Subiesport Magazine

Project "Silver Bullet" -- back on the street!

On our sister-site, Driving Sports, I just posted a long piece about our Silver 2007 Legacy GT project. You know, the one that was featured in the current issue, right before I killed the motor. Though it's mostly an introduction of the car to those readers (not necessarily Subaru owners), it also covers the latest round of changes that immediately followed my blown piston debacle.

Yes, the new motor is in, the car has been tuned and it's back on the road! Thanks to PDX Tuning, Cosworth, Deatschwerks, Pacific Import Auto, Advanced Clutch, Subaru Northwest Region, Perrin and everyone else that really went above-and-beyond to get this car done in time for our pending press deadline. Now, go check out the update! Click here.

Endura-Tech LGT Coilovers Now Shipping!

The Endura-Tech coilovers tested on our 2007 Legacy GT project  in the new issue of Subiesport Magazine are now available to the public. Though the prototypes we used for testing were finished in a golden hue, the final production units follow Endura-Tech’s traditional silver-on-black treatment.

If you’re looking for a Legacy GT coilover that is trackday-ready, but still livable in the “real world,” this is a great choice. The press release follows after the jump.

Building New Engines

It has been a busy few weeks for us at Subiesport. As we put another issue to bed we decided to take a day and take our project cars out to our testing facility. We had all done a fair amount of modifications to our cars so it was time to see how they measured up. My wagon had a new suspension setup and a new clutch, Ryan’s Legacy GT was sporting a new set of coilovers and of course we had the new 2008 WRX project car with to test. It was looking like it would be a full day.

Turning Lemons into Lemonade Whiskey

Shortly after wrapping issue #21 of Subiesport Magazine the 2007 Legacy GT project car started to exhibit a sure sign of pending engine failure: white smoke pouring from the exhaust when started. After filling the chamber with air for the leakdown test, anyone could audibly hear hissing from the crankcase -- from as far as 5 feet away. That's a bad sign. Furthermore, it was only holding 75-lbs of pressure (the other three were at the more-appropriate 150-lbs each.)

So, what to do? Time to take Project Legacy GT to the next level, of course. Here is a sampling of the ingredients:

- Brand-New 2007 STI EJ257 Shortblock
- Cosworth Forged Pistons
- Deatschwerks 740cc Injectors
- AVO 420 Turbo
- Perrin Front-Mount Intercooler
- AVO fuel pump
- ACT Heavy Duty Organic Clutch (#SB5-HDMM) -- the stock clutch was fried
- ACT Streetlite 14.4-lbs Flywheel

This stiff concoction is being mixed by PDX Tuning in Portland, Ore. We'll of course have the process and the results in an upcoming issue of Subiesport, as Travis has been on the scene documenting it all -- with photos and video. Click the jump for a taste of the "action."

As for what caused the piston failure... have you seen me drive?

Before she went south, we were able to tune her with a Delta PnP computer, EcuTek and Cobb Accessport 2.0. The data from those sessions will be part of a future article. In the new issue of Subiesport she received a set of Coilovers from Endura-Tech, a Go Fast Bits BOV from Global Performance Parts (what can I say, I like a little 'bling) and a new nose courtesy of Mach V motorsports.

Upgrading a 2007 Legacy GT Turbo

For anyone looking to upgrade the turbo in their Subaru, this is a must-see video! Sean Sexton of Rallitek Performance shares some quick tips that could save you hours in the garage. Of course, swapping a turbo isn't the simplest of jobs, so be sure you have some skills with a wrench before undertaking a project like this: doing it wrong could easily destroy your engine.

We'll have a full step-by-step in a future issue of the magazine, but here's the sneak preview featuring Sexton doing the upgrade to our 2007 Project Legacy GT with an AVO 420 turbo. The new AVO unit is bigger and badder (in a good way) than the Blouch 18G we've been running for the past year. That turbo was great, but for our tastes bigger is better. Of course, to support this larger turbo we'll also be doing a lot more under the hood, that's for certain. More to come!

2008 WRX Update, Better Handling

After driving our new 2008 project car, Nemo, around for about a week now, one thing has become glaringly clear: This car needs suspension upgrades. And not needs in the sense of, I need to because I am a driving junky, it needs it because it flat needs it.

During hard cornering on a freeway on-ramp round-about, we were able to get the car to rock back and forth, while under cornering load by getting our trunk monkey to bounce around in the rear seat. Even tracking straight down the road, the car would undulate over bumps. While this is very comfortable for highway driving, it is no good for any sort of performance situation. Why Subaru decided to tune the suspension for Miss Daisy and not Mr. Solberg is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps they thought that the hot hatch market was getting older, perhaps they thought that we really all wanted a vague and “floaty” suspension, or perhaps they just got a killer deal on springs from Buick. There is help though.

Driving the 2008 WRX and 2008 STI on course

Today we put another issue in the can, well more or less in the can. As I write this MediaSpigot Publisher, Ryan Douthit, is slaving over the “technical aspects” of formatting the files that will become the next issue of Subiesport.

While he does that, I am reflecting on my recent driving experiences, most notably a bone-stock 2008 WRX and a very-modified 2008 STI. While the two are very similar in behavior, one is more akin to Bud light, easy to drink and keep in your stomach, even after you drink a whole sixer; while the other is more like Barley Wine, much harder to stomach, especially after you have had a few.

Now I am not saying that one is more enjoyable than the other, but it shows where tuning can get out of hand. Or rather, how a performance-driving setting can bring out the less-than-stellar qualities in a car.

Subiesport 2008 WRX Project Car

With a new model-year comes a new addition to the Subiesport project fleet. We had our fun with our GD-chassis 2.5RS, and since that car is going back to stock, we needed some fresh blood in our fleet. To that end, we have decided that we need to play around with one of the third-gen Imprezas, in turbocharged form this time. The basic premise of this car is to see what we can do within the frame work of a stock turbo and stock engine.

To see where we starting from, we took the car to Pacific Import Auto in Tacoma, Wash., to get a baseline on their all-wheel-drive, Mustang dynamometer.

Dyno Tuning Preparation

You’ve read every forum and visited every on-line store and in the process spent your rent money, the college fund, and your future retirement on bolt-on Subaru goodies. The point of all this madness is to produce a more powerful platform for whatever your personal performance niche might be: drag racing, autocross, track days, or simply bragging rights. However, with few exceptions, your new parts will produce little power and, in the worst of cases, might actually damage the car without proper tuning.