I was bitten by the mod bug many years ago and have done terrible things to my various slow N/A cars including a 2002 Dodge neon and a 2009 Mazda6.
Finally in a career where I can get a few nicer things (infosec, like many of the folks here I suspect) so I just picked up a 2019 STI with 13k miles and 2 previous owners. It's mostly stock but the head unit was replaced with an iDoing by one of the previous owners, and I drive on salted roads, so I can't justify keeping it stock to "hold value". I got this because it is likely the last time in human history that it will be possible to have the experience of modifying a quick, raw gas powered car to make it go fast (and that's a good thing on some level but younger me really wanted this so I'm gonna make it happen to the extent that I can).
Anyway I just broke the seal with my first mod since I was tired of headlight glare in my rearview mirror. Turns out you can get a forester or other late-model subaru homelink mirror on ebay for less than 100 bucks and if you get one with all the harnesses it'll just plug right into a connector buried in the headliner:
I don't plan on tracking or autocrossing much but wouldn't mind trying both. I'm not particularly competetive by nature, though - this is going to be something like a daily driver (I work remote and we have another car so I can afford some downtime, but I like having AWD in the winter).
I've already picked up one of the VSC/Vermont SportsCar GESI v2 catted downpipes since it looked promising for avoiding the P0420 check engine light but am hoping to find a tuner who can adjust O2 scaling just in case. Going to stage as follows:
Engine:
1. Cobb stage 1 for drivability once the warranty expires in a few months.
2. VSC Downpipe/KillerB ELH/EBCS/E-Tune once I feel the craving for more power.
3. Blouch Dom 1.5xtr/Fuel pump/injectors/hard turbo inlet/retune once the craving for power returns.
Maybe cylinder4 cooling/AOS somewhere in there. Probably keeping the stock airbox and catback unless mine rusts out.
I
think this is pretty close to an optimal build for safe/reliable/quick, #3 should put me right around the safe limits of the stock block (for given value of safe of course).
Admittedly the ELH might not be strictly necessary or the most practical for step 2 but I'm already getting sick of the subie rumble/resonance at 3k and I figure downpipe/headers/up pipe are probably good to do all in one go.
I finally have a garage again, so I'm planning on doing as much of the work myself as possible (downpipe is almost certainly going to have to be a DIY for instance) but I might head over to one of the east coast tuning shops for step #3 if it ends up looking like too much, it's at least a couple hours drive to the nearest protuner though.
Sadly E85 is not available in my area but 93 octane is fairly common.
There's some suspension/audio mod plans as well but those seem to rely a lot more on individual preferences and there's less of a clear optimal strategy there.
Update: Just ordered a coated killerb header since I found a place that had one in stock (it's been almost impossible to find coated+v-band up-pipe so I pulled the trigger on it).
Will keep this updated as parts arrive and get installed.
