If you buy something already done it's someone else's specification, decisions and choices and unless you already know the car, you won't know the history of the car 100%.

Spec C doesn't fit my requirements from a car point of view, Wagon is way more practical car and better looking in my opinion.

 

Not all front mount installs have to be "ugly."



You can't suss it from the pic, but that's black powder-coated honeycomb wire mesh (which apes the MY99/00 honeycomb OEM grille).

Plus, I also had the FMIC core sprayed black i.e. you cannot see it behind the mesh. Looks very OEM in my opinion - the 'petrolhead layman' would be none the wiser.

 

I agree it does look very OEM . . .but still something I wouldn't want to do to my Wagon :/

I'll look into it some more for my next project

 

well i was selling my bugeye sti wagon lol , market is poor for that at the mo so keeping till i get a decent price , it's got a set of snow tyres on and is my daily run around , i must be getting old i like a tuned car but some thing that does not risk reliability issues as mine are work and daily drives

 

Sure. I wasn't suggesting you go do it.

Just shows what can be done, etc....

 

Thats a perfectly good enough reason!

 

I think you need to have a clear definite plan of what it is you want BEFORE you start because it's the key to not doing it twice and more importantly not paying twice.

By far the easiest way is as joe said to sell yours and buy something like a Spec C and follow along the lines of Shaun if you don't mind a saloon, if it has to be a Wagon then the cheapest way is also again sell up and buy a Bug STI wagon as a large percentage of what you need for over 400bhp is already there and it will be cheaper in the long run to get your numbers.

But buyer beware BIG numbers mean very little in the real world as they also mean BIG turbos and you can quite easily have your *** handed to you by someone running much less power because what they have is more drivable.

And that's where the money comes into play, The devil is in the detail.

Fast
Reliable
Cheap

You can only have two of the above.

Personally I would aim for around 350/380 bhp if it's just for the road and save yourself a fortune, there's a couple of guys on here doing pretty well in competition with those sorts of numbers, Joe being one and Gaz in a Spec C with around 360bhp.

 

Im not sure Joe fits into that category

Exactly that, its easy to get 500hp but it will drive like a pig and someone with a well sorted 400hp will show you a clean set of heels, an youll be dust by someone with 500hp that is well set up

 

I'd also say if like JGlanza you want to be able to PROPERLY kick it's head in on a regular basis then it's probably going to be more like £20k when all said and done, which is why I'd stick with something like a Spec C.

It's a lot of money to throw at a WRX Wagon, or you could just put PPP on it and then you really would have the fastest thing on the planet.

 

That is exactly it. I spent so much money, when in reality I should have just bought rs matts wrx...

What is the point in having 500hp and not kicking its head in? I dont think ive ever driven my car at less than 90% throttle....

 

Cheers for all the info guys, I definitely would rather have useable power and a car that would be capable on the road for when the mood takes.

After doing some searching on here and reading up my thinking now is to go down the VF35 route and fit the parts myself either over the winter months or early next spring. Then get a map done and maybe aim for a conservative 300-320bhp and keep the 5sp for just now.

I'll sort the handling and brakes as well whilst I'm at it.

So I'm thinking I'll need

VF35 turbo
STI tmic
Pink injectors??? Not sure what ones I have and whether they'd cope with 300-320
Decat up pipe

Now I'm not entirely sure what my exhaust system consists of just now since it has the PPP package. I know it has the Prodrive backbox but I'm not sure whether it's a decat middle section or decat downpipe that the package includes or neither. I haven't been able to find any rock solid evidence of this online.

 

Also the exhaust system started blowing this morning but where from I'm not sure, if it's from either the midpipe or downpipe or where they meet then I could take the opportunity to swap them out now whilst they're needing replaced and save me having to buy again at a later date.

 

VF35 is laggy on an STI with avacs, pretty much nothing until around 3600/4k rpm, so it will be worse on a WRX with longer gears and no avacs heads, I still don't get why so many WRX owners let themselves be mugged off for these turbos.

If you're only after 300/320bhp then you really want to be thinking billet TD04 Hybrid, you'll keep your early spool, well it will possibly spool even earlier due to being billet and you'll be able to take advantage of those nice long ratio's on the 5 speed.

With some nice suspension upgrades and decent brakes you'll be able to play with much more powerful cars.

 

I see, from what I had read I was under the impression the spool wasn't much later than the std 04 turbo but with a much better midrange and topend. I've noticed the std turbo struggle from about 5k to redline and it feels a tad gutless at the top end on the odd occasion I've took it there. Also the VF35 turbo is easily attainable whereas how easy is it to get hybrid without spending big bucks, not that I think matters tbh. Sounds like a plan though.

 

Just to get some more info.....

I currently quite like the early spool from the std TD04 turbo but I have noticed the lack of pull in the midrange and even more so towards the topend.

Now the turbo is currently boosting @ 1.3/1.4 before tailing off and at a guess the car is maybe pushing 260-280 with a PPP package that includes decat midpipe & Prodrive backbox.

Now I'd like to achieve roughly 300bhp and have a turbo that has that initial pull early on but keeps pulling at least through the midrange before tailing off and if it continued for a bit towards the topend then superb!!

So with all that being said......what's the best turbo to go for? Does the VF35 really spool up that late on? Would you say the std TD04 kicks in well and hard around the 2500 mark?......maybe 3k??

I know supporting mods will make a difference to spool time as well and I plan on swapping out the up pipe, downpipe etc as well so with these mods how well would the VF35 spool up?

The main reason I'm thinking about the VF35 is they're readily available, it seems to me that going down the hybrid route with the TD04 would be a hassle as I haven't seen any, I'm guessing I could send my one away to get done but that isn't economical as i'm using the car daily pretty much. I could buy a second hand unit and send that away but thenthe cost goes up, I'm not even sure how much it would cost to have one done...

 

A second hand td04 is about 50quid so the cost is hardly going to go up?

 

And how much to have it made into a hybrid? I'm trying to weigh up the pros and cons and whether one is much better than the other. If the differences were negligible then the cost would decide which one. But......if the hybrid was going to be much better, quicker spooling and continue through the midrange and towards the top end then it seems to me that it might be a viable route for me to go down.

 

search cupra jakes posts, he's just gone from a vf34 which is a ball bearing/ faster spooling version of the vf35 to a hybrid tdo4 because of lack of spool.

SC32 is a hybrid td04, Adam @ ScoobyClinic should be able to help you get one, failing that I hear there is a guy in Derby that does them, but don't know his name, maybe start another thread in General asking where to get a hybrid td04 and what peoples opinions of them are.