2026-04-30 Meeting notes

WRX is an entry level race car to make motorsports more accessible - 5 seats, don't need to commit to a weekend or buy a fire suit and spend $1000 to get involved in motorsports

The BRZ transmission is mated to a similar FA20 engine, and is an affordable alternative to keep the car as a useful tool (WRX STI transmission and parts are roughly $4000-$5000)

• provide a vehicle with low barrier to entry. People see the WRX and want to get involved. More people can attend a local event - a rallycross or track day - costing $100 rather than $1000 
• The 240 is a racecar for endurance and track events
• a manual swap is a project that involves mechanical, motorsport, electronics, welding, fabrication, design, CAD and is a good place to teach and mentor members to learn and make
  
  
• It's a unique swap - it will bring attention at events to the range of skills at DMS
• It makes a good car to learn to drive manual on - AC, 5 seats

The driveshaft would have to be cut, welded,  tempered and balanced- maybe from parts we have - this might be best done at a driveshaft shop

We may be able to hack the comms from the ECU to the TCU through a CANBUS hack. If this doesn't work, we could use a WRX manual ECU / TCU

The transmission won't fit in the tunnel - starter on opposite side - we can enlarge the tunnel

We may need to build a transmission support - we feel comfortable with this

could we remove the WRX interior and cage it? This was make the car less accessible to new members - having 5 seats allows for better transfer of driving skills

Could we put in a BRZ engine and transmission and sell the WRX engine? We don't think that saves us much, and loses power

Could we sell the WRX shell and get a different second car? We don't think we'd get a low milage, 5 seater car that would be useful for track and rallycross for the price of the WRX

We proposed presenting a proposal  to  the DMS board - proposing a $2000 budget to proceed putting a BRZ manual transmission into the DMS WRX to provide a beginner friendly motorsports experience and create a unicorn vehicle that will attract attention to the skills and capabilities at DMS.

Passed unanimously. 

meeting closed