Ralli
03-21-2007, 11:14 AM
Now I know that this is a place for dirty Impreza's, which, I do, and have been fairly succesful in my friend's 05 wagon with snows ans skid plate. So, because that deal has gone so well, and my root are in the autocross world, my 04 Wagon that I picked up will be getting an autocross make over. (Pictures to come soon)
HISTORY: I won the STS class with the local Cumberland Motor Club autocross group in 2004 and 2005 in my daily driven but well set up Mitsubishi Lancer ES (not the evo lol). I actually took overall pax and rookie of the year in 2005 also (first full season). In 2006 I decided to get into a better suited STS car, a 1992 Nissan Sentra SE-R. What an awesome car that was.. picked it up for $900 and it was a blast. I worked on building that throughout the season, but, not ever having a good solid alignment done or anything else, I just could not compete with the local speedster in my class in a well set up Celica GTS. I ended up 2nd and my wife (she runs too) HATED the car (it hated her back haha). So with that we decided it was time to ditch the Sentra (Still for sale $1500 gets the car, all the awesome mods that were done, some extra mods I never put in, plus a spare motor and tranny!) and the Mitsubishi. I was going to look into a Mazdaspeed 3 or a new GTI, but my options were open. I then drove an 03 WRX wagon and fell in love. At that point I KNEW that was what I wanted. Lucky for me.. there was a guy that knew one of my friends selling one. We decided against it. :cry: However.. one month later I got a call with a drastically reduced price and I couldnt pass it up so that is how I aquired my 04 WRX wagon.
RIGHT NOW: Because I've almost completely built 2 STS cars in the last 2 years, my budget for building the car this year has been DRASTICALLY reduced (probably as it should be). A lot of money was spend last year to build the sentra so I'm pretty much cut off. I had considered for a little while to run in the DStock class that they WRX falls into. After I got into the OpenECU/Enginuity tuning side of things I decided there was no way I was staying stock (also, I'm probably spending less in modifications for STX for now as I would of to get a 2nd set of wheels and race tires). Right now as the car sits I have on an Ebay 3" catback exhaust ($215 shipped.. fitment is very impressive.. little ricey.. but the price is right), mudflaps a friend made (gotta have mudflaps), and a Stage 1 Map using Open Ecu.
THE PLAN: Well, this very tight budget build is really not allowing me to get much. The following is what I will have to install before the season that I have or will be getting shortly and have pretty much already commited to buy.
Uppipe - Helped a friend install the cobb uppipe and downpipe, as a thank you I was given his stock uppipe to be able to gut and use myself.
Downpipe - I scowered the NASIOC classified for months and finally nabbed a bosal shorty downpipe to be able to keep my stock 3rd cat (for inspection purposes and STX requires at least one hi flow at in the exahust system... hi-flow catted DP = really expensive so this was my best option).
Front Sway Bar - a local GC guy has one for a tubro and is giving me a deal on it (too bad he doesnt have wheels for me to Powder coat for him in exchange lol). Not as large as I'd like (only 22mm) but.. with the budget.. it's ok for now.
Whiteline Front Solid Wagon Sway Bar Links - found used for a good deal on NASIOC
17x7.5" wheels with 225/45/17 falken azenis - perfect.. most likely going to get these.. same price as it would cost me to get new falkens for my stock 16's.. cant go wrong with that
STX specific tune - no touching boost levels or controls in STX (too bad really) so I have to build a map with awesome timing and fueling.. to help me along i have a Zeitronix Wideband o2 (one may say "Antonio, that is not very cost effective with a very small budget" which I would agree with (even though to really need a wideband to make a proper tune but still) but.. I have had this said wideband sitting around for 2 years (yes I am a horrible person for just letting a tool such as a wideband sit around).
My friends Pedro and Jeremy (with Redline Rally Decals) have been a big help in the planning and looking stages thus far. I really appreciate all that they are doing. I will be updating this with pictures and progress soon.
HISTORY: I won the STS class with the local Cumberland Motor Club autocross group in 2004 and 2005 in my daily driven but well set up Mitsubishi Lancer ES (not the evo lol). I actually took overall pax and rookie of the year in 2005 also (first full season). In 2006 I decided to get into a better suited STS car, a 1992 Nissan Sentra SE-R. What an awesome car that was.. picked it up for $900 and it was a blast. I worked on building that throughout the season, but, not ever having a good solid alignment done or anything else, I just could not compete with the local speedster in my class in a well set up Celica GTS. I ended up 2nd and my wife (she runs too) HATED the car (it hated her back haha). So with that we decided it was time to ditch the Sentra (Still for sale $1500 gets the car, all the awesome mods that were done, some extra mods I never put in, plus a spare motor and tranny!) and the Mitsubishi. I was going to look into a Mazdaspeed 3 or a new GTI, but my options were open. I then drove an 03 WRX wagon and fell in love. At that point I KNEW that was what I wanted. Lucky for me.. there was a guy that knew one of my friends selling one. We decided against it. :cry: However.. one month later I got a call with a drastically reduced price and I couldnt pass it up so that is how I aquired my 04 WRX wagon.
RIGHT NOW: Because I've almost completely built 2 STS cars in the last 2 years, my budget for building the car this year has been DRASTICALLY reduced (probably as it should be). A lot of money was spend last year to build the sentra so I'm pretty much cut off. I had considered for a little while to run in the DStock class that they WRX falls into. After I got into the OpenECU/Enginuity tuning side of things I decided there was no way I was staying stock (also, I'm probably spending less in modifications for STX for now as I would of to get a 2nd set of wheels and race tires). Right now as the car sits I have on an Ebay 3" catback exhaust ($215 shipped.. fitment is very impressive.. little ricey.. but the price is right), mudflaps a friend made (gotta have mudflaps), and a Stage 1 Map using Open Ecu.
THE PLAN: Well, this very tight budget build is really not allowing me to get much. The following is what I will have to install before the season that I have or will be getting shortly and have pretty much already commited to buy.
Uppipe - Helped a friend install the cobb uppipe and downpipe, as a thank you I was given his stock uppipe to be able to gut and use myself.
Downpipe - I scowered the NASIOC classified for months and finally nabbed a bosal shorty downpipe to be able to keep my stock 3rd cat (for inspection purposes and STX requires at least one hi flow at in the exahust system... hi-flow catted DP = really expensive so this was my best option).
Front Sway Bar - a local GC guy has one for a tubro and is giving me a deal on it (too bad he doesnt have wheels for me to Powder coat for him in exchange lol). Not as large as I'd like (only 22mm) but.. with the budget.. it's ok for now.
Whiteline Front Solid Wagon Sway Bar Links - found used for a good deal on NASIOC
17x7.5" wheels with 225/45/17 falken azenis - perfect.. most likely going to get these.. same price as it would cost me to get new falkens for my stock 16's.. cant go wrong with that
STX specific tune - no touching boost levels or controls in STX (too bad really) so I have to build a map with awesome timing and fueling.. to help me along i have a Zeitronix Wideband o2 (one may say "Antonio, that is not very cost effective with a very small budget" which I would agree with (even though to really need a wideband to make a proper tune but still) but.. I have had this said wideband sitting around for 2 years (yes I am a horrible person for just letting a tool such as a wideband sit around).
My friends Pedro and Jeremy (with Redline Rally Decals) have been a big help in the planning and looking stages thus far. I really appreciate all that they are doing. I will be updating this with pictures and progress soon.