The offroading Coastie's WRX

[sebhockey]

Thought I would finally post the progress of my car:

Bought my WRX December 29, 2006.

About a week or so after I got my car , completely stock and still in good ole Virginia:


Few months and mods later here in San Diego (long before DI meet). Mods include:
SPT intake
SPT intake heat shield
SPT turbo heat shield
SPT radiator shrowd
SPT battery tie down
SPT oil cap
STI radiator caps
STI Trailing Links
STI pedals
STI rear strut bar
STI Limited rear wing
Full sound system minus 4 channel amp:
Pioneer 6800MP head unit
Pioneer 5.25" Component front speakers
Rockford Fosgate Power 4" rear speakers
Infinity Basslink in the rear



Couple months ago in Octillo Wells and fairly up to date where the car is now.

Mods at this time include:
STI adjustable coilovers
Rally Armor mud flaps
Cobb front/rear sway bars
Kartboy front/rear endlinks



Only changes since then are my Alpine 4 channel speaker amp and DI sticker. Pics of DI sticker to come soon!!!

[409industries]

Nice seb. All about the SPT goods! Keep it up man...

[sebhockey]

LOL, more like all about the STI goods with a few SPT goods mixed in. I think I have one or two last STI parts that I'm gonna get, STI door sills, dunno if anything else.

Something tells me this is gonna become a dedicated rally car in the future. My car's body is definately taking a beating from the offroading and trips. I think I'm gonna go ahead and finish a few more mods like turbo back exhaust and ap2, then I'm gonna put my money in to try and pay this car off sooner. After it's paid off I want to get a 350z or g35 as a daily driver. Dare I say it, it may even bee an automatic. I've been wanting one of those for awhile, but haven't been able to afford the ones I want. It would even up a DD not a track car.

[409industries]

A WRX in the garage for fun and a G35 for pimpin the ladies is not a shabby setup at all my friend.

[sebhockey]

Holy broken sway bar mounts batman. :evil:

So today sucked. While trying to adjust the height on my coilovers today I found that I broke the passenger side rear sway bar mount. I must have put the front bolt in wrong/part way cause that bolt was missing and the torque on the rear caused the rear part of the bracket to break. These were the Cobb brakets. So it looks like my car is on light duty seeing as I have the stock one on that side, and it's really not ideal for it. It's temporary with a capital T as it still has some play for the sway bar bushing. I gotta call up Cobb and see if I can get a mount overnighted to me tomorrow.

In other news related to my car, I raised the height of the rear of my car to around stock height. Not sure completely as I raised it about 0.75", just making sure rears had the same adjustment. They dropped my car initially 20mm, so I'm close if not there. I also greased the top mounts and strut pistons to help keep noise down. Wednesday I plan to raise the front the same amount. Would have done this today, but damn broken sway mount killed all afternoon as I had to retap the bolt hole, well that and the auto shop isn't open that long.

Hopefully by this weekend all will be good for my car as I have a Norcal move coming up on August 10th and plan to go to a rally cross the following weekend and a rally school the first weekend in September.

[lorenkb]

Do you have cobb's fully adjustable rear swaybar mounts, or their "heavy duty" mounts?

[sebhockey]

I got the "heavy duty" mounts.

[lorenkb]

Gotcha. I've been wondering how well their adjustable mounts would hold up to some offroad abuse.

Good luck in getting the car ready for the move!

[sebhockey]

Well I think it only happened cause I didn't watch how I was putting the bolt in. It looks as if I only put it part of the way in cause it was at an angle and stripped part of the hole in the chassis when the force was enough on part of the threads. So once that front bolt was lost there was just too much torque on the rear portion of the mount that it just snapped it.

[sebhockey]

Well, got my new rear sway bar bracket in today and installed. Also raised front back to stock height, finished rotating my tires, and securely mounted my subwoofer in my trunk finally. I feel so accomplished now. Car seems happier now that it's stock height again and not having a subwoofer rolling around in the trunk destroying stuff like during a certain cayon run meet.

And because we're all pic whores, here's a pic of the carnage of the damaged sway bar mount:

[409industries]

eep. thats one done swaybar mount.

[sebhockey]

It's been awhile and the mod bug hit this week since I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket. One of the goals of the mods I do to my WRX is avoid unwanted attention from the police. I had been wanting to go with a COBB tbe, but that goal above squashed the COBB idea this week.

I decided I wanted my exhaust to still be legal in the state my car is registered in, VA btw, (screw CA laws). VA laws state that muffler must be from OEM or original equipment like, and must meet federal emissions standards. Basically my muffler must be either stock, stock like, or be distributed under a subaru logo and to meet fed standards just need a cat in the exhaust. Meaning that I can use STI and SPT exhausts with no problem.

So I ordered and installed a SPT catback on my WRX today. It definately isn't a loud exhuast, but has a nice tone. I think combined with a nice 3" downpipe it'll still sound quite nice with a good performance kick. I must say it definately doesn't look too suspicious and will look even less so when I go get it dirty/wet. I want to eventually even sand the muffler so it looks dull and paint/coat/whatever so it looks even less shiny/ricerish.

Of course the legal issue wasn't the only reason I got it. The SPT CBE is also cheaper than a lot of CBE's, and it helped that the parts guy gave me a discount.

[lorenkb]

I had always thought that the COBB tbe exhaust was not too loud (not my personal experience, just what I've read)? Did you get a chance to hear one in person? I've also been lusting over one, but if it's loud enough to draw that much attention I'm with you on finding alternatives.

Pictures! We demand Pictures!

[worldrallyblue]

i have the same rear sway bar mounts in my car. I will have to keep an eye on them. Hey seb how you liking the adjustable STI coilovers?? and they are fairly easy to adjust??

[sebhockey]

Originally Posted by lorenkb

I had always thought that the COBB tbe exhaust was not too loud (not my personal experience, just what I've read)? Did you get a chance to hear one in person? I've also been lusting over one, but if it's loud enough to draw that much attention I'm with you on finding alternatives.

Pictures! We demand Pictures!

Well I never actually heard a COBB exhaust in person, but have heard its about the same as the SPT. I just wanted something that looks and is legal in my home state, and the fact that it's cheaper helps. Pictures to come when I get a chance, and get new batteries for my camera.