Draco-REX

Posted a better final pic above.

Once a Subaru owner, always a Subaru owner. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave! Oh I have a couple of those too.. But yeah, having a can designed to be beaten on and survive makes it more fun. Hearing a piece of junk on the highway or big chunk of ice bounce off that big armored plate with a "THUNK" is soo satisfying. You can order them with holes for the oil drain and filter too. It seems like every time I go cheap or used it comes back to bite me in the ass, and often ends up costing me as much as the better or new part. For this build in particular, I can't compromise. Thanks. I actually tend to obsess a little over my part choices... I picked up a lens cleaning kit at Advance. But if you've got something special, I'd be interested.

Go for it. It's solid peace of mind to have that big plate under your engine. And I never had cooling issues around town. Only when I was racing in the heat. A dirty Subaru is a happy Subaru, so I definitely can't wait. First event is March 19. The car may not be done by then, but it will be ready to race.

Next up, I bolted in the Group N pitch stop and tackled the intercooler. This wasn't on my initial list of upgrades, but I figured I might as well since they're relatively easy to install and the added cooling is always a good thing. I chose the Mishimoto intercooler because I liked the different routing. The stock unit uses a Y pipe behind the intercooler that looks restrictive. The Mishimoto uses a side-inlet and larger pipe. The core is about the same size as stock from the top, but it's thicker and noticeably heavier, meaning more aluminum in the construction. Installation was really easy, even if Mishimoto doesn't have any instructions for it yet... The only stumbling block was the bypass tube. The clamp for the stock one where it meets the inlet before the turbo was rotated so it was under the intake. I wasn't going to fight with it and left the stock one on rather than using the one supplied. You can see the side-inlet and larger pipe better when it's installed: With the new intercooler, I needed a better hood scoop splitter. The stock one doesn't seal well and leaves a little to be desired in distributing the air that comes in through the hood scoop. The Grimspeed one offers better sir direction, a wider opening for the intercooler core and a better seal. You can see the extra vane here: And the larger opening here: I was going to install the intake next, but discovered that the intake that came with the car eliminated a stock piece that was needed for the new one I was going to install. So I had to get that piece before finishing. I picked it up yesterday and finally finished the car tonight. I wanted a short ram intake because the "cold air" one on the car puts the air filter way too low. With the future modifications I was planning, it'd be directly exposed to dirt kicked up by the front wheel. Moving the filter back into the engine bay was needed. I chose the Cobb SF intake for it's velocity stack style design with integrated flow straighteners and optional heat shield. I added a pre-filter from K&N. There will still be plenty of dirt and debris coming in through the openings in the fender. I wanted to keep the worst of it off the main element and make it easy to clean. K&N has a HUGE selection of pre-filters for almost any kind of air filter. And installed with the heat shield (less the cover): I'll need to log the car a bit to make sure the MAF is still scaled right. But I don't think it will have changed too much. Overall a successful project. The car should be more reliable and more durable with more consistent performance. From this: To this: Next stage of the build is the suspension; the heart and soul of an off-road racer.

Stage 2 of the build is pretty much complete! The pile of boxes: In this pile is: Mishimoto racing radiator Mishimoto top mount intercooler GroupN engine mounts Kartboy shifter bushings Cobb SF intake Primitive Racing skid plates Grimmspeed hood scoop splitter Amsoil Signature ATF Lucas Super Coolant additive Killer B radiator shroud and engine dress-up cover misc chemicals and a Lisle Spill Free coolant funnel Last weekend was unseasonably warm and perfect for getting all this done. I love being able to just spend a whole day or two modifying my car, and this was no exception. With a big list like this, I like to start with something quick and easy to get the ball rolling and start the day with a success. For this project, I decided to start with the rear diff protector. Primitive Racing offers two styles of protector for the rear diff. The stronger of the two is fully boxed and mounts to the rear subframe, surrounding the diff. This one isn't quite as beefy. However, in discussion with Paul Eklund, the boxed protector wouldn't clear the 3" exhaust on the car. So I went with the mini pictured above. It's made from 1/8" aluminum plate with an additional 1/8" plate along the belly making for a full 1/4" of armor. It's still strong enough to use a jacking point for the rear of the car. Installation was straight forward and very easy. It mounts to the two studs that mound the carrier by the pinion and the two lower cover bolts in the rear. While I'm sure the case itself is strong enough for SCCA RallyX, I do plan to participate in SCCA Rally Trial events. Those events have longer and higher speed events. An extra bit of armor there would be welcome if I kick up a rock at 60mph. With that small success, I decided to work my way forward and install the shifter bushings. But when I climbed under the car to get to the linkage, I discovered that they had already been done by the previous owner. So the play I'm feeling in the shift lever is due to a part that tends to wear out. A part that I didn't have... Oh well. 1 success, 1 failure. At this point, I pulled the parts that were being replaced. Out came the radiator, intercooler, pitch stop, and the intake. So much room for activities! (which is the point) With this done, I decided to tackle the engine mounts. I did them once a long time ago. I remember them being difficult, but figured I could man up and get them done... Yeah, fuck that noise. I forgot just how much of a PITA it is to change the mounts with the engine in the car. After much swearing, a fat lip, some busted knuckles, and a sore neck I gave up. The Group N mounts will go on the shelf and get done the next time the engine is out of the car. 1 success, 2 failures. So, forget the mounts, time for the radiator. The stock Subaru radiator is actually pretty efficient. But I'm upgrading for a couple reasons. First reason is that RallyX (and AutoX) is a relatively slower speed event, but the engine tents to see high RPMs. This can make it tough for the radiator to shed heat on hotter days. So I wanted more capacity to keep the temps stable. Secondly, when a skidplate is added to one of these cars, it becomes much more difficult for the hot air to escape the engine bay and cooling suffers. This was something I ran into with the WRX which lead to a radiator upgrade and cutting vents in the hood. I went with a Mishimoto radiator in that car and I was very happy with it, so I decided to go that route again. Mishimoto's X-Line STI/WRX radiator uses a full 3-row 2" core. So it should provide even better cooling than the one I had in the WRX. Here is it vs the stock radiator: I'm not cutting vents in the hood just yet, however. I most likely will eventually, but I went a slightly different route with the skid plate this time that may help with the heat extraction issue. So with the radiator in, I could put the front skid plate on. A front skid plate is really a good idea, even in RallyX. Courses can end up with pretty deep ruts, and large bumps can cause bottoming out. A stock plastic undertray can be very short lived. 3/16" Aluminum plate with an additional 3/16" stinger to protect the transmission. I also got the spacer option. It's offered for cars with aftermarket headers, but I'm hoping the spacers will help with cooling. On the car, it looks like they will work: It does reduce the front clearance however. I may trim the front spacers and angle it upwards, hopefully giving me better initial clearance but still maintaining good heat extraction. Dirt clod's eye view:

Drove a 15 Corolla rental with a CVT. When you're moving, it felt like a peppy slush box. But it would not, at all, jump into traffic from a stand still. It was like the transmission wouldn't go to a low enough ratio.

I will say that it looks like Caddy made a solid competitor to the 7 Series, A8, and S Class. But... If I were in the market for a car of that size/luxury, I'm not sure it would draw me away from the germans.

Wow.. What a weekend. Got a lot done, but not everything I wanted. Also took a ton of photos. But one key piece was missing, so I'm going to wait until I can finish it before I post everything.

I think it moves forward via thrust rather than grip.

Winning a drag race while hanging the hoops... on sand.

Yearly oil changes are worth being incapable of over-boosting...

They said it wasn't an intentional capability. I'm pretty sure the sequence is initiated by the driver.

IMO, and far from the only one, twisties require excellent throttle response. With a predictable throttle I can feed in the torque after mid corner to get the most of the exit, and walk that knife edge as the rear tires flirt with the limits of grip. PD blowers like the Sprintex, Edelbrock, and Cosworth give the best response. But centris like the Jackson Racing and Vortec will give better top end.

Same way a low rider does, but with finer control.

Now, I may be biased but: I think a Positive Displacement supercharger is the best match for this platform. That said, for someone who doesn't plan to AutoX or track the car and only intends to DD it and do some WOT blasts on the highway, a Turbo or Centrifugal supercharger with a rising torque curve will feel more fun. In that case, either will do, with the Centri SC giving better throttle response and the turbo giving a higher top-end. Either way, a flex-fuel conversion should be on the list.

Played around a bit with the STI today. Drove it around for a while and the shifting is like new now. I'm so happy that worked out. Additionally some gear whine I noticed wet away too, so that old fill was completely shot. The short armrest is assembled and on, and I fixed the glove box after Subaru broke it doing the Takata Air Bag recall. I also did a couple other small tweaks: The obvious one is the shift knob and extension. Both are from WC Lathe Werks. The big white shifter knob with grooves is for easy sight out of the corner of my eye and good grip. The extension brings it up closer to the wheel for faster shifting. Really, I'm not fixing any problems I had in the past with shifting; I never missed a shift due to being unable to find the shifter. But I thought it wouldn't hurt to have it bright white, and that I'd like to try it with the extension as I've seen the extended shifters in other motorsports. I installed it and drove around with it on. I REALLY like it. The extension and angle coupled with the short shifter feels so natural. This setup is on my "Must Have List" for this chassis. It's angled slightly forward and is in 1st in the pic above, so that's as close to the wheel as it gets. In doing this, I was reminded why I despise Perrin products so much. When I removed the Perrin shift knob there was an odd spring between it and the Perring reverse lockout ring. Shrugging at their weirdness, I put the spring with the knob and installed the new extension. When I went for a drive I discovered what that spring was for. The reason why I hate Perrin products is because when developing a new product, they do 95% of the development work and then says "Fuck It, put a bandaid on it!" for the remaining 5%. In this case, when they realized their reverse lockout ring makes an annoying rattling noise, did they go back and fix the problem? Maybe with a slightly larger bore and a nylon bushing to fix the issue? No. They just shipped a spring to put pressure on the lockout and reduce the noise. I don't see why they're so popular. Their shit is always not quite right, and yet you see cars stuffed to the gills with Perrin crap. Anyways. Another small addition to the cockpit is the red JDM Hazard button. No real reason. I bought one for my original STI and never installed it. I saw it laying around and thought I might as well pop it in. I also cleaned up some of the tint on the tail lights. It was cracking and flaking around the circles since they're raised. I just cut around them and peeled it off those lights. I think it looks ok. I might remove the rest of it since from about 5 feet away you can see the damaged film around them. So nothing difficult or involved, but it was nice to get some tangible customizing done.

Got the car back from ZB with a clean bill of health. Compression test came out at 140+ on all cylinders, and everything else that I'm not replacing is in good condition. The timing belt and water pump was replaced WAY early too, so I don't have to deal with that for another 100K miles. However, when I went to fill it up on the way home I discovered that at least one of the previous owners liked to top-off the tank. Sigh.... The vent system is clogged so it doesn't like taking gas unless I twist the gas handle upwards. No way to be sure I'm filling the tank so I can't monitor the mileage either. Pro tip: When the pump shuts off, STOP FILLING THE TANK! Shifting was painfully difficult before. But with a fresh fill of Motul 300, it's already much better. Some more miles and hopefully the shifting will be back to normal. So, Stage 1 complete! Now for Stage 2, engine/durability improvements. In the plan: Radiator Intercooler Intake Axle-back Skid plates Driveline bushings It's finally time for the fun stuff!

Got the car back from ZB with a clean bill of health. Compression test came out at 140+ on all cylinders, and everything else that I'm not replacing is in good condition. The timing belt and water pump was replaced WAY early too, so I don't have to deal with that for another 100K miles. However, when I went to fill it up on the way home I discovered that at least one of the previous owners liked to top-off the tank. Sigh.... The vent system is clogged so it doesn't like taking gas unless I twist the gas handle upwards. No way to be sure I'm filling the tank so I can't monitor the mileage either. Pro tip: When the pump shuts off, STOP FILLING THE TANK! Shifting was painfully difficult before. But with a fresh fill of Motul 300, it's already much better. Some more miles and hopefully the shifting will be back to normal. So, Stage 1 complete! Now for Stage 2, engine/durability improvements. In the plan: Radiator Intercooler Intake Axle-back Skid plates Driveline bushings It's finally time for the fun stuff!

I've driven it a bit and other than a squeak in the front right suspension, it's pretty solid. Z.B. gets his hands on it tomorrow so I'll find out where I'm really starting from soon. 1. Simple. 2. Cheap. Hit both those marks for a great way to start in RallyX. I'll tell you, I think a foxbody mustang GT would make a great starter RallyX car. They're simple and parts are stupidly cheap. They're also a smaller car with a short wheelbase so you can actually get them to hustle around cones without too much trouble. And there's a massive aftermarket for any improvements you may want to make, and shops galore that can do whatever your imagination comes up with. While I'm not a fan of the owner of this car, here's a foxbody set up for stage rally: So one of these cars can go from budget to bonkers. This is from a driving-in-dirt perspective. I know Mustangs are old hat around here..

C4 ZR1...

"Hi. My 2005 STI has the extended arm rest. It gets in the way of my elbow when I shift, so I'd like to order the original console cover. Thanks." Holy crap. The screws come in individual baggies! In Hyundai's world, you're lucky if you can get a latch separately. Guess in Subaru World, you have to be able to get every individual piece of your arm rest! LOL.

He's a fast driver. It's always a blast fighting tooth and nail with him. He needs a more powerful car though.

They will be bought. Then when these people discover that their "investment" is tanking, these refreshed cars will hit the used market and the fans of the cars will be able to buy them.

Thanks for the offer. Looking at my list, I think I can handle everything, but if something comes up, I'll let you know. If you see me working on my cars, feel free to stop by and say hi. I'm always willing to chat.

Step 1: Get junker. Step 2: show up to an event Step 3: have fun beating the junker like it owes you money