Heart sink.
Destroying something you love sucks. On June 3, 2020, I picked up my FR-S from Blackops Auto Pro after receiving a full paint correction and ceramic coating. On June 28, 2020, I delivered my FR-S directly into a tire wall exiting turn five at Summit Point.
Almost every modern automotive build has one modification in common: adjustable suspension. For some platforms (e.g., the FR-S/BRZ twins) it’s an obligatory step in the process.
Coilover suspension from Fortune Auto was the first serious modification I made to my Scion FR-S in conjunction with 2.5” wider TWS wheels and SPL rear lower control arms (necessary for rear camber adjustment). The changes made the already fun car factors more exciting to drive and set off an avalanche of other modifications to round out the car.
The first two years of FR-S ownership were a blast, but there was so much more to do. One of the original reasons I purchased an FR-S was that I wanted to try some motorsports activities, and autocross had only somewhat scratched that itch. As often as I frequented our local Cars and Coffee, it was only a matter of time before I met a local gearhead that siphoned me into paying for a weekend driving at Virginia International Raceway with NASA Mid-Atlantic.
Here in Richmond, Virginia, we’re blessed with an active Cars and Coffee community that meets every two weeks. If I’m in town, you can guarantee I’m around somewhere - more recently in my NA Miata, ‘87 AE82 FX or ‘72 F-250.
Attendance is more or less directly related to the weather forecast, and if it’s bad enough the organizers will postpone the event until the next Saturday.
After some consideration, I decided to pull the trigger on a different domain name - guyon.io. In the event that you have gkubed.com bookmarked or a subscription to it with RSS (💕), do move those to guyon.io. This is because guyon.io is way more memorable than gkubed.com, and most people don’t know what gkubed is (I’m Guyon the third - G³). Additionally, on bigger screens, images should now be bigger and higher quality - and load faster too! In fact, every image on the site was tracked down and re-exported - which took forever but was time well invested.
I put off documenting this car entirely too long and for a couple of reasons. First - it’s a large undertaking - one that’s time consuming and one I really want to do justice to. Secondly, it never really felt like the right time to put it together, as the next “stage” was always just around the corner. Well, finally it really does feel like the right time and I’ve managed to wedge this task into my schedule to get it done. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
Over the years I’ve befriended people with some really cool cars here in Richmond, Virginia. Given all the time in the world, I’d love to schedule shoots with everyone and put together articles on this site for each of them, even if it meant hours upon hours of figuring out how to compliment the pictures with words. All that said, my time is not infinite, so when an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone appears, I take it.