Hi from Myrtle Beach, SC

WolfSongX

New member
Just wanted to say Hi... I lurked a little in the DIY section and decided to join.

I have a 2019 STi base in WR Blue and have been loving it since I bought it in July. This is my 4th Subaru, I had an '02 WRX Wagon (good story about it that I will have to tell sometime), a '13 Outback which is my wife's car, a '13 BRZ and now my STi. I was originally just going to buy the WRX but my wife said that she rather I bought the STi than buy a WRX and not be satisfied.

I've mostly been doing cosmetic work on the car. It's good enough out of the box that I don't really need to mess with it.

A few pics:




Still got a few things sitting in the garage and re-route, so she will look a little different in the next set of photos.

Anyways... glad to be here and I'll hopefully have something to contribute at some point.

Derek
 

Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Welcome to IGOTASTI!!! You're going to absolutely love it here!! Woah woah woah!!!!!!!! I need pictures and your experience with the BRZ!!!!

1) Please post pictures of your previous cars if you have them!
2) How long did you have the BRZ for? How many miles did you drive it for? Did you have any modifications done to it? Tell me your experience with it!!!!!!!
3) How do you like the STi? Does it compare to the BRZ and WRX? How many miles on the car? Are you leaving the power train stock for now?
 

WolfSongX

New member
Ok... I'll post a few pics of my old cars.... I usually trade for something different as my tastes change.... my philosophy is to stay true to my wife... but love lots of cars.

2011 Infiniti G37S sedan - Wonderful car, comfortable, but the automatic transmission was horrible.... if I had bought the 6 speed manual, this would have been a keeper. I liked the luxury, and it handled very well and was fast... but manually shifting the car with the paddles was frustatingly slow and normal Drive mode programming was poor. Sport Mode was fun but harsh. Traded on the STI, which had 3 Pedals like God intended and just as much interior space.



2017 Mazda MX-5 RF - Fun to drive, but not legal for track days without losing the ability to open the roof. Very small and no storage space and I was a tight fit. It made the BRZ seem spacious. Loved driving it with the top open but I'm a big guy so I always got asked how I fit in there. Needed a turbo or supercharger and i started down the slippery slope of putting a lot of aftermarket parts on it and still not being satisfied. Also traded on the STi.


2006 Porsche Cayman S 350 HP at the wheels with chip and exhaust... it was a blast to drive and I loved it. I think that every enthusiast needs to own a Porsche at some time if they get the chance. This is what convinced me that instead of buying a car and spending a lot of money trying to make it perform... I should spend that money up front on a car that has the performance I want out of the box. Started to get expensive to own at a time that I had a lot of back trouble and couldn't work on it myself so it was traded on the RF.



2013 Subaru BRZ - I'm actually not a fan of the BRZ/86 because in my mind, it was very rough... it needs more power and a lot more refinement... it was fun to drive and it was nimble and handled well.... but wasn't very comfortable and that lack of refinement really showed living with it on a daily basis... It really felt like it was built to a budget and once they hit "okay" and "acceptable" they stopped and worked on something else. Totally different from the Outback, STi, and the WRX which were well-engineered so I think that Toyota's involvement had a lot to do with it. I hope the 2nd generation car allows Subaru to bring it to the level it needs to be. Traded on the Cayman after dropping almost $8K in aftermarket parts trying to improve it to where I was happy with it. I was also in my mid 40''s and I think that if I was younger, I might have not minded the lack of refinement as much.



2008 Honda Civic Si - One of the best cars I've owned, and the K20 engines is one of the best production 4 cylinder engines. This was the last version with VTEC on both the intake and exhaust valves. Aside from the stereo, I left this car stock and drove it. It had a helical limited slip differential and was probably the best handling front wheel drive cars of that era and compared very favorably with the Integra Type R. At the time I was done with tuning and modding and this was a great car out of the box. Traded it on the impulse buy of the BRZ and it's probably the car I regret giving up the most... and probably the standards set by this car influenced my opinion of the BRZ considerably.



Finally, my 02 WRX wagon. I bought one of the first ones available and it was special... back in the day, it was common for the car companies to build tweaked ringer cars to give to the magazines for performance testing. And they would get passed around to the various magazines who would record impressive numbers and win comparisons and such, then when the promotional period was up, then they would quietly destroy the cars and nobody would be wiser... But in their rush to get me a car.... all of the wagon "magazine cars" were black and because I wanted a black wagon, one of the dealerships wound up accidentally getting one of the magazine cars and selling it to me. I have a ton of stories that I could tell, but our first inkling came when I started to modify it and got a COBB Accessport and the car wouldn't run right on their off the shelf maps and it was mildly modded with an uppipe, downpipe and exhaust. I took the car to Doug at TopSpeed in Atlanta with a few buddies for tuning and he wound up having to completely rewrite the fuel maps because it was acting like it had bigger injectors. When we were finished, the car was making some 40HP and 25ft-lbs more than cars with the same mods and spooling up boost almost 750 rpm sooner in the powerband. And once Doug redid the tune it ran fine and was quite fast.
I finally stopped driving it when I got the Civic and it sat in the garage for about 6 months when I decided to sell it. I sold it to a kid who promptly rolled it a few months later. I hear from Doug a few months after that because somebody else bought the wrecked wagon and brought it to him to rebuild the engine and drive train to swap into another car. He opened up the engine to find that it was a fully decked EJ207 from the JDM STI with forged rods and pistons and a balanced crank... the heads were ported and polished EJ205 heads... the injectors were STI injectors painted the stock color, and the housing had been milled out and stuffed with a bigger wheel... and he confirmed that the factory seals and marking were all in place and undisturbed. Doug remembered that at a certain point of the tuning session the car seemed to want more boost and timing but we didn't want to push it too hard.... and all along it could have taken it.




Except the G37... the rest were all manual transmissions, and I dread that the day is coming soon that I won't be able to buy a new car with one.... and that will be a sad day.
 

WolfSongX

New member
I had the BRZ for a year. Put about 20K miles on it. Had it on the track a few times.

I can't remember everything I did to the car, but here's some of the highlights.
Mods were wheels and tires (really... it came from the factory withe the same tires as the Prius and they were horrible for grip but fun for drifting) I went withXXR 530 wheels in gold 17x8.25 + 35 offset with BFG gForce Sport COMP2 Rubber 245/40-17 and had tons of grip or the stock setup.
Suspension was a customized set of Koni Yellow inserts and RCE Yellow springs. I prefer doing upgraded shocks and sports springs with rubber bushings over coilovers for a street car because they aren't as harsh.
Interior had a lot of improvement by JPM Coachworks Alcantara upgrades with several custom pieces including the dash.

I also had a ridiculously expensive OEM console door/armrest from the European market Toyota accessories. It was ridiculous that a car costing almost $30k didn't come with a center console with a lid.


Power-wise I was running the Unichip with an Perrin intake setup and Invidia Dual N1 exhuast... I was waiting on a roots type supercharger to finally make it into production which didn't materialize until after I traded the car. The money I set aside for that was actually the down payment on the Porsche.


There was also aero, plus a lot of sound deadening and upgraded wiring put in for an upgraded audio system that didn't happen. I am very good at getting the best results without adding any significant weight, but its not cheap. Whomever wound up buying it probably has the best sounding stock audio system in a 86/BRZ and wonders why their friend's BRZ sounds like a tin can.
 

Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Your philosophy is great! :lol: :tup:

Whew, awesome long posts!

Nice! I used to work at an Infiniti dealership and a RWD model is rare as hell in Ohio. If I recall, the 3.7L had 330 crank horsepower and something close to 300 crank torque? Was it easy to break traction when you had the VDC disabled?

With the MX-5 RF, is it true what they say? That it's more enjoyable to drive a car to its full potential 100% of the time rather than drive a car to its full potential 5% of the time? Also, how tall as you that you fit in it? Those wheels look great on the car, by the way!

Cayman, 350 WHP, nice! Are these also rear engine layouts? Was the car expensive to maintain or is that just a stereotype?

Interesting thoughts on the Civic SI! Did you ever feel like the car needed AWD or RWD?

Wow, hell of a story with the WRX! Sad to hear it got totaled, though. Now I'm curious if the 04 STi's also received somewhat of a similar treatment with beefed up engines... How was your experience with the 5 speed "glass tranny?" Considering you're more mature than the 16-20 year old kids who get these cars, I'm assuming you drove properly.

Alright, BRZ time! So, I'm assuming you're in your late 40's, early 50's now. That's great perspective for me! Nice choice with the Sport Comp 2 tires! I'm assuming Unichip is like the Vishnu tune and Open Flash Tablet. Did it clear out the dreadful torque dip? Did you have to do the coolant plate mod on your car?

Man, you have great tastes in mods... I seriously can't wait to find out what else you do to the STi! Looking back now at your STi pictures, it seems you've done the JDM 4th brake light! :tup: I absolutely love that mod and I personally think the cars should've come from the factory like that!

Oh, how do you think the STi rides with 19" wheels? It just seems that 19's may be too big. 18's on my 04 look massive, so I wouldn't be able to imagine how 19's would look and ride. However, the VA chassis is completely different, so it may actually work better than it seems.
 

WolfSongX

New member
Wow... where to start.... I probably will skip a couple of questions for now... I don't have a computer and so writing is slow without a keyboard.

I'm in my early 50's now, but I'm still a kid at heart behind the wheel.

G37S was nearly as fast as the Porsche and even with the traction control on, I managed to burn through a set of rear tires in 20K miles... I got 40K out of the fronts but I ran a staggered setup. The G was a excellent car and if I had bought it with a manual I would probably still have it. If I ever find a 6 speed in good condition I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up.

Short answer on the Miata is yes... it is more fun to drive a slow car at 100% than a fast car at 20% but here in Myrtle Beach all the roads are flat and straight so the commute is boring as anything. If there were twisties around it would have been different but around here fun roads are few.

The Cayman and Boxster are both mid-engined versus the 911 being rear-engined. Popular opinion is that the Cayman is the best handling of the 3, and I'd support that based on my own experience.

I hardly drove that wagon properly... but I guess I did from a technical standpoint. I suspect that the transmission was a beefed up unit as well. I know that I could double clutch down into 1st for tight corners and that was supposed to be blocked in the production transmissions.

I have a strong preference for RWD cars over AWD or FWD just because of the challenge, but I grew up driving in Canadian winters driving FWD Hondas so I would say I'm most comfortable with that layout... like an old pair of jeans. I suspect if I had driven the Civic Type R... I might be posting on a Honda board instead of here, but AWD combines the challenge of RWD and the familiarity of FWD so I would think that I'm ultimately faster because of that.

I'll save the other questions for another post... I spent the weekend working on the STi and that merits its own post and I'll go over my current list of mods.
 

Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Once again, I appreciate all of the insight that you've provided us with so far. Please start a journal thread the next time you sit down at your computer and I'm looking forward to reading updates on your journey with the STi! :tup: :ty:

In a parallel universe, you are on a Honda forum talking with others about your Civic Type R. However, one way or another, you've ended up here. Call it whatever you want, and choose whichever philosophy you want, but ultimately, I know for damn sure you won't ever regret making the decision to get an STi! :bigtup:
 

WolfSongX

New member
Well I spent some time on the STi this weekend.

I wound up doing a little more than I originally planned due to the fact that when I went outside Saturday morning there was a big HKS box sitting on my doorstep.

Saturday I went through with my original plan and took off the front bumper to install the Prolightz Morimoto projector fog light kit. Even with the adaptive headlights on the STi, my night vision is deteriorating with age and I just need more light on the road. The install went well and I took a lot of pictures so if I can find my keyboard (edit, found it) I can post a how-to in the coming weeks.

But today I decided to take on the exhaust. I probably should have waited until I had some extra hands available, but I'm a bit impulsive and stubborn... and will likely be sore for a day or so. The install went fairly smooth but getting the stock exhaust off was a bit of a pain, namely the exhaust hangers on the outer corners of the car. I have a friend's daughter's boyfriend who's wanting me to halp him do an exhaust on his WRX and I'll know to get those hangers first, because they aren't fun once the exhaust is hanging by them. Fitment was typical HKS perfect so once I got the stock exhaust off, the rest of the intstall was a breeze. I've been a long term HKS fan, and have used their exhaust products for 20+ years now. However being by myself, I wasn't as inclined to take pictures of the process.

So the results.













Now for the mod list (so far)
  • Subaru red OEM footwell lighting kit.
  • OEM aero kit - front lip, side skirts and rear spats (still not sure what's going on the rear yet)
  • Fan cover panel.
  • Black STi fender badges from the Type RA and the other special edition STi's. The chrome badges really stuck out like a sore thumb once I got the gold wheels on there... the black ones are perfect.
  • Subiespeed F1 rear foglight in red LED, has the dual mode where it can be switch from the brake light to a F1 style strobe then solid.
  • Race Eng custom Contour shift knob - In Smoke Translucent there's a British Racing Green stripe in it for my late father who was a car enthusiast my whole life, but his last love was British cars, especially Mini's. I bought it because I could move it from car to car by changing the adapter, unlike a lot of other shift knobs.
  • Subiespeed Type RA graphics front and rear in Gold. I have a second set, I did these ones freehand to see if I liked it, so I'll put these ones on with transfer paper and line them up perfectly.
  • Subiespeed light headlight eyebrow tint, and taillight tint. Just to tone down the chrome.
  • Rear badges dipped with matte black Plasti-Dip... I like using Plasti-Dip to figure out if I like something, then doing it in paint.
  • Stock wheels with Antique gold Plasti-Dip, by the end of the summer I'll need new tires and then the wheels will get powdercoated gold permanently, but I really have a thing for gold wheels and to me a WR Blue STi doesn't look right without gold wheels.
  • Subispeed badge overlays, gold stars over CF vinyl. They were cheap and easy to do. I did the badges on my wagon in black and gold the old-fashioned way by removing the paint and using black and gold model paint. The black and gold paint scheme is a bit of a personal trademark and comes from the JPS Lotus F1 cars of the late 70's. (which also by the way, influenced the classic Pontiac Trans Am black and gold scheme)
  • Morimoto Fog Light kit by Prolightz.
  • Prolightz interior LED kit with trunk and license plate lights.
  • HKS Hi Power exhaust.

I'm probably forgetting a few things... I like to tinker a lot and I'm a bit of a perfectionist so the car is constantly changing depending on what I have going on. The next few weekends will probably be fine-tuning the existing stuff and maybe playing with Vintage Gold badges.

Who knows, I might just find some inspiration in the DIY section here.
 

WolfSongX

New member
Definitely no regreds with the STi... owning an STi was on my bucket list... so I was going to have one sooner or later. I probably won't drive the Civic Type R for a while, just because I don't want to sow any seeds right now. I go through a pattern where I buy a car, love it and keep it for several years, then I get an itch and trade it and usually it's an impulse buy. The Miata was the impulse buy... so now it's time for a keeper again.

Based on everything I've heard, the Civic Type R is pretty awesome and most of the reviewers don't think that it being FWD affects it's drivability, so that's saying a lot. I had been waiting on the new Supra, but got turned off by Tada's insistance that it wouldn't come with a manual transmission or even a dual clutch transmission. Though I do think BMW makes excellent responding hyrdromatic-style automatic transmission, I won't feel right buying a car with one, so I spent my money on the STi instead to affirm to Subaru that they still have a market for a manual transmission out there and I'm happy to know that they plan to keep a manual in the next version of the STi as well.

No regrets at all, the car has been more than I expected and exceeds my expectations. The torque vectoring is just awesome and it easily equals the Porsche in it's ability to change direction and handle a corner. When I had the STi on the Tail of the Dragon last year, the weather was in the 40's and the tires were having grip issues, but it was still a blast to drive, and more fun that the Miata or possibly even the Porsche. I enjoy every minute behind the wheel and love to make excuses to go driving. The only downside is that the range is a little short, I get about 250 miles to a tank, but considering the grin factor, I'll live with more visits to the gas station.
 

Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
How much of a difference do the projector fog lights make? Visibility will always be extremely important.

How does the HKS exhaust sound and is it something you're content with?

Alright, I didn't know the JDM 4th brake light mod originated from F1! That's actually pretty sweet and the two mode option is neat!

I'd love to see a picture of the custom shift knob!

You can never go wrong with gold wheels on WRB, do you made a great choice. Regarding tires, (I know the G37 and the Porsche had staggered setups) do you rotate square setup wheels with every oil change to maximize longevity of the tires?

~250 miles a tank seems low... Which driving mode do you drive in mainly and what's your driving behavior like?
 
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