I am thinking of buying my first subaru probably an 03 or 04, has to be a wagon as needs to carry the family some of the time and would like the more compliant suspension for the 95% of the time it is not driven hard. As more and more current generation cars come with engines over 150 bhp and close to 200bhp do WRX's still feel fast? I have owned a twin turbo S4 avant (it had almost identical acceleration to my mates V7 sti upto 120 ) and would replace the exhaust, filter and remap the WRX, will that be enough to get close to a standard sti?

 

A club member has just got 300 bhp from his WRX. Spools really early and is a superb road car. But the clutch may suffer...

HTH

dunx

P.S. My STI clutch gave up before the re-map.... his is going weeks after his.
P.P.S. De-cat + up-pipe+ re-map.

 

A decatted / remapped WRX will make a quick road car. Be sure to upgrade the brakes and consider fitting a thicker rear anti roll bar if you up the power. Decatted / remapped WRX will make somewhere between 270 and 280bhp. An STI in standard form is 261. The WRX is also lighter.

 

Not looking for 300bhp as I would like it to be as unstressed as possible. Suspect a WRX with 270 would still be a superb road car, cheers for the pps.

smbitin

 

I,ve just bought a 03 wagon to carry our two dogs in as well as having something fun to drive. I love it mate, could be a little faster though

 

On the general point of everyday cars getting faster (in a straight line), has anyone else noticed they occasionally have to try harder?

 

Hi. My car is totally standard, as it was from the factory! Awesome. But now after a WR1.

 

I love the scooby`s, but if you want a quick "out of the box" estate/wagon, i dont think you can go far wrong with a Mitsubishi Legnum VR-4, 280bhp as standard, exhaust & decat will see 300bhp.

Seriously quick, eveyday driver, for between 2-3.5k

2.5 v6 24v Intercooled Twin-Turbo.

Just thought i`d throw something else into the pot for ya!

Daz

 

Trouble with my old S4 was that it was fast but numb, would a VR-4 not be the same?

 

i went from a s4 to a scoob... scoob wins all day long, more fun, chuckable and more a drivers car.

 

I loved it!, it was smooth, and had spades of power, mine had tein coilovers, and 3" fujitsabo exhaust, and handles like it was on rails, they have AYC (active Yaw Control) the same that is fitted to the EVO`s.

The ecu`s can also be remapped (the standard ecu! certain models) so it makes the car highly tuneable.

Check out - Club VR-4 Forums - Powered by vBulletin

There are a couple for sale, also if you fancied seing one in the flesh, or even having a drive in one, the members are VERY helpfull.

Other than that find some local for sale and go have a look.

YOU WILL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED!

Daz

 

The Denso ECU on all newage scoobs is very mappable (upto 450bhp/500bhp with some ECU hacking and supporting engine mods of course) however the standard WRX after a couple of months or so when you have had a chance to drive it lots and get used to it will feel slow.

Minimal and cheapest mods include a high flow flat panel air filter, Snorkus delete modification and decat uppipe that will just about let you see a genuine 265-270bhp and will transform the drive. If you decide to do some of the exhaust as well just get rid of the centre cat and pipe for a stainless steel straight through type for a much better drive and a genuine 280bhp on the standard TD04L13T Turbo and 440cc injectors. If you have the money change the downpipe as well for a Stainless Steel sportscat type and again it will make a further gain but more importantly will still get you through an MOT no probs. WRX's have 3 cats, you only need one in place to get you through emissions testing.

I love my sportwagon. Carries both my dogs and a very large amount of crap should i ever require it, plus it swallows lots of holiday gear + 2bikes on the back, and is comfortable enough on long journeys to Scotland. A remap will let you see some more MPG too so it's a win win situation.
Get the ScoobyWagon, you will enjoy driving it

 

I've got a 05 wrx ppp, full decat including uppipe and remapped by Bob Rawle 301bhp!

 

By the way, I agree with scooby-me, the Legnum vr-4 is a great car.

 

03 WRX wagon almost up to 400bhp still with original gearbox. Definitely not numb...

 

I have the car you want... 03 Wagon for the family.

had the centre cat removed, scoobyworld backbox, uprated the intercooler hoses and got an AndyF remap and we are at a (switchable) 275bhp

It goes well, the noise isn't deafening and best of all it still passes the MOT on emissions and two of the cats are still in place!

Only thing i would say is it is a bit wallowy in the bends so the uprated arb might be next but it still grips like a terrier even if it does lean over a bit. That said, i came from a HKS suspensioned Supra which was flat no matter what!

5t.

 

How long have you been running that on a standard box?

 

I bought a 53 plate wrx totally boggo standard and after the first few days i thought and still do think its slow. No cash to bin teh exhaust and cats as yet mind

 

What,s Snorkus delete??? What filter do you recommend, Green, Hks??

 

air intake silencer thingy,

 

delete

 

lol, wrx is a nice starting point i recon. I only have the uk wrx blob eye which is about 225bhp and its fast enough at the moment! you seem to forget the national speed limit in the UK :P

tbf, you can change the exhaust and have a remap and start to edge past 260 bhp easily! it depends what you want really...

 

There is lots of scope with a standard WRX. Mine was a blank canvas when purchased new back in 2003.

Before & After.



I did this with my MY03 PPP Stealth Wagon which will give you an idea of what results you may get.

Hayward & Scott 100 cell high flow down pipe (only 2 BHP loss over decat pipe & MOT friendly)



H&S Up pipe




H&S Centre pipe straight through



I already had the short centre section from the PPP & changed the PPP Backbox to a Blitz NUR Spec S



Followed by a Tek3 re-map with Pat Herborn to get everything flowing nicely.

290bhp up from 252bhp

275lbft up from 263lbft

Boost 1.3bar up from 1.2bar.

I am a happy bunny

I run an STi8 top mount & a ZeroSport air flow splitter in the carbon fibre STi type bonnet scoop to do the most I can to keep charge temps down.

Every little helps.







The light weight alloy pulleys fitted also give the WRX a sharper engine response.



Full spec & brake & suspension mods plus more pictures can be seen in My garage

 

A year in current spec and 2 years at 350ish before that. That includes trackdays but I am careful into and out of 3rd gear. More Button than Barrichello...

 

God damn-it Eric lol, everytime i see something like that i want to do it to mine!! How much extra insurance prem? I do keep umming and aring about just buying the Impreza PPP pack but i've heard it will only take my to 265, where as a home-made-mod will easily creap to 280....

 

Are WRX's fast enough ? Not in standard form IMHO.

The PPP often doesn't make the quoted 265BHP anyway. For what it costs you could be running quite a bit more power with money left over for handling mods etc.

My insurance didn't increase at all going from standard to 287BHP. (Keith Micheals)

The car now feels as it should have when it left the factory.

 

i've heard fuel economy makes the scoobs look frugal with these...

 

hehe that is impressive! Can the standard turbo take almost 290?? i wouldnt mind taking mine up 270 ~ 280 next year maybe.... not wanting to start an argument but i really wouldnt say they're not fast enough!! granted its nothing like an evo / jdm but its a nice canvas to work with... anything sub 6 seconds to 60 in my book is pretty nippy hehe!

 

if youre not into getting more power out of your car, sort the handling out so you can carry more speed into corners eg lowerig springs, anti roll bars etc

but as standard, the wrx is crap, the sti is even worse, you need to spend about 2 grand to get it the way it should have left the factory

 

Yes, quite a few on here running similar power with no issues. If you want more though you're talking bigger turbo, injectors, intercooler, fuel pump - then you start to reach the limits of the clutch, the standard braking system wouldn't be too good for 300+BHP either - that's when things start to get expensive..

True, a standard WRX does still have good acceleration from standstill but is severely lacking mid range torque, if/when you ever have a bit play with any of the new crop of hot hatches - Civic Type R, Golf GTi etc. you'll see what I mean.