Tag: Modified Subaru

  • SUBARU IMPREZA GC8 TUNING GUIDE

    The classic Subaru Impreza has often been heralded as the best of all Imprezas and naturally has a huge aftermarket following. Here’s our quick-fire Subaru Impreza GC8 tuning guide. 

    Engine

    We don’t have to tell you that the 2-litre Boxer unit found in the Subaru Impreza GC8 is a little on the legendary side for tuning, so much so that there can’t be many standard ones left by now! It’s mostly because these engines respond so well to bolt-on tuning mods like exhausts, induction kits and front mount intercoolers, although it’s worth bearing in mind that they need to be suitably mapped to make the most of any additions. Very often you can actually lose power until you get everything dialled-in nicely, so it’s always worth investing in a good ECU like a Link G4+ and having it tweaked to perfection by a proper Subaru specialist. These four mods alone can see around 320bhp on an STI, and around 300 on a WRX.

    The ‘further’ tuning world is your oyster too, there’s everything from turbo upgrades and bigger injectors, to all the parts you can ever desire for a full-on build – top gear like forged internals, stroker kits and closed-deck blocks. That said, we’d always start with basic stuff like making sure you look after it properly. Pay particular attention to your oil, most common engine failures are caused by starvation, so don’t just make sure it’s the good stuff you’re putting in (the high performance range from Royal Purple comes highly recommended for the Classic Scoob), but think about fitting a high-flow oil pump too.

    Subaru Impreza GC8 Tuning Guide

    Drivetrain

    The standard gearbox on all the classic Subarus, including the STi models, are always cause for debate. Some say they’re excellent and solid enough for plenty of upgrades, others say they’re absolute garbage and liable to break at any given moment – we think “made from 3-day-old cheese and pickle sandwiches” was our favourite quote from a well-known Subaru forum. Still, what we do know is that they’re a bugger to replace, not getting hold of one (Quaife can do a you a whole load of uprated kit and there’s about a billion second-hand ‘boxes out there), we’re talking about actually doing the job… it’s certainly not like whipping out a clutch on a Civic.

    Speaking of clutches too, it’s dead easy to eat yours if you’re running a lot more than stock power and have a weakness for mashing the throttle. It’s little wonder that an uprated clutch is one of the most popular upgrades on all Subaru Imprezas, let alone the older ones.

    Exterior

    It’s called a ‘Classic’ for a reason and the days of mentalist fibreglass body kits and lurid graphics are all but gone. Nowadays most Classic owners are motoring connoisseurs rather than out-and-out turbo nutters don’tcha know? Especially the ones luckily enough to own a 2-door!

    Still, unless you’re going for a hardcore motorsport-style, which is a very cool and a vastly different thing to any sort of daily-driver, most people opt to add a few carbon fibre details and possibly follow the OEM+ route of upgrading earlier cars with the crystal headlights and grilles from a post-facelift model. That said, there’s still lots out there for all these cars, but for once though, we’d say keep it subtle with a few simple tweaks like a front lip, a spoiler-swap and a few choice trinkets.

    subaru impreza gc8 tuning guide

    Wheels & Brakes

    17 or, at a push, 18-inch wheels are generally accepted to be the best on the Subaru Impreza GC8, we wouldn’t go any bigger than that. Don’t forget too that the AWD system likes to keep the same rolling radius on each axle, so running staggered widths is an easy way of messing up your underpinnings. The good news is that there’s not many wheels that don’t suit the Classics, especially those firmly in the motorsport-style camp. So you won’t have trouble finding the right set.

    For the most part the stock brakes are decent, if a little underwhelming. At the very least we’d go for some upgraded discs and pads from EBC. But, if you’re looking for the ultimate in stopping power, there’s plenty of BBKs out there that will fit under a set of wide 17s. Again, there’s probably too many out there to count.

    Chassis

    All the usual Subaru Impreza rules apply here. Before you do anything check there’s no knocking from the front end, ARB bushes are particularly susceptible to degrading and the other bushes could be hard-used and need replacing by now. Obviously polyurethane items are the way to go if you’re trying to tighten up the handling, we’d speak to SuperPro about their range.

    As for suspension, there’s loads out there for every application. Ask yourself what you want from your Impreza GC8. Will it be going on track or do you need a comfortable daily driver? Pedders Suspension make a whole range, from uprated shock and spring kits to full-on ‘XA’ coilovers. These guys come highly recommended from those in the know.

    Interior

    There’s two main interior mods that have stood the test of time here – decent seats and lots and lots of engine gauges. To be fair there’s not much more you need. STI seats are always popular of course, and the guys at Jap Performance Parts should be able to sort you out a second-hand set. There’s also no shortage of aftermarket perches to choose from, everything from motorsport buckets to uber-luxury recliners.

    Cars built before 1997 have a different dash, so some like to upgrade theirs to one from a later model and, if you won’t be using the rear seats (or doors) anyway, a role cage is a good way of getting the ultimate in chassis stiffness, not to mention some rather racy looks.

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  • MODIFIED SUBARU BRZ: NET GAINS

    This extravagantly cambered and modified Subaru BRZ is a fashion-forward build for a connected generation. Taking inspiration from social media and running it all through his own cerebral filter, Kieran Hope’s built the low-slung coupé of his dreams…

    Feature taken from Fast Car. Words Joe Partridge Photos Matt Clifford

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    There used to be a time when car modifying existed in a microcosmic scale. Our modding reference points were primarily anchored in the local shows and meets we attended, with the glossy splendour of magazines showing us how these trends were playing out in a broader sense across the country. Any awareness of what people were doing in other countries was generally gleaned from the odd borrowed mag from a mate who’d been on holiday, or a late-night segment on some random documentary series. Not today, though. Social media has changed everything. That little device in your pocket opens you up to a whole world of modifying trends – as soon as you’ve seen a new idea in America or Japan or Sweden or Australia, so have countless other people and everyone’s racing to try it out with their own unique twists.

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    When Tim Berners-Lee first set about Sellotaping various ones and zeroes together to form some kind of rudimentary internet back in the late-eighties, he probably didn’t imagine the full ramifications of what he was about to unleash. In implementing communication over the pioneering Hypertext Transfer Protocol, he enabled easy and instant communication with computer users at various points across the globe, envisaging knowledge-sharing, business aids, military applications and scientific fellowship through the World Wide Web. But did he picture us, a couple of decades or so later, trawling his spangly internet for photos of cars, so that we can share a cheery ‘dude, where did you buy that ducktail?’, or ‘sick wheels, bro’? Er, no, possibly not. Nevertheless, this is where we find ourselves. And it’s this behaviour that makes Kieran Hope’s bagged BRZ build such a thoroughly modern affair. The whole thing can basically be blamed on Instagram.

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    “The BRZ is my second car; before that I had a 2014 Ford Fiesta Zetec 1.25,” he explains. “Within around three months of passing my driving test, the Fiesta was lowered on coilovers and had a set of 3SDM wheels. During this time, at age 18, I realised my passion for modifying cars and quickly started to follow builds on Instagram – that’s when I learned about the US car scene, and specifically the GT86 and BRZ. I quickly fell in love with the 86/BRZ platform and how they looked when lowered with crazy negative camber. I had to have one!” So the search began in early 2016, with the tasty bits from the Fiesta being sold off so he could start pooling some funds. Kieran opted to set his sights on a BRZ rather than a GT86 simply because the Subaru can be found in World Rally Blue, which is arguably cooler than any of the stock Toyota shades – and this is actually by far the more unusual choice as the GT86 massively outsells the BRZ in the UK, so you often get people peering at the Subaru badges in total confusion.

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    “When I eventually found the perfect BRZ that fitted my requirements, I got the train to Twyford after work in central London, and drove it back home. It was only just two years old, a 2014 model, and had 15k miles on the clock. And before I’d even bought it, I’d already started collecting parts for it…” Yep, this is truly a build of vision and forethought, as those endless evenings spent scrolling through Instagram for #baggedBRZ and what-have-you had given Kieran a very clear idea of what he wanted to achieve with this project.

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    “I had already shipped over the Valenti rear lights and lower light bar from the States,” he continues, “so within forty-eight hours of owning the BRZ, the lights were stripped and changed out for the Valentis. Over the rest of 2016 and ’17, the car received a Cobra cat-back exhaust system, Tein coilovers, and various different sets of wheels. Then, eventually, in 2018 I made the decision to pursue the dream and build a stanced and cambered BRZ.”

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    The suspension setup is the real big-ticket item of this project – in Kieran’s words, “it’s where the detail is” – and in May 2018 he booked it in to have a full Air Lift Performance setup installed, complete with 3P management. Naturally it would never be enough to fulfil those long-held (and social media-fuelled) aspirations to simply buy an off-the-shelf kit and have his BRZ sitting precisely like every other bagged hachi-roku on the scene; no, he’d put too much thought into the finished result to settle for mainstream, even if it was an already skewed version of what the term might represent. “I imported the Racer X camber arms from the States,” he explains. “The full setup, which was completed earlier this year, includes Racer X front lower control arms, Racer X front tie rod ends, Racer X rear upper control arms, Racer X rear toe links, and PBM rear lower control arms. With all of this set up, I’m now running -10° of negative camber at the front, and -14° at the rear.”

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    While all this was going on, Kieran had also been putting serious thought into which wheels would be ideally placed to edge out at such extreme angles; having been through a variety of sets, in December last year he bought himself a set of 16-inch BBS RS faces and sent them off to Dan at Wheel Unique to reimagine them as something spectacular. Stepping up to 18-inch in diameter, they now weigh in at 9-inch wide at the front and an extra inch out back, properly filling those arches when the Scoob airs out.

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    “I then went direct to Subaru to get the 2017-spec facelift front bumper,” he goes on, “and once I’d collected together all the necessary parts I sent the car to TUK Customs in May to have the front end, roof and rear bumper freshly painted. Mark at TUK did an amazing job.” That facelift nose has enjoyed a foglight and headlamp washer delete, while also being treated to a set of DRLs that are only available on JDM facelift models. The tidy VLand headlights have a HID kit hiding inside, and the aforementioned Valenti lower light bar at the rear has been custom-wired to illuminate along with the taillights.

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    “I was really pushing myself to ensure the car was ready for the 2019 Players Classic at Goodwood,” says Kieran. “Within a week of collecting it from TUK Customs, I’d stripped all the factory suspension arms and started installing the new camber arms. This took a number of weeks to perfect the fitment on each corner – specifically the front. The rear camber is fairly easy to achieve, however the fronts take a lot more time and precision to optimise the fitment. To get it spot-on at the front involves a lot of problems, such as the wheel rubbing the bag, the bag rubbing on the strut tower and so on – not an easy task! I slotted the front struts and fabricated the strut towers to allow more room for the airbags, allowing more negative camber, and eventually got it just where I wanted it.”

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    Just as Kieran hoped, the BRZ received thunderous approval when it belly-shimmied its way onto the venerable tarmac of the Goodwood paddock, his Instagram going nuts as people swarmed around the car brandishing their phones and grabbing mad scenes for the ’Gram. “A lot of people recognised that my BRZ was the first 86/BRZ in the UK to have front fitment, and this meant a lot to me because of all the time and effort it took to get it right,” he grins. And with that, the job was done. His very own social media celebrity, lovingly crafted by his own hands with a little help from the right people, and smashing the scene wide open with its obscene approach to camber. There’s levels to this shit, you see. Seeing this BRZ in motion is akin to observing the Crazy Frog and the dancing baby Rickrolling Leeroy Jenkins while Keyboard Cat fights Nyan Cat and Homer Simpson slides slowly backwards into a hedge. We’re not in the real world any more, not by a long way. But we’re cool with that.

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    TECH SPEC: SUBARU BRZ

    Styling:
    World Rally Blue, 2017-facelift front bumper with foglight and headlight washer delete, JDM Subaru DRLs, VLand headlights with HID kit, Valenti LED smoked side repeaters, Valenti taillights, Valenti rear lower light bar, OEM 2015 shark fin antenna, resprayed front end, roof and rear bumper

    Tuning:
    FA20D 2.0-litre flat-four, Cobra non-resonated cat-back exhaust system, 6-speed manual

    Chassis:
    9x18in (front) and 10x18in (rear) BBS RS, Air Lift Performance struts with 3P management, Racer X front lower control arms, Racer X front tie rod ends, Racer X rear upper control arms, Racer X rear toe links, PBM rear lower control arms

    Interior:
    Stock BRZ

    Thanks:
    “Thanks to Martin at 07 Autocare for the outstanding detail and ceramic coating. Thank also to Mark at TUK Customs for the amazing respray on the BRZ, and to Dan at Wheel Unique for building the wheels to perfection.”

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  • DRAG IMPREZA STI: PANIC AT THE DEEP STAGE

    It took a while for Wayne Durose’s drag Impreza STI to come together, thanks to a variety of inexpert tuners messing it about. But with the expertise of Scoobyclinic coming to the rescue, the Subaru named ‘PANIC!!’ is ready to cause sweaty palms around the paddock…

    In Greek mythology, Pan was the god of the wild; a humanoid entity with the legs and horns of a goat, a huge sex drive and a penchant for making occasional loud noises. It’s from his name that we derive the word ‘panic’ – the story goes that Pan was, in general, a pretty chilled out and relaxed sort of character, who would amble through the woodlands playing a pipe and being at one with nature… but when he awakened from his midday nap, he’d wake with such a start that he’d yell out incredibly loudly and cause all the local flocks to stampede.

    Drag Impreza STIDrag Impreza STI

    It seems rather appropriate that this raucous drag Impreza STI should be wearing its nickname, PANIC!!, so boldly and broadly. Sure, it’s relatively calm when it’s at a standstill, as any car is, but when Wayne Durose fires up that mighty drag-spec motor, all hell immediately breaks loose and the local fauna scarpers for the hills. It’s a potent and virile machine, packing huge swells of power and clear animalistic tendencies, and the manner in which it’s been engineered to trebuchet itself from point A to the hazy point B a quarter-mile away is liable to startle the livestock and make all sorts of unexpected loud noises.

    Now, it’s in the bones of a drag build to meet the odd hurdle and stumbling block along the way, because the very essence of piecing together such a machine inherently urges those in question to push the boundaries of what’s possible; if it was easy then everybody would do it. However, in the pursuit of these high-octane thrills, Wayne encountered perhaps more setbacks than most. Kev Knight at Scoobyclinic picks up the story: “Wayne brought the car to us after three years of being messed around by a so-called ‘specialist’; they couldn’t get the car running so they farmed it out to another so-called ‘specialist’, and they in turn passed it on to somebody else, until ultimately Wayne brought it here for us to undo everything that had been done and start again.”

    Drag Impreza STIDrag Impreza STI

    Let’s just take a moment to consider the nature of Scoobyclinic, and why they’re such a wise choice to entrust a build like this. The company was set up thirty years ago, way back in 1989, to restore and tune cars, and in 1993 the decision was made to focus on the Subaru brand. Since then their prowess has grown in line with their expertise, and the Scoobyclinic name has been involved in more feature cars and motorsport builds than we can count; Time Attack, rallycross, ice racing – you name it, they’ve had a hand in it. “We love the Gymkhana Grid and Fueltopia Challenge, winning year-on-year and competing with the big boys like Ken Block and Petter Solberg,” says Kev. “And of course there’s the dragstrip work; our own drag car held the record as the fastest four-cylinder manual Subaru in the world, and we aim to get that record back.” Fair to say these guys know their onions when it comes to the Stars of Pleiades then, and Wayne was definitely on to a winner when he trailered in his non-functioning drag project with a pleading look in his eyes.

    Drag Impreza STIDrag Impreza STI

    “The car was in pretty poor condition when it arrived with us,” Kev continues. “There was damage to the offside front wing, countless scuffs and scratches, and most importantly it wasn’t running! After those various other garages had been messing with it, it was nowhere near ready to run – we had to start again from the beginning. The first job was to remove the turbo and pour half a litre of water out of it! Once that was removed – which wasn’t hard to do as it was only held on with two out of the four bolts – it was clear to see that it was butt up against a plastic sensor on the sequential gearbox; if it had been fired up it would have melted the sensor immediately, so a decision was made to relocate the turbo.” This required a certain amount of ingenuity, but creative engineering solutions are very much Scoobyclinic’s modus operandi. You’ll also have spotted reference to the unusual transmission there; the fact of the matter is that, despite those previous garages’ ham-fisted attempts to get the car running, the spec Wayne had cherry-picked for drag duties is formidable. The gearbox is a Modena six-speed close-ratio sequential affair, while the engine itself is an EJ22 that’s been stroked out to 2.35-litres. It’s fully forged with a closed deck block, and Kev and the team have crafted a custom CNC-machined fuel manifold with 8-injector setup and twin fuel pressure regulators and sensors. Managed by a smart Syvecs S6+ ECU, the current power figure is a meaty 730bhp – although this is conservative, and there’s plenty more to come.

    Drag Impreza STIDrag Impreza STI

    Indeed, the drag Impreza STI specs are a work in progress which should prove thoroughly interesting to watch unfurling over the coming months. The chassis sports a variety of tasty upgrades, including some substantial bracing and a bunch of adjustable goodies from Hardrace, but a simple coilover setup is in situ for now while the car’s testing; there’s a possibility of Yellowspeed (via Tegiwa) throwing their hat in the sponsorship ring with some drag-spec coilovers, although this will all be addressed following shakedowns and electronic setup at Santa Pod. The car’s at the stage whereby everything’s being very carefully monitored and subtly tweaked and uprated with scientific efficiency; it’s almost funny to think of a car running 730bhp to be in its base state of tune, but that just speaks volumes of what a monster this blobeye Scoob is finally becoming. “The Syvecs ECU running the engine and sequential gearbox has all sorts of sensors streaming in,” says Kev. “Oil pressure, oil temp, water temp, air temp, fuel pressure – all programmed to set RPM trips in the event of any sensor going out of our pre-set parameters.” It’s a machine of pure focus, and that’s particularly evident in the interior.

    Drag Impreza STIDrag Impreza STI

    Open the passenger door and peer through, and you’re confronted by a scene similar to the one in Family Guy when Stewie and Brian transport themselves outside of the space-time continuum (or the ‘White Christmas’ episode of Black Mirror) – essentially, a clinical and featureless white void with just one sole focus point: in this case, a lipstick-red Cobra bucket seat. Scan slightly to the left and you spot the towering sequential shifter; to the right, and you see an incongruous splash of colour in the form of a swathe of zombie-themed stickerbombing – a theme which continues to the exterior in assorted details along with the custom paintwork. Focused it may be, but this build is also a riot of detail.

    Drag Impreza STIDrag Impreza STI

    “The car already has a huge following,” Kev grins. “Wayne plans to drag-race it at every possible opportunity, hence the test-and-tune day at Santa Pod where we did one of the two photoshoots – so we can get the car ready to compete as soon as possible. If we don’t break it!”

    There’s a lot of testing to be done to get the car perfect, and Wayne will need plenty of seat time in order to learn its ways and be able to exploit it to the full – but after three years of being messed about by inferior tuners, Wayne doesn’t mind the extra lead times at all. Scoobyclinic will get this done right, and then we’ll be seeing PANIC!! dominating dragstrips up and down the country. It may not have a soothingly melodious pipe or the horns of a goat, but this drag Impreza STI is very much living out the idiosyncrasies of its mythological Greek namesake: one unexpected burst of noise, and everybody scatters. By the time they regroup, they’ll almost certainly find that Wayne’s posting some world-class quarter-mile times. We just can’t wait to see what he does.

    Tech Spec: Drag Impreza STI

    Engine:

    EJ22 2.2-litre boxer – stroked to 2.35-litres, fully forged, closed deck block, custom fuel manifold with 8-injector setup, twin FPRs and sensors, relocated Garrett T04 turbo, Syvecs S6+ ECU, custom fuel setup in boot, Modena six-speed close-ratio sequential transmission

    Chassis:

    15-inch drag wheels, 26/9 Hoosier drag slicks, stock Subaru 4-pot brakes and basic coilover setup for testing, chassis bracing, Hardrace adjustable arms

    Interior:

    Fully stripped, Cobra bucket seat and harness, weld-in rollcage, custom control panel, Toucan touch-screen display

    Exterior:

    Custom green, carbon bonnet intake, carbon foglight blanks with turbo intake, carbon mirrors, custom headlight/taillight graphics, de-spoilered rear, hydro-dipped stickerbombing and custom PANIC!! Graphics

    Feature taken from Banzai magazine. Words: Joe Partridge. Photos: Chris Presley & Adam Rous

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