It’s been 8 months and 20K kms since I bought the WRX and I still love it! I know many people are like “it’s only been 8 months!!!”. The rest of you who know me know that I tend to swap cars every 16-24 months. For the first time in a long time, I can honestly say, I’m not looking over the fence for greener pastures. I am actually content.
When shopping I was looking for primarily wrx hatchbacks with zero mods. I clearly deviated from that plan. Shannon and I were test driving and had looked at a few cars last summer, and one was on my list, but I kept skipping over it as it had mods done, and was a silver sedan. The 3 things I was looking to avoid (Silver, Sedans, Mods). Coming home from Guelph, – and after Shannons urging- I texted the guy just to see if we could quickly stop in and see it on our way home if for no other reason to get this car out of my head and off my potentials list. We met in Hamilton (yes, this car is actually local!) and as we pulled into the parking lot I was in love. Despite the silver paint, the big gold wheels, the lack of hatchback and the pile of stickers – I was hooked! Shannon loved it too, and made it very aware.
The car was super clean inside and out. The owner was about my age, and simply liked fast cars and just wanted to have a fast daily to enjoy but not beat the crap out of. Sounds familiar. We went over all the modifications and came to realize virtually every mod he had done were either identical to what I would have like to have done myself, or at very least damn close. The work was done clean, the installs professional. The parts were top notch and no corners cut. The price? Frankly too good to pass up.
The Subaru was dynoed and Cobb Protuned after all the modifications were done. Instead of the stock 265 crank hp, this car is putting down 310hp at the wheels on 91octane! Taking into account driveline losses of 17-25%, that puts the car in the 360-390 range. Add to that the fully adjustable BC Racing coilovers and chunky sway bars, this thing is one heck of a fun daily commuter regardless of the weather. All that power going to all 4 wheels and it still manages 24mpg (9.7L/100Km). Not amazing mileage, but considering the smiles per gallon, I am more then happy.
The coils are a firm enough to keep you planted in the corners but compliant enough to not feel harsh or overly bouncy. Much better then most other aftermarket suspensions I’ve had on other sporty cars. The exhaust is a 3″ catted downpipe mated to the SPT catback exhaust. Gives you that nice throaty Subaru burble without being loud or droning at all. I would like it to be a touch louder, but I doubt I will ever change it. I can drive all day at any speed and zero drone. Hard to justify changing that.
Only work service/modifications I’ve done since buying it are as follows:
- Timing belt/water pump
- removed stickers
- installed stereo system
- installed rear view camera
I do have a couple complaints. If something was to happen to this car (stolen, wrecked, etc), I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another WRX of this generation but next time, I would be a bit more fussy. If I could take my current mods and move them into a car with the following changes, I’d consider it near perfect.
- Hatchback
- Sunroof
- 2011+ – to get the widebody version
- Red or white paint.
I guess I could retro-fit the sunroof and paint the car, but frankly I don’t think it’s worth the aggravation. For now, I’ll just keep enjoying the car ever time I get behind the wheel and watching the odometer click kilometer after fun filled kilometer.
If you’d like to see the FULL list of modifications, CLICK HERE.
For a listing of all my previous cars/trucks/bikes CLICK HERE
