The History Of My WRX.


It all started when i was on the market for an Evo. The one that i wanted was 3 hours away and i couldn't get away from work to go buy the car. So i turned to Subaru, the dealership was only an hour away. I got to the dealership and started looking at the used WRX's because there were no more '07 STi's. The salesman pointed out the new 2008 model that just arrived. I thought it was ugly and proceeded to examine it a little further. I really liked the interior. It had navigation, heated seats, and all that good stuff. Popped the hood and all i saw was potential. The first thing that i noticed was the plastic intake manifold. It seemed out of place. The TMIC was small and i didn't like the plastic end tanks. The turbo was there... tucked away. I thought about how much of a PITA it would be to work on. I closed the hood and sat inside. Holding the steering wheel. I already knew that i was going to buy the car before i drove it. I just had to figure out what my first mod was going to be. Nothing was available and i was stumped. The salesman opened the passenger door and sat down. He said we can go for a test drive. When i got onto the road i noticed that something was missing. Something that subies are notorious for, then i stalled it at a stop sign. The car was too quiet. My first mod was going to be a cat back exhaust.


I purchased the car on September 14th, 2007. Three days later i went to the exhaust shop and had a custom 2.5" CBE made with some no name muffler. Having a quiet car was nice, but hearing that boxer roar was nicer. When i had the exhaust done i asked about getting a flange cut to adapt the Greddy RS BOV that i had collecting dust in a friends garage. They said it would be a problem, but i would take time and i should have it in less than a month. A week later i ordered the AEM TruBoost, WideBand, and Perrin Gauge Pod. After installing the, i started to play with boost and wastegate settings. I was able to get a little more out of the turbo, but something didn't seem right. I proceeded to conduct a boost leak test. I later discovered that the stock BOV was garbage and the turbo inlet hose was the devil. To this day, i still hate that thing. The flange for the Greddy BOV was finally completed, i was boosting a little more, and i was untuned. December 2nd i installed a CoolingMist Water/Meth injection kit. December 3rd, i order the Ultimate-Racing CAI and it's installed it on the 11th. My AFR's were still good and i started looking into my next mods... Cobb AP and FMIC, ordered Dec 30th. The AccessPort arrived on January 7th and i was out testing stage 1 with the CAI and Meth. The gains were noticeable, holding 12psi at redline. I ordered a Perrin Turbo Inlet Hose and it was installed on the 12th. The Ultimate-Racing FMIC arrived on the 13th and was installed the same day. I cant remember when i ordered my DownPipe, but it was installed a few days after the FMIC was and i was flashed to stage 2. The Perrin Radiator Hoses were ordered and installed on the 22nd.


Now that all the supporting mods were out of the way, i looked into doing something bigger... turbo swap and tune. Anticipating this turbo swap, i ordered a Perrin UpPipe. After talking to friends and calling companies, i was directed to Forced Performance. I chose the FP Green and Deatsch Werks 750cc Injectors. I contacted MZM Performance in Austin, TX to set up a day to get tuned. The FP Green and Perrin UpPipe were installed on February 10th and tuned at MZM on the 20th. Stock STi's put down 200whp on this heartbreaker dyno, my WRX made 272whp and 290tq. A month later my stock clutch was toast and i ran a 8.09 @ 86mph on the local 1/8th mile. I talked to Ian from Harman Motive and had a ACT Clutch/Flywheel kit in a few days. April 12th, the stock gear box fails and a treated STi type RA gear set is ordered two weeks later. May 12th, the new and improved gear set arrives and the subie is taken to the shop to go under the knife once again. The tranny was broken down to reveal a second gear with two teeth left on it and a busted ring gear on the front differential. The car is now waiting to be shipped to Arizona, where it will receive further modifications.