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Baron's '05 STi journal - **Car is gone, now have R34 GT-R :)**

152K views 1K replies 41 participants last post by  BaronOBeefdip 
#1 · (Edited)
Greetings IWSTI! I am finally creating my journal after reading through so many awesome ones and being on here since early 2012. Long time coming...

I've been obsessed with cars as far back as I can remember, so I can't really get enough of 'em actually. I've also been a longtime follower of motorsports, including WRC, which is where the love for Subaru began. Watching the GCs dominate in the late 90's and GCs/GDs in the early 00's was so memorable. Then when I saw that the STi was coming to U.S. shores for the '04 model year, it was desire right there. Maybe that's why I'm so fond of the GDB chassis. I just knew I had to have one some day. I never gave up that dream and finally, in May of 2012, I was able to get one after an extensive search. I knew what I wanted, so I was on a two year hunt for an untouched, low mileage, one owner car with a clear history/title, and it had to be a fair price to boot!

I found the car the same day that Subaru of Gainesville had listed it on the internet and somehow, I was the first one to call about it. It had just over 28k on the odo, one owner, and was bone-stock. It wasn't listed more than 24hrs and after talking it over with the salesman, my mind was made up: I had to jump on this one because the price was remarkably fair compared to what the rest of the market was doing at the time. After working out a fair deal, it was shipped to me up in Nebraska, and it's been a joy to own ever since.....

Only problems were one wheel had some minor curbage and there were many bug marks permanently in the paint all over the front clip, because the owner did not like to clean I guess. After the flurry of getting things done right after the first month of ownership(it really needed a deep clean, since the previous owner did not care much, and the dealer's "detail" department was less than optimal in their work on it), I decided to fix the major cosmetic issues rather than put money into performance mods. I had the front bumper, hood, hood scoop, and trunk lid repainted. Also had some surfaces buffed and small dents removed. The rest of the car could use a good buff and there are a few small rock chips here and there that I will be touching up myself, but other than that, the paint and clear coat is in good shape and it's a damn perfect car. I am very particular and detail-oriented, so this translates to my car.

As for my plans with it, it's a nice weather toy only. My goals are pretty modest and not attention-grabbing, so to some of you my journal may be somewhat boring and the upgrades may be rather slow since I won't be dumping all my money into it(read: not abusing it and racing irresponsibly).

I have a pretty well-thought out mod path and I know most of the parts that I want to put into it(but suggestions are welcome), so whatever the best power gains from the best possible tuning, I will be happy with. When I'm done upgrading, I'm shooting for somewhere between 330-380whp, but it won't be the easiest to obtain 320 on the 39. I will NOT be going rotated or FMIC probably ever. I want to retain responsiveness and drivability, so I will be staying with the stock turbo as long as I can, as well as the TMIC orientation. I know there's really not that much lag involved, but everyone goes rotated and FMIC around here and I'm not really looking for huge power. I want to be a bit different. Who knows, I may eventually consider an 18 or 20G though; would love to have a ball-bearing turbo. Too bad VF34's don't pop up very often! Most everything else is fair game. I do plan on replacing or upgrading much of the chassis and suspension components relatively soon.

Whew! As I said my journal may be boring to some and it will take some time for parts to go on it, but I welcome discussions on anything and like to talk technical, so have at it! I'm over on that OTHER Subaru forum(NASIOC) with the same name.



More to come!!
 

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#955 ·
Re: Baron's '05 STi journal - **New wheels fitted!**

Decided to pull the trigger on a Cobb exhaust for the ST:






With the Blitz exhaust on the STi, I have to say the quality of the welds on the Cobb are damn close to the Blitz; really very nicely done. I can't wait to get this installed and have the car feel and sound different. Also got some H&R Sport springs for the Focus and Cobb rear motor mount. Other than that still waiting for the Kansai diffuser and the nice weather.
 
#959 ·
Re: Baron's '05 STi journal - **New wheels fitted!**

Bought an S203 grille as well....why am I doing this?

Wing is shipping tomorrow from the Netherlands. Top Shelf and Rare Parts is bad for me. I literally have spent hours perusing the parts. I absolutely love seeing rare stuff, some of which I haven't before. It's a privilege just to see some of it.
 
#961 ·
Re: Baron's '05 STi journal - **New wheels fitted!**

That's where the wing came from. Someone on NASIOC tipped me off that Edwin was selling one. Had to sign up on the GF's account since I'm not on FB. It was probably a silly financial decision, but uh....S203 wing.

Oh, I got more pics. It's literally in perfect condition as far as I can tell.
 
#962 ·
Re: Baron's '05 STi journal - **New wheels fitted!**

Sweet wing, guy in our area used to have one on his WRB 2006. It was eye catching.
 
#966 ·
Thanks guys. I don't have the means to make these on my own, so bought a set instead. I can say Aaron they fit perfect as designed, can't go wrong with Japanese craftsmanship.

I actually need to lower the front about 4 mm to account for the slightly taller 255s.

Just bought a trunk lid and will get the holes filled in and repainted.
 
#969 · (Edited)
And yesterday, I installed it. Pretty straightforward work, but as with anything, you just have to go slow and measure a bunch of times, but the way I am, I measure way too much and am too careful, so this took most of the day to do. I also had to stop and make a couple hardware runs, as well as sand the diffuser a bit for clearance. The nice thing is that the fins came pre-installed so I didn't have to spend time with OCD measurements and all that. The instructions, while in Japanese of course, had nice full-color detailed photos too.

Per usual, I didn't stop to take photos, but I can say that I made a damn straight cut by hand with the Dremel and no guides/markings; pretty impressed with myself and using nothing but the ol' eyeball. Only needed a little correction. After sanding/finishing the bumper cut, then came a LOT of test fitting.

Here she is:






Here you can see the widening I did on the left side of the muffler:


The muffler has a tendency to wiggle/shift to the left of the car under driving so I had to widen it so they don't rub into each other.

Also had to widen near the tip since under test-fit, it was contacting there as well:


Overall, I'm pretty damn happy with it. Finally completes what I've been going for. Last thing to do is getting the trunk repainted and the wing mounted up.

'til later!
 
#974 ·
That looks bitchin' and like everyone else I wouldn't mind adding to Lucille. But won't happen in the near future, lol.
 
#975 · (Edited)
Thanks guys! It's been a hot minute since I posted, so I'll provide a few updates:

I made my 3rd oil change on this build a few weeks ago back on the 14th and this was the same oil that I did the dynoday/rollracing/spirited driving on, and this was on the magplug:


Still a good amount of metal in there, and I'm hoping it's nothing to worry about. I'm gonna give it more time to wash out. Though I'm kind of thinking I should change oil soon to help with that and finally switch over to a thicker Motul or something like I've been planning to. This is what Blackstone had to say about it:


On the trunk/wing front, I haven't made any progress since I've been paying off unforeseen medical crap from back in April. Though I'm thinking I'll drop it off this week before I go out to Denver to finally get 'er done and get it mounted.

I love the way the car looks with the diffuser though, looks more aggressive, more purposeful. The plan is do a flat floor eventually. Here's a pic of two CnC events, first from 2 weeks ago and the other from last Saturday:



The one next to me above was the first STi in Omaha, all the way back in '04 and owned by a friend of mine. Hard to believe these cars are that old!

I finally saw a super-rare Messerschmitt KR200 in the wild, only ever seen pictures/videos of them, the very same company that made aircraft for the Luftwaffe in WWII. This was a car they made post-war and are basically irreplaceable. Suprised there's actually one in Omaha. He said he imported it recently; it was so cool to see in person:


Also there was this LS3-swapped foxbody(sacrilege!) that had a S400SX(I think he said that), which looks to be the roughly the same size as the one on the Blue Turd, which will put him at 1400whp once he's at full bore. It's definitely a BorgWarner of some kind. It was an interesting talk for sure and one of the biggest turbos I've seen on a street car:




Speaking of the Blue Turd, I'll finally see it this weekend as I said above I'm heading out to Denver for Street Car Takeover at Bandimere. Should be awesome to see it and other awesome cars do some running. It'll be good to see Jason and the guys, and to see what Leemanfor's car does since I'm.....
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thinking I'm gonna upgrade the STi next year to something similar to his car. Large and stock location, which means I have to start thinking about options and all the things that will need to be changed to accommodate for it. The car has been fun to drive for sure and I'm happy with how it is, but a little more excitement isn't bad, eh? I have been kicking myself lately for not doing any in-depth headwork when I had the motor apart, so that's been bugging me :|

Some to-dos:
- Need to reroute the AOS drainback line better, since I was never happy the way I did it originally, which means PITA intercooler removal and all that

- Need to measure the front ride height at the coilovers and lower them by 4mm

'til later.
 
#976 ·
I'd definitely move to a 40 weight oil. I broke mine in on 40 weight... I believe Kevin runs a 50 weight.

The Blue Turd has a Precision 7285 now. A test pull on the dyno today, to make sure it's ready to be towed all the way out here, made 830whp @ 20 PSI.

Well be on the dyno this Friday up here. We'll probably push it to 900ish whp, but save any more increases for the track.
 
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