[Iron Giant]

Background
I am a certified expert Toyota technician that works at a Audi/VW/Porsche performance and repair shop named Exklusiv Motorsports. We have built more than a couple magazine article cars and we have even had cars on the cover of magazines like Eurotuner and Performance VW. Of course- working at a german car shop while owning a Subaru causes me a bit of grief, but the jokes seem to stop when I hit the gas pedal

Project Goal
The theme of this build is my interpretation of OEM+, or in other words, staying within the idea that the manufacturer had in mind when making the car, but using better parts and having a larger budget and more attention to details than the OEM might have had. The ideal response is to make the average person look at the car and not notice anything obviously aftermarket. Instead they just get the feeling that there is something nice about this particular car.
Outside of aesthetics, I am looking to build a 400whp car, at which point if the engine goes (or I get hungry for more power) then I can build up the block. Since I live in Phoenix, the land of awesome roads, I plan to go pretty extreme with the suspension. I hope to take the car out to HPDE and autocross events as soon as I can find the time.

Modifications

Engine
APS 70mm cold air intake
Maddad EL header/uppipe ceramic "white lightning" coated by Swain Tech
Maddad Bellmouth dowpipe ceramic "white lightning" coated by Swain Tech
Maddad Whisper cat back exhaust
Custom opensource tune by Phuong at Wingz Performance
Ceramic Coated SPT Turbo heat shield
AMR performance light weight battery kit

Handling
Dunlop Direzza Star Spec 235/45/17 tires
Spec C Titanium Strut Bar
H&R Camber bolts

Exterior
JDM headlight and Taillight mod

Interior
reupholstered Evo Recaro seats on custom mounts (upholstery done by "the interior shop", brackets made by "Grunion Fabrication")
All seats and door panels reupholstered in real alcantara
JDM Auto intercooler switch (boost referenced)
Autospeed Dead Pedal
Ixiz concepts clutch stop
Nardi/STi steering wheel
MOMO hub
NRG 2.5 quick release





Here is an example of a prior car that I built- a supercharged VR6 GTI (yup, those are TE37s on a german car )

Although these shops aren't my "sponsors" per se, they will definitely be there to help

[Iron Giant]

reserved

[Iron Giant]

Here are more pics of the custom interior-
the custom embroidery

the rear seats

Custom door panels-

a close up of the material-

Originally I purchased the EVO seats because I found the stock seats to be too bouncy, not supportive, and very uncomfortable. It was my least favorite thing about the car. Once I got the seats in I had no idea the amount of work it would be to get the EVO seats to match everything else. I ordered the closest match that Alcantara made and it still wasn't close enough for my liking. Rather than give up, Todd at the interior shop recommended that we just make everything else match the material... so that is what we did. Little did I know these recaros aren't the easiest seats to upholster. After a lot of work, they got the seats just right and up to my OCD like standard.
As for the brackets, I had Grunion fabrication fab me up something. Since I am tall and stocky I needed all of the room I could get. They made the seats as low as they could go. One word of caution about this- with the seats so low I realized that I was messing with the hip point (an ergonomic point) and now my legs seem like they have even less room. Right now we we working on raising the front of the seat to support my thighs.

[pinoygamer26]

lookin' CLEAN!

[Wagtoda3rd]

Those seats look nice!

[scottjua]

Awesome start!

[Iron Giant]

So now with the seats nice and low, it was time to address the other issue that comes with being tall- the steering wheel being a mile away. There are plenty of steering wheel options out there, but most of them look very aftermarket, and finding one with cherry blossom red stitching seemed to be next to impossible.
After what seemed like an endless search, I found the answer in Japan. I don't know what this came on, but when I found it I had to have it- a Nardi steering wheel made specifically for STi. Since it had pink stitching, an STi logo on it, and an aftermarket style hub on the back, it was just what I was looking for. I combined it with a MOMO hub (which I really don't recommend, putting it on was a real PITA) and an NRG 2.5 quick release hub (the only version that they sell in black on black). Now the steering wheel sits where it should be, and I can touch 12 o' clock and still have my shoulders planted and a slight kink in my arm.

[Iron Giant]

Since I didn't post it before, I thought that I would add some pics of my exhaust system-
up front is my Maddad EL header/uppipe. I love how distinctive the exhaust sounds now, and the power band feels a little more smooth. It has been TBC coated by Swain Tech.

Downstream is the Maddad Bellmouth downpipe, also TBC coated-

Finally it all ends in the Maddad Whisper cat back. I personally like how subtle the tip is (smaller than stock)-

Ironically Swain tech is all the way in New York, and meanwhile I have two of the biggest ceramic coaters in the world local to me. The reason I went with swain tech is that it is truly a superior product. I have had both Jet hot and HPC and the coatings seemed like nothing more than high temp paint. Swain Tech is THICK in comparison and sparkles with ceramic bits. More importantly I can touch the ceramic parts after hard driving they stay so cool. I am a firm believer...so much so that I spent a good sum of cash shipping this stuff there and back.
One thing can also be said about swain techs TBC, and that is that it is not very stock looking, which is sort of what I wanted to avoid in the engine bay. Since all of the heatshields are polished, I decided to go to a local ceramic coater and tone it down a bit. Here is what I ended up with, a debadged, silver ceramic coated SPT heatshield-

I also cut the stock heatshield and used gold reflective foil, but I don't have pics of that.
Here is the installed product-


All in all the heat seems to be managed pretty well when coupled with the auto intercooler spray setup, even in the 100 degree weather we've had lately. We'll see how it fairs in the Arizona summer soon enough though.

[STIFun]

If you don't mind how much did it cost to do the interior with all alcantara and how much for the seat to be reapolstered and are these Evo 8 or 9 seats.

[Mac_G]

looks good, love your attention to detail