The Rice Prius Build Thread

After owning a long line of awesome sports cars overseas, my journey with the Prius begins with purchasing a Prius 3 with sunroof from a Priuschat member sight unseen during a move to Mississippi. From an R34 Skyline, to a Celica GT-Four ST205, to an 88' Silvia K's, to a Lancer Evolution and finally to a...Prius.

Why a Prius? The videos below will give some insight. During my 10,000 mile Mongol Rally 2016 we ran into quite a few of these cars on our journey, but almost ALL of them were in Mongolia. I couldn't believe my eyes when I watched Gen2 and Gen3 Prius' fording rivers, power through mud and water up to their windows and put to shame more than a few Land Rovers. The video below shows one of the better "roads" in central Mongolia, where we'd been desperately trying to keep up with two large Toyota SUV's, letting them pick a line and following them through the mud. Both sides of the road were muddy steppe as far as the eye could see, and we'd just stopped earlier to tow out another car that got the bright idea to try their luck in the steppe. We pulled over after the SUV's powered through the mud and waited for something else to pick a line we could try. This scene played out may times in Mongolia, with a Prius coming from the horizon at a fast and steady pace, powering through mud and water without a worry before blasting past us, allowing us to pick a suitable place to cross and continue our own adventure. Thus begins my love affair with the Prius.

More to come as I edit this post!

2010 Prius 3 Solar Package Current Modification List
Tien Lowered Springs
KYB Shocks
Volks CE18N 18 inch wheels
Continental DWS 215/18/45 tires
Max Elite Series Slotted/Drilled Rotors/Ceramic Pads
Cusco Front Strut Bar
TRD Rear Sway Bar
Ultra Racing Rear Strut Bat
Injen "Cold" air intake
Ebay front lip
Valenti Smoked Tail Lights
Morimoto 55w HID Projectors
Apexi Throttle Controller
Siecle MiniCon Hybrid Manifold Pressure "ECU"
Siecle MiniCon Advanced MAF "ECU"
CT200h EngineBay Covers
Blizzard Pearl Headlight Garnish
Weathertech Floormats/Trunk Mat
Clazzio Gray Leather Seat Covers
Redline D6 Transmission Fluid
Viofo A119S Dash cam
TRD logo on front grill
The old Japanese license plates from my Evo on the front
30% tint all around

Upcoming modifications:
3d printed cold air intake
Federal RS-R or similar tires for the summer
Duraflex TK-R wing on the way
New Ebay lip
Wiper delete

Here it is as it sits!

 

The car the day I bought it!


After about 4 hours of owning the car, the Injen intake and Lexus engine cover bits go in. Immediately the engine sounded better!


After a quick 2k mile road trip, the TRD sway bar and Valenti smoked tail lights went in. No more drifting around on the highway, and no more body roll in corners!


Followed closely by the Cusco front strut bar, which tightened up the cornering a bit. I also plastidipped the engine cover from that dull gray to a nice flat black. The Toyota logo has long since fallen off


The rear strut bar went in easily, however the 2010 Prius does not have the cutouts to rear the top of the struts, so I had to make the cuts myself. I'll be 3d printing a cover to hide the hole, but for now it remains. No noticeable difference in the cars handling before or after, possibly because the TRD sway bar is doing good work down below.


That's it for the time being, I'm still testing some items I got from Japan before posting results down below. I'll try to keep the top post updated.

 

So far I feel like this is enough. I corner very well with nearly no understeer. Before the braces the car had a tremendous amount of understeer as well as generally sloppy handling, both cornering and highway cruising. It was also blown around a lot in highway crosswinds, that's nearly eliminated now.

At my last autocross event I drifted around a high speed turn a few times and found it very controllable and predictable. The back end would gently slide out and with some steering and throttle i could bring it back in line quickly. It didn't help my time, but was surprising to be able to do that in a Prius.

The biggest improvement was definitely the TRD rear sway bar followed by the Cusco strut bar. If I get any more stiffening items it will likely be for the front end. There may be a little room for improvement there.

 

Next on the list, a Duraflex TK-R wing! It's a nearly exact replica of the TommyKaira wing, with the addition of what appear to be vortex generators on the underside of the wing? Who knows, but I'm impressed with the quality so far. It came without any scratches, already fully coated in black primer.

The plan for now is to paint the side posts in blizzard pearl and leave the center bar black, or do a carbon fiber wrap. I haven't decided yet, if you have an opinion on what I should do with it let me know!

 

Great info, thank you! I'm spraypainting the posts right now, it looks like I need to drill through the sides to attach the wing to the posts...and then drill through the rear deck of course and up into the posts. The screws are awful small, did they work ok for you?

I was thinking the same thing about the rattling, I noticed the plastic looked like it would touch the glass. I'll see if I can get something attached to the glass to prevent that.

 

Getting there! Once it stops raining I'll get some clear coat on it and get it mounted!

 

Alright, here we go. Did a test paint of the pillars in blizzard pearl, I'm going to repaint them again since I put the mid coat on too heavy and dinged it a few times.

Here's the test fit. It fits perfectly, and the each part is attached with bolts, no self tapping screws here.

 

She's just jealous, and a little frustrated standing in the rain so I can get a picture. She's getting the carbon fiber GT wing from my Evo for her Miata once we finish turboing the Miata.

 

Wing is on and looking great! The paint needs to be touched up, wet sanded and polished on the posts, but otherwise flawless installation, besides a small gap on the left side.

 

Wiper delete provided by @br1ank

It looks great! I never used the rear wiper anyway and I'm pretty sure it gave me +10HP and 2 MPG.

 

The fun never ends. Beatsonic sharkfin in white installed! Contrary to other reports, I seem to be getting BETTER reception than before.

It looks like it wasn't designed with the solar roof in mind and hangs over the panel a tiny bit. I'm sure no one will notice.