the weekend, I got the ShiftPower Throttle Control installed along with a ProClip cellphone mount.  You can see the little button with arrows that light up for the mode you're in, so I don't need the app if I don't feel like it.

I had a GoPedal in the Abarth and completely loved it, so I was happy to see someone on the forum that shared something for the GRC.  I have it in Sport which is 50% and it just perks everything up for city driving.  The connector was a pain to get to but I figured it out.  Someone that has shared a lot about this car on Youtube had a 30min video detailing everything about this mod and was very helpful.  The Valet mode that locks it at very low power could be useful.

Saturday was the 1st Cars and Coffee of the season.  I spent 2hrs Friday after work in the garage cleaning the damn thing, brake dust, wheel letters, interior, engine and even basically sort-of waxed the thing (too cold outside still).  Got there early for a good spot in the 1st lot, it was about 34F at that point and I wish I had worn another jacket over my hoodie.

But I still stayed ~3hrs, walked all the lots multiple times, and saw many people liking the car.  I overheard rally comments multiple times and that made me happy.  That's the look I'm going for, even if rallycross never happens.  I even met another owner as I was leaving, he had a stock example on the other side of the event & I had hoped to meet him.