MY little WRX

I brought a 6 month old, 24,000kms MY99 Subaru WRX off a friend 4 years ago, and when you add up all the money I spent on it, it sorta gets scary. So, where do I start?


Inside the car.

  • Alpine CDA-9855R MP3 deck, 3 preamp outputs, remote control - basicly their top non-screen unit. Full internal DSP and digital EQ controls, plays MP3 or normal CD's in internal player.
  • Alpine AiNet 12 disk Stacker.
  • Alpine MRP-T220 amp for front speakers, Alpine 6inch splits in doors.
  • Alpine MRV-F450 V-12 5/3 channel amp for rear speakers and subs.
  • Kenwood 6x9's on rear shelf.
  • Dual 12" subwoofer drivers sitting in a custom built 70l box in boot, port tuned to 55hz.
  • Also mounted in the dash is a GME TX4400 UHF CB transceiver, with a 1/2wave glass mount antenna mounted on the rear window. This is used during car rallys etc.
Outside the car: (these are just the replacements I have done, and in the order I got them)
  • Turbo back Exhaust with 5 inch dump pipe out of turbo reducing to 3 inch into the cat and down the car to the custom made hiflow muffler.
  • Autometer A-Pillar dual gauge pod, with Boost and Air/Fuel mixture gauges, and a shift/redline dual colour LED using a 16F84 single chip micro. (Thanks to vege for the help with that)
  • Whiteline Anti-lift kit
  • Whiteline Front and Rear anti-swar bars.
  • Hella Comet 100w spot lights to replace fog lamps.
  • Autronic Plug/Play replacement programmable ECU.
  • VF23 rollerbearing turbocharger, running now at 18psi.
  • APS cold air intake pod filter kit in front guard.
  • APS replacement top mount intercooler and silicon connecting Y pipe.
  • Whiteline front strut tower brace.
  • Whiteline rear strut tower brace.
  • Whiteline springs all round, lowered 35mm.
  • Koni replacment shock inserts.
  • Wagon Water Bottle and STi Spray nozzles for the intercool water spray.
  • AVO Silicon Intake pipe between AFM housing and the turbocharger.
  • AVO Hi-Flow Catalytic convertor.
  • Replacement of the AFM housing with a straight through 80mm Hardiplex pipe.
  • Greedy Oil Catch can.
  • HPC coated X-Speed Extractors and up pipe. Lots more torque, less volume at idle and its lost the "boxer" beat.

For more images of the car, including before and after the mods, check out my gallery or a piccy of the latest Dyno run when I got extractors fitted. (the dotted lines are before the extractors)

Down the quarter mile, best I got stock was 14.7. Given that I'm not a nasty person to my clutch and gearbox, i was very happy with this. Replacing the exhaust dropped this to 14.1, and after the ECU, this dropped to 13.8. The new turbo dropped this to 13.3, but I need to improve my launches, I'm still being too gentle!

The last dyno run while tuning for the extractor was getting 275ps at all four wheels measured on the Speedworks hub dyno, along with a wicked increase in midrange torque. Given the power, if I get the launch right, I should get very low 12second 1/4 mile times.