Project Hatch (aka project grocery getter part II)

[Big Sky WRX]

Some of you have may have peeked at my previous Project Wagon thread:

Project wagon begins!

that project has come to end , but a new project begins w/ my 2009 WRX hatch

I decided to post this thread in Every Day as while my old project was housed in the Suspension forum- it touched on much more than suspension/brakes, as will this thread

my old project (which btw has found a new happy home in Calgary):


my brand new spanking project


I had pre-ordered the car and it arrived Friday, picked it up w/ a whopping 3 miles on it

the car was ordered w/ just a few options- dimming mirror, extended center rest, rear cargo net (can't have a grocery getter w/o one of those! ), STi short shifter (both my previous WRX's had these as well- a must in my book- this time for a change I didn't have to install it), body side molding and a block heater- can't not have one of those in Montana

my goals for this car are not much different than my previous car, build a reliable car that can perform daily grocery getting duties, but that can also perform weekend duties admirably-canyon/mtn carving, track days and autox- basically trying to optimize what the WRX is famous for- the swiss knife of cars

these of course means some compromise in almost everything that is done- such is life

my initial thoughts:

this car is very good (very good) right off the showroom floor- without any doubt the highest performing WRX to debut thus far

while I have a long way to go w/ break in, I can tell you that coming from a 2.0 and going to a 2.5- the torque down low is much improved, I can also comment that this turbo is far from laggy

handling- for an all oe car very impressive. I drove two 08's previously and they were very soft, this car is not soft- the spring rates have been bumped up over 40%- past the previous gen WRX "pinks", the sway bars are bumped up ~ 20% over the 08 as well

add in 225/45/17 Dunlop SP Sport 01's and you have a out of the box good handling car, while the 01's don't have the outright dry grip of some of the "super tires" it does have good grip- the grip breaks off predictably and they are communicative at their limit- probably why Subaru chose this tire (my guess is they perform well in the wet too)

don't get me wrong- there is lots of room for improvement, but for a lot of folks a good alignment (and some brake pads-braking is not overly impressive) and they may just call it good

my big "mod" for the day was de-badging the rear trunk- the dealer added a sticker, Subaru saw fit to add S U B A R U, I M P R E Z A and W R X

I felt WRX was sufficient

[Sasquatch]

We look forward to the transformation ...

[DUB]

w00t! *subscribed*

[Web Foot STi]

Deja vue all over again. It will be fun watching again.

[BOOOSTIN]

congrats on the 09, you'll love it!
How long did they tell you the "break in period" is?

[ajd111]

w00t! *subscribed*

+1

[Big Sky WRX]

congrats on the 09, you'll love it!
How long did they tell you the "break in period" is?

1000 miles- try and keep rpms 4000 and under, vary speeds, avoid cruise

I always change oil the first time at 1000 miles as well

[BOOOSTIN]

They told me the same thing, it's soo hard to stay under 4K, I ventured out to 5K a time or two, hope I didn't hurt anything

[KMFDM]

Subscribing. Congratulations on the new car and project!

[AgentH]

Cool beans!

I'll base my next possible used WRX car purchase off of your progress BigSky, so you better make us proud!

I like the white!

I didn't bother to search... Did they bring back the rear LSD?

What are the brake options out there?

[SD_GR]

Car looks great. It seems to have less rear but more front overhang than your previous wagon, but that could just be the photo angle. How is the hatch space compared to the previous wagon space? Also, to clarify -- you are saying you think the car is stiffer than if it had pinks on it since they've added 40% spring rate compared to the 08, not that it's 40% stiffer than pinks (or is that the same thing)? How are the headlights compared to the wagon with HIR bulbs? How are bumps absorbed now? Rattles?

[05Wrex]

*subscribed*

[Big Sky WRX]

Cool beans!

I'll base my next possible used WRX car purchase off of your progress BigSky, so you better make us proud!

I like the white!

I didn't bother to search... Did they bring back the rear LSD?

What are the brake options out there?

nope- no lsd

the front brakes are the same as the 03-5's- thus good pad/rotor selection, the rears share the same platform as the 3.0 Outbacks- quite a bit bigger rotor than the 03-05's (286 vs 266) basically it comes w/ the "H6" mod already- pad selection at this point is poor to fair- I suspect that to change

Good chance I'll be looking at the LGT front calipers/rotors- 316x30, rear should be fine (sans finding a good pad)

Car looks great. It seems to have less rear but more front overhang than your previous wagon, but that could just be the photo angle. How is the hatch space compared to the previous wagon space? Also, to clarify -- you are saying you think the car is stiffer than if it had pinks on it since they've added 40% spring rate compared to the 08, not that it's 40% stiffer than pinks (or is that the same thing)? How are the headlights compared to the wagon with HIR bulbs? How are bumps absorbed now? Rattles?

definitely less rear overhang, pretty close to the same in front (my estimation)

less hatch space behind the rear seat, more hatch space w/ the seats folded down

spring rates are 40% over the oe 08 rates, car is similar in stiffness to a 2 gen w/ WRX "pinks"- makes sense as the "pink" rates are ~ 224/196, the 09 rates are 216/193

haven't had a good chance to see how the headlights are (they do have a projector low beam)- there are some bulb upgrades available as well

bumps- you can tell there is a fair amount of compression damping in the struts/shocks- you can feel certain expansion joints/small bumps- much like w/ the Koni dampers (which also run a fair amount of compression damping)

rattle free thus far- knock on wood

[Weasel 555]

Mike,
congrats on the new scooby hatchling

[Big Sky WRX]

some dimensional numbers for the 09 hatch

curb weight (base model- other trims go up in weight) 3175 lbs

for comparo the 04 WRX's were sedan 3085, wagon 3165 lbs
the 06 WRX's were sedan 3192, wagon 3252 lbs

* the 08/09's have a one gallon larger fuel tank, all weights w/ full fluids/std eqipment

weight ratio F/R 57/43%

for comparo gen 2 sedan 59/41, wagon 57.5/42.5%

wheel base 103.1"

for comparo gen 2's 99.4"

track width F/R 58.9/59.3"

for comparo gen 2 sedan 58.5/58.3, wagon 57.7/57.3
2004 STi 58.7/58.5

you can see track width was bumped up a little w/ the gen 3

CD (coefficient of drag) .34
gen 2's .33

my guess is w/ the slightly wider track, frontal increased- thus the small jump in cd