Profiles by MotorWerks Magazine and Kountersteer Media

The story of Ravi Maraj and The Logical Decisions That Led to His Time Attack Build Ravi is currently 28 years old and has been into cars for as long as he can remember. He spent most of his life in Dallas, Texas where he grew up and studied electrical engineering. He had bought the BRZ during his college years in 2013 after seeing all the fun his friends were having in their manual RWD sports cars. After eating ramen for a while, he was able to afford a BRZ he saw for sale in Austin and on his way back after picking up the car, he taught himself how to drive a manual only having driven automatics all his life. He was particularly pleased as he had even mastered rev-matching by the time he got back to Dallas. It was his first real sports car and he really enjoyed it to the point where he got a bit obsessive. He later modified it, drifted it everywhere for a bit. However, his story starts a bit further back… Ravi is from a family that aren’t car enthusiasts and so he got his muse mainly from video games. Since then, he’s been playing Sega GT, Forza, etc with his friends. His first car was a 1998 Toyota Corolla, which as a group of crazy 16-year olds, they would find some dirt road and tried to sustain an e-brake slide for as long as possible. The Corolla was what really got him into modifying and tinkering with cars and back then, he ripped the muffler off the car because he thought the exhaust sounded cool, or even adding air intakes from AutoZone because of horsepower.

Later on he bought a RX-8, which his really his introduction to performance driving. It only took one free event (“Toys for Tots Fun Run”) at Eagles Canyon Raceway one year, which was just a two to three-lap lead and follow, for him to get hooked. Ravi had left Dallas after graduating from college to work at Honda of America which is located in Ohio. Ravi had the opportunity to work on a few cool projects such as the NSX, new Accord, etc. Working there really introduced him to some great people that were really passionate about cars. Ravi always thought he was a car person until he met these guys, as they showed him what being a car guy was all about. Working at Honda as an engineer also introduced him to technical concepts and gave him the confidence to apply them to the development of his cars. Along the same time, he started competing at HPDE events at Mid-Ohio and started driving deeper into learning how to set up and driving his car faster around the race track. As he grew fond of chasing the perfect lap, he knew time attack/time trial competition was in his future. Unfortunately, the BRZ went through two FA20 engines in the process and by the time the second engine failed, Ravi was already looking into other options. At that stage in his life, Ravi was already working longer hours, with frequent trips across the US, spending a lot of time away from home and the track. All of this, coupled with the car being decommissioned because of an engine failure made him realize that he had limited opportunities to be on track and it would be best for him to make the most of the time he had and build something crazy, so in 2017 he decided to do a LS3 swap by himself. He figured, “why not?”. He had the tools he needed and could learn while building the car. On paper, it was an easy 450whp (which is almost three times the stock output at the wheels) with only a maximum ninety pounds of extra weight – it seemed like the logical choice. Ravi stated that the swap was a major ordeal and

can be a story on its own. Fast forward a year later, he had moved across the country to work for a different OEM and after a few months, the LS3 swapped BRZ was finally running. He had retained basically everything and it all worked like stock: power steering, ABS, TC, even smart entry. The post-swap BRZ was originally intended on being a street-track car however over time it went down the time attack rabbit hole of constantly being improved upon as Ravi started competing in local events with a few co-workers and got hooked. The plethora of events in the West didn’t help either. Every organization had its own challenge, time trial or time attack, and Ravi really enjoyed competing in those events. The swap wasn’t a walk in the park for the most part though as Ravi was faced with a number of issues before he got the car to be as reliable as it is, especially as the time he had available to work on the car got less and less because of work. “It’s been a slow process of getting past the teething issues after the swap, especially now since I have less time than ever. First it was cooling, then fueling, then building a DAQ, then some other gremlins. But I’m proud to say that minus the roll bar install, it’s been all built, triaged, and counter-measured in-house.” On top of all that, he doesn’t consider himself to be a god-tier driver or anything, more like above average at best, but he’s always looking for ways to improve as he’s data-driven and learns fast. He’s just a guy that built a fast car in his garage. His stated that his first ever time attack was really fun and that it was at SpeedSF Challenge at Buttonwillow Raceway CW13. There were only five competitors in his class that day and he had managed to finish 4th, beating a McLaren 650 but lost to a GT3 and well-prepped Corvettes. The car was a mess as it was constantly overheating and sliding everywhere, and it was only his second time being at Buttonwillow. However, his “big” event was at Super Lap Battle earlier this year and it was very surreal. He was very nervous during the weeks leading up to the Super Lap Battle. After having an idea of how fast the other cars were, he was afraid that he would either DNF or fall back in the standings with his home-brewed BRZ. He spent almost every night leading up to the event on the simulator, making sure that he knew the layout and memorized it. He was also trying to ensure that the car would be reliable the entire weekend. He had never competed in a 3-day event nor at COTA before and so the pressure was on. He watches F1 religiously, so arriving at the track and settling in adjacent garages to his friends Nick Aegerter and Chris Mayfield and being able to use the same garages the F1 teams use was amazing. He had modeled a version of his actual car in the sim and was able to complete a lap in a time of 2:23. During his practice lap he was able to do a 2:26, which wasn’t that far off and he thought to himself that he could definitely get there. The car was running like clockwork the whole weekend and Ravi was lucky enough to have awesome, supportive friends that helped him tackle the little issues that popped up from time to time and he’s very grateful. “The only real issue I was running into was some air in my clutch line that just wouldn’t bleed out. It made my shift times insanely slow and frustrating.

My friends and I threw the sink at it, and after an adjustment to the clutch pedal travel, it felt much better Saturday night. Can’t thank them enough!” By Sunday, he was in 4th place with a 2:22.6 and he felt really good and only had the Super Lap Battle Top 5 Shootout to contend with. In the shootout, he was braking later than ever in every brake zone. By the time he was exiting T5, he realized that he was 0.5 seconds faster than he’s ever been. At that point, he’s screaming to himself “don’t screw it up” but unfortunately he made a crucial error at T7 and lost the position by a tenth of a second with

a 2:22.44. It didn’t matter as much because going into the event, he didn’t expect much of himself and the car. He had finished fifth while battling against some of the fastest and coolest time attack cars in America. He really loves GTA/SLB and would recommend it to anyone.

About the car: As was stated earlier, quite a bit went into the swap in terms of work and thought process. First step was deciding what power plant to go with. Ravi’s options were down to building and boosting a FA20, a K swap, or a LS swap. Ironically, he loves Honda motors and hadn’t

The Build List

Engine: - GM 6.2L LS3 - OEM forged crankshaft, pistons, rods - Manley double roller timing chain - Comp cams chromoly pushrods - Straub trunnion bearings - Unknown-brand dual valve springs - EPS 228/240 .629”/.604” 113 +2 camshaft - Aviaid LS-C dry sump system - CX racing with Element Tuning spec engine mounts - Katech ported 90mm throttle body - Airraid DIY air intake Chris Mayfield spec - OEM intake manifold

Cooling: - Northern triple pass radiator - Setrab 9 Series 25 row oil cooler - Mishimoto expansion tank - Derale radiator fan - DIY diverging duct setup

Fuel: - 1x DW 300c fuel pump - 2x Aeromotive Stealth fuel pumps

Exhaust: - CX racing 1 5/8” equal length headers - CX racing Y-pipe - Copious amounts of DEI titanium wrap - Magnaflow 3” x 36” long truck muffler (laguna spec) - 3” Perrin WRX Catback

Electronics: - GM E38 ECU - Factory Subaru ECU - MRS CAN gateway unit - DIY “Carduino” microcontroller

- Mishimoto radiator fan controller - Nexus 7 radio - AIM Solo2 - AEM AFR gauge - Innovate Oil temp/pressure gauge - DIY 3d-printed relay switch block

Drivetrain: - Tremec T56 MagnumXL trans - ACT 6-puck sprung clutch - ACT 15lb flywheel - Element Tuning spec clutch master bracket - McLeod hydraulic throw-out bearing - Custom 3” driveshaft - Toyota 3.73 M85 differential housing - OS-Giken Superlock LSD - DSS 600hp axles - Whiteline solid diff inserts

Suspension: - JRZ RS2s (custom valved) - Whiteline front swaybar - Eibach springs - SPL front lower control arm - SPL rear lower control arm - SPL rear traction arm - SPL rear toe arm - MCA traction mod - SPL endlinks - Whiteline subframe inserts

Brakes: - Brembo Club Racer BBK 355x32 front - Brembo GT BBK 316x20 rear - CSG spec C2 pads front and rear

really been into American engines or V8s. The thrill of hearing an I4 scream to a million rpm was everything he had ever wanted in life. He really wanted to do the K swap instead but the fact of support for such a swap at the time made it unfavorable. And lastly, the biggest issue was power. “A boosted 4cyl making around 450whp for track abuse is going to be stressed to within an inch of its life. Freshly coming off of two blown FA20s, reliability was a huge selling point for me. Combined with the fact that the LS3 weighs pretty much the same as an FA20, retains a relatively low COG due to the lack of DOHC, while having the headroom for easily making more power if needed, it was pretty clear which direction I wanted to go.” The BRZ also has a wide track width to accommodate the FA20, which made fitting the LS in the chassis quite easy dimension and clearance wise. This all played in the favor of the LS. Additionally, Element Tuning had also build a LS swapped BRZ/86 for time attack and so Ravi had their car to use as a template. Ravi found a used LS3 on eBay. It was pulled out of a C6 Corvette Grandsport, which meant that the engine had a dry-sump lubrication system and a forged steel crankshaft from the factory. The motor arrived with the original harness, ECU, pedal, and dry sump system.

When he first took the engine apart as he wanted to do a fresh rebuild; the engine had 56k miles on it. While pulling apart the engine, he found out that it had been modified. It had an aftermarket cam, chromoly pushrods, and dual valve springs, which was a huge win. He sent the block and heads off to the machine shop and in the meantime, he worked on the wiring harness. He took the original GM harness, stripped it completely and while looking at the schematics very closely, isolated the components and branches he’d need and soldered in the components and wiring necessary to integrate power and CAN directly between the GM harness and the Subaru electronics. After that, he started working on CAN bus integration. The goal was to create a CAN gateway unit between the Subaru ECU and the GM ECU. He first reverse-engineered a few key messages on the Subaru CAN bus and then spoofed them using a microcontroller. He had a few functions working such as bringing in Tachometer and coolant temp from the engine and displaying these signals to the Subaru display, but then a few companies beat him to it and had released products of their own doing exactly the same thing, albeit a bit better. In the end, Ravi purchased an off-the shelf device for the GM-Subaru gateway but still use my DIY CAN gateway unit in the BRZ for a few functions such as the following: - a signal relay for my AIM solo to bring in any additional analog or digital channels he desired - a trigger that scans the bus for accelerator pedal position before turning on an auxiliary fuel pump relay, - as well as an emulator for any tech-stream commands such as the ‘pedal dance’. He also opted to use the T56 MagnumXL transmission as the shifter location lined up directly with the OEM BRZ shifter. He also uses an ACT clutch with a McLeod hydraulic throwout bearing. He also switched to a 3.73 M85 pumpkin from an IS300 coupled with a OS Giken Superlock LSD. The chassis needed a few modifications to fit the motor and trans. A brace had to be cut out and since Ravi was doing the entire swap on jack stands, this turned out to be a challenge. The mounts and headers he used were from CX Racing which had some supporting plates added by Element Tuning, but he’s currently in the process of trying to switch to Vorshlag mounts and long tubes. The factory fuel system wouldn’t suffice and so Ravi upgraded to a bigger fuel pump but had retained the OEM lines and fuel pressure regulator. Later on, after competing at a few track days, he started having fuel starvation issues and opted for a few in-tank auxiliary lift pumps as a solution. On the day that the engine was installed, Ravi had a few of his friends help him with the installation but they had an issue. The pilot bearing was stuck and wouldn’t come out but somehow Eric Kutil was able to remove it after some mechanical wizardry. After the engine went in, Ravi had finished up the harness and then went on to deal with plumbing for the dry-sump system. He went with a Aviad 3-stage dry sump system over the factory GM unit because he wanted the external pressure-stage. He placed the tank behind the passenger’s seat, made all the AN lines and routed them through the firewall, then made an enclosure for the tank for safety reasons. After almost a year after the FA20 was removed, the engine had finally fired up. He spent that entire afternoon cranking the engine, checking the electrical grounding and made sure that everything was plugged in and secured. After all of that, while eating dinner, he remembered that the anti-theft system needed fixing and so he rushed downstairs and re-flashed it, and the car started right up afterwards. One issue he had was having enough grip. He to get the widest set of wheels and tires that could fit under the OEM fenders, which was almost impossible because there aren’t that many 18x10 wheels available in a 5x100 lug pattern, and he could only fit 275 wide tires under the fenders. The wheels he ended up going with were Taneisya Wheel Supply (TSW) T-66F in 18x10 5x100 lug pattern. They only weighed 17.3lbs. He’s currently running 265 wide Yokohama A052 because it’s the spec tire was Global Time Attack and Super Lap Battle. He really wants to run 315s but that means that he would have to cut the OEM fenders, which he doesn’t want to do because he adores the stock body lines. He also battled overheating. At his first track day after the swap, he has melted a spark plug lead and the car caught on fire. With the packaging being so tight, many of the critical components are near the exhaust manifold. Since that day, Ravi has been very thorough about which parts are getting hot and how hot. Since then the headers have been wrapped and all the components that need protection are shielded off.

The car is also quite heavy (2,903lbs with roll bar) with a weight distribution of 56/44. There are a few more items that could be removed from the car including carpets, glass windows, HVAC, radio and speakers, and the exhaust. His goal is to get the car down to 2,850lbs. His current plan is to push the car’s current setup to its limits for another season. He wants to set a benchmark for himself at all of the nearby tracks, and go sub 1:50 at CW13. He’s not sure how it will play out yet in terms of finding the time between work and travel but he’s definitely craving to get back out there.