I got it! Drove it home from the Subaru of Santa Cruz dealer yesterday afternoon. It's an '04 Java Black Pearl Impreza WRX Sport Wagon. Here's a shot i took right when i got home. The break in period is going to be torture! I'm supposed to keep it under 4k RPM for the first thousand miles. Luckily i got to drive over the 17 on the way home and put close to a hundred miles on it right off the bat. I've been wanting this sucker for over a year now, so excuse my enthusiasm.

The in dash 6-cd changer is pretty nice... but i can't wait to get the empeg in there. I'm planning out the install now, and i'm pretty set on some Diamond Audio Hex 600s speakers for the fronts. I'm going to do a custom fiberglass enclosure for the boot to hold a sub... either in the spare tire well or on the side... haven't decided yet. Gotta figure out what amps i want still... doing research on that now too.

Well... wish me luck with this puppy... in case you haven't noticed i haven't had much car luck lately.

PS - anyone wanna buy a '99 Honda Civic Si? I give discounts to empeg owners =]

Nice. I've been wanting one for years. Hopefully I'll be in a position to actually get one in the next year or so. It looks like you didn't go with the STi though, how come?

Anyway, just pointing out that I'm jealous.

Congrats, Loren!

OH, it's a wagon, that's right. I didn't really look at the picture hard enough to notice, and I guess I skipped over that in your post. I must not be fully awake yet.

I forgot that you were always talking about getting a wagon. So that would explain why it isn't an STi.

Very nice cars though, all of them.

Nice ride! Now, if only I could find someone in the UK who's willing to sell a new Impreza WRX for 15 thousand pounds. According to Subaru UK the retail price in the UK is nearer 20 thousand.
I'm sure the 1 thousand miles will fly past! Then you'll really be able to rag it!!!!

Looks great. Have fun.

CONGRATS!!!!!

Welcome to the WRX/empeg club!!!

Wanna trade seats?

If you custom a box that will also fit a sedan, let me know and maybe I'll buy one off of you!

(There are several made just for the Subby tirewell and trunk if you havn't found them already I can look them up)

Hey, alright! Welcome to the suby club!

Thanks all. I've been driving all day and loving every second of it. The seats are probably my favorite part so far... i can't wait until i can really rev it to get the feel of the turbo. 800 more miles to go.

They had 3 STI's on the lot... they are all sold way in advance. I think the waiting list at SC Subaru is over 100 people, and they will probably get about 3/month. I was aiming for the STI, but when i really thought about it, i 1) didn't wanna wait, and 2) couldn't drive that car anywhere near it's limits. It would be a waste of 10 grand (they are going for $32k at least) because i don't really plan on using it on the track. Plus i can slap almost all of the STI parts on the WRX wagon (with a few exceptions) as i get better at pushing the limits. I do want to start doing some rally x'ing though... sliding it around a dirt track would be such a blast! 227hp AWD is a lot to handle as it is... i can't imagine 300hp with 300 lbs of torque. Nuts. That said... as soon as i pay it off... engine mods here i come.

So Brad... could you point me to some of the tire well sub boxes you mentioned? I hadn't seen any but a couple of custom jobs. I'm sort of leaning away from the tire well just because i'm going to have the rubber mat back there and i'm thinking that and the well lid would muffle the hell out of the sub.

I'm already getting the stereo components together. Rob V (CruzThs) is giving me an incredible deal on the Diamond Audio Hex 600s's he had in his Range Rover (Tony F.... remember those?).

Do any of you other subie owners post on the NASIOC.com boards? It's ALMOST as good of a community as we have here it seems. I had another decked out wagon owner wave to me on the way home. Feels like family. heheh.

as soon as i pay it off... engine mods here i come.

That's what I said when I got the Viggen, but I still have two years left to pay it off and am already planning mods. ECM reprograming and different exhaust should get me an extra 46HP. Screw the warranty and remaining payments! More speed NOW!

i can't imagine 300hp with 300 lbs of torque

Loser.

Probably ordering it later this week. (Is this what thread hijacking feels like?)

Ditto, welcome to the Soobie club (for Men).

Loren, you'd be surprised how many dealers are "mod friendly" and will let you mod the car w/o voiding your warranty. Ask you local section of NASIOC.com, i-club.com, or clubwrx.net (my new favorite) which dealers are good.

We have a good mod-friendly dealer here so I've already instead a TurboXS MBC (manual boost controller), Prodrive axel-back exhaust, Vishnu Intercool Hoses, Vishnu Underdrive pulley, K&N filter, removed intake resonator, Kartboy short-shift kit, Godspeed Uppipe and Godspeed Downpipe. Because you're in Cali, you'll have to research what mods are going to be CA emissions safe. But freeing up the exhaust (we have 3 cats!) legally and safely raising the boost will give you the most bang for the buck.

PS - Now that I think of it, when NASIOC used to be called "i-club.com", one of the owners posted on this BBS. Do a search and look him up - there are a surprising number of Subby/empeg owners out there (don't forget to see my webpage for Subby boot logos).



Here are my favorite Subby links including some for sound. http://persiconi.com/wrx/subbylinks.html

Welcome to the WRX/empeg owner club loren!

Have fun jamming the empeg in there It's a huge pain in the ass, but my install came out pretty nice.

I'm on nasioc.com just about as much as I'm here. It's a pretty darn good resource

congrats!

Probably ordering it later this week. (Is this what thread hijacking feels like?)

Nice. I bet an STI would still womp that though. heheh

Ditto, welcome to the Soobie club (for Men).

Thanks... i'll be checking out fellow subie installs soon to see what you guys did.

Loren, you'd be surprised how many dealers are "mod friendly" and will let you mod the car w/o voiding your warranty. Ask you local section of NASIOC.com, i-club.com, or clubwrx.net (my new favorite) which dealers are good.

Yeah, i'm not waiting to do mods because i'm worried about the warranty... it's just a cashflow issue. Actually, the one of the main reasons i drove to Santa Cruz Subaru is their mod friendly attitude. They are pretty well known as being one of the best dealers in CA. Their techs frequently post on NASIOC and all mod the hell out of their cars themselves... plus they have a nice little sports shop that sells performance parts.

Damn, looks like you've done a good deal of work to yours! Have you had it dyno'd? I'm probably going to go with all Vishnu parts when i get to it, because they are local and i can just drive over and have them tune and dyno it. I'm gonna order the Kartboy short shifter soon... might be my first mod since it's relatively cheap. I gotta read up on the "free" do it yourself mods too... like the resonator and ground mod stuff. Modding the WRX to any decent level in CA pretty much means breaking emissions laws. AND we have to deal with 91 octane as the highest we can get at the pump.

I'm definitely going to post on NASIOC and I-club to see what other empeggers are around when i get to installing it. Thanks for the links too! I'll check them out tomorrow.

Have fun jamming the empeg in there It's a huge pain in the ass, but my install came out pretty nice.

heheh... yeah, it looks like it's not exactly plug and play. Should be a good first project though.

Probably ordering it later this week.

What the hell are "anti-submarine" seats?!
Thank goodness its a standard option...

Well, you know, Sweden wasa big Nazi port back in WWII, so they're trying to take preventative measures to try to keep an invading navy out again.

No. Wait. That's something I just made up.

Actually, it's a feature of the seats that helps prevent the occupants from sliding out from underneath the seat belts in the event of a crash, an event known as submarining.

in case you haven't noticed i haven't had much car luck lately.

I'm having this really cosmic vibe that your luck has changed in a big way. Congratulations!

We just got back from 2 days of sliding the WRX through gravel and water hazards on this beautiful rally in eastern WA. We placed poorly (we were trying out a different calc software which turned out to be a stinker) but we had a complete blast and I just can't think of a better ride for the sideways stuff. I don't think I would want 300HP in our baby without a roll bar, though! Stock HP is plenty to power out of oopsies but still easy to moderate. For what we do, 300 HP would mostly mean more wheel spin (but I suppose I could try it!).

My only running gear mods so far are rear sway bar, K&N filter and stainless brake lines (and a front skid plate later this month), but I may start thinking about some others for next year. If I could hit 265 HP, I could match race Bitt in the Volvo!

I'm going to glass up a new sub enclosure in July, but I don't think it is what you want. It will fit *inside* my full-size spare (just a single 8" Solobaric), as I need to free up more cargo space and I decided that the mini-spare and that storage tray were not useful.

The various, fractured NASIOCs/I-Clubs are a great resource, albeit with a much lower S/N ratio and some HOW-TO that seems to suffer from lack of critical peer review. Still good, though. Plus, a great place to watch for used gear. I got a set of 4 OE wheels+tires for $250 and just received a glovebox from Montana for $30. Now, if I can only find some 15" Raceline RL-7s!!

Have a blast. Don't test the airbags!

I would tend to stay away from a short shifter. They tend to facilitate syncro wear and arent really needed. You can shift just as fast with a normal stick. Hey its just an opinion though.

What the hell are "anti-submarine" seats?!

I can answer this one since I work in automotive safety & crashworthiness. This is simply a seat designed to keep your butt planted in it during a frontal crash. A "normal" car seat will allow your body to begin slipping forward and under the lap belt from a frontal crash hence the term "submarining". Most seats these days have this aspect built in from the start since it is an easy way to improve frontal crash performance from an occupant standpoint.

i can slap almost all of the STI parts

Let us know when you get that big-ass spoiler and the gold wheels so we can all point and giggle at you.

We just got back from 2 days of sliding the WRX through gravel and water hazards on this beautiful rally in eastern WA

WOW... i want to drive that SO bad. Once i get some skill under my belt i might have to make a drive up there. That looks like an amazing course.

I would tend to stay away from a short shifter. They tend to facilitate syncro wear and arent really needed. You can shift just as fast with a normal stick

I had a short throw on my SI, so i'm just used to the feel of it. This stick feels like it's twice as long... feels funky.

Let us know when you get that big-ass spoiler and the gold wheels so we can all point and giggle at you

haha. no gold wheels for me. And the scoop is already big enough to block a good portion of the road... i can't imagine the STI scoop.

Once i get some skill under my belt i might have to make a drive up there. That looks like an amazing course.

A fair amount of it was pretty sedate with the occasional damp Woo Hoo, but the rallymaster included some wonderful hairpinned uphill sections including the beautiful, perennial Rock Island Grade in Douglas County. Anybody could run this (not much history of lost cars on this one, I don't think) and rides ranged from the swarm of Saab Sonnetts to a Dodge Dakota. We did it on the stock RE-92s (with just one flat from a nail) though I hope to have gravel tires some day soon. Next up (and closer to you) is The Road Not Taken in Oregon in August (for which I am investing in a front skid plate and for which I *really* wish I had some gravel tires -- the RE-92s have like less than zero lateral grip on gravel...)

Oh, I was *gonna* put a STi spoiler on my wagon, but then realized that I wouldn't be able to get into most parking garages (sniff!)

I need to find some good roads to drive down here. There're lots of good ones up in the mountains, but that's hours away.

What have you done to modify your car for rallying? And what do you do about damage?

A link to where you've already told us all that information would be fine.

Ditto that drool. Oh man. I want to do that SO bad i can taste it. So are you doing the whole Pacific Coast Challenge?

Supposedly there are some good runs down in Santa Cruz... i gotta go do some research...

Oh, and Bitt, read up in this thread, he posted what he'd done to his Rex up there. =]

So Loren, how many miles before you can really have some fun? I know I'd be driving to the local corner shop every day just to try and get the miles on it! Are you gonna wait 'till the odometer clicks over to 1k and then boot it?

Loren, during the break-in period, be sure not to spend the whole time at one RPM (like w. cruise control on). This will unevenly breakin your car to that RPM. The important thing is to vary the RPMs, even if you occationally get above 4,000RPM. (The "don't go over 4,000rpm and you'll be fine" thing is not too accurate - at least not as much as with older cars).

marria01, the break-in period is 1000 miles and has caused many WRX owners to seek professional mental help.

I always thought you didn't have to 'break in' a new car any more. Or is just with the Subaru's that you have to be carefull?

You know, I thought I'd read it, but I didn't think it was within the past month or so, much less earlier today. (Okay, yesterday.)

I think I need to work on something to make the workday pass by faster.

Andy, I think you're right. I guess with the WRX, it's more of a factor because it's a turbo - which means a LOT of heat when the boost kicks in (starting at 3500rpm but more "on" at 4000rpm).

I too have heard that the whole breakin period (except for the turbo factor) being a non-factor with modern engines. It's so hard to know who's right. Dealers have a tendincy to tell you something because it's the same thing they've been saying since they were selling cars in the 80's.

So I guess I'm back pedaling a bit (now thinking that keeping below 4000rpm is important and that the varying of rpm isn't as critical). But the truth is probably it's not the end of the world if you get above 4,000rpm once in a while during breakin and you won't kill the engine if you break-in on the freeway as long as you take a few side streets from time to time.