{"id":398,"date":"2007-12-20T17:06:41","date_gmt":"2007-12-20T22:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kickflop.net\/blog\/the-money-pit\/"},"modified":"2013-01-09T16:56:49","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T21:56:49","slug":"the-money-pit","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.kickflop.net\/blog\/the-money-pit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Money Pit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wrx-20091026-rear34-800\"<\/a>\"wrx-20091026-front34-800\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h3>\n

It started long ago as a 2002 Subaru WRX. As you’ll uncover below, the rear seat, headliner, dash, and cylinder heads are just about all that remain stock after work on it since purchasing it new in June of 2001.<\/p>\n

My approach to building up this car has always revolved around making a razor sharp overall street and track car that is not breaking every year. My inspiration comes from cars like the Mine’s R34 (video<\/a>, skip to 11:02), not 2.0-liter cars with turbos that spool up finally at 5000RPM and can’t brake for shit.<\/p>\n

It is as complete as it is ever going to get based on life changes that no longer provide disposable income as they did from 2001-2009. If I ever had the money for it, I would take things further by completely redoing the engine internals to remove powertrain losses and improve engine response while retaining strength (WPC treatment, light 9:1 compression ratio pistons, lighter connecting rods, lighter valvetrain parts, full balancing, etc). I would also switch over to a more streetable (but very track-ready) coilover setup like the KW or AST offerings and switch over to the STI 6-speed transmission for its durability.<\/p>\n

I’ve put the car through 20 autocrosses, 2 track days at Sebring, 3 TSD Rallies, 12 1\/4-mile drag passes, and yearly road trips of 1000 miles on average. It is my daily driver.<\/p>\n

Modifications<\/h3>\n

Power-related<\/h3>\n